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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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Have we had a discussion on South Africa yet?

Recently, Andre de Ruyter, the now-ex CEO of the state owned power provider ESKOM, did an interview that basically said the corruption and everything was so bad that he and ESKOM cannot do their jobs properly. He himself was a target of assassination (cyanide pill in his coffee or something?), and after the interview has been removed from his post (he put in his resignation before the interview). He has since left the country.

There are many reports that the grid can totally collapse soon, despite the "load shedding" that they have been doing. Apparently this may lead to civil war?

Unemployment is apparently 35%, clean water access and supply is apparently unstable. Crime is apparently extremely high. If you go on /r/southAfrica, there are frequent discussions of home invasion and other crimes (70 carjackings a day, 2500 home invasions a day...). One post I saw last week was a question asking "Dogs been poisoned, both dead. Typically how many days before robbery hit?"

See this recent thread for more issues: https://twitter.com/k9_reaper/status/1630436052723720193

Some blame this all on the ruling ANC party, on their policies like BBBEE (from a few years ago: https://www.revolver.news/2021/07/south-africa-riots-looting-critical-race-theory/).

In general, SA's situation is not looking good...

Delusional Afrikaners who think that South Africa’s apparently inevitable collapse into total anarchy will finally allow them to carve off their own country sit alongside the EFF gang, the ANC’s most corrupt, shady Indian businessmen and bourgeois white progressive DA supporters as some of the most pathetic and amusing characters in a very colorful country.

...what the hell do you think it's going to happen once economic conditions worsen even more ? Do you think there's going to be less anarchy and more security when people are closer to starvation ?

Things have been mostly decaying since the Apartheid gov't fell. Government is now saying it has "no duty" to ensure reliable power.

Afrikaners mostly have a plan that involves evacuating to Cape Province, and declaring independence there together with the locals. There's already 60% support. (in Cape, for Cape independence)

It's the only part of SA that kind of works because it's only 20% black, has the most whites iirc and coloreds in SA are less bad at governance than blacks.

...what the hell do you think it's going to happen once economic conditions worsen even more ?

Nothing. I think nothing will happen.

The frog will boil a little more, but as long as the crime rate keeps creeping up 1% per month instead of 5000% per day, people will just... get robbed more. As long as the electrical brownouts keep extending 1% per month instead of 5000% per day, people will just... adapt to doing their cooking in advance rather than on demand.

When I was in South Africa I noticed a lot of private security stickers on people's houses and plenty of people had generators to make up for the power outages. I'm not sure how affordable either of these are for the average middle class South African, but with access to those things you are somewhat more sheltered from the decline. For people who can afford these things the streets will get less safe and doing business will become more of a hassle, but you can still pick where you travel and where you do your shopping.