An Expats' View of South Africa (Part 1)

Cry, the Beloved Country

Cry, the Beloved Country

Investigative essay by Justine Isernhinke, Fellow and Head of Geopolitics and UAP Research, The Malone Institute

“Plaasmoorde” means farm murders in Afrikaans (the language spoken by Dutch descendants who arrived in southern Africa in the 1600s). Each white cross in the photo above represents a farmer who was murdered in his home by black attackers. Sometimes a wife was raped. A two-year old child slaughtered. A grandmother tortured or a grandfather bludgeoned to death. There are thousands of crosses. It is a quiet genocide (over 3,000 farmers and their family members have been killed) seldom making the news, carried out by the tacit approval of certain politicians and powerbrokers under the ANC-ruled country (African National Congress), now the majority party under the Government of National Unity (GNU) since 2024.

I was in South Africa when Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025 and that day largely passed unnoticed in South Africa.

Seemingly out of the blue, Trump fired off a Truth Social Post and has come out against this annihilation of the South African farmer in a way no other Western leader has had the guts to do. With Elon Musk at his side, and surrounded by several other South African friends and businessmen like Gary Player the famous South African golfer, Trump has thrown the gauntlet down against the ruling regime in South Africa and decided to withhold foreign aid. In short order Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the US will not attend the G20 summit in South Africa. Then this week, South Africa’’s ambassador to the US insinuated that Trump was a white supremacist. Rubio promptly threw the ambassador out of the USA.

How did we get to this situation? A country literally at the bottom of Africa has made its way to the bullseye of Trump’s ire.

What follows is an attempt to answer that question.

The Lies of “Ubuntu” and the Rainbow Nation

I am South African but have lived in the US since 2012. I call the United States my home, but my heart will always be in South Africa (“SA”). The similarities and issues that I saw unfolding in SA are eerily similar to those in recent history in the US, especially since Obama took over: race and identity becoming a rallying cry/excuse/reason for everything the government wanted to do or refused to do; economic growth taking a backseat to politics; health care deteriorating when expanded beyond those funding it; open borders allowing in millions of illegal migrants; the police neutered; the escalation of violent crime; the tearing down of historic statues. The list goes on.

Mirror images of each other in some ways - none of the good ways, mind you. But watching how my country has fallen into rack and ruin made me become far more conservative in American politics as the years rolled by.

In 1994, Apartheid ended when a new Constitution was created and elections were held in which all South Africans over the age of 18 could vote. Self-governing black homelands were dismantled, race-based laws scrapped and the “Rainbow Nation” was formed. A far more entertaining way to get a sense of the country at the time is to watch Invictus, where Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela.

Mandela handing over the Webb Ellis Cup to Springboks Captain Francois Pienaar after the Springboks won the World Cup Rugby in 1995. ©Getty Images

The flag was changed, the anthem of the country was modified. Mandela advocated for forgiveness. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created. Foreign investment flooded the country. 1994 and the few years thereafter heralded hope, freedom for all, human rights and the rule of law. A new court was created called the Constitutional Court, which would have the same power as the US Supreme Court and hold the Executive and Legislative Branches of Government in check.

Mandela, the head of the ANC party, came into power promising jobs, housing, clean water and electricity to poor black communities living in squatter camps dotted around the country. Both black and white South Africans wanted these promises to be kept. We all wanted every man, woman and child to be better off. We voted the ANC into power with an overwhelming majority (over 60%) and gave it the opportunity to deliver basic services to its people and improve housing, development and generate economic growth. There was much excitement in the air. Everyone had hope in their heart. A new dawn in this country.

So high was the expectation then that the disappointment that followed the failure of the ANC to do any of that - and in fact worsen what services that were being delivered or destroy them entirely - has left a deep bitterness and anger in the majority of South Africans.

How did the Mandela and the ANC fail? And fail they did pretty much from the start.

Greed, corruption, abuse of power. In other words, a kleptocracy. And not just any kind of kleptocracy, but one incubated in the worst of all ideologies – communism.

The basic impulse of the ANC has always been to loot. Its animating ideology, the National Democratic Revolution, is one of "kleptocracism" - in essence the belief that power brings with it an entitlement to plunder. (Many have also called the ANC-led Government a kakistocracy, a government ruled by the least suitable, able or experienced people, but that omits the criminality from their rule, which is as relevant as their incompetence.)

