Architect from Michigan, USA revisits his hometown of Cape Town and reflects on disturbing urban landscapes and its people still saddled with racism – but now in reverse
By Michael Witkin
I travelled to Cape Town from the US after a long hiatus of ten years (2012) and was mortified of the degradation that had occurred over that period of time. Going back and seeing things, it seemed as though I was chasing the ghost of my elusive past; the ghost of something that I would no longer find. I have recollections of a place of seeping memories; another life, another dimension – a society that has decayed and encased itself, enabled by a corrupt and incompetent government out for self-enrichment. A government that has sucked the marrow from the very bones of South Africa.
Hovels, hoks [slang for makeshift dwellings] and hellholes line both sides of the national road to Cape Town from the airport. Corrugated tin, cardboard, black trash bags, petrol drums and burlap hobbled together with string and wire are used as building materials. Cape Town has always had shanties but now it was overwhelming and extended as far as the eye could see. This slum makes the favelas in Sao Paulo look luxurious by comparison. Smoke oozes out from a shanty saying, “this is my home, someone lives here.” A stray cow walks on the side of the road while an African child strolls with a herd of goats.
By welcome contrast, I gaze at the breathtaking Table Mountain and Lions Head bathed in radiant and iridescent light as the sun was setting. The sheer beauty and allure of Cape Town imparts a strong sense of place that cannot be found elsewhere in the world.
Then back to shards of jagged broken glass; like sharpened incisors gleaming, sparkling and ominous, embedded in mortar, forms the crown to three meter high concrete walls. Walls with unfurled shiny coils of threatening razor wire that forms the cloak of invincibility to the souls that live behind these high walls.
Sharpened steel rods, sword-like pikes topped with honed arrowheads and menacing barbs further celebrate and adorn these palisades. Stockades that have become houses of detention overflows with resentment and resignation.
“Danger–Gevaar–Ingozi” These are the words in English, Afrikaans and Zulu on signs with a red background and a crudely stenciled skull and crossbones that are now part of the urban fabric. Angle-iron bayonets affixed at an acute angle to the walls that support twelve strands of electrified wire, add further anguish to the painful broken glass crown and sinister cloak that safeguards, protects and shields those that are held hostage unto themselves. The streetscape and thoroughfares in residential neighborhoods have been transformed into hostile environments, devoid of people.
It was the weekly garbage day. I peered over the balcony from the second floor of the apartment I was staying at. About ten large bins were hauled out to the sidewalk to be picked up. Within less than a minute a deluge of beggars besieged the bins systematically sorting through the detritus, debris and trash. They would neatly empty the bin then would stuff unidentifiable objects into their pockets and into plastic grocery bags slung over their necks and shoulders like bandoliers. This is commonplace as I saw numerous times poor people fishing in trash cans for something to eat. A crust of bread, spoilage or maybe find an item that could be sold.
Besides the non-existence of South African Airways, which was one of the finest airline companies in the world, the postal service is almost nonexistent. I know of someone who received her birthday card five months after the date. The postal workers rifle through the mail opening up letters and parcels and help themselves to whatever they can find. Most post offices in urban areas have closed permanently due to “unprofitability and crime” A number of post office properties were foreclosed upon and are up for auction due to not being able to pay their rent or mortgages. Large numbers of postal workers were let go. No funds are available so there is no solution in sight. Private courier services have to be used albeit at a steep price.
“Poor Whites” has become South Africa’s “New Subclass”. These are white families who have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty as a result of the policy of “affirmative action”, that is, preferential treatment for blacks. Living in total abject poverty, this destitute group is rarely discussed or acknowledged but is increasing in size. They survive in informal settlements away from the public eye; mostly in tents and hovels. They are mostly the disinherited, outcast and bereft Afrikaners that are bitter and dejected and feel abandoned.
This situation is depicted in TFI Global’s ‘You don’t need to die to see hell, just visit a white slum in South Africa’:
“White squatter colonies, where there is little food, running water, and no electricity, live in shanties with rusted cars, ditches and pools of filth, and stagnant water with mosquitos swarming. Over two decades, the number of poor whites has steadily increased. ……Over 400,000 white S Africans are estimated to be impoverished. Reverse racism has been rampant and has ravaged the white population in South Africa. Targeted policies of the government has pushed the country to a near apartheid-like situation and the continued regressive policies have pushed South Africa into an era of subjugation of the people once more.”
Published in 2020, the numbers are considerably higher now in 2023.
There have always been people begging on the streets; mostly blacks. Now however, they are joined by ever-increasing white beggars. I did see an entire family including small blond haired children with crude cardboard signs saying “Please help – God bless you” .
According to some reports, over 50% of South Africans live in poverty on less than $2.00 a day. Some have no access to sanitation, water or electricity.
Many of them are the Afrikaners, the descendants of the early Dutch settlers who have become dispossessed and feel betrayed, defrauded and deprived of their rights and of their strong heritage and beliefs. A large number of South Africa’s farmers are Afrikaners who unbeknownst to the outside world have been brutally murdered, their wives tortured and raped; their children shot. The government fails to offer any protection to its white farmers and there was a popular EFP (Economic Freedom Party) song, called “Kill the Boer” that the Equality Court ruled “does not constitute hate speech”. People are free to continue singing it and during a debate in Parliament about the farm attacks and the plight of white farmers, an ANC Member of Parliament felt immune to shout:
“Bury them alive.”
