South Africa: The DEI Nation
South Africa: The DEI Nation
South Africa's Disastrous Present is America's Dismal Future
As planes fall apart in the air1 and on the tarmac2 while municipal water supplies become increasingly contaminated3 and everything that once used to function well now hardly works if it works at all, Americans are looking around and wondering to where all of this leads. What is life like when you can’t count on the cops showing up, the courts ruling impartially, the public services functioning as they’re supposed to, the electricity working when you flip a switch, supply lines functioning as designed, etc.? In other words, what is life like when a country goes not from Third World to First, as Lee Kuan Yew famously described Singapore,4 but rather from First World to Third?
Unfortunately, this problem has a precedent that shows exactly what happens: South Africa. Though it avoided most of the horrific genocides of European settlers5 that were inflicted upon much of the rest of post-colonial Africa, such as Rhodesia,6 the Congo,7 and Angola,8 its fate wasn’t much better. Now, it is the DEI nation.
South Africa threw its prosperous past, immense national resources, excellent geographical position, and other advantages out the window and embraced the ideals of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion types and now finds itself an unliveable hellhole in which the economy has collapsed, crime is rampant, and the thin veneer of civilization on the savanna is all but gone. This article will explore how DEI-type policies led to the utter collapse of civilization in South Africa, and how America is headed down a similarly dark path.
NOTE: This is our third article on South Africa. Check out our article on how America supported white genocide in southern Africa and our interview with a Boer community responder on the terrible security situation in South Africa right now.
The Pot of Hell at the Root of the Rainbow Nation
When South Africa got rid of apartheid, it received plaudits from around the world and was hailed as the “Rainbow Nation.”9 According to the powers that be, all of which were happy to see it shed its Boer control and hand over the reigns of government to anti-white fanatics, such as convicted terrorist Nelson Mandela, South Africa would move from being a civilized nation run by evildoers and “racists” to a bright land of opportunity run by the enlightened, formerly oppressed. The hugely successful “Invictus” movie pushed that message of supposed unity,10 and critics of the formerly mainly white South African security services cheered as the former “oppressors” were removed from their positions of power.11
But, far from being a Rainbow Nation with a pot of gold at the bottom of a kumbaya society, South Africa is now a living hell. Nothing works,12 violent crime is both rampant and often unpunished,13 the Boer farmers are being genocided by violent gangs,14 and once-thriving cities are now crime-ridden, mostly unoccupied slums.15 Michael Witkin, in an incredibly moving and descriptive article titled “South Africa at War with Itself,”16 wrote (emphasis added):
I travelled to Cape Town from the US after a long hiatus of ten years (2012) and was mortified of the degradation that had occurred over that period of time. Going back and seeing things, it seemed as though I was chasing the ghost of my elusive past; the ghost of something that I would no longer find. I have recollections of a place of seeping memories; another life, another dimension – a society that has decayed and encased itself, enabled by a corrupt and incompetent government out for self-enrichment. A government that has sucked the marrow from the very bones of South Africa.
…
“Danger–Gevaar–Ingozi” These are the words in English, Afrikaans and Zulu on signs with a red background and a crudely stenciled skull and crossbones that are now part of the urban fabric. Angle-iron bayonets affixed at an acute angle to the walls that support twelve strands of electrified wire, add further anguish to the painful broken glass crown and sinister cloak that safeguards, protects and shields those that are held hostage unto themselves. The streetscape and thoroughfares in residential neighborhoods have been transformed into hostile environments, devoid of people.
Besides the non-existence of South African Airways, which was one of the finest airline companies in the world, the postal service is almost nonexistent. I know of someone who received her birthday card five months after the date. The postal workers rifle through the mail opening up letters and parcels and help themselves to whatever they can find. Most post offices in urban areas have closed permanently due to “unprofitability and crime” A number of post office properties were foreclosed upon and are up for auction due to not being able to pay their rent or mortgages. Large numbers of postal workers were let go. No funds are available so there is no solution in sight. Private courier services have to be used albeit at a steep price.