Most explanations of kleptocracy – derived from the Greek for ‘thief’ and ‘rule’ – stress the aspect of ‘grand corruption’ whereby high-level political power is abused to enable a network of ruling elites to steal public funds for their own private gain using public institutions. Kleptocracy is therefore a system based on virtually unlimited grand corruption coupled with, in the words of American academic Andrew Wedeman, ‘near-total impunity for those authorized to loot by the thief-in-chief’ – namely the head of state.

The only real achievement of the ANC’s kleptocracy has been to reverse the flow of time in the country. First-world infrastructure crumbles to rubble, global corporations flee the country, historic buildings fall into decay, roads disintegrate and civility is replaced with rapacious greed and savagery.

Looking at stats online, it’s safe to say that South Africa has lost at least $120bn to corruption since 1994.

The ANC has deep roots in communism. A fact acknowledged by the House DOGE Subcommittee.

Communism is a grab of resources by a cadre of those in power. It is greed that drives any communist agenda behind an Oz-like veil of pretense that it’s to empower the proletariat. Some would say that racism is prevalent in the country and that the ruling party hates white people. But that is not the entire story. Racism is a rallying cry by politicians to mobilize a support base or to justify otherwise inexcusable actions, and all of which are designed to steer power to those politicians in order to steal more wealth.

A personal story of mine. My stepdad had a graphic design company. Like many other white Afrikaner South Africans in 1994, he embraced the spirit of Ubuntu (a spirit of connectedness, humanity towards others), and went into business with the children of a famous aging ANC member, Walter Sisulu - literally ANC royalty. Everything went very well for a few months. We even had Walter come over for a Sunday braai (BBQ) and it was a wonderful afternoon.

However, my stepfather started noticing things in his business that concerned him. He did some investigation and found out that that Sisulu’s kids were working after hours and over the weekend to steal my stepfather’s business right from under his nose. The partnership dissolved. We have no idea if Walter knew what his adult children were up to. The Rainbow Nation experimented ended for my stepfather. It was instructive to me. I saw that it wasn’t all about building a new country. It was about taking – mainly from the white businessmen.

It wasn’t that long after Apartheid ended that several overt public measures and several covert actions took place congruently to remove property, power and wealth away from white people and give that to “previously disadvantaged” groups, which almost every time looked like the ANC aristocracy and its cronies.

Bear in mind that these measures were purportedly taken in part to address the building resentment and anger of the South African population whose lives were not improved by the ANC despite election after election of empty promises. The ANC externalized their own incompetence and projected it onto race, land and power as reasons they were unable to deliver to their people.

Black Economic Empowerment = Slow Deindustrialization

Overtly, the ANC implemented an affirmative action program called Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). What started out as a well-intentioned program to redress perceived wrongs committed under Apartheid (not every business was built on the backs of the black people and black people earned degrees at the top universities – Mandela had a law degree from the same law school as me) was over the years transformed into a wealth-grab by elites of property and corporations owned by white people.

Under Apartheid, there were few black people in ownership and management positions of the larger corporations. Like many other white South Africans at the time, I supported BEE initially. In fact, we believed that the idea was ahead of its time. BEE would not be forced upon companies but when tendering for Government contracts, your BEE status had to be submitted. Your BEE status reflects not only your own corporation’s percentage of black ownership and management, but also your own suppliers had to have a sufficiently high BEE score.

This was soft influence - encouraging companies to adapt without compelling them to. We see it with ESG initiatives, Carbon credits, stakeholder capitalism, WEF-admission rights to corporations. Want to get investors? Want more clients? You need to join the club and pay your dues. Otherwise, good luck out there on your own.

I did see some challenges with the policy but we all backed the concept at the time because it seemed the right thing to do after the decades under Apartheid. I now know better. This is not the way to go. It’s either a free market or it’s not. Activism and political agendas have no place in the board room.

As we soon found out, when told to hire based on identity and not on merit, companies and organizations tend to overlook skills and experience to meet a quota. It doesn’t mean that the person they hire isn’t good, but they may not have been as good as someone else who unfortunately didn’t meet the identity requirement for the job. Over the long run, this lessening of skills and standards erodes quality and efficiency.