The government’s solution for the White farmer is to be found in its policy of “Land Reform”. The ANC has vowed to expropriate white-owned land without compensation and redistribute that land to blacks who are not experienced in agriculture nor have the desire to farm.
While an Afrikaner replies to my question “What will become of the ‘Boere’?” that they will fight to the bitter end, a growing number of Afrikaner farmers are emigrating to Australia, Nigeria, the Congo and the former-Soviet state of Georgia, where their expertise and knowledge is in great demand.
At the end of the Apartheid, and the end of racial discrimination in 1994, there was joy and optimism and the promise of a unified society known as “The Rainbow Nation”.
This expression was coined by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu describing post-apartheid South Africa with the assurance of a total multi-racial society and a country where everyone has the chance to prosper.
Well, not exactly and Nelson Mandela must be turning in his grave witnessing what has become of the ANC. A caricature of itself, this ‘movement for change’ has itself ‘changed’ having morphed into an organized criminal conspiracy, eviscerating the country of everything it had, and gutting its citizens of all they have left. Today, South Africa is a country of “74 murders and more than 100 rapes a day.” (Business Tech Feb 17, 2023). The police chiefs are corrupt and they do not care for the sanctity of life but rather how much they will collect from another bribe. Of course there are those that do care passionately, and those that give to the country and their communities.
Sadly, South Africa’s house of cards is imploding. The foundations are cracking and crumbling threatening the very pillars of this modern state. The irony is that the Rainbow Nation does not exist. “Equal opportunity” for whites does not exist. In fact, the abused minority of whites are discriminated against rigorously.
Blacks get preferential treatment in employment, education and other areas. A white male is less likely to get a job over a black male. In fact, employment equity laws make it harder for whites to get work. Jobs in upper management go to blacks further ostracizing whites, and in a sense, sentencing them to more menial employment with the inability to use their talents to further themselves. It seems that today, whites feel that they are being punished for something they did not do.
The government has introduced an odious Quota System, a race-based policy that goes against the norms of society in this day and age.
While “Strict quotas are enforced for the degree in medicine and surgery. The intake of white students is capped at 2%” (Solidariteit Mar 26, 2022), there is a huge shortage of doctors and qualified medical personnel.
The racial quota admissions into universities, across the board, favor blacks over other racial groups. If you are a white student, it is increasingly difficult to get accepted into a university even if you matriculated with distinctions. Those of a darker hue with poor school grades are favored instead. If you did manage to graduate with a degree, you would then again be subjected to the quota system to obtain a Masters.
Why would a white pursue a degree (even if they could get into a university) when there is little future for them; being excluded from society and discriminated against? Today, they are the downtrodden marginalized scapegoats of South Africa.
There is a sense of this is “payback-time…..”
With a growing feeling of despair coupled with a devastating decline in public trust, citizens feel trapped in a dysfunctional society. Even those with majestic homes no longer feel at home anymore. Hence the emigration.
As Rowan Philp in the Mail & Guardian (19 April 2013) wrote
“South Africa has been robbed of its best and brightest. For a number of years there has been a steady brain drain of leaders in technology, science, medicine and education. The loss of these people has had a negative impact on the economy. An impressive number of South Africans have risen to the top of their fields in other countries.”
Few if ever will return.
With so many whites unable to come to terms with the realities of poverty, corrupt politics, out-of-control crime and violence, there is a verb that is now commonplace – “Ostriching” – of burying one’s head in the sand, which by the way is a myth much like the “Rainbow Nation” as ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.
Besides no airlines, no postal service and no trains, there is a dwindling electricity supply. They have rolling blackouts, euphemistically called “load shedding” which can last as much as 10 hours per day in Cape Town. Johannesburg is worse. People survive by always keeping their thermos flasks filled with hot water, using small gas camping stoves and using rechargeable lanterns for light and a healthy supply of batteries and candles at all times. Food rots in refrigerators so one needs to purchase small amounts of groceries just for a day. Few people can afford to have a generator, let alone the exorbitant cost of diesel fuel. Without electricity there is no viable economy. Retail stores, restaurants, businesses and factories cannot operate. The employees are idle and cannot do their job. As a result they are unable to earn a livelihood. The lack of electricity is a complex topic. In a nutshell, a history of huge financial losses, mismanagement, sabotage and corruption is evident. A judicial commission found that former President Jacob Zuma had orchestrated attempts to raid the coffers of the power company, Eskom. He denies this of course. Little maintenance has been done and with a large increase in the population (mostly emigres from other African countries) they have not kept up with the need to build additional power plants. The lack of electric power has had far reaching effects: Sewage treatment plants, with their pumps shut off; raw sewage overflows and spills into the ocean killing fish and posing very serious health issues. A friend of mine, an ardent swimmer, contracted septicemia blood poisoning which was caused by her ingesting tainted sea water. She almost died…..and yes, hospitals need electricity too.
In a February 25 interview with the Daily Investor, Andre De Ruyter, the outgoing CEO of Eskom, spoke at length about the cartels and the billions of Rands stolen from Eskom by corrupt officials and criminal bosses. “These criminal networks have workers sabotage and vandalize power stations on their behalf and the perpetrators of crime often publicly flaunt their ill-gotten gain.” Continuing, he reveals:
“Our informants tell us that when these criminal cartel bosses have a gathering and walk into a room, they wash their hands in 15-year-old whiskey. Why? Because they can.”
