BBC News, July 22, 2009
Violence in South Africa’s townships has spread as residents protest about what they say is a lack of basic services, such as water and housing.
Police have fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in Johannesburg, the Western Cape and the north-eastern region of Mpumalanga.
In Mpumalanga, there were reports of foreign-owned businesses being looted as foreigners sought police protection.
More than 100 people have been arrested during the past week.
The rising tensions in the townships have revived memories of xenophobic attacks on foreigners last year in which more than 60 people died.
The latest protests over service delivery come less than 100 days after Jacob Zuma took office as president, following a resounding election victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC).
They are a reminder of the impatience felt in the most deprived areas of the country, says BBC world affairs correspondent Peter Biles.
On Tuesday, police cars were stoned in Thokoza near Johannesburg during a demonstration about living conditions that turned violent.
Nearby township Diepsloot saw cars and houses being burnt last week in protest at plans to tear down makeshift shacks to make way for a sewage pipe.
Poverty pledge
President Jacob Zuma promised to improve service delivery when he came to power in May, and said fighting poverty was his priority, highlighting the huge economic and social challenges facing South Africa.
However, South Africa announced in June that it was facing its worst recession in 17 years.
Fifteen years after the ANC won its first election, more than one million South Africans still live in shacks, many without access to electricity or running water.
The gap between rich and poor is also wider than it was 15 years ago, our correspondent says.
The slow provision of replacement housing has long been controversial—nearly three million have been built, but the allocation has been prone to nepotism and corruption.
In addition, the global economic climate has banished any hope of South Africa maintaining record levels of economic growth, and reducing unemployment.
In the midst of this latest unrest, Mr Zuma is embarking upon a tour of the country to thank voters for returning the ANC to power in the elections last April.
Our correspondent says he will now be under even greater pressure to explain how the ANC is going to meet its plethora of election promises.
Original article
(Posted on July 23, 2009)
Comments
You see what this bad apartheid did to these good blacks? If it weren’t for white invasion of South Africa, all towns there would prosper, there would be plenty of running water and free health care for everyone (just like in Obama plan).
The above is a part of a larger pattern.
Do you remember the shocking pictures of devastated previously residential areas in Cleveland? Black that devastated them did so solely because of history of slavery and racism. Should whites not invade America, Cleveland would be a clean, well-prospering city with no crime and booming economy.
But wait. If the whites did not invade America, there would be no blacks in Cleveland.
Oh, well. Let’s not let the facts stand in the way of good ideology.
When it all bws up the liberals are going to blame, apartheid, colonialism, the white man & probably even global warming for the ensuing slaughter.
This is Africa & does not change & nobody will ever change it no matter how much of whatever you throw at it.
Indeed ‘Cry The Beloved Country’
“Fifteen years after the ANC won its first election, more than one million South Africans still live in shacks, many without access to electricity or running water.”
A library near my home has a number of foreign films in its DVD collection, including works by Japanese directors like Ozu and Naruse. One film by Ozu, “Tokyo Story,” is set in Tokyo in 1953, eight years after it was reduced to cinders. There are panorama shots of the downtown which show a completely rebuilt urban center. Naruse’s “A Woman Climbs The Stairs” was made in 1959 and is about a bar hostess in the Ginza. This film also shows many outdoor urban scenes which reflect a tidy, modern city.
The Japanese may have been living in shacks and lean-tos in 1945, but they got right to work rebuilding their country.
50 years from now millions of blacks in South Africa will still be living in shacks with sporadic electricity and no sanitation and Whites will still be implored to relieve suffering on that continent.
If the ANC hadn’t worked so hard to follow the Rhodesian example and instead had left the white led economy in place they may have had the money to put blacks to work building infrastructure for blacks.
In response to #2, they are already blaming “climate change” for droughts in Africa that cause wars. So its white people’s industry that causes African suffering.
