Imagine having the privilege of playing golf with Tiger Woods. On the last hole, he drives his tee shot to only a few feet from the cup. Tiger tells you to take the putt. You try, and the ball goes around the cup right. Then to the left. Then bounces off the back of the cup. After numerous tries, you finally sink what should have been a gimme. Both California and South Africa had wise leaders in the past who built infrastructure for the future. But in California, the Democrats destroyed reservoirs and dams and added no new water retention facilities. In South Africa, apartheid ended, but does the ANC know how to use the amazing infrastructure gifted by previous Afrikaner governments?
When we arrived recently in South Africa, one of the first things we faced was a massive poster of its corrupt leader, whom Donald Trump berated in the White House for his political party (the African National Congress—ANC) singing about murdering whites. The next poster in the airport hailed South Africa as holding the “presidency” of the G20 for the present year. This honor is like the Dolphins praising their hosting of the Super Bowl, which the team will be watching from home. One of the laughs I had on the trip occurred when we stumbled upon a G20 junket in Kruger National Park. These were all international do-nothings enjoying the beauty of the park, all in the name of a G20 “anti-corruption” conference. And this confab was happening in one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Our reception at passport control was not very reassuring. There were four workers for about 400 passengers waiting to get into the country. The woman who took care of us was busy on her iPhone, but we dared not say a word, as she could send us right back to Israel on the spot. She eventually stamped our passports to finally get us into the country. From that point, things got much better.
We started in Cape Town, went to Kruger National Park and finished in Johannesburg. While the three locations were different, we found people everywhere to be friendly and helpful. The surroundings were beautiful to stunning, and of course, the wildlife in Kruger was amazing. We went to bed listening to hippos calling out from the river in front of our lodge. South Africa is a country of contradictions. There is incredible natural and agricultural wealth. Food is relatively cheap, and meat is really cheap. We brought some back with us because the price of a tomahawk steak was too good to be true. We have more tomahawks than a Virginia-class sub. On the other hand, there is massive poverty, and the poor are everywhere. We were told in Cape Town at a very good American-branded hotel not to go to the beach at night. We had a 15-minute walk to one of the only two kosher restaurants in the city. The entire way we passed either restaurants filled with mostly white diners or mostly black homeless people. Most of the latter left us alone, though some did ask for money. On our final night of going back and forth, we saw one of the homeless being treated after he had been stabbed in the abdomen. In the past, I would have said that the contrast of large homes and ostentatious wealth with people living on the streets would never be seen in the U.S. But the blue city democrats have made sure to make homeless and drug users everywhere, so what we saw is also common in Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago.
We made our decision to fly the day before the flight. We had been waffling between the U.S. and South Africa and figured we’d give the latter a whirl. In Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, the latter made it seem like there was a worldwide Jewish network for some nefarious purposes. The reality is that in South Africa, we were received warmly by the local Jewish communities. We enjoyed being with them and making use of their synagogues, restaurants and stores that made our trip so much more comfortable and enjoyable. Most of the older people in the two large cities told me they had children living in Israel. And this is the question I have for South Africa: what is its future? Will those who stay make it more successful and safe? Or will the best move away and leave behind a less and less functional country? Hundreds of thousands of whites have left since 1994.
As labor is so cheap, there is a lot of it. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a public restroom without an attendant or a street without someone sweeping away the leaves. The hotel was filled to the brim with staff. There is no shortage of workers, and a lot of the stuff that doesn’t get done when people make $20 an hour gets done in South Africa because someone is willing to work for 20 Rand an hour (about $1.15). The workers we encountered were generally professional and courteous.
Everything that is wrong with South Africa we saw at Table Mountain, which is an incredible place to visit. At the base of the cable car is a world map touting the mountain as being one of the “new” seven wonders of the world—as per the UN. All seven wonders are in third-world countries—nothing in North America, Europe. Russia or China. Does South Africa want to be king of Africa and the third world or an active part of the advanced Western world of the U.S. and Europe? South Africa’s GDP is significantly less today than it was immediately after international sanctions were removed. It’s the lowest in the G20, 60 times lower than the U.S., with a population of 60 million people. Does the ANC know how to move South Africa forward? Everywhere where we saw nice houses and compounds, we also saw high fences topped with six lines of electric wire. We also saw signs for tactical response companies that I understand shoot to kill. There is incredible wealth and massive poverty, and the connector is crime as the poor try to get a piece of what the rich have. A woman we know related how burglars got into their house and threatened to kill her if the family did not give over the valuables. Many have left South Africa, and it’s not clear to me how strong a future the country has, especially if whites leave and take their expertise and wealth with them.
Corruption is rife with public officials. Getting rid of apartheid was the morally right thing to do, but putting in black politicians did not guarantee good governance. I kept asking myself as we traveled around the country: which way is this place headed? It has the resources to be a powerhouse. But it has the culture and leadership to send it back to the 19th century. As I stood at the Cape of Good Hope, I imagined myself a sailor of yore, seeing the rocks where I stood and realizing that we had turned the corner on our way to Europe or Asia.
Our guide told us that Paul Kruger threw out his ancestors and all of the others living in the villages in the park that bears his name. South Africa is wealthy and advanced compared to its neighbors because of its colonial past. Can a post-apartheid country be more than a doormat for the G20? I don’t know. It’s beautiful and rich in resources, but it is run like Chicago. And that does not bode well.
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