Posted on 02/04/2002 1:56:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Renowned for its safaris, bustling black townships and new democracy, South Africa is now earning a new, somewhat dubious distinction as one of the cheapest countries in the world.
Consider this: Big Macs cost less here than any other place on the planet -- 82 cents. You can dine on a three-course steak dinner at one of Johannesburg's top restaurants for less than $10. A bottle of vintage wine (with a cork, not a twist top) will set you back as little as $3. A ticket to a movie is $2.50.
The prices are good news only to tourists. Among South Africans, you won't hear many celebrations because what's driving down prices is the weakening South African currency, the rand. The buying power of 43 million South Africans has diminished, pushing prices of even the most basic items out of reach of many.
Once one of the world's most-respected currencies, the rand is plummeting to its lowest levels in history against the dollar, the British pound and the euro. And no one can quite explain why.
In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, $1 bought 2.5 rand. A dozen years later, a dollar buys nearly 12 rand. Since September, the rand has experienced one of its sharpest declines, losing 40 percent of its value against the dollar. In December, it hit a new low of 13.85 to $1, before recovering to its current level.
BIG MAC INDEX
Based on The Economist magazine's annual Big Mac index, South Africa has one of the world's most undervalued currencies. The index compares the price of the McDonald's hamburger around the world as a measure of the buying power of domestic currencies.
``The falling rand, when looked at in the context of the Big Mac index, makes South Africa arguably one of the cheapest destinations in the world in pound and dollar terms,'' said Owen Leed, chief marketing director for South African Tourism, who is hoping the less-valuable rand will draw more visitors to South Africa this year.
There is more than cheap burgers to attract visitors. At Johannesburg's exclusive Butcher Shop & Grill, where diners must book a table a week in advance and no one under 14 is allowed, a three-course meal of snails, the most expensive steak on the menu and a Caesar salad is just $9.94. Wash it all down with a bottle of merlot for another $5.60.
Prices are so low that it is not uncommon to see tourists laugh when they receive a bill here. A Johannesburg newspaper recently featured a story about foreign tourists, shocked by the favorable exchange rate, leaving huge tips at bars and restaurants.
But for South Africans who are not waiters or bartenders, the sharp and steady decline of their money has been a disaster.
FOOD COSTS UP
Imported fuel and agricultural products are driving up transportation and food costs. One of the hardest-hit items is maize meal, a cornmeal that is cooked into a thick paste called pap, a staple in most black households. The price of the meal has shot up more than 100 percent in the past year, partly due to the rand's slide. The price of bread also has increased.
``We used to buy bread for one rand a loaf. Now it's almost four rand. We can't afford it,'' says Cyprian Mathole, 47, a day worker living in Johannesburg. He said he has given up smoking to help save money.
Middle-class South Africans planning trips abroad are discovering that they cannot afford to buy dollars, pounds or euros.
Under pressure to save the ailing currency, President Thabo Mbeki is launching a commission to investigate what is causing the rand's slide.
Pressure for an investigation came from the business community, afraid the weak rand would lead to higher interest rates and inflation. In a letter to Mbeki this month, the head of the South African Chamber of Business alleged that people and organizations had used ``dubious financial methods and instruments'' to manipulate the rand for their own profit.
Economists, however, remain puzzled about what caused the currency to lose value. The last time the rand nose-dived so steeply was in 1986, when South Africa was wracked by anti-apartheid protests and nearly defaulted on its debt repayments. In contrast, South Africa has been calm and stable in recent years. By all measures, the country is financially sound, analysts say.
NERVOUSNESS
Some economists blame the problem on nervousness after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the debt crisis in Argentina, currency speculators and political and economic turmoil in neighboring Zimbabwe.
Many observers say they doubt the commission will root out a culprit because there might not be one.
``If there is anything to be uncovered, they will uncover it. But it's a big if,'' said Merton Dagut, a professor of economics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
``I don't think that it's criminal. It may be immoral in some sense. I think the underlying problem is that the currency is weak because confidence in the country is weak,'' Dagut said. ``You don't need a commission of inquiry to discover that.''
RACISM
In an interview last week with the Financial Mail, South Africa's main business magazine, South Africa Treasury Director-General Maria Ramos suggested something else: that South Africa, like the continent, might still be dogged by racism.
``Nobody expects African countries to do the right thing, to do well,'' she said.
``Virtually every other emerging-market economy has bigger problems, but they are not subjected to the same skepticism.''