He spoke of the Maseratis, McLarens and the conspicuous number of Louis Vuitton bags “among certain individuals.” He spoke of a power station where the manager walks around with a bullet proof vest and is accompanied by armed guards because of the number of assassinations.
He really summed it up in his remark:
“Eskom is the feeding trough for the government”
The sick irony is that the trains that transport coal to the power plants which are their life-giving arteries, no longer operate and cannot deliver coal because the rail lines were stolen off the tracks.
The cartels also sell the best quality coal to China and the inferior coal with “rocks and metal” has to be used.
In the agricultural sector, including processing plants, the lack of electric power has led to the culling of poultry, some 10 million chicks in January of 2023, the wastage of fresh milk without refrigeration and the inability to irrigate crops.
With South Africa being a large exporter of fruit to the UK and the EU, this sector of its economy is now also in serious jeopardy due to inadequate refrigeration. Food production has to be sustainable. If there is no food then what happened in Zimbabwe will happen in South Africa. Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, was known as a jewel and the breadbasket of Africa exporting wheat, tobacco, beef and corn to the rest of the world; especially to other African nations. However today Zimbabwe faces famine and is now a net importer of food from the Western World.
When food is in short supply the national security of the country is also put at risk.
There is another nauseating component of South Africa’s economy or rather its ‘underground’ economy, and that is, the practice of poaching animals. I visited a game park in the Western Cape. Three weeks prior to my visit three rhino were shot and had their horns hacked off. They tried to save a female rhino which was pregnant. Unfortunately it was to no avail and she bled to death. What can one expect when the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa is rumored to have arranged for three caged lions “hunted” by American tourists so that they could have a photograph taken posing with their kill as a “souvenir”.
HEWBREW SCHOOL REVISITED
I visited the Hebrew school that I had attended in Claremont, a suburb of Cape Town, as a young boy. A building now that has been totally defiled, abandoned and eerie. Most of the windows shattered. A portion of the roof appeared to have collapsed while doorways were shut and sealed with concrete blocks. Awnings dangled listlessly from the window openings. Tall weeds and vegetation were growing out of the brickwork. A building destined to crumble and forever root itself in the parched mother-earth.
I peered through the ubiquitous razor wire fence; a child’s swing swayed gently in the summer breeze. I remember a time when the nursery school playground bustled with the clamor of children’s laughter. Now all I could see were shadows and figures in the landscape wreaking havoc; with the stench of putrefying trash adding to the setting. This could have been a scene from Dante’s inferno and his passage through hell.
DESTINY DERAILED
One day I went by the Cape Town railway station. The ineffectual city council had decided to build a 20 story building as a “student center” with retail shops at the street level. The station was partially demolished. Large precast concrete panels had fallen down haphazardly like a deck of cards and had embedded and now protruded from the ground.
Black smoke stains around large window openings devoid of glass and window frames could be seen. Smoke, probably made by the homeless making fires. Rubble, bricks and debris were scattered all around with more piles of trash and razor wire encasing it all. All I could smell was ash, gasoline and molten metal in the air. Add the smell of gunpowder and I could have been on the movie set of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’.
Numerous train stations have been vandalized in South Africa. The railroad tracks have been removed in many areas by thieves and sold as scrap metal. It is not uncommon to have electric power lines cut and the copper sold as scrap. Anything that is brass is fair game too. Any exposed garden taps (faucets) will most likely be stolen and sold as scrap. The actual train station buildings are pretty much destroyed as a source of bricks, doors and windows, roofing and lumber. Consequently those people that depended on the trains to commute to work and back have no means of transportation any longer. Cape Town that once had an amazingly efficient public transportation system – no more. There are still some buses. However, this is not the case with the trains.
COASTAL REFLECTIONS
One day I walked on the Saint James walkway from Muizenberg beach to St James beach immersing myself in the tantalizing views of the ocean. This walkway was built by the city council with generous financial assistance by the late local resident and businessman Mendel Kaplan. It was built right up to the ocean edge and runs parallel to the railway line. This is a truly breath-taking walk with waves crashing against the rocks; with the smell and taste of salt in the air. In another era many well-known figures including Cecil John Rhodes, John Garlick, Princess Ida Labia and the South African gold tycoon, politician and financier, Sir Abe Bailey, had homes in Muizenberg. Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie and others visited and stayed there. These were known as the Halcyon times; not quite as sublime today.
Some of the best examples of Edwardian style buildings are to be found here. Notably, the iconic Muizenberg train station, designed by a pupil of architect Sir Herbert Baker in 1913. It was a beautiful building with its red stone arches, symmetrical floor plan and a clock tower which welcomed holiday makers arriving by train.
The clock tower, a piece of artwork in itself, was handcrafted in teak with elaborate detailing with a clock face that has Roman numerals on all four sides. I was appalled and frankly offended by what I saw. The station was vandalized, trashed and robbed of its dignity. The clock tower was teetering at a perverse angle while three of the clock faces were smashed with their metal guts, cogs and springs spilling out. The hour and minute hands were hanging limply downwards telling us that there is no more time; and that the precious privilege of time is gone forever; completely irretrievable. A candle flickering then dying and vanishing ….…
Is this a metaphor for South Africa?