As could be expected, the result of the continued maladministration of the country at the hands of the America-supported ANC has resulted in rigorously enforced “affirmative action” and DEI policies that have made the nation nearly unlivable for the poor souls being discriminated against:
“Poor Whites” has become South Africa’s “New Subclass”. These are white families who have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty as a result of the policy of “affirmative action”, that is, preferential treatment for blacks. Living in total abject poverty, this destitute group is rarely discussed or acknowledged but is increasing in size. They survive in informal settlements away from the public eye; mostly in tents and hovels. They are mostly the disinherited, outcast and bereft Afrikaners that are bitter and dejected and feel abandoned.
This situation is depicted in TFI Global’s ‘You don’t need to die to see hell, just visit a white slum in South Africa’:
“White squatter colonies, where there is little food, running water, and no electricity, live in shanties with rusted cars, ditches and pools of filth, and stagnant water with mosquitos swarming. Over two decades, the number of poor whites has steadily increased. ……Over 400,000 white S Africans are estimated to be impoverished. Reverse racism has been rampant and has ravaged the white population in South Africa. Targeted policies of the government has pushed the country to a near apartheid-like situation and the continued regressive policies have pushed South Africa into an era of subjugation of the people once more.”
Describing who lives in such slums and how the South African government’s main goal seems to be making the lives of Afrikaners miserable, if not entirely impossible, Witkin writes:
Many of them are the Afrikaners, the descendants of the early Dutch settlers who have become dispossessed and feel betrayed, defrauded and deprived of their rights and of their strong heritage and beliefs. A large number of South Africa’s farmers are Afrikaners who unbeknownst to the outside world have been brutally murdered, their wives tortured and raped; their children shot. The government fails to offer any protection to its white farmers and there was a popular EFP (Economic Freedom Party) song, called “Kill the Boer” that the Equality Court ruled “does not constitute hate speech”. People are free to continue singing it and during a debate in Parliament about the farm attacks and the plight of white farmers, an ANC Member of Parliament felt immune to shout:
“Bury them alive.”
The government’s solution for the White farmer is to be found in its policy of “Land Reform”. The ANC has vowed to expropriate white-owned land without compensation and redistribute that land to blacks who are not experienced in agriculture nor have the desire to farm.
The result, of course, has been an utter disaster for the country. The entire society is falling apart under the weight of anti-white DEI policies that make life nearly impossible for the country’s Afrikaners. Particularly, quota systems of the sort also lurking in the background of American life are making it impossible for talented, qualified individuals to make it to rise to the top. He writes:
Sadly, South Africa’s house of cards is imploding. The foundations are cracking and crumbling threatening the very pillars of this modern state. The irony is that the Rainbow Nation does not exist. “Equal opportunity” for whites does not exist. In fact, the abused minority of whites are discriminated against rigorously.
Blacks get preferential treatment in employment, education and other areas. A white male is less likely to get a job over a black male. In fact, employment equity laws make it harder for whites to get work. Jobs in upper management go to blacks further ostracizing whites, and in a sense, sentencing them to more menial employment with the inability to use their talents to further themselves. It seems that today, whites feel that they are being punished for something they did not do.
The government has introduced an odious Quota System, a race-based policy that goes against the norms of society in this day and age.
While “Strict quotas are enforced for the degree in medicine and surgery. The intake of white students is capped at 2%” (Solidariteit Mar 26, 2022), there is a huge shortage of doctors and qualified medical personnel.
The racial quota admissions into universities, across the board, favor blacks over other racial groups. If you are a white student, it is increasingly difficult to get accepted into a university even if you matriculated with distinctions. Those of a darker hue with poor school grades are favored instead. If you did manage to graduate with a degree, you would then again be subjected to the quota system to obtain a Masters.
Why would a white pursue a degree (even if they could get into a university) when there is little future for them; being excluded from society and discriminated against? Today, they are the downtrodden marginalized scapegoats of South Africa.