50 years from now millions of blacks in South Africa will still be living in shacks with sporadic electricity and no sanitation and Whites will still be implored to relieve suffering on that continent.
And we Whites wil continue to be blamed for black failures of any sort.
3 — Howard wrote at 7:15 PM on July 23:
“50 years from now millions of blacks in South Africa will still be living in shacks with sporadic electricity and no sanitation and Whites will still be implored to relieve suffering on that continent.”
I’m afraid I must disagree with you on that one, Howard. In 50 years there won’t be enough White people in power or with money to effect any help for Africa. In 50 years everyone will be engaged in a struggle for survival at the basic level.
Black Africans voted for a black run African country. They could have looked at other countries on their continent to see what that implies about the standard of living for average blacks. Remember that during the days of apartheid blacks immigrated into South Africa from neighboring countries, not out of it. It will take a bit more time to destroy the infrastructure and institutions that white people brought to South Africa, but it will happen, as it is happening in Zimbabwe today. No white liberal will ever admit it, but the average Zimbabwean black was better off under the rule of Ian Smith than that of Mugabe. The day will come when many South African blacks will rue the end of white rule.
That country is doomed.Have you seen pictures of Jo’berg. What was once a first class city is a slum. It is approaching Detroit.I am not sure what role blacks can assume in a civilized society, but I do know that they cannot rule any town city or God forbid a country. Thet just can’t.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a nation in Africa or a neighborhood in the US, the results are always the same.
I’ll be kind here and say blacks are a high-maintenance people who take more than they can ever give.
over 60% of the whites voted for the anc in the first election….let them continue to live with what they continue to vote for.
“The latest protests over service delivery come less than 100 days after Jacob Zuma took office as president, following a resounding election victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC).” - well, ain’t “democracy” great? Why, let’s spread it all over the world! Oh, wait…
Just goes to show that “democracy” is nothing more than mob rule.
These people are just getting what they voted for.
This is no surprise to us realists living in SA - except for the fact that we were expecting these riots earlier.
This will be the start of bigger things. The next obvious step for the so-called government will be the old and stale it-is-the-whiteman’s-fault adage.
When white homes, neighbourhoods and businesses are attacked, it will be all-out race war, that nobody will be able to stop. The weak whites will flee and the rest will remain to clean up for the next generation. And this time there will be no more Mr Niceguy. We will probably be around 2 million Afrikaners against 50 million blacks and their international cohorts - but we say bring it on.
Oh - and the BBC should do some introspection and admit their hand in bringing all this about.
You have to wonder how much longer South African blacks will be blaming their problems on the legacy of Apartheid? Unfortunately, we have our answer here in the United States, where many blacks (along with white liberals) still blame their economic condition “on the legacy of slavery.”
That country is doomed.Have you seen pictures of Jo’berg.
Pictures from all over SA can be seen on www.zasucks.com and they are, without exception, as described. The pics do indeed look like Detroit.
“These people are just getting what they voted for”
Unfortunately, here in America, so are we.
Skip writes:
“…Have you seen pictures of Jo’berg…”
Yes. For those who haven’t:
http://dojanderson.blogspot.com/
http://dojanderson.blogspot.com/
It seems Durban is in even worse shape—the photo journalist who took these describes human feces everywhere:
“…Once so pristine Durban is deteriorating into a squatter slum, a filthy, disgusting, unhealthy mess, with dangerously polluted water streaming into the ocean. The whole place also looks like a permanent prison now, a nightmare scenario with shuttered shops, heavy burglar bars, barbed wire, vagrants and incredible pollution everywhere… Durban’s tourist area has now become one big, filthy, faeces-smeared, littered, broken glass-strewn squatter camp…”
http://deathofdurban.blogspot.com/
The site you mentioned also posted some heartbreaking before and after photos of SAs once-beautiful beaches, hotels and other tourist destinations. I’ll post them if I can find them—they are heartbreaking. The ones posted here are only the after photos.
Bon