About the writer
Raised in Cape Town, South Africa and a graduate in architecture from the University of Cape Town in 1976, Michael Witkin‘s first commission was the Mosque and Madrasa in the oppressed black neighborhood of Hanover Park where he also helped to raise money and acquire donated building materials. He also designed emergency low-income housing units using waterproofed heavy-duty corrugated cardboard. With the birth of his first child, he designed and manufactured a portable baby bassinet; and was involved in other pioneering projects including water recycling. Michael immigrated to San Diego where he had a successful architectural practice for 28 years; and a construction company for 13 of those years. He served as president of the North County American Institute of Architects and chaired the design review board for the San Diego City Development Corporation for many years. Additionally, he critiqued students at the School of Architecture in design. He has 4 children and moved to Michigan 12 years ago. Besides commercial and residential projects, he specializes in religious buildings, grows flowers and builds furniture from exotic African hardwoods.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
Much truth peppered with a little exaggerated licence, but is the writer trying to justify his immigration as do so many who enjoyed such a privileged life in that wonderful country do?.
No need to exaggerate the facts. It’s all around in plain sight, for everyone to see and witness. If one wants to stay in Africa, which I understand, the Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi are much safer countries. Have friends and family in all three. I was born in Malawi and lived there until I was 18 when my Dad’s two farms were confiscated and he was deported with the clothes on his back. At the age of 40 he had to start all over again. He made good and died peacefully in Cape Town aged 88.
RIP Dad 🙏✝️
No need to respond. His tone gives him away. You see Allen hates white people so facts don’t matter to him. This is the zenith of Marxism on the planet. Next stop, world wide hell.
And thanks to lies by the media, Mandela/Obama, etc. the insanity is now sweeping across America.
Remove your rose tinted glasses
South Africa went woke before the term existed.
Go woke get broke!
SA case in point!
The truth hurts. Who cares why he speaks the way he does, south africa has not lived up to its rainbow nation billing.
Once you realize that “progressive” as used by lefties actually means its opposite, a devolution of civilization, a return to Stone Age tribalism, skipping the enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and the computer age it all makes sense.
There are no Black-run cities or countries are fit to live in … They all degrade fairly quickly and no one ever considers doing anything about it. The natural habitat for Black populations seems to resemble South Africa … same in Haiti. Same in many US cities … Most of Africa. etc. It’s all around us and plain to see.
Allan Wolman the writing was on the wall so many years ago. “Justification”, my family, father’s cousin, my cousin, other close family members exiled when they tried to have equality in our beloved country. I worked as Secretary of a new Government High School which was built one kilometer from our home, my son zoned to start there at the completion of this wonderful school and Headmaster in the Northern Suburbs of Sandton. We, our Head, me, a few teachers and a few teachers, decided to “open” our school to any people of colour, which we did, much against the TED regulations and it was magic, pure magic. These children needed extra tutoring which was done by our teachers free until they reached a sort of level of their peers. BUT the rot had started and was not improving. Our children, one by one, left South Africa and implored us to join them and to be a family again. After many years we did and are living in a country in the Northern parts of Canada, lovely place, different culture, safety, but not, and never will be home. Justification is a jealous and ugly word to use for those seeking safety for their families. Those who cannot afford to leave have to stay and live in the darkness of no electricity, robots being stolen, potholes, on and on. My heart was left behind in my beloved country. It will be there forever. My parents, when my sister and I were young enough to understand, told us that there was no difference between a black, yellow, brown or any other colour person and this we taught to our children and grandchildren and we fought, with our cousins to help our country. My nephew flew with Nelson Mandela to Malaysia, for the wedding of my exiled cousin’s wedding. My love for my shattered country will never fade but it is not the South Africa we left. Very much truth was in that article. I have not ever met anyone here, thousands of ex South Africans, justify their emigration.
Agree with your comments. I have lived in NZ for the last 25 years and throughout I still missed my country of birth, but less and less I’ll admit. I have been back a number of times and have watched and experienced things getting worse. My most recent visit, for 8 weeks towards end of last year, was intended to be my last, to say goodbye to old relatives and friends, people that I may never see again, I travelled through SA extensively and could not help, but be aware all the time of the regression. I have always enjoyed coming “home”, to the place where I live, where my house is, but have not always felt that I was at home, at home in the country I belong to. This time, for the first time, I really felt that I had come back home, if I ever visit Africa again, it will be to the north of the Limpopo, except maybe for a brief visit to Pretoria where my son and his family still live.
South Africa was built and ran by whites. Mandela, like a good communist made promises, but like all communist run nations it turns to excrement.
Now South Africa has been destroyed by mongrels that do not have the brains to run it.
Good luck with what remains of S.A. Parts of America where blacks rule politically will eventually resemble present day Black South Africa.
“My parents, when my sister and I were young enough to understand, told us that there was no difference between a black, yellow, brown or any other colour person and this we taught to our children…”
Obviously this is not the case. There are obviously differences in physical abilities, i.q. and these have been documented. Sub- saharan Africans according have some of the lowest I.Q.’s in the world. Do all Africans fall into this category? No. But there is a higher proportion of the population that do. There are no Field medal winners (a mathematical award). American universities are having to get rid of entrance testing. This is not being done for the whites and Asians. If we look at the case of Haiti, their revolution was @ 1830’s. The freed slaves either killed or drove out all of the white, French people. So a country, with resources, in the Western Hemisphere that was entirely run & governed by blacks. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is considered a corrupt, failed state. All the voodoo they practice will not help them.