I , and a few others, have been trying to get the facts out, on FR . We desperately need others to spread the word. This is NOT about " race " ; no matter how many times that absurdity is flung out as refutation. Mandela IS a MARXIST / SOCIALIST / COMMUNIST ! THE ANC HAS ALWAYS BEEN COMMUNIST ! SOUTH AFRICANS HAVE KNOWN THIS, FOR A LONG TIME! THIS IS ONLY " NEWS " , TO MOST IN THE WEST !
It does ; however , have a great deal to do with Mandela, the ANC, Mbeki, COMMUNISM, reverse racism, S.A.'s affirmative action ( which is far worse than anything, in the USA ! ) , and the damned LIBERALS, in the West ( and the bloody UN ! ) , sticking their collective noses into a soverign nation's internal affairs, and befouling / destroying it utterly ! The majority of balcks and coloreds, are now VERY much worse off, than ever they were under Apartheid.
SHUT UP, ABOUT THAT WHICH YOU KNOW NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT ! If anyone is an idiot ... it is YOU !
You tell 'em!!! It's time for the TRUTH to be heard!
My papa almost throws chairs at the tele when he sees Mandela, like he does with Jane Fonda. LOL Quite seriously, I questioned the person who sent this along to me, as it seemed almost too simple. He responded exactly as you have, nopardons, that the author does not understand that most of the discussion of SA falls on deaf ears in the West. He certainly got my attention, and I look forward to his book being published sometime in April.
Who is calling names?? I have only the greatest sympathy for the poor white souls stuck in South Africa, be they of Dutch ancestry or English. One of my colleagues is an Afrikaner. Another is a fourth generation South African of English ancestry. I'd welcome any or all of them into the US with open arms. Unfortunately, our "politically correct" government disagrees with me.
"SHUT UP, ABOUT THAT WHICH YOU KNOW NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT ! If anyone is an idiot ... it is YOU !"
Let me see, I got my information FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN WHO VISITED THE COUNTRY TWO MONTHS AGO and spent a month there visiting family who still live there, but I don't know anything about the situation there. Obviously, he must have been lying to me about what he observed, and what his relatives told him. There is a fool involved here, all right, but it isn't me.
Do you know what the book's title is to be, and IF it will be available in major bookstores here ? I very much want to buy this book !
It is their inability TO leave, to which I refer you to. Yes, England will take some; but they must be of English extraction. Holland won't take any, and neither will the USA . Asa matter of fact, the USA does hold a " visa lottery " . It costs a lot of money to enter, and those who do, have less of a chance, than you do, to win a $250,000,000 Powerball .
Are there any other ways for South Africans to get out ? Well, IF they have computer skills, and are VERY good , they can possiby get hired by some company, to work in some other country.That doesn't mean that they can get citizenship there, nor that they would be able to stay beyond a few years.
BTW, a whole bunch of Japanese think the same way I do about that --what--"barbaric relic?" The're taking their useless fiat yen out of the bankrupt banks that pay no interest and are buying gold bullion by the kilo.
So much for government policies designed to "force the money back into circulation."
Back home, I administered a court appointed lawyer program. Do not worry, I was also the CFO and got to slash attorney bills. LOL Anyway, there was an attorney on our panel who was raised in SA, and left in the 80's. He was such an incredible man, but surprisingly, if SA was mentioned, he just got this hollow look on his on face. The subject of politics was never discussed.
Perhaps it would be better stated that any white who isn't trying his best to leave South Africa is an idiot. That is the fact, and I stick by it. BTW, my company helped my SA partner to immigrate here to the US. How many South Africans have YOU gotten out, bucko??
"Holland won't take any, and neither will the USA."
Gee, then where did the thriving community of South Africans in Holland come from??? And how did my South African partner get here if the US "won't take any" (in addition to a fair number of other South Africans I have met thru his connections to South Africans already here). A significant number have emigrated to Australia, and others to New Zealand.
Getting the hell out is far from impossible, as you seem to think.
At the start of the previous millennium, in 1900, the number of African South Africans was found to be 3,5 million according to the British colonial government census.
By 1954, our African population had soared to 8,5 million - and by 1990, there were a full 35 million of us - all carefully managed, closely policed, counted, shunted around in homelands and townships - and all of us chafing and griping under the suppressive yoke of the Afrikaner Broederbond's rigid racial segregation system.
During apartheid, our population grew apace however because we also had the benefit of the Broers' medical knowledge and their excellent agricultural skills.
Our population growth and our average life expectancy in fact, showed us to be in better than average health for other Africans on the rest of the continent: in the decades prior to the official policy of apartheid, (which was started in 1948), the average life expectancy of African South Africans was only 38 years.
