South Africa After Apartheid

Moral crusaders have the habit of heading off to their next crusade without bothering to see whether anything went wrong on their last one. During the 80's, TransAfrica, NAACP, Black Congressional Caucus, Hollywood glitterati, college students, and other groups held massive protests on college campuses and at the South African Embassy, built shanty towns and called for disinvestment and sanctions against South Africa for its racist apartheid system.

There's no longer apartheid and there's black rule in South Africa but what's the story now?

Each South African day sees an average of 59 murders, 145 rapes and 752 serious assaults out of its 42 million population. The new crime is the rape of babies; some AIDS-infected African men believe that having sex with a virgin is a cure. Fifty five percent of South Africa's black population is HIV-positive but President Mbeki says that HIV cannot cause AIDS. South Africa's currency, the rand, has fallen about 70 percent since the African National Congress (ANC) came to power in 1994. Emigration from South Africa (mainly of skilled people) is now at its highest level ever.

"Is South Africa doomed to follow the rest of Africa into oblivion?" The tragic fact of business is that ordinary Africans were better off under colonialism. Colonial masters never committed anything near the murder and genocide seen under black rule in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Somalia and other countries where millions of blacks have been slaughtered in unspeakable ways that included: hacking to death, boiling in oil, setting on fire and dismemberment. If as many elephants, zebras and lions had been as ruthlessly slaughtered, the world's leftists would be in a tizzy.

When Zimbabwe, then Southern Rhodesia, was under white rule, the ANC demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Ian Smith and the installation of black rule. Today, Zimbabwe's Minister Robert Mugabe commits gross violations of black and white human rights. With the help of lawless thugs, Mugabe has undertaken a land confiscation program from white farmers. Instead of condemning Zimbabwe human rights abuses, the South African government has given Mugabe its unqualified support.

In Africa, when blacks behave badly, colonialism, imperialism, apartheid, globalization or multi-nationalism is blamed for not bringing up blacks properly. Liberals saw South Africa's, apartheid and other human rights abuses as unjust because blacks were suffering at the hands of whites. They hold whites accountable to civilized standards of behavior. Blacks are not held to civilized standards of behavior. From the liberal's point of view it might even be racist to expect blacks to adhere to civilized standards of behavior.

"Africa's past experience should give western anti-apartheid activists some pause for thought. Wouldn't it be the supreme tragedy if South African blacks might ponder at some future date, like the animals of Jones' Manor, {George Orwell's Animal Farm} whether they were better off under apartheid? That's why blacks must answer, what's to come after apartheid? Black rule alone is no guarantee for black freedom."