Nelson Mandela was a criminal from day one. Glad to see you managed to get out.
Soon after Mandela became President, I got caught up in the euphoria, having lived in Sydney for about 8 years, I believed I may in fact return to my beloved country. A very good friend , Ian Grossberg , originally from Rhodesia, painted a much gloomier picture, and said it will go the same way as Zimbabwe . He was a very astute financial market’s trader, and said short everything ( sell on hope it will go down ) He joked if I could short farms and property I’d do that as well. I argued that South Africa was different, a large white educated population and the best infrastructure in Africa , better at that time than Australia. This last Pesach , I had to apologise to Ian , and lauded him with being the only realist amongst us ignorant optimists.
If he shorted SA property in 1994 he is bankrupt.
For LK, I’m not so sure, if he sold a property, forR3.4million, he would receive US$ 1 million, today that $1m would give you R18.4 million, not to mention if one sold Escom Bonds , or simply short the currency ,how well off us idiots would have been
“best infrastructure in Africa , better at that time than Australia’
I have two legs…..now pull the other one.
You make me sick. Did you even read the freaking article?
I would trade you in a microsecond for one of these brutalized White South Africans.
You have a rather snarky tone , quite condescending. You have not walked in his shoes , and your country of birth has yet to become the cesspool SA has become.
I was speaking with a friend, white, who lives in SA. She went to visit a friend last weekend at her home. She did not stay the weekend because she did not feel safe. A nearby neighbor was attacked, a 90-year old man murdered and his wife beaten and hospitalized. The house ransacked and robbed. Not an exaggeration.
Sounds like any normal day in NYC, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, Newark, St. Louis, Cleveland, Oakland, Atlanta, New Orleans … I wonder what the similarity is.
Hi
Hello
Please name me one sub-Saharan country that is not a cess-pool. You can’t. South Africa and Rhodesia were places where the African population were TRYING TO GET IN WHILE THERE WAS APARTHEID. Why? Because the standard of living was HIGHER than any other sub-saharan country. As an Afrikaaner said in 1980, in Africa one man-one vote, one time. Remember it was the African Kings that sold their own people into slavery. I predict that in 20 years, South Africa and Rhodesia will join the list of African countries that needed a Western Nation to intervene so the population wouldn’t starve to death.
BOTSWANA
Black people seem to not be able to run anything serious. Look at black-run cities and countries. Not one of them is successful. They are all like Haiti or worse. Look at what Obama did to America in 8 years … he turned it into a hateful divided place.
Spoken like a true leftist, comrade….
I think that the writer was elucidating upon what he observed, which was the clear signs of a deteriorated society, and commenting upon the social rot which has caused the decline of a once vibrant nation. I believe you are projecting upon the writer something of yourself rather than actually observing any justification he might or might not have been trying to make.
Why try to save the dead?
The nan & The sana were there.
And if they listened to their elders some might survive.
The rest…
The crows will grow fat.
Fortunately, the Chinese are going to wipe the black race out when they take over!
How can anyone not want to live S Africa … the weather is fabulous as it is in most sh!tholes of the planet.
No. He held back. He has no reason to justify his new found home. I left my English sea side town and am appalled by the locals council pathetic actions.Some folks are just going to screw it up for the rest of us and some folks write sarcastic comments out of ignorance.
Alan, I just spent a month in the Cape and believe me this is no exaggeration! Mostly I was afraid to walk around on my own. My heart breaks for the population who were hoping for change and have no say as no one hears them. I am grateful for the “privileged “ life we lived but feel no guilt. We have often thought of retiring in SA but after this visit have finally realized that if things go on this way, there is no hope.
“Hope and change”. Sounds familiar to some of us here in the USA. We are in the midst of our own slide into hellscapes like SA. Look at Chicago, New York, and LA. Brownouts in California and Texas for crying out loud. The leaders who claim they will bring you utopia know better. They are lying, and yet most people believe them…until it’s too late.
I’m American, and you make a major exaggeration. The difference here is that the slum crime doesn’t spill out into the other 99% plus of land area. And brownouts are extremely rare in 99% plus of places. However there is a ticking time bomb here that is rarely discussed, and it’s that nearly half of children are now born out of wedlock. Mark my words that will turn into the biggest disaster the country’s ever seen. There’s really nowhere on earth I can see with a very bright future. Seems like most likely, everything’s just going to equalize eventually. Third world a little better, first world a lot worse.
@pat I’ve lived in Socal for 35 years and am in one of the most affluent areas right outside of Los Angeles. In the last two weeks, we’ve had two car jackings, multiple stabbings, an entire complex of restaurants looted in one night and a group of 15 year olds were just run down after getting out of school by a homeless man that lived in his car. It’s people like you that are the reason why our country is crumbling. You literally have your head up your own @ss.
To Tyler Durden: the people with their heads up their own @sses are the people who keep voting for democrats in these broken cities and states. How will things get better when the same party is kept in charge?
And CA is beyond hope. If you’re not a democrat, leave.
My heart goes out to the people who cannot leave. Although if the world keeps on its present path, there will be no place to go to. This is why in the US, we cannot give up our guns. They’re trying hard.
Amen to THAT!
