Posted on 02/19/2005 4:34:21 PM PST by CurlyDave
OHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - If South Africa's campaign to lure millions of people like 20-year-old Zander Smit back home is going to work, it must convince them whites still have a future in the country.
Tens of thousands of white South Africans have left their country since the end of apartheid in 1994, citing poor job prospects, endemic violent crime and fears the country could go the way of neighboring Zimbabwe.
But dire predictions of racial trouble and economic collapse are unfounded -- the stock market is hitting record highs and the currency has strengthened for three years in a row.
South African banks and businesses now want the estimated 4 million to 5 million citizens overseas -- 1.4 million in Britain alone -- to return home.
But Smit, and many others like him, are not so sure.
"The country is in a make it or break it situation," he says in the South Africa-themed Bok Bar in London's Covent Garden where he works. "I want to wait and see what happens in the next few years."
Back home, Smit worked on a temporary contract for a mobile phone operator but says he was never offered a full-time job because the firm had to meet its ethnic quota -- part of efforts to give the black majority more control of the economy.
He aims to join the British Army and hopes to get a British passport "just in case."
Like many other South Africans overseas, he says that while the country looks stable, he fears it could go the way of Zimbabwe, where the white minority have lost farms and businesses and the economy is in ruins.
"The signs are there," Smit says.
ELECTRIC FENCES
Others say they left South Africa because of the high levels of violent crime. Many whites live in compounds behind razor wire and electric fences.
But official statistics show the murder rate falling 9.9 percent in the year to March 2004, and few analysts predict problems in Zimbabwe will spill over into a country that has enjoyed more than 10 years of multi-racial democracy.
Although official figures are not collected, moving companies say the number of people returning to South Africa has increased.
"In the 1990s a lot of people were leaving for political reasons but now it's leveled off. It's probably about the same amount leaving as coming back," says James Paterson, marketing manager for Stuttaford Van Lines.
"Homecoming Revolution" -- a campaign funded mainly by First National Bank and supported by the government -- says the country needs its overseas citizens back, particularly if they have skills and want to start their own firms.
"That way, we'll reduce crime by creating employment," says campaign spokeswoman Martine Schaeffer, who came back to South Africa herself after the job situation in London became tighter with the end of the Internet boom.
Research shows each skilled worker who returns can create up to 10 jobs, she says -- no small feat in a country where at least a third of the population is unemployed.
BETTER LIFESTYLE
"People come back for a number of reasons. Some feel they never really belonged overseas, for others it just didn't work out. Some were scared of what South Africa might become," says Schaeffer.
Now some say the climate and bright economic outlook are more than enough to tempt people back.
"People want to live somewhere where their children can play in the garden every day because of the weather," says Shaeffer. "Even if there are bars around the garden."
And in a country where half the population live on less than $2 a day, an income that cannot buy much in Europe goes farther.
"For a very mediocre income you can have a large house and a very good standard of living," says financial consultant Cornel Stander, who left for Canada in 1998 and now runs her own business in Johannesburg.
They have to be nuts for whites to want to go back to a hellhole where their children get raped.
This sort of reminds me of Animal Farm, the whole "2 legs good, 4 legs better" argument in Orwell. For those of you who think Apartheid would be good should tear up their American citizenship right now and become a citizen of Qatar or some other racist society.
We're fighting a war in Iraq to end racism over there (Marsh Arabs, Kurds, etc vs the Sunnis) and here we are decrying the end of Apartheid. You realise how hypocritical that is?
Also try to think if you were black and in SA.
Many blacks yearn for the return of life as it was under Apartheid.
South Africa is far and away MORE racist now,than it was under Apartheid and no,I am not saying that Apartheid was "good";only that what is happening now is far and away much worse than you can imagine.
This thread could use your input. :-)
most crimes went unpunished then, too. the apartheid state was a criminal state -- just because what it did was not illegal at the time doesn't mean it wasn't criminal. thankfully, some good people in the church understood there was a higher law and tried to reform the government (absolutely right A in I). there's still a lot of reform needed.
what isn't true about it? apartheid SA has a long and documented history or confiscating land, marriage rights were restricted based on race and woe unto you if you were a black person in found in the townships with a gun.
You are quite welcome to disagree but under apartheid blacks didn't have the rights that whites have. When you find something that says otherwise, let me know. If you are going to tell me that blacks had the same rights as whites have, show some proof.
For all people. What is with you bigots that think no matter how bad is gets for blacks, it must be better if whites are denigrated? It is not a position of love you stand on, it is a position of hatred of a racial group. "Is find if we send an entire Nation into poverty and chaos, as long as whitey gets it
*** I am NOT a bigot. I am not a racist. I never said that white people should be get theirs. You don't know me, and please hating white people would be pretty self hating. Unlike some people on this thread, I am not worshipping apartheid SA as something great and a good thing for black people. I never said what is going on today is better so please.
No but black South Africans are black and as long as it's black people on this website, you'll read things like 'they should go back and take care of their own country', apartheid was better for them, God helps those who helps themselves... It's all bullshit and easy for them to say. Read books written by black South Africans who were educated but living under apartheid like Mark Mathabane.
When I get replies like that calls me a "white people" I must assume that I am being judged by my skin color. By the way, my skin color is red, I am Indian by birth my grandma and my ma both have their numbers.
Political Correctness is a smoke screen to cover the fire of destruction of leftist politics.