To understand the impact of BEE, I’ll give you an example of how damaging it can be to not hire on merit.

Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) are some of the most highly trained individuals on earth. They spend hours and hours learning radar, flight controls, and how to deal with high stress situations. ATCs need to perform without errors under pressure every day and sometimes for hours at a time. ATCs are generally paid well in the world and there is never enough of them. It’s not an easy job - mostly thankless - and mistakes are ghastly.

My ATC friend in Johannesburg (alias Johan) talked to me about the recent Blackhawk crash over the Potomac in the US. Whilst it has now been determined that the crash was due to pilot error, he reckons the crash could have been caused by something as simple as the ATC not adding a few words to his warning to the Blackhawk pilot - merely something as simple as stating the distance - “do you see the plane on 4 mile final?” vs. “do you see the plane?” Final is the position specific in air traffic control. You have upwind, crosswind, downwind, base and final - all quick ways to tell people where traffic is. The Blackhawk pilot saw an airline close by and assumed that was the plane meant by the ATC and not the one that was four miles out and heading towards them. My ATC friend explained that this is something an experienced ATC would know. But a newbie might not. It’s the reason you hire experienced ATCs at a higher cost and have them around to teach and educate the newbies. It’s also why you hire the best you can hire - not those that meet non-merit based requirements.

The Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) here in South Africa has so insisted on following BEE that they have lost most of their good and well-experienced air traffic controllers to overseas airports. This means that our airports are sometimes undermanned and sometimes not manned at all. It also means that my friend Johan cannot work and sits on his hands all day when he could be out there doing his job. The demand for him is there - they are short 300 ATCs in South Africa. But no will to hire “non-BEE” ATCs (see below on BEE). He recently tried again only to be rejected for reasons they haven’t stated. Johan who has decades of experience can validate his rating in a week and start immediately but they have declined his services.

The impact on the airline industry, tourism and business is significant:

But ATNS, filled with ANC cadres, cannot see or don’t want to acknowledge that the cause is their own hiring and promotion policies. The South African airline industry is dreading our own Potomac crash with the required aviation systems rapidly decreasing.

This scenario is replicated throughout almost every service and industry in South Africa.

When merit is no longer a criteria for a job, incompetence takes a foothold. We have had every state-owned enterprise (“SOE”) deindustrialize before our very eyes. Eskom, South Africa’s national power company, couldn’t keep the lights on and we’ve had rolling black-outs (load shedding) for years. Eskom was so successful in 1990 it supplied more than half of the electricity used in the entire African continent and its net income was ZAR 845 million. By 1994, it was delivering power to people at the lowest price in the world. In 2001, Eskom was named as the global power company of the year at the Global Energy Awards in New York. Now it’s a shell of an organization. In its annual financial statement for 2024, Eskom recorded a net loss of ZAR 55 billion. The Auditor-General found that ZAR 11 billion was wasted due to crime and mismanagement [https://dailyinvestor.com/energy/78187/eskom-lost-r11-billion-to-corruption-and-irregular-fruitless-and-wasteful-expenditure/]. The mismanagement of funds in state-owned enterprises is almost comical - ZAR 28,000 for one broom at Eskom!

Of course, the electricity always works where the politicians live.

Water pipes and sewage systems fail all the time. My friend had her entire house flooded with sewage up to a foot and a half. The house was unlivable for a year. That was due to lack of maintenance by the municipality. All my friends back home sit with several five gallon tanks of water in storage waiting for the next fortnight or so with no water. And this is in the upper middle class neighborhoods.

If traffic lights function, it feels like Christmas. Most times you’re either at the mercy of a homeless guy stepping into his new life-calling of traffic cop or on the courtesy of other drivers to let you through.

The police have suffered not only from BEE where experienced white officers resigned in droves after being passed over for promotion one too many times, but also where connection to the ANC or the EFF gives you seniority over your peers. The standards to become a police officer were dropped to allow more officers to be hired, but this has had a knock-on effect of reducing skills, training, experience and competence. The police are so terrible here that you avoid them as much as you can. They’re viewed as a ‘uniformed criminal cartel…’

Housing has not been delivered to the poor. They suffer from the same shortages of water and electricity we do in the better-off neighborhoods. The ruling ANC have done nothing to help their voters. Well, except for the chicken lunch and free t-shirt on the day of an election.