The truth is very painful. South Africa is a bankrupt, failed state brought down by nepotism of a government busy appointing incompetent and avaricious party hacks to positions of power . Like Mike Witkin, I left SA many decades ago and it still hurts me to read about the ruin of this beautiful country. Moreover, I completely fail to see the justification for Alan Wolman’s judgmental criticism of the writer. It is out of place and uncalled for.
Stephen, absolutely. This is the sort of person who begrudges those people who left our once wonderful country, he is making “Justification” for his ugly comment.
The future of the USA, both are ruled over by a 6000 yr old cult of psychopaths just by different names but worshiping the same demons.
What have you learned from the destruction and racism within the present South Africa? How has it educated your opinion on society and politics today?
Post a reply under a pseudonym. We in the West no longer can engage in honest dialogue and speech without censorship or the threat of persecution.
The Founders of the USA experienced the same persecution under King George III. They used pseudonyms and I recommend it.
I know Michael for quite some time now this article is written with his tears tears of people who remember a different country and are grieving the current state of South Africa
it is a warning sign for countries demonstrating how corrupt leadership can bring any rich country into the dark ages
It ain’t only the leadership so much as the greedy thieving voters who think they get rich voting to pick their neighbors’ pockets. The dumb shits never realize that at some point they become relatively somebody’s rich neighbor.
Yes, the leadership is responsible for this. But how did they get in power?
I remember reading the USA news which was all hate for white Africans. It was disgusting and it never ended until the country collapsed. South Africa should’ve used it’s nukes on the jungle tribes because simple warfare would’ve turned the country into what Ukraine is now.
Well written, accurate and heartfelt sadness
Disappointed however to note that you make furniture from African hardwoods.
These are being stripped from Africa and is an environmental catastrophe. You need to campaign against that practice rather than contribute to it
Ian Hay
Not necessarily. I live in NZ and own a decent amount of “Geelhout”, all recycled from beams of old farmhouses in Eastern Cape.
Left South Africa in 1981, and have been living in Canada since. I visited South Africa in 2005, for my first and definitely last time. That magnificent Paradise has now become a Dump.
So sad. I had no idea the once great place has devolved into this and cried as I read it. Definitely a picture of our future here in America.
I don’t want to take away from the people suffering from South Africa, but be aware this is an opinion and there are no actual facts to when the pictures were taken or if the opinions are accurate. Keep in mind, we do need to take the people who are suffering and help them.
The pictures of the shard glass, Bob wire and security systems protecting the home have been there for many years. It didn’t just happen.
I have similar photo when I visited Capetown in 2018.
This Lay of the Land Site seems like a Christian Right site.
I know people who live there now and yes there are major problems that cannot be ignored.
Here in America, it’s not much different, we even had a President who encouraged the Capital to being attacked and was so corrupt that still people support his crazy ideas.
Just my opinion!!
This is the disclaimer at the bottom of the article that allows anyone to say their opinions as if they are 100% true. Reader, please do your fact finding:
“While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)”.
One point not mentioned I believe is that the Provincial Government, in the Cape Town area , is not the ANC , who are the the Government of RSA and all the other provinces. The DP run Western Cape , far less corrupt than the ANC, and far more diligent. Resulting in roads for example to be upgraded and repaired. One can only imagine how worse off the rest of the country is , if the writer was shocked by the demise of Cape Town
You may have escaped the contradiction in your own comment “Reader, please do your fact finding,” when you – as a reader – failed yourself in “fact finding” by erroneously labelling Lay of the Land as “a Christian Right site.”
Lay of the Land covers news on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world in a balanced and frequently in a critical manner as evident by its numerous articles critical of Israel’s current right-wing coalition government attempt at judicial overhaul. Israel is a complex country made up of Jews, Muslims, Druze, Circassians and Christians and all religious groups are reflected in an unbiased – sometimes critical – manner adhering to our principle and policy of maintaining a high standard of journalism”.
One point not mentioned I believe is that the Provincial Government, in the Cape Town area , is not the ANC , who are the the Government of RSA and all the other provinces. The DP run Western Cape , far less corrupt than the ANC, and far more diligent. Resulting in roads for example to be upgraded and repaired. One can only imagine how worse off the rest of the country is , if the writer was shocked by the demise of Cape Town
No, the former president did NOT encourage the capitol to be attacked. That’s what the media told you he did, but it’s not actually what happened. You can watch Trump’s speech for yourself. Time to turn off MSNBC and CNN.
Your comments include provable lies about the previous president. Don’t do that.
You are the liar. I read the speech. But of course you probably voted for the senile pedophile we have now. Probably a kindred spirit.
This is about SA. Find your tds pills. If Trump was so corrupt why isn’t he in jail?
That President encouraging the Capital to be attacked as you say is trying to prevent the US from going the way of South Africa. It looks like he failed at that. Civilization is doomed because we are too apathetic to defend it.
Good of you to tell us you are a Trump hater. Bet you love Obama/Biden and all of the tripe they pass off as truth to America. If Obama ran the world, the whole planet would be a dump except for where he and his cronies live.
Thank you Randy, I agree.
Get help with your TDS, since you STILL you have to interject Trump into everything
Several hundred people out of 300,000 attacked the Capital. It wasn’t the Christian right that brought down SA and created the Marxist ANC.
What an ignorant comment. Read the quote you provided a few more times and maybe it’ll click. It probably won’t though, mainly due to the fact that you’re a total moron.
