As Nelson Mandela lays on his death bed his legacy as the godfather of neo-Apartheid South Africa has been firmly established.
Today in South Africa life for many if not most is
nearly as precarious and undignified as when Mandela was first
inaugurated as President some 20 years ago. So the best way to describe
“modern” South Africa is it is being oppressed by a new form of
apartheid.
But wait a minute, didn’t Mandela’s becoming the first
black president of South Africa lead to the restoration of ownership of
the land stolen from the African population nearly a hundred years
previously by the racist colonial settler Apartheid regime? No, no real
land reform for the masses of land less Africans.
But Mandela did make sure that the international mining companies got whatever new land they thought they might need.
But Mandela did make sure that the international mining companies got whatever new land they thought they might need.
And while plenty of the country’s staple food,
maize(corn), is being grown in South Africa today (South Africa is one
of the leading maize exporters in the world) the people of the country
still struggle every day to be able to buy enough maize to feed their
families.
Speaking of the mining companies, which are the basis
of the great wealth of the country, didn’t Mandela at one time promise
to nationalize them and use their fabulous wealth to benefit the people
of South Africa?
Yes he did promise such and no he didn't keep his
promise. But he did sweep aside all restrictions on the mine owners
relocating their headquarters outside the country the better NOT to pay
taxes.
And the promise to provide adequate drinking water to
ALL the people of South Africa? No, that promise wasn’t kept either,
though under his governments leadership Mandela did allow the mining
companies to continue to poison the underground water aquifers in many
parts of the country.
Didn’t Mandela promise to provide free universal
public education to his people? The answer to this question might best
be found by asking the miners who went on strike last year in part
because they could not afford the school fees for their children.
Isn’t life for South Africa’s people more prosperous,
don’t they have more money in their pocket and a better standard of
living? According to President Zuma, South Africa’s per capita GDP is
40% more today than 20 years ago when the original Apartheid system was
ended.
But the cost of living in the past 20 years has
outstripped wage increases resulting in an actual lowering of living
standards for the masses of people.
But what about life expectancy and health in general
in the country, aren’t South Africans living longer than ever before? No
again, life expectancy under Mandela and friends suffered a steep drop
from which it has yet to recover, thanks in part to the failure of
Mandela and his cronies failing to take the HIV/AIDS pandemic seriously.
And today the HIV clinics in South Africa stand empty of much needed
medicines due to the the ANC government cutting funding for such.
Once upon a time the liberation ballad sung by the ANC
headed by Mandela included the refrain “One Settler, One Bullet”. Today
some suspect the toasts made in the board rooms of the multinationals
plundering South Africa are begun by declaring “One Miner, One Bullet”
as the South Africa police at the behest of both the ANC and mine owners
have begun, once again, to open fire on striking miners.
So life is little better for most South Africans and
the whites still own the land and mines. Food, water, education and
drugs to fight HIV are all in short supply or completely lacking but one
thing not lacking at all is corruption, lots and lots of corruption
throughout the ANC lead government. It seems that ALL the top leaders in
the ANC, no matter the faction, stand accused of corruption, of lining
their own pockets at the expense of the people and the well worn path of
such runs directly to Mandela’s front door as well, though no
journalist or their editors has yet had the courage to open it and let
the truth be known to the world.
Twenty years ago Nelson Mandela was the Father of what
became the neo-Apartheid system in South Africa and today, while laying
on his death bed he has truly earned the title of Godfather of
Neo-Apartheid, for what else can you call what is officially the most
unequal system of social equality in the world today, modern, “Post
Apartheid” South Africa.
By Thomas C. Mountain
09 July, 2013
from here
from here
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