[MinorityRepublican]

In a way, the whites deserve what they’re getting - they knew FULL WELL what would happen if they handed over power, but they let the rest of the world goad them into thinking that it would be ok. They were actually doing just fine - more than able to both take care of themselves and their neighborhood. But they let it all go...

Apartheid had to go, period.

In retrospect, South Africa should had been divided into several different countries.

[Leaning Right]

Apartheid had to go, period.

In retrospect, South Africa should had been divided into several different countries.

In only two sentences, you have correctly stated the South African situation. Bravo!

[BobL]

“Apartheid had to go, period.

In retrospect, South Africa should had been divided into several different countries. “

Why...because the libs deemed it so? I don’t listen to them, sorry.

I would put Apartheid up against ANY other sub-Saharan African country, by any measure, including freedom, and it would win. All the countries are tribal...the only bad thing about South Africa was that the wrong tribe was running the place.

[BobL]

“Apartheid had to go, period. In retrospect, South Africa should had been divided into several different countries.”

Actually, I agree breaking up the country would be preferable to what it is today, but I doubt that the world community was in any mood for that - where you’d have a wealthy white state surrounded by a destitute black state (or states). They (the world community) wanted blood back then, and that wouldn’t have satisfied them.

[Ironfocus]

Actually, dividing the country by tribal lines was the plan under apartheid, with cross-border industrial development to sustain the different tribal homelands. It failed because the British colonial government refused to give up the mineral rich areas, stifling development away from the mining hubs, and after 1963, when British colonialism ended, there was little desire to pursue new borders or large-scale development as the industrial hubs were pretty much established. Some homelands did become relatively successfully self-governed, but since the industrial development never happened as planned, it was not sustainable from an economic perspective.

Under the format that apartheid ended up as, I agree, it had to go, but the current solution is not any better for the majority of South Africans. The new ruling class likes it a lot though.

I would have loved to see South Africa take a free market approach and establish the only free-trade zone on the continent, with self governance to each of the major tribes and population groups in an own country. Wishful thinking given the ideological history of all involved.