I’ll spell it out for you. The author of the post is clearly Jewish. He went to a Hebrew school as a child growing up in South Africa. Had you read the article, you would (maybe) have picked up on that. Further, the quote you provided makes it clear that this site focuses on the “Jewish world”.
How is it possible that you were able to overlook these obvious details and, instead, label this as a “Christian Right” website. It’s almost not possible to believe you’re that dumb, leading me to believe that you’re, instead, disingenuous.
People like you are a big part of the problem, both in South Africa and throughout the world.
Trump never encouraged anything to be attacked let alone the Capitol building. Trump just wanted his back stabbing Vice President to follow the United States Constitution. Turns out the FBI and CIA had many agents planted in the crowd egging them to enter the Capitol while the Capitol police were opening the doors for the crowd.
You’re ignorant comments about the president exposes just how little you know ….we dismiss the rest of your comment after reading that lunacy.
President Trump said …I know youre going to peacefully and patriotically let your voices be heard …..that doesn’t sound like let’s break into the capital.
Stop watching CNN and MSNBC lemming
Scott, leave this site and never return. Nobody wants you here, you disgusting Christophobic bigot.
Don’t know where you got the idea that Donald Trump encouraged anyone to attack the capital. He did encourage people to show up however. It was pretty outrageous for him to even do that. Also, where did you get the idea this was a Christian or “right” site? I just stumbled across this article and read it and it was fascinating. Maybe there’s more context here behind the author or something else. IDK…
The writer is right. A country will either go up or go down, there is no middle ground. The 21st century he paints is a cautionary tale to reverse colonization, which is happening in all major economies, Sweden, US, Canada, Europe.
South Africa is ripe for order and law and unfortunately the next line of business will be social credit systems to run the country because when existing governments cannot be tasked with basic operations other than corruption a robotic, colder form of government will likely dominate.
Having never been there, I had no idea. This is so sad, brought me to tears as I read this.
Jesus, why don’t we just acknowledge fact; every functioning country handed over to blacks turn into shit holes; it’s innate behavior. It was the “horrible, racist whites” that made everything run.
It ain’t the skin color, it’s the ideology of primitive tribalism, usually dressed up and called socialism, that decivilizes a country.
The plight of Whites in South Africa is what waits for every White person that tolerates blacks in their lands. Every time. Without fail, without exception.
Unless things change, it seems to me that this is the way many countries are going. The reverse racism in the US now whites are called “white supremacists” by the government and democrats), the crime, lawlessness, mostly in democratic-run cities, blacked out utilities, open borders. This will happen in the US via the climate scam of green energy, doing away with fossil fuels. They are promoting all electric because they can shut it down. You can’t do that with gas. The democratic district attorneys are letting felons back onto the streets. These DA’s are invariably funded by George Soros. There is a group, hidden in plain sight, that wants the destruction of the West. I will give you a hint as to the perpetrators of this reverse racism, destruction of religion, the family, and patriotism:
Brock Chisholm, psychiatrist, first Director of WHO and co-founder of the World Federation for Mental Health:
“To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas”.
This targets white people in the US. There are lots of other quotes.
However, I believe that South Africa will rise again and I wonder how prevalent the information in this article really is; there are people I know living happily in South Africa, just your regular every day people. “News” makes everything seem bad when it isn’t. I could say the same thing about the US; if you listen to the news, right or left, it’s always bad news. Go outside and look around, and you see things operating as usual.
I know South Africa has been heavily undermined by certain elites under the guise of “helping.” Most politicians are puppets, as they are here. Sure, there are those who are trying to change things. BAD CONDITIONS DON’T JUST HAPPEN. THEY ARE MADE.
You were right on until you began displaying optimism about South Africa. South Africa is done — a nation doesn’t come back from this level of decline for at least a century, and probably several. They are on a path that will result in war, plague and famine that destroys civilization and most of the population.
Europeans brought education, construction, commerce, culture, order, & civility. Africans F’d up every country they took over. South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia
I have heard residents of those countries saying it was better under “colonialism.”
Ain’t Socialism great??
Go woke go broke
Good idea, wrong species
Just in case you think The Land of Hope and Glory, aka the US, is all milk and honey, you might try a taste of James Howard Kunstler, a fine American writer: Read his April 17, 2023 post headlined Call the Exorcist:
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/call-the-exorcist/#more-19484‘
Beautifully written and heartbreaking. This is where the USA is headed. Very sad indeed.
What an amazingly written piece. Truly gives you a sense of what S Africa was and what it’s become. I’m an optimist by nature. Sadly with all the systemic corruption and loss of talent it’s hard to see a pathway back to restoring the country to its former self.
Lived in Hillbrow for a little under five months in the 1980s. It was known as “South Africa’s Manhattan,” and it was cosmopolitan, sophisticated, clean, and beautiful. It is now an open cesspool. The locals used to tell me that at one time, the only blacks who came into that area were nannies and gardeners, who retreated to their own neighborhoods at night, as required by law. Then one service industry after another was filled by black labor. Then most jobs.
This is the way of all of the West, including Israel, unless we assert ownership of the societies our ancestors built.
Go woke go broke!
This was a very eye opening read. I’ve seen some of the footage of unrest in South Africa, but of course the media doesn’t truly report on anything outside of the new global narrative. Unfortunately, I see a similar future for the United States.
