I met a South African recently who moved to the UK about a
year ago. When I asked him his reasons for moving (family,
career etc?) he said it was because he is certain there
will be a civil war in SA within the next year. He is now
trying to persuade his parents to leave too.
What are peoples' thoughts on this? (especially South
Africans). Is he paranoid or is this realistic?
[There are 8 posts - the latest was added on Wed 12 May, 23:51]
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Hi- I think he is paranoid. I am a South African and I
want this country to work.Majority of the people in SA want
this place to work. It's a good country to live in!!
Hi Carol,
I'm from Germany and I lived two years in Durban. The facts
are:
There is a high number of political motivated killings in
SA. e.g. in the Richmond area in KwaZulu - Natal were about
80 murders in 1998 which were political motivated.
Weapons are freely available like in the USA and most South
Africans I meet owned a gun (and some of them carry it all
the time).
The murder rate was 60 per 100 000 in 1997 (6 times as high
as in the US and 30 times as high as in Europe)
Till now 70 police men were killed on duty this year.
I personally had the feeling that there is the possibility
of a civil war in SA in the next years especially now in the
post Mandela era. Mandela is cult in SA and all over the
world. I think he is a kind of father of the nation and the
next president has to fill this position.
I hope it doesn't sound to drastic. SA is still worth a
visit but I personally wouldn't go this year and would wait
till the situation has stabilized after the election in
June.
Peter
Whites who have never jumped the cultural/fear divide in
South Africa know precious little about what really makes
South Africa tick (i.e 42 million blacks, not 4 million
confused whites). The above fellow appears to fit this
description, along with many of his ilk who unfortunately
have not managed to flee this country and have stayed
behind and whinge constantly. I am a white African and
damn happy that I'm not a pale Pom or Arrogant American. I
teach 'black' kids and have friends and family all over
this marvelous (but yes, dangerous) country. Civil War?
You mean like the Scots vs the English or the Confeds vs
the Yanks? Hey, Africans couldn't run a bath let alone
slaughter each with such efficiency? Seriously though, if
there is a civil war, please let me know so that I can get
out my camera as there's money in gory pics. To those so-
called South Africans who now feel excluded from what goes
on here, shame, now you know what most black people felt
until 1994. Viva confusion, Viva! Down with WASP
complacency.
Civil war? People have been afraid of it happening for the
past few years. I am a white South African who is visiting
the UK on a working holiday. To make enough money to go
back home and start a business. I've worked in SA for 2
year's. I've studied and could not do what I've done the
past 5 months in England. Yes SA is dangerous and the only
reason why people are talking about civil war is because
they think that's the only to get SA where is was 5 years
ago. People are frustrated because they can't get work.
Everybody is telling you that you are either over qualified
or the job is reserved for blacks.
SA is a lovely country. I think one the most beautiful
countries in the world.
But civil war? I still say no.
what the fuck is"jumping the cultural divide" ? open your eyes and take a good look at the poverty and depression, traumatized children in a crazy violent township society, more AK47s in Alex than there are in Angola, and a president who recently instructed "whites" not to exagerate crime.
Him, not me! If we were going to have a civil war, it would
have happened about six to eight years ago. I think we
missed it by a pubic hair. 10 years ago, I was shown one of
those gazateer programs, that gave just about an numbers
about a country you could think of. You could also do
COMPARISONS of countries. So after dutifully comparing the
GNP, electricity generation, child mortality rates and a
couple of others with our neigbours, there wasn't much
doubt that SA was (still is) a regional superpower. Then I
asked him to take those same numbers, and compare them with
Yugoslavia. The numbers were very, very close! Except for
ONE statistic: revenue from tourism. I can't remember the
number, but the amount for Yugoslavia was many, many times
higher than SA. The only reason I used Yugo, was I had just
spent a very short time there....and YUK, it FELT bad. The
FEEL of living in SA is not great, but it's different to
what it WAS.
(hmmm...if that doesn't make sense, don't worry about it!)
I worked in Botswana for years and visited Moz. and SA frequently. I truly hope that the South Africans can develop a country which will benefit the entire region, but I have profound doubts about Winnie Mandela. If the place does go the way of Zaire, Rwanda, and other bad examples to the north Winnie M will be the tour guide. Hope you guys can work it out, but it looks like it wil be a rough ride.
So your friend fled to the UK huh? Weren't there a few
bombing there lately? hum looks like he hasn't chosen the
safest country to run to. And ooops, looks like with the
chinese people being very angry at NATO, this war in Kosovo
could lead to a sudden bombing of the UK by the Yugoslavian,
chinese or Russians. Hum, oh well, good luck to him: there's
virtually no place as safe as Africa with the event of Y2K.