Yow man, any of oonu big super in touch with de Southman? Him awright? I know he's a smart fella and can sniff danger ahead of time, so here's hoping he's safe somewhere, prolly back in Blighty or somewhere. Wish he would just make that one likkle teeny-weeny exception and stop in to tell his status.

http://www.enca.com/south-africa/pictures-xenophobic-spread-alexandra-township
http://www.enca.com/south-africa/listen-zulu-king-foreign-nationals

--Æ.

In reply to JayMor

This has been an issue in South Africa a while now but the southman should be safe.

As with anti-immigrant backlash everywhere, it's mainly directed against immigrants taking low level jobs and such. Southman is operating at a higher level and therefore not in competition with those scraping by at the bottom of the barrel.

In reply to JohnDoe

This may just be the start of things to come. I remember once telling the Southman, right on this board, that once Mandela passes look for things in SA to slide precipitously.

This may just be the start of the coming social upheaval.

In reply to JohnDoe

Hope you're right. Sometimes these things just don't go to script.

In reply to Larr Pullo
There is one school of thought among Africans that says Mandela didn't deliver the goods. Mind you, I heard Mutabaruka say this in song from as early as the late 1990's, but thought then that he was just 'radical', eh?

--Æ.

In reply to JayMor

Why do you believe Mandela was so revered by white people and their leaders all over the world?

Mandela to me was just a pragmatist who did more to preserve white privilege than he is to "deliver the goods" that his people expected.

In reply to JayMor

Mandela was a man of his times. He also had a great deal of time (27) years to ponder the future of his country, and despite the suffering he and so many others faced, he concluded that, above all else, a peaceful and gradual transition was the primary goal.

Personally, I was dismayed by the ease with which he accepted certain things.

For instance, interviewing him once, I asked his views on globalisation.

"It is like snow," he said. "It must come."

He went on to say that, in that inescapable context, the big, rich countries should be forthcoming to the needs and realities of small countries.

This, coming from a man who had been initiator of Umkhonto we Sizwe, shocked and disappointed me. But, as I said, I am sure he had thought about it much longer and far deeper than me.


//

In reply to Toney

Mandela saved SA from massive bloodletting and a bleak future.

The fact that he and he alone managed to stop the ANC turning into a revenge mission on speed is the singular reason why SA managed to stay intact.

In reply to Ewart
Nice that you got to interview him. Maybe you're right-- Robben Is might have taken more than years alone from him... a touch of Stockholm syndrome perhaps??

In reply to Toney
Sad though; he had the prestige and political power to do more. He may go down in history as yet another African leader who didn't do enough for his people when he could.

--Æ.

In reply to Commie

Question though, Commie-- might he not have done just a bit more toward tilting the balance? I thought for sure there would've been term plans to shift the reins of the economy into indigenous hands. Why am I wrong?

--Æ.

Yuh have Mugabe doing just what you guys advocating. How is that working out?

In reply to JayMor

Brutal murder caught on tape

In reply to JohnDoe

As usual, things in Zimbabwe aren't so black and white as the media would lead you to believe. They don't tell you that Britain was supposed to fund the land reform programme in Zimbabwe as part of the Lancaster House Agreement but Britain reneged on their part of the deal. Do you know of any example of where European colonists have willingly given up land that they have stolen?

If you could get hold of it, Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities breaks down the issues and concludes that, on balance, the redistribution has been a success.

Thank you, Mr. Mugabe.

In reply to Commie

I think that massive blood letting, or at least, a massive social upheaval is still to come.

They were not going to do it while Madiba was still alive, but having turned on the immigrant population, the genie is out the bottle, and the perceived 'haves' will be next.

The sad thing is, many of the immigrants who are under attack are from countries that provided safe haven and respite to many black South Africans during the battle against Apartheid. To me that is the saddest part of this.

In reply to Larr Pullo

Not really, the upheaval was going to be against whites, this is against foreigners, mostly blacks and Asians.

-Where is the hidden hand in this upheaval, is it the South African government themselves.

-Is the hidden hand the Central Banker, one must not forget that South African is an important cog in BRICS and have aligned themselves firmly with China and Russia.

Remember the Mau Mau uprising the hidden hand was Pres Jomo Kenyatta himself.

In reply to JohnDoe


this is a classic remark JD

Attacks on migrant workers in South Africa has been an ongoing problem for a long time. During the apartheid era the white authorities used migrant workers from neighbouring countries to further destabilize the situation in SA. Even Mark Mathabane in his book"kaffir Boy" made reference to this situation and this book was published sometime in the 1980s.Mandela's presence from the 90s on might well have tempered the situation.

In reply to DonD

There was a similar breakout in anti-immigrant violence about 4 years ago when some of the immigrants were "necklaced" in the streets.

During apartheid, there were immigrant workers from neighboring countries who were willing to accept lower wages and poorer working conditions--relative to what South African blacks were willing to accept--and this caused quite a bit of resentment.

In reply to FanAttick

Yeah, boss, I heard about it yesterday and was given a link to the Daily Mail's account, but after seeing the first photo I am yet to build up the courage to finish looking.

Those perps are animals; wild beasts! When you think that Mozambique suffered so much at the hands of the Apartheid regime and its SADF for supporting the ANC for these same animals' freedom... Sad!

--Æ.

In reply to Superfly

Listen, JD is good peeps but I think he just had a brain fart there. Or maybe he was playing devil's advocate. Either way, I decided I wasn't going to bite.

--Æ.