I was born in Cape Town and lived in that beautiful city until 1979. My last visit back was in 2011. I found Michael’s article heartbreaking. However I was happy to hear that they are rebuilding Cape Town’s station.
It sounds like South Africa is in desperate need of a civil war against the current culture and regime.
Only when Whites begin to fight back will we see improvements.
You can have modern civilization, or you can have subsaharan Africans. You cannot have both.
LOL. Really, Mr. Witkin? Just exactly what did you and other “liberals” expect when you turned your country over to these savages? South Africa is finished, over. The remaining whites should get the hell out while they are still alive, to any place that will take them. “Rainbow Nation”. What a sick, sick joke. Always was.
Native Africans did nothing with Africa until white people arrived. And there you have it.
And you’d better believe that’s what is planned for the U.S.A. Just look at any large American city run by Black Democrats. The graft and corruption, the stealing of anything they can get their hands on, the virulent anti-white racism, is on full display in Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc. Yes, for all of them, it’s “Pay Back’ time.
Not just “Black Democrats,” just take California, for example… What we are witnessing in all the Anglo nations, as well as South Africa, is a communist takeover. These nations have been under attack since about the First World War. It underscores the fact that there is a demon army led by Satan the devil.
I thought all major cities in Africa looked like Wakanda? Why isn’t that true?
Anyone who is surprised is a naive fool. And it will only get worse as more whites leave the country. The world won’t give since it got what it wanted. Only solution is to emigrate and leave the hell hole it has become to its fate.
Name one sub-Saharan nation that isn’t a cesspool. Before the European countries forced South Africa to give the vote to uneducated people, it had the highest standard of living in Africa. African people were not fleeing, but wanting to move in because they could get a good job. Car ownership was higher among blacks in SA than in ALL OF THE REST of Africa. The West “FIXED” it. in 30 years, they will need to intervention of a Western Power to feed their own people. SA will go t he way of Somaila. It has already surpassed Zimbabwe as a cesspool.
I don’t believe in oppressing anyone. But I find it strange that South African blacks can oppress the minority South African Whites, but in America, the minorities overthrow the privilege of the majority.
let them/make them fix their own problems and repatriate the rest of the farmer families back to the netherlands or wherever they originated. S.A. was a colony, part of independence is learning self-support and not reliance on outside rescue or support. And no, the US should not spend money it does not have on this
Besides Wokanda, what other Black nation has prospered over the course of history?
Time to nuke south africa
I’d still rather live amongst impoverished whites than the impoverished opposite of any other culture. Less chance of being murdered, robbed and intimidated.
So much for diversity. Equity of opportunity does not yield equity of outcome. This should be a stark warning sign for in the world to observe
And it all started when the African National Congress, run by the Communists and globalists got mad because they couldn’t figure out a way to steal South Africa. So they fomented a revolution with Mandela, based on the word Apartheid in order to destroy that which they could not steal.
Like California, South Africa is “Paradise Lost.” There is a vicious war against anything to do with America, the UK and the English-speaking former colonies as well as the little nation of Israel — Judah. The simple fact is, the common thread that runs through all these peoples in that they are all related, all have a common ancestry and all are the descendants of the biblical Patriarch Jacob, whom God renamed Israel. These are part of the so-called “Lost Ten Tribes,” with the exception of Judah, which everyone knows. A little more than cursory look will clearly reveal similarity in the incessant attacks from within in all these nations. A second Shoah is just ahead, and though shorter, it will include the English-speaking peoples as well as the Jews and will be ended by the coming of the Messiah to put down all rebellion and install the Kingdom of God from Jerusalem. Watch and see!
Coming to a town near you. Don’t “woke up.” WAKE UP” and stop voting for those who embrace communist ideology!
Excellent article. The US media has a virtual black out on SA because it does not fit their narrative.Well written and informative. I have a link to this on my website.
so the africans’ idea of “get even time” is to starve to death in a dark cesspool? huh. well; have at it then.
Africa for the Africans. Lived and worked in Africa for eight years. They wanted the white’s gone; now they reap what they sowed.
I find the article interesting, however it strongly leans on the perspective of the white middle class man. I can’t help but wonder how many diverse individuals across socio-economic and political spectra you engaged with while writing the article, as there is a very particular perspective represented here that is not fully representative and does not feel impartial. In brief, and less formal language, reading this as someone who lives in South Africa feels like I am speaking with someone who has valid concerns but has not delved much outside their own social sphere and level of privilege – the views you posit are deeply influenced by the views of those in your own ambit.
As a Zionist you should feel pride at the fruits of such complete ethnosupremacism.
From the end of the Civil War here in the US, it’s estimated that over 5000 Black men, and a few women, were lynched.
At one time, I was horrified by that.
South Africa is a disaster but not an accident. This did not happen to South Africa. Elites from outside of South Africa allied themselves to racists and bandits, gave Marxists the power to break and to smash. But the victims are both black and white… but whites are the special target for hate. Ah, that does not fit the narrative which is preferred.
And so we are left with a truth that must not be told. The “Rainbow Republic” South Africa has been transformed and debased into a racist hellscape that the MSM shamelessly ignores because it manifests an undeniable lesson which challenges all the zombie-like narratives the Western press and media still champion.
‘You don’t need to die to see hell, just visit a white slum in South Africa’
South Africa tells the world who NOT to give power to: Marxists and Collectivists…because that way lies genocide and eventually the total destruction for all.