So - South Africa is the place I call home, let me add some thoughts here.



1. The ANC of Zuma is NOT the ANC of Mandela. There was an internal power shift in 2007 from city dwelling educated blacks to illiterate rural blacks. The ANC should have split up at this point but they were too afraid this would mean a loss of power and thus 'the flow of corruption money' so they stuck together in what is internally a party at war.



2. The educated blacks in South Africa have little to no interest in 'old fashioned business' based on competition. They only want to wrest control from the white businesses but the constitution prevents this without fair compensation. When they do come into money they generally spend it on wasteful things like fancy cars. They never invest in entrepreneurial businesses of any meaningful sort.



3. The blacks in South Africa are possibly the best off blacks in Africa. The Whites in South Africa are possibly the worst off in the World. The whites pay virtually all the taxes and the blacks received virtually all the benefit of expenditure.



4. After Mandela the ANC realized it could not rule through constructive means, so it changed tack to a politics of fear, repeating again and again that anything a white says is racist (which is not true at all - both white and black south africans are far less racist than people from other countries - because we live and work together closely).



5. Whites might reperesent 72% of management by number but by remuneration blacks probably represent 72% of management, as the BEE policies severely distort salaries in that place.



6. Most blacks living in South Africa today were born under the ANC and not the apartheid regime. Most still blame apartheid for their woes because that is the message the ANC propogates through the media controlled by them.



7. The average poor black is about twice as poor now as under apartheid. The average rich black is richer than most rich Americans - the Gini coefficient among the black population is completely out of control.



So - what do we have in the final analysis - there used to be a general idea that South Africa was the African exception - that the post colonial government would be on par with countries like Brazil, Russia or Mexico. Well, this has proven to be a silly idea - South African government is now headed by a goat herder with no education of any sort, and who holds onto power through corruption and fearmongering.

