South Africa - Failed State

[finicky]

South Africa - sh*thole and failing state.
But of course, everyone agrees, Mandela was a hero and a saint.
Passionate video from an S.A expat. Invest in nothing in S.A. - South32 found out with its thermal coal mines. The communist ANC has a stranglehold over anything to do with energy production. Got to say, even I, with people I knew who had everything they worked for and invested in stolen by the Zimbabwean Govt and its goons, was shocked by how bad it has quickly got in South Africa.

 

[farmerge]

South Africa - sh*thole and failing state.
But of course, everyone agrees, Mandela was a hero and a saint.
Passionate video from an S.A expat. Invest in nothing in S.A. - South32 found out with its thermal coal mines. The communist ANC has a stranglehold over anything to do with energy production. Got to say, even I, with people I knew who had everything they worked for and invested in stolen by the Zimbabwean Govt and its goons, was shocked by how bad it has quickly got in South Africa.

Over the years I have worked with a few people who came from Zim and SA.
Down to the last person were glad beyond belief just to have got out of the two places in one piece.
Most were farmers and around their homes and out buildings was like a prison camp at night. Fully electrified fencing.

 

[wayneL]

I've got a friend who is a Zimbo. He had turned up to a thoroughbred stud to trim mares and was greeted by a group who had taken it over.

They let him work but when he finished they were arguing over whether to kill him or not. Obviously they let him go but he was out of there as soon as he could.

I've actually got a fair few Saffas who relate similar such stories.

To man they all miss the country terribly, but are glad to be here and not necklaced over there, or some such horror.

 

[sptrawler]

Have a watch of this sometime, I'm on a slow internet so can't check if it is the one I wanted to post, but if it is it's a cracker of a movie about the situation in Joburg.
I actually remember the movie being called "A gangsters paradise, Jerusalema", hopefully it is the right link.

 

[farmerge]

I've got a friend who is a Zimbo. He had turned up to a thoroughbred stud to trim mares and was greeted by a group who had taken it over.

They let him work but when he finished they were arguing over whether to kill him or not. Obviously they let him go but he was out of there as soon as he could.

I've actually got a fair few Saffas who relate similar such stories.

To man they all miss the country terribly, but are glad to be here and not necklaced over there, or some such horror.

Worekd with a ex-Zim a long time ago. He told us a favourite on the trains was a bike spoke in between the ribs. Trains were so crowded no one was aware the poor sod was dead.

 

[sptrawler]

Have a watch of this sometime, I'm on a slow internet so can't check if it is the one I wanted to post, but if it is it's a cracker of a movie about the situation in Joburg.
I actually remember the movie being called "A gangsters paradise, Jerusalema", hopefully it is the right link.

I just checked it is the correct movie, it really is worth a watch to appreciate what life is like there.
I watched it about 12-13 years ago when a South African workmate, who had just arrived here, gave it to me to show what he and his family were running away from.

By the way the movie is based on a true story and quite a few of the South African guys I worked with said it was actually mild, compared to what it is actually like there.

Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema is based on the story of Lucky Kunene, an underworld figure who in the 1990s took over real estate in the Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg, South Africa.

https://scriptmag.com/features/gangsters-paradise-jerusalema-qa-with-writerdirector-ralph-ziman

From the article:
SCRIPT: The story is based on a real incident, how did this story land in your lap?

Ralph Ziman: I’d been looking for a contemporary South African crime story for a while. In 2004, through an associate I came across the story of a crime syndicate in central Johannesburg that was hijacking buildings and collecting rent. I think that given the issues of land ownership, land redistribution and the lack of affordable housing for working people the story had fantastic possibilities.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Worekd with a ex-Zim a long time ago. He told us a favourite on the trains was a bike spoke in between the ribs. Trains were so crowded no one was aware the poor sod was dead.

That's actually from a decades-old movie , a bit of gritty film noir ... & based on reality, most likely

 

[farmerge]

That's actually from a decades-old movie , a bit of gritty film noir ... & based on reality, most likely

The tyre necklace was also a favourite I was told.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Rian Malan writing in My Traitor's Heart, 1990

Ah, Melville , got that one wrong

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Jacob Zuma may have delivered a knock-out blow to his successor as president of South Africa after the ruling party’s humiliating rout at the polls. Zuma joined the uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK) in January to campaign against President Cyril Ramaphosa who, he said, was “a proxy” for South Africa’s wealthy whites.

The ANC’s most senior figures were meeting on Friday as South Africans braced for a volatile era of coalition rule after projections from Wednesday’s general election put the ANC on about 41 per cent of the vote, forcing them to bargaining with rivals to keep control. The party might well have retained its national majority without the sudden rise of Zuma’s party, on 11 per cent, which caught it off guard.

The haggling threatens to make kingmakers out of radicals such as Zuma, 82, or Julius Malema, 43, leader of the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which would spook investors. .

Compared with the 57.5 per cent majority it won five years ago, the ANC’s hemorrhaging of support across the country, including its strongholds of KwaZulu-Natal province and the former Soweto township, is crushing for the party that Nelson Mandela led into power in 1994.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

from Visual Capitalist

Visualizing Wealth Inequality by Country

In the world's most unequal country, the richest 10% control 80% of the wealth. In this graphic, we compare wealth inequality worldwide.

www.visualcapitalist.com

How Wealth Inequality Compares Globally

One common way of measuring wealth distribution in a country is the Gini coefficient. In this index, scores closer to zero indicate more equal wealth distribution, while a score of 100 indicates that one individual holds all the wealth.

Here are Gini index scores across select countries, highlighting how they have changed over time:

Country	Gini Index Score 2023	Gini Index Score 2008	Change 2008-2023
South Africa	82	70	+17.7%
Brazil	81	70	+16.8%
UAE	77	88	-12.4%
Saudi Arabia	77	89	-13.3%
Sweden	75	74	+1.3%
United States	75	76	-2.4%
India	73	62	+16.2%
Mexico	72	68	+6.5%
Singapore	70	57	+22.9%
Indonesia	68	59	+15.1%

South Africa ranks highest overall, with 10% of the population controlling approximately 80% of the country’s wealth.

Over the last 15 years, wealth inequality has increased. Unemployment has surged to 32%, up from 20% in 2008, while inflation-adjusted GDP per capita has declined. Even though apartheid took place three decades ago, race remains a key factor in income disparities.
..

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please notice the absurdity of the last sentence.

 

[sptrawler]

South Africa ranks highest overall, with 10% of the population controlling approximately 80% of the country’s wealth.

Over the last 15 years, wealth inequality has increased. Unemployment has surged to 32%, up from 20% in 2008, while inflation-adjusted GDP per capita has declined. Even though apartheid took place three decades ago, race remains a key factor in income disparities.
..

.
please notice the absurdity of the last sentence.

Funny that nothing much changes, despite massive political and social change.
Just shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same.