Ra5cal from Johannesburg just sent us the following message with the latest poll results from South Africa:
An update on the situation in South Africa which came to me via an NY Times twitter feed (no links yet).
At the Afrobarometer survey launch in South Africa. Lots of interesting data on public attitudes in SA:
- 71% say using force or violence during a protest is wrong.
[Ironic, as service delivery protests are often violent/destructive. Also, this means 29% of 40 million South Africans support violent protest.]
- 38% said the government should be able to restrict any information it wants, 48% said only for national security.
[Interesting, as it points out that 86% of South Africans support the government’s plan to restrict information access.]
- Only 1/3 of respondents unwilling to live under undemocratic rule in exchange for housing, jobs.
[Does this mean 2/3 support autocratic rule if they will be given work and a roof over their heads?]
If this were a referendum, the results would show that the majority of South Africans (and looking at the percentages, this most likely means a certain population group) support a Zimbabwe-style one-party government that will redistribute assets to the people.
It also means that more than ten million South Africans are willing to resort to violence to get what they want.
We are talking about a looming post-Apartheid failure on democracy, education and human rights on a massive scale.
It really saddens me to read these stats, because on the one hand it shows that the government has its work cut out for it if it is to turn the tide on ignorance. Yet it is the same ANC majority-led government that has perpetuated — and is still perpetuating — this cycle of ignorance and violence to serve its own ends
This means there is no happy ending.
5 comments:
This "looming" failure has been predicted many times. Reports of the demise of South Africa tend to be greatly exaggerated.
There are factors at work in South Africa that are not found in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa: several ethnic groups, each with its own language and history, are in play. Not all are "black", and even if only those groups are considered, there is still great diversity.
Each is wary of seeing all the power concentrated in any one of the others. Collectively, these groups can, and do, veto steps that concentrate power too narrowly.
South Africa has a working economy, with farming, some manufacturing, and mining. South Africa has a for-real University or two. South Africa has cultural ties to both Europe and India.
South Africa is far richer than the other countries, and this point carries real weight with any audience being asked to follow the model of, say, Zimbabwe.
The government of South Africa exists against a social background that is far more favorable to sustaining a measure of liberty and technical sophistication in its society.
Anonymous 7:30pm points out South Africa's best surviving features, but chooses to omit the ongoing failings that is slowly tearing the country apart. For instance; there has been over 3000 white farmers, including their families, murdered since aparthied ended. Most of these very brutal killings have not been solved and are unlikely to be, while the ANC remain the ruling party.
As a result of the ANC bias against the Afrikaaner, South Africa has been bleeding its white population, mainly through emigration, which is having a destabilizing effect on the economy and effective government.
South Africa no longer has the strong economy it once had, and is certainly not the stable country it once was.
Sorry, but you can't simply add those 38% and 48%, as there sure are overlaps between the two groups. Such mistakes are too easily exploited by opponents by calling it frivolous tactics.
At any rate, it is true that South Africa is in the process of tearing down itself. It doesn't happen overnight, but they'll waste whatever human and other capital they have and end up joining the world's bilge scum. Time to leave for anyone still sane and able.
@Anon - wow, talk about rose-tinted glasses. South Africa is a looming disaster and now amount of wishing otherwise will cure this ill. The ANC have become the dictators they accused the National Party of being. Their next victim is freedom of speech. This is to enable them to implement communism 100%. They are already talking about changing the constitution regarding land rights. Afrikaners are marginalized out of the work place. Many now live below the poverty line. Once again they are fighting for their lives.
I'm curious to know, where are most of the white South Africans emigrating to?
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