However, during the last decade of the apartheid era, from 1948 to 1994, our average life expectancy had risen to 64 years - on a par with Europe's average life expectancy.
Moreover, our infant death rates had by then also been reduced from 174 to 55 infant deaths per thousand, higher than Europe's, but considerably lower than the rest of the African continents.
And the African population in South Africa had by then also increased by 50% percent.
(Source: "A crime against humanity: Analyzing Repression of the Apartheid State", by Max Coleman of the Human Rights Committee).
The prices are good news only to tourists. Among South Africans, you won't hear many celebrations because what's driving down prices is the weakening South African currency, the rand. The buying power of 43 million South Africans has diminished, pushing prices of even the most basic items out of reach of many.
This source is also "A Crime against Humanity: Analyzing Repression of the Apartheid State", by Max Coleman of the Human Rights Committee, as well as comments by Vusile Tshabalala, a black South African journalist
Deaths due to political violence during apartheid: This authoritative book analyses all deaths due to political violence from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa and Namibia (Then South-West Africa, a mandate of South Africa).
According to its statistics, 21,000 people died in political violence - of which 14,000 people died during the six year transition process leading up to the elections in 1994.
The book lists the number of incidents, dates, and those involved. This includes SA Defense Force actions, for instance the 600 deaths at Kassinga in Angola during the war in 1978.
Of those deaths, the vast majorities, 92%, have been primarily due to Africans killing Africans - such as the inter-tribal battles for territory: this book's detailed analyses of the period June 1990 to July 1993 indicates a total of 8580 (92%) of the 9,325 violent deaths during the period June 1990 to July 1993 were caused by Africans killing Africans, or as the news media often calls it, "Black on Black" violence - hostel killings, Inkatha Freedom Party versus ANC killings, and taxi violence.
The activities of the Civil Cooperation Bureau as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Desmunf Tutu and friends), were also included in these figures. The security forces caused 518 deaths (5.6%) throughout this period.
And again, during the transitional period, the primary cause of deaths were not security forces nor white right-wing violence against blacks, but mainly due to "black-on-black necklace murders", tribal conflict between the ANC-IFP, bombs by the ANC and PAC's military wings in shopping centers, landmines on farm roads, etc.
After apartheid: The present Aids-HIV epidemic - against which the Mbeki-regime undertakes no action, and still is publicly failing to properly acknowledge - the World Health Organization estimates that more than 6 million African South Africans will be dead within the forthcoming decade. And the Mbeki-led ANC regime, which could have undertaken a huge prevention campaign such as Uganda's a long time ago, has done nothing to stave off this terrible death rate.
SA hospitals "becoming places of death": In November last year it was being reported in The Star(Main newspaper in Johannesburg) that South African hospitals are becoming places for dying - instead of healing. In June this year(2001), it was reported that our cemeteries were filling up so rapidly that upright funerals were being contemplated to save space.
Still, Aids is not being spoken about at our funerals, and the silence and utterly unscientific public statements about HIV-Aids from Mbeki's continue unabated while our people are dying.
Democratic Alliance spokesman, Jack Bloom warned late last year that the 20% rise in deaths over the past four years among patients treated at Johannesburg Hospital could only be blamed on the high crime rate and the very serious decline in patient care. Why is our patient care so poor now, and our crime rate so high? The answer is simple: our public funds are being looted by the ANC hierarchy. And the police seem helpless to stop it.
Tuberculosis funds looted: Today, July 10, 2001, the health department announced that it was going to stop R6,6 million in annual funding to the SA National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA) because of the ongoing looting of its funds and the lavish lifestyles of its (African) executives, who award themselves R400.000 annual salaries and spend R5000 a month on cell phone calls alone... while millions of South African TB patients go untreated and are wasting away of a deadly, but curable disease.
During apartheid, please note that the SANTA executives were seen to be extremely frugal with the governments' funding - that many thousands of patients were cured annually, and that many doctors and nurses even VOLUNTEERED their services free of charge.
The question is this: "why is this man still CEO of SANTA? Why has he not been fired on the spot?"
Violent deaths from 1994 to 2000: And the SA Police reports that a total of 174,220 people died violent deaths, from crime-related violence, between 1994 and the year 2000. So my question is this: "did apartheid ever kill as many Africans as are now being killed by the deliberate neglect and looting of our tax funds by the current, supposedly democratic Mbeki-regime?"
It is difficult, on those who have left, as well. : - (
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