Andrew Kenny describes how a ride on the modern Gautrain and a tour of Johannesburg homes and businesses powered by private generators paint a picture of stability and racial harmony. But if he looks out the car window on the way to Cape Town International Airport, he will see the Cape Flats cities and refugee camps with the world's highest homicide rate. Why can't the 99% of South Africa be the 1% as you described in the first paragraph, you ask? Our country is rich in natural resources, intelligent, hardworking and people of different races and skin color live here. We have proven time and time again that we can be the best in the world at whatever we choose. So why do 99% of us fail? Read her comments below in her article first published in Daily Friend. Sandra Lorenzo
Andrew Kenny*
Everywhere I went in South Africa I saw only prosperity and racial harmony. I only had first class public transportation, clean, safe and on time. The shops were the same as the rest of the world, and loaded with rich people pushing full carts. All public services worked efficiently and well, and everyone I encountered was honest and responsible. The restaurants had good food and good service. The roads I walked on were beautiful, clean and safe. I have never suffered from a lack of electricity. The weather was good. The landscape was fresh, green and beautiful; The media has shown how healthy our democracy is.
The above paragraph is absolutely correct in every detail. This is absolutely true, but it is a ridiculous notion that a country is in decline. A country suffering from a lot of poverty, economic failure, rampant waste, corruption and criminal violence; A country with crumbling public services, terrible and dangerous public transport, rotten public enterprises, power outages and crumbling infrastructure; A country with 43% unemployment. The first paragraph describes the seven days of my life last week when I went from my home in Cape Town to Johannesburg, where I stayed for a while and then came back. This is what I saw.
I live near Fish Hook on the southern peninsula. A friend drove me to the Cape Town airport on the main highways. Cape Town Airport can be compared to any other airport in the world like Joburg Airport. I've never had any problems with either, and I've certainly had problems at airports in other parts of the world, including Heathrow and Lusaka. I flew Sapphire, all is well. Come to think of it, I've had nothing but good experiences with every South African airline I've flown, including SAA, Sun Air, One Time and Mango. It is sad that many of them died. But I have had many bad experiences with airlines outside of South Africa, including BA and Virgin. I took the Gautrain from Joburg Airport to Rosebank station.
Gutter
I know I've talked a bit about Gauthern's miracles, but I'm afraid I've given out a bit more. After ten years of operation, Gautrain is as clean, safe and reliable as the day it opened. No ripped seats, no littering, no signs of anti-social behaviour, let alone crime. Eating, drinking, smoking, chewing gum, preaching, playing loudly or trading is prohibited on trains and platforms. For me, this is commuting heaven. The security staff are all cleanly uniformed and friendly and quickly understood that as an adult I might be a bit confused as to which platform to use and were always there to help. Trains arrive on schedule. I only use it because I know that trains run frequently and regularly, judging by the billboards. At this point I heard the station announce a "four minute delay between Hatfield and Park", which must be due to the limited timetable. Four minutes late! Imagine the luxury of another passenger train being four minutes late in South Africa. I have never seen a better train than the Gautrain and the train I saw in Japan is as good as it.
I had a lovely walk from Rosebank station to my friend's house in Auckland. The roads were lined with beautiful trees and felt completely safe. Most of Joburg's northern suburbs are now a man-made forest full of beauty and interest, tall trees, beautiful flowers and beautiful birds, with loud voices and songs proclaiming love and territory. My friend's garden is exactly the same. From home