Oh god, this makes my blood boil. Unfortunately I have a front row seat to this madness.
I can't imagine where his obsession with South Africa came from.
For a change, Muskolini is merely fanning the flames (although entirely self-serving), but isn't the origin of this. So some background, for those who don't know the history. Towards the end of Apartheid, the National Parth (NP) government started to realise that the writing was on the wall. Sanctions were biting, government debt was becoming unmanageable, and the country was heading for bankruptcy. So that forced their hand and they started secret negotiations with the ANC. This resulted in the unbanning of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela from Prison. It also resulted in a national referendum (of course, only of the chosen people) asking a simple question: "Should we continue with negotiations - Yes or No" The result was a solid yes - 68% Yes IIRC.
Leading the "No" campaign was the then opposition, the Conservative Party. They were not the opposition because they were opposed to Apartheid. No, they were the opposition because they thought the NP wasn't going hard enough. The descendants of this sorry mess still roam amongst us, and still fantasize about the civil war they were deprived of, and live in a feverdream of facebook and whatsapp groups where tales of brutality at the hands of black mobs abound, complete with pictures, often of questionable origin.
Let me be (a little bit) fair to them: In the late 80s and early 90s, there were real fears of a civil war. The (mostly) peaceful transition to a democratic government led by a hitherto banned majority black party, was an absolute miracle. Early on there were also real fears of South Africa following down Zimbabwe's path, where Mugabe's liberation army veterans helped themselves to white farmers' land, engaged in campaigns of intimidation and violence, etc. Lastly, the ANC had historically favoured the nationalise-everything "Afro Socialism" model. Fortunately, Nelson Mandela, and his deputy (and later successor, an Oxford-educated economist) Thabo Mbeki, and a few others, understood that joining the world of international commerce would be more beneficial, and took that path instead.
One more thing, the late 80s and early 90s were the most violent in SA's history, and for a time we had a scurge of home robberies that were not only violent, but had an element of cruelty to them that was really shocking. These really did happen, but they also got disproportionate airtime. This was also a time when car-jackings were rife and very often resulted in the driver being shot dead.
Since then things have largely improved, and save for a few bumps driven by economic shocks, homicide statistics have largely trended downwards.
Now, back to the Conservative party and their spritual decendents. There's an organisation called Afriforum that purports to concern themselves with the plight of Afrikaans speakers. Eearly on, they were very deliberate in making it about the language. In their minds, the requirements for the public broadcaster, and public schools and universities to offer programs and tuition in all 11 official languages, represented a great thread to Afrikaans. Of course, this was always a slight of hand. Afrikaans is spoken by roughly 10 million people (out of a 60 million population), and about 6 million of those are not white. But you wouldn't know that from Afriforum's literature and projects.
It is Afriforum, and particularly two snakes named Kallie Kriel and Ernst Roets, who have been flying to the US constantly, meeting Republican reps, going on Fox news - yes, Fucker Carlson did his bit to amplify their message - and spreading the lie that 1) white farmers are targeted for attacks, and 2) these attacks ofen don't involve anything being taken, so aren't related to crime in general. Feel free to plug their names into youtube to get a flavour of it.
Both of these claims are stright up bullshit. South Africa has a lot of violent crime. Not shit, what do you expect when 80% of the population were systematically and systemically brutalised and denigrated for four decades, deprived of a proper eductaion and opportunities, leaving a country with 40% unemployment and an even higher adult illiteracy rate. Last year there were around 26,000 murders in South Africa. Farm murders? Q1: 6, Q2: 16, Q3: 16, Q4 6. Total of 44. That includes anyone living on a farm, of any demographic. And it includes any homicide that happens on a farm. Farm workers scuffling (which is pretty common) and someone gets stabbed with a broken bottle? That's counted. Farmwife paid someone to off her husband? That gets counted (yes, that happened).
So in short, if this is a genocide, they genociders are doing a pretty terrible job.
I’m not entirely against sanctions in the face of Ramaphosa’s proposed land reforms, but giving TPS to wealthy white landowners who benefited from apartheid and denying it for people facing death squads at home is…actually nevermind that totally jives with historic American values. Compensate the plantation owners, not the slaves.
The Exprporiation (what you call eminent domain) law isn't all it's made up to be either. It replaces a previous incarnation of the law from the 1960 to bring it in line with the constitution. It gives South African land owners *more* rights, but you wouln't know that. The old version of the law was, of course, used to displace millions of black people and dump them in so-called "home lands" (google "bantustan" if you want to learn more) and deprive them of their property, but you wouldn't know that either. To date, the post 1994 have not expropriated a single property without compensation. "Willing buyer, willing seller" has always been, and continues to be the model. There are several steps after initial negotiations fail, to reach a suitable outcome, involving mediation and eventually courts, before, after many many years, we reach the "without compensation" part.
I am South African but I've lived in a number of countries. It's an unfortunate truth that American politics get re-packaged in local language - be it in South Africa, UK, Australia, heck even some East Asian countries - and that's how we end up with this White Gencide bullshit, that's just a repackaging of the good old "white replacement" conspiracy. There are plenty more stupidity of this variety but not relevant.
And just like fox news, the purveyors of this kind of nonsens target people who are vulnerable to this sort of scare monging. For example, my mother, who along with her husband, is applying for the refugee program. Telling me with dead searous expressions how dangerous it has become. But nevertheless moved TO A FARM while all this is going on. People hear just what they want to. What confirms their fears and prejudices.
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