Apartheid was criminal, but it has been gone for more than 10 years. The current government has stated policies of land redistribution, restricting gun ownership, not publishing crime numbers, affirmative action and a really weird position on AIDS.
FYI, not only blacks lost land under apartheid, whites did too. Why many people seem to think that blacks were better off under apartheid is the fact that they lived under a complete socialist system, everything was provided for by the white government. Of course that meant that the best things went to the whites first, so it was not paradise, but the basics were catered for better than is currently the case.
The point is that white South Africans are no longer welcome in their own country. Do a search on SA newspapers in the last few days, and see the violence against white students and Afrikaans at the university of Pretoria recently. Look at the draconian affirmative action programs, where if you don't have a black skin, you can no longer make it above a certain level in government departments. White farmers are being systematically murdered.
Apartheid was not at all justifiable, but shouldn't the system that replaced it make life better for all the people of South Africa, not just a certain portion? Surely the mistakes of the past must not be repeated. The current government is immune to criticism because of a system that has been officially gone for more than 10 years, but unofficially for quite a bit longer?
Here is one of the articles I was referring to in #52, and it symptomatic of what is going on all the time. What is not mentioned here are the signs held up that said "Death to Afrikaans" etc.
300 students trash Tuks campus
18/02/2005 06:52 - (SA)
Pretoria - The notorious slogan, "One farmer, one bullet!", was chanted by demonstrating students on Pretoria University main campus on Thursday afternoon.
The demonstrators were from the Pan-Africanist Students Movement of Azania (Pasma).
The group was demanding lower class fees and financial support to underprivileged students.
The demonstrators also demanded that buses be provided to transport students from Atteridgeville, Soshanguve and Pretoria Central.
The group of about 300 was taken to the main campus by bus from Mamelodi campus.
They left a trail of overturned refuse bins on the campus.
A female student was allegedly hit with a branch from a tree when she tried to stop demonstrators from overturning a rubbish bin.
She was taken to hospital for treatment.
'Started pushing us around'
The demonstrators also threw a brick through the window of a lecture hall.
A security guard, who was inside the building, was slightly injured.
Rudolf Bredell, a students who was in a lecture, said: "They swore at us and we were told to get up and get out.
"When we refused, they started pushing us around. We felt threatened."
Tensions ran high at a later stage when other students formed a barricade around the demonstrators in an effort to force them off the campus.
Pasma last week handed a memorandum containing "observations and demands" to the university management and asked that they get a report-back by Thursday.
The uproar started because the students were unhappy about the reaction by the university authorities to their memorandum.
The university said in a statement that, among other things, financial support was being given to needy students and that its admission policy did not discriminate on a racial basis.
Professor Chris de Beer, deputy rector, said: "The insinuation that the university is using financial exclusion for racial purposes is rejected with the contempt it deserves."
Why many people seem to think that blacks were better off under apartheid is the fact that they lived under a complete socialist system, everything was provided for by the white government. Of course that meant that the best things went to the whites first, so it was not paradise, but the basics were catered for better than is currently the case.
*** I see your point. I just don't understand WHY the same standard that are being required of Iraq and other places aren't required of South Africa. Maybe it's because we have a better president and we're more mature? I don't know but do you think it's right that Jack Straw shakes hands with Mugabe? I know it's Zimbabwe but he and Mbeki are best buddies. Condi Rice calls him for what he is and he hasn't stopped talking about it/her since. If things are that bad (and from conversations with friends I know things are bad) why doesn't the world care more?
I assumed wrong, and I'm sorry about that. However, it's a very common response among a lot of white freepers to deny the reality of black life under apartheid. It would not have been the best situation for us mixed bloods either, but a whole lot better than black people since coloureds did have the right to vote (most of the time). Anyway, I agree that political correctness is a smokescreen to cover the results of leftist politics. You don't see too many liberals helping out over there now do you? But I do know many conservative christians are over there doing ministry work. Folks like Bono... well you know about him.
Crimes were reported and punished prior to Mandela.With Mbeki in charge,the police departments decimated,affirmative action,and ANC members in charge,crime goes unreported,criminals are NOT jailed (even when caught,they let most criminals go and jail breaks go unreported and mostly ignored !) nor prosecuted.This was NOT the case before and blacks suffer far worse than whites do because black on black crime has skyrocketed expotentionaly!
The facts of the matter are that before,criminals knew that they would be caught and prosecuted and were afraid;now they know that nothing will happen to them.THEY ARE NOT AFRAID!
Your abject lack of knowledge on this subject is appalling,especially since you come onto these threads and write things that are patently false.
And it doesn't matter that everyone has the vote now,since many blacks are still disenfranchised;not to mention that they are told HOW to vote and are intimidated/tortured/and sometimes killed.So just what "good" is it that they now have the "right" to vote?
Yes,I think that voting is a good thing;but,only when one is free to vote the way one wants to,without the fear of torture and/or death.
YIKES! I had missed that article. What a mess.
White farmers in South Africa were being killed and their land taken over far earlier,than in Zimbabwe and in far greater numbers. This news did NOT get out and for most of the world,that was "okay" anyway,because after all,they were white.And most people don't care,if they even know about,which most don't,about what's happening in Zimbabwe and South Africa now.The Western press is racist/lefty/PC.
But you're correct about the fact that we have a superior president and cabinet now,which DOES make a difference.
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