Besides being unjust, the main result of those affirmative action policies has been the complete destruction of everything on which civilized society relies. Electricity is rare. Businesses can’t rely on public utilities. Sewage swamps the beaches and infects the water. Hospitals, starved of electricity and doctors with skill rather than affirmative action backing, barely function, if they function at all. As Witkin writes:
Besides no airlines, no postal service and no trains, there is a dwindling electricity supply. They have rolling blackouts, euphemistically called “load shedding” which can last as much as 10 hours per day in Cape Town. Johannesburg is worse. People survive by always keeping their thermos flasks filled with hot water, using small gas camping stoves and using rechargeable lanterns for light and a healthy supply of batteries and candles at all times. Food rots in refrigerators so one needs to purchase small amounts of groceries just for a day. Few people can afford to have a generator, let alone the exorbitant cost of diesel fuel. Without electricity there is no viable economy. Retail stores, restaurants, businesses and factories cannot operate. The employees are idle and cannot do their job. As a result they are unable to earn a livelihood. The lack of electricity is a complex topic. In a nutshell, a history of huge financial losses, mismanagement, sabotage and corruption is evident. A judicial commission found that former President Jacob Zuma had orchestrated attempts to raid the coffers of the power company, Eskom. He denies this of course. Little maintenance has been done and with a large increase in the population (mostly emigres from other African countries) they have not kept up with the need to build additional power plants. The lack of electric power has had far reaching effects: Sewage treatment plants, with their pumps shut off; raw sewage overflows and spills into the ocean killing fish and posing very serious health issues. A friend of mine, an ardent swimmer, contracted septicemia blood poisoning which was caused by her ingesting tainted sea water. She almost died…..and yes, hospitals need electricity too.
In other words, South Africa went all in on DEI policies and it is collapsing as a result. It has no doctors because those competent to be doctors are excluded from the university system on the basis of race. It refuses to punish crime, and so economic activity has all but ceased and many of those who would be its best and brightest are living in hellish slums or tuning out of society. The corrupt and incompetent are promoted while the competent can’t find work, so corruption is rampant and everything is falling apart. All that proponents of DEI in America demand has been tried in South Africa, and all that opponents of DEI in America claim will happen here has happened in South Africa. The only place that still functions is Orania,17 where the Boers are still in control and able to determine their own destinies instead of relying on a corrupt, affirmative-action government.
The result of those policies can be seen in all aspects of life. The South African steel industry, which should be strong given the nation’s immense natural resources, has evaporated.18 The nation passed a law requiring compliance with “equity targets” for the business sector,19 and the business sector has collapsed. Meanwhile, even water access for farmers is meted out on the basis of race,20 and now the nation’s once famously efficient agricultural sector is struggling to produce enough food.21 South African Airways went all in on DEI,22 and now it’s fighting insolvency.23
All of that could have been avoided. All of it once was avoided, in fact. Describing the impressive functionality of South Africa in a continent known for chaos and disorder in a 1986 speech, for example, Ronald Reagan noted: “Looking at a map, southern Africa is a single economic unit tied together by rails and roads. Zaire and its southern mining region depends upon South Africa for three-fourths of her food and petroleum. More than half the electric power that drives the capital of Mozambique comes from South Africa. Over one-third of the exports from Zambia and 65 percent of the exports of Zimbabwe leave the610 13,000 workers from Swaziland, 19,000 from Botswana, 50,000 from Mozambique and 110,000 from the tiny landlocked country of Lesotho. Shut down these productive mines with sanctions and you have forced black mine workers out of their jobs and forced their families back in their home countries into destitution. Southern Africa Like a Zebra.”24
And that success remained even as the nation liberalized, as Reagan also noted, saying, “Black workers have been permitted to unionize, to bargain collectively and build the strongest free trade union movement in all of Africa. The infamous pass laws have been ended, as have many of the laws denying blacks the right to live, work and own property in South Africa's cities. Citizenship wrongly stripped away has been restored to nearly 6 million blacks. Segregation in universities and public facilities is being set aside.”25
Success didn’t require the strictest apartheid laws, but it proved impossible to retain when South Africa ran in the opposite direction and embraced DEI. Now, the nation that used to provide food and electricity in abundance not only to its citizens but to the nearby nations is instead unable to produce either in needed quantities for itself. DEI did that,26 and it will do it to America if we let it.
America’s South African Future
Sadly, America is following in the same dismal, DEI footsteps of South Africa.