Instead of providing jobs and housing, we see a crumbling country, riddled with potholes, where if you want any service, you either have to do it yourself or band together with your neighbors.

Like all other promises made by the ANC, BEE has failed to deliver. In fact, it’s led to such a level of incompetence that it’s caused deindustrialization across state-owned enterprises and BEE corporations.

Interesting, as a sign of the close ties the ANC has with China’s CCP government, the benefits of BEE were expanded outside of the black, Indian and colored populations to include Chinese.

Over recent years the percentages of BEE requirements for corporates increased to where people in my generation of Caucasian decadent are unable to find jobs once qualified. I saw the writing on the wall back in 2000 and like many of my peers, moved overseas.

In line with every decision the ANC makes, instead of re-evaluating the results of its actions and pivoting, it doubles down on its mistakes. BEE has only further entrenched itself. Elon refuses point-blank to be held hostage to it and so South Africa is one of the few African countries that doesn’t benefit from Starlink.

South Africa abolished all race-based laws under Apartheid only to reinstitute 142 race-based laws that now discriminate against (white) people based.

BEE has subverted the Rule of Law and enabled corruption to run rampant. Whatever benefits or “equity” was achieved by BEE has been overshadowed by the negative consequences.

“Expropriation without Compensation” Act = Highway Robbery

Trump was somewhat correct in that the government has seized white-owned land but up till now it was always with some level of compensation. However, that has not been enough for the ANC. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whilst in Davos attending WEF, signed the new Expropriation Act into law.

The new Expropriation Act does not specifically define "property" as land, and instead explicitly states that “property is not limited to land”. Property, therefore, encompasses other forms of assets, including movable property, intellectual property, and possibly even financial assets. This allows the government to expropriate a wide range of assets, including someone’s pension, their shares in a corporation, or their bank account.

While the Act was introduced with the pretext of addressing land reform (land reform has been underway under other legislation since 1994), its language is broad enough to give the government the power to expropriate any property it deems necessary for a public purpose or in the public interest, the latter of which is highly subjective. The former is similar to America’s Eminent Domain.

“Public Interest” includes the nation’s commitment to land reform, and to reforms to bring about equitable access to all South Africa’s natural resources in order to redress the results of past racial discriminatory laws or practices.

Section 12(3) of the Act introduces the notion of ‘nil’ compensation where land is expropriated (giving rise to the name “the Expropriation without Compensation Act”), provided that it is determined by the State to be just and equitable.

The instances where it may be just and equitable for the State to pay ‘nil’ compensation are quite controversial, especially subsection(a) “where the land is not being used and the owner’s main purpose is not to develop the land or use it to generate income but to benefit from appreciation of its market value” (in other words for speculative purposes). Perhaps the principle of “use it or lose it” seems to be the best protection against this. Several concerns immediately arise, though. Who will determine this and what will happen to land that is used, for example, for conservation purposes and cannot be and should not developed for a valid reason? The wording is broad which leaves it open to the State’s discretion.

Whilst ‘nil’ compensation section only applies to property which is land, the Act does not provide a blanket provision for expropriating land at ‘nil’ compensation. However, as with all countries, perception overrules reality and people will move onto land, thinking that they will be able to assume ownership without compensation. The landowner is then faced with having to re-assert possession or face loss of his property. If re-asserting possession is done through the court system, it could take years for a resolution. I suspect we might see violent confrontations, all of which will be politicized one way or the other.

Hot on the heels of the Expropriation Act, a new bill has been announced, called the “Equitable Access to Land” bill. If there was any doubt as to the intentions of the ANC-led Government, this bill makes is clear as day that expropriation is to be done on racial grounds.

“The objective of the Bill is to bring landownership in line with the country’s demographics using race as basis. Neither the department nor the portfolio committee has tried to hide the fact that this Bill is aimed at white landownership.” Freedom Front Plus’ Wynand Boshoff

Presenting both pieces of legislation as a means to rectify past injustices related to land is completely misleading. These laws, along with the proposed National Health Insurance Bill, constitute state-sanctioned theft of privately-owned assets. As James Lindsay comments, this is what happens when Wokeism runs a country.

