"18 years after white racist rule ended [there is] growing inequality between a white minority joined by a small black elite while most blacks endure high unemployment and inadequate housing, health care, and education.... the country’s governing party, the venerable African National Congress, [and] many of [its] senior members have joined a wealthy elite a world away from the downtrodden masses.... The plight of miners living in tin shacks while they produce the raw materials for luxury goods under dangerous conditions has put a spotlight on the South African government’s failure to meet basic needs like clean water and decent health care. It also has drawn attention to the widening gap between a small black elite that lives sumptuously while many South Africans worry about where their next meal will come from."
Yup, it's economic -- and we are all South Africans now.
"South African whites earn 6 times more than blacks" by Carley Petesch | Associated Press, November 01, 2012
JOHANNESBURG — White South Africans earn six times more than black South Africans nearly two decades after the end of apartheid and much remains to be done to reduce the disparities between rich and poor, the president said after the release of the country’s census.
‘‘These figures tell us at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty, unemployment, and inequality, despite the progress that we have made since 1994,’’ President Jacob Zuma said of the South Africa Census 2011 released on Tuesday.
On the positive side, people’s access to basic services, such as clean water, electricity, and garbage removal has more than doubled in the same amount of time, he said.
I was told above they failed at that, but hey, what's another lie from a leader?
More South African dwellings have TVs than refrigerators, and more have cellphones than electric or gas stoves, the census said....
That's progress?
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If you are lucky enough to have a dwelling:
"PROTEST IN VAIN -- A woman tried unsuccessfully to stop workers from demolishing her home south of Johannesburg on Friday. Police have supervised the demolition of 44 houses, saying they were constructed on illegally sold land (Boston Globe November 10 2012)."
Wow, the South African government acting just like the Israelis. They should be ashamed of themselves. For the record, the woman in my printed paper photograph is black.
"Disillusionment with the party that ended South African apartheid" by Sudarsan Raghavan | Washington Post, November 23, 2012
KHUTSONG, South Africa — The party that ended apartheid has begun to lose its appeal among black South Africans, many of whom have grown frustrated waiting for the ‘‘better life for all’’ promised when the African National Congress won historic multiracial elections 18 years ago.
The disenchantment with the ANC, to be sure, has been gradually building over the years. But it has intensified in recent weeks amid ongoing, and often violent, labor unrest that has spread across the nation since police killed 34 strikers at a platinum mine in August, the deadliest police action in post-apartheid South Africa.
See: South African Miners Strike
In newspaper columns, on radio talk shows, blogs, and social media, the ANC is facing a public outcry, accused of being corrupt, ineffective, wasteful, and out of touch with the hardships faced by South Africa’s impoverished masses.
Governments seem to have that quality, yeah.
Even prominent antiapartheid figures are publicly disparaging the ANC leadership, questioning its credibility. Other critics, including senior ANC leaders, say the party is divided and facing a crisis of leadership, as President Jacob Zuma battles allegations of misuse of public funds to renovate his private residence. ‘‘Now, the honeymoon is pretty much over,’’ said Robert Schrire, a political analyst at the University of Cape Town. ‘‘What we are seeing is that the average black South African is no longer blindly loyal to the ANC.’’
When Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994, there was a burst of hope that a new era of equality was on the horizon. The ANC promised sweeping social change to redress the inequalities forged under apartheid, which oppressed non-whites through a system of racial separation enforced by harsh laws and police brutality to ensure the supremacy of South Africa’s whites.
But for many black South Africans, the initial excitement has fizzled into disappointment as they struggle with high unemployment and a lack of housing, education, clean water, and other services.
ANC officials say the party has improved the lives of millions and describe any divisions as a normal occurrence in such a large and diverse institution. ‘‘There is no leadership vacuum or paralysis within the ANC,’’ said Keith Khoza, a senior party spokesman. ‘‘The ANC has no crisis of leadership.’’
Then why are they so unhappy?
Despite its problems, no one is suggesting that the ANC will lose its dominance over South Africa’s political landscape anytime soon. But the anger and disillusionment, if they continue to grow, could trigger more protests and violence, potentially destabilizing the continent’s largest economy.
Already, the number of violent protests this year, mostly over land, inadequate housing, and poor services, has grown dramatically from previous years.
As many as 80,000 miners, or 16 percent of the mining sector’s workforce, are believed to be on strike, demanding better pay and benefits. Thousands more have already been fired. Meanwhile, thousands of truckers have also staged strikes, threatening supplies of fuel and food.
As usual, the PEOPLE are with the STRIKERS!
South Africa’s credit rating has been downgraded, mining stocks have plunged, and its currency, the rand, has weakened. Foreign investors are apprehensive.
Those governments are slave to and those they serve.
In Khutsong, a black township surrounded by gold mines 56 miles west of Johannesburg, many residents live in shack settlements, where electricity must be illegally procured and water hauled from outdoor taps shared by many families.
Public toilets placed on unpaved streets are so filthy that some residents prefer buckets or holes. Many have been waiting more than a decade for government housing.
It's Zuma's progress.
Bafana Mashata grew up worshiping the leaders of the ANC. In school, he learned how Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and other antiapartheid stalwarts ended white rule. But Mashata deplores the ANC leaders who now run his nation.
‘‘Mandela and our other heroes fought for our freedom,’’ said Mashata, 17, standing outside his uncle’s tin shack that had no electricity or running water. ‘‘But our black leaders now sitting on top of the chair don’t care about us. They care only about themselves.’’
Something happens to people when they get power.
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I wonder to whom the kid could possibly be referring.
"President says $23 million spent on ‘Zumaville’ for security" by Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press | October 14, 2012
JOHANNESBURG — New security fences. A medical clinic. Firefighting services added for a helipad. Those and other upgrades, all for South African President Jacob Zuma’s home to the tune of more than $23 million in taxpayer money. And all for his rural private residence.
While his countrymen and woman are living in shacks!
Mr. Zuma is embroiled in a controversy over the costly additions to his private home in a country where millions still lack decent homes, running water, electrical power and adequate access to health and education services.
But they do have a TV and cellphone!
The revelations of the renovation of Mr. Zuma’s rural compound in KwaZulu-Natal, dubbed “Zumaville” in the local press, come before the ruling African National Congress‘ December conference, where Mr. Zuma seeks to be reappointed as the party’s leader, and therefore its candidate for president in the 2014 national election.
Mr. Zuma’s standing already has been shaken by the recent police killings of 34 striking platinum miners in the continuing wave of ongoing wildcat strikes. He is widely seen by striking miners as aloof to their concerns that they’re not paid enough for the difficult and dangerous work they perform....
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"S. Africa leader faces no-confidence bid" by Carley Petesch | Associated Press, November 09, 2012
JOHANNESBURG — Opposition parties submitted a motion of no confidence on Thursday against President Jacob Zuma, saying that corruption and unemployment have risen, the justice system has been politicized, and the economy has weakened.
The motion, backed by eight opposition parties, was triggered by a violent strike at a platinum mine that killed 46 people, the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating by two major agencies, and big spending of state funds on Zuma’s rural residence, according to a joint statement by the parties....
The ANC’s office of the chief whip called the motion ‘‘a desperate, if not silly, publicity stunt by a group of attention-seeking opposition leaders . . . is not based on any fact or evidence, and therefore amounts to nothing but character assassination.’’
Better than the other kind.
Better than the other kind.
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Related: S. Africa’s Jacob Zuma seeks party support
South Africa leader keeps party title
UPDATE: Leader’s dog dig divides South Africans
Arthur Chaskalson, 81; led Constitutional Court in South Africa