Whereas American firms used to operate based on merit, now they’re going all in on DEI. Like in South Africa, that means mainly that young whites are having a hard time getting hired. In fact, a recent Bloomberg study found that only 6% of new jobs at S&P 100 companies went to whites in the years after the BLM protests.27 “The overall job growth included 20,524 White workers. The other 302,570 jobs — or 94% of the headcount increase — went to people of color,” Bloomberg wrote.28
As an example of a company going all-in on DEI, United Airlines, a company that sends aluminum tubes full of hundreds of people hurtling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour, a line of work where the slightest miscalculation means the deaths of hundreds, announced that it wants to focus on diversity and make half of its pilots women and non-whites.29 As about 90% of pilots are white men,30 United has no way of fulfilling its goal unless it hires the unqualified en masse through “affirmative action” policies…or just has far fewer flights and planes, like in South Africa. You’d think corporate boards would push back on such risky and unprofitable policies, but now affirmative action governments are trying to enforce diversity quotas for corporate boards,31 so corporate governance can go the way of Eskom’s copper wire.32 Meanwhile, the planes catch on fire in the sky thanks to DEI.33
Speaking of affirmative action, American centers of higher learning have gone all-in on the same DEI craze as South Africa’s. Though racial quotas are illegal in the US34 and affirmative action was technically struck down,35 the result hasn’t been much different than in the Rainbow Nation. Colleges have found ways to boost “diversity” (non-white attendance) regardless of the rulings,36 and have vowed to keep fighting for affirmative action anyway.37
Meanwhile, our military underwent a “stand down” after Biden was elected in which supposed “racists” were purged from the ranks.38 Much like the purging of the SADF after Mandela took over, as described in Four Ball, One Tracer,39 Lloyd Austin, the pro-DEI SecDef,40 decided to purge the forces of potential political opponents under the guise of DEI. The result was as could be expected: like the SADF became a shell of its former self,41 the US military is now struggling to recruit qualified personnel and falling apart. For example, its precipitous retreat from Afghanistan was a disaster, and its planes keep crashing.42
And while farm murders are a rare occurrence in America, interracial violence of that sort isn’t. When three “teens” beat a white teenager to death outside of Lebron James’ “I Promise” high school,43 for example, they were given mere slaps on the wrist.44 Similarly, when a black murderer stabbed a 59-year-old white woman to death in her home, three of the jurors in the case refused to convict him, citing his race as a reason; the jury foreman told the court, “[The three jurors] said, ‘I don’t want to send a young Black male to jail for the rest of their life or have him get the death sentence.'”45 Meanwhile, Daniel Penny is facing a homicide charge for stopping a violent felon from harming subway passengers.46 Similarly, even if you defend your home, you might be in danger of prosecution, as in South Africa;47 for example, an elderly homeowner is being investigated for shooting a “teen” he thought was attempting to rob him.48 Further, criminals in America are now even getting as sophisticated as South Africa’s murder gangs, using technology such as signal jammers to increase their chances of success in robbing homes.49
Meanwhile, America’s cities are falling apart under the weight of DEI. Flight to the safer suburbs and countryside in the wake of the George Floyd riots has decimated real estate,50 lackluster and woke policing has let crime spiral out of control, and the hands of those who would enforce the law are ever more tied by “equity” instead of law enforcement.51 The crime problem isn’t unsolvable, as the case of El Salvador shows;52 it just requires the will to enforce the law and crack down on crime. Thanks to DEI, that will is in short supply and our cities are decaying as a result.53
Rainbow Nation Redux
Thus America approaches its South African future. Once-gleaming cities are now covered up in trash and devoid of productive economic activity. Crime has risen out of control thanks to a permissive state. Affirmative action threatens the competence of America’s workforce and its universities. Woke hiring and admissions practices intentionally discriminate against a large segment of the population. And the airplanes are already falling apart on the runway,54 with much worse likely to come.
For more on this period, “Four Ball, One Tracer” is an interesting book that covers how the security forces were purged of those who had previously been South Africa’s staunchest defenders. Here is a review of that terrific book: https://americanwarriorsociety.com/four-ball-one-tracer/