After 25 years of BEE and many other pieces of law addressing land redistribution, there is no inequalities in ownership that can legitimately be used as justification, but the Expropriation Act is required for the ANC to fulfill its National Democratic Revolution. A Soviet-inspired strategy adopted by the South African Communist Party that the ANC co-opted back in 1994, that essentially refers to taking from the producers and giving it to the ineffective political class, leaving the crumbs to be handed out amongst those whose contributions are just as meagre.

When the ANC failed to maintain their two-thirds majority in the 2024 election and had to align with the Democratic Alliance to stay in power, it was v a shot across their bows that their rule was vulnerable. I believe this is why they accelerated their “Revolution”. This parallels with Zimbabwe. When Mugabe’s power weakened with the rise of the Movement for Democratic Change under Morgan Tsvangirai in 2000, Mugabe commenced total war on Zimbabwe’s white farmers. Hundreds of land invasions destroyed the “bread basket” of the continent. Highly productive agricultural land was seized violently and handed out to ZANU-PF supporters who, knowing nothing of farming, let the land fall into ruin.

Given the shocking poor levels of education in South Africa, it’s no wonder that the South African populace has interpreted “expropriation without compensation” to mean “take whatever I want” and have started invading private land. We can expect many more invasions, confrontations and violence.

Under the new Expropriation Act at present, a large number of state entities (including the Land Affairs Ministry) is allowed to seize land before a trial and can calculate the value of the land against the value of any development the state intends to perform on that land. They can also seize land that is “unused” or “abandoned” which may include land that has been overrun with squatters. Ramaphosa’s government has also passed a law which prevents anyone from removing squatters or preventing entrance into their property by any means except a verbal warning, and forces them to resort exclusivity to the police (who, as I noted above are inept and unlikely to respond) to defend their property. If a squatter sets up any form of structure (this can be as little as an outhouse), they cannot be removed except by court order.

Up till now, landowners have had recourse to the court system to remove squatters. Even though litigation is expensive, sluggish and often unsuccessful, and the court system still allows landowners to appeal expropriation under the new Act (after the land is already taken - they will have 40 days to clear out once they have received notice). In the past these expropriations have had to be compensated, now they might not be.

Again, as the ANC leaders are prone to do, they doubled-down on their cunning plan to seize all property by creating a new Land Court under another bill called the Land Courts Act which has been passed by not yet promulgated. The Land Court is there to streamline and accelerate expropriation. The Land Court will have equal jurisdiction to the High Courts, leaving appeal to only the Supreme Court of Appeal or the Constitutional Court. The President will select judges. Those judges cannot be prosecuted except where they are accused of domestic violence. They are otherwise untouchable.

Anyone can launch proceedings to expropriate any piece of land for any purpose: from an expropriating authority, to a “historic” land claimant to just anyone off the street who wants something they like.

The Rules of Evidence are changed under the Land Court Act. Hearsay evidence is sufficient. Documents without providence are permitted. Witnesses and “oral evidence” (as in my great great grandfather once said) will be accepted. The Court will have the right to deny the submission of any evidence if it wishes to speed up the process and reduce the cost.

This will utterly abolish the right to a fair trial.

What corporation, retail giant, mining company, factory would bother to set up in South Africa if someone could walk in and claim ownership the next day? It is beyond insane even for a kleptocracy.

In line with their National Democratic Revolution, the fact that this Act was signed by President Ramaphosa whilst he was at the WEF was not coincidental. This law which allows for the ANC to consolidate control over property, food production and resources means that one’s bank account, pension, intellectual property can be seized by the state. And doesn’t this neatly align with one of WEF’s goals - to own nothing and be happy!

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In Part 2 of this series, Cui Bono - Malema vs. Musk, Justine covers the fight between South Africa’s most famous expat - Elon Musk- and the leader of an ANC opposition party, the EFF (Economic Freedom Front), Joseph Malema, who started shouting “Kill the Boer” (Boer meaning Farmer, specifically Afrikaans-speaking farmers) at public rallies - in stadiums of 100,000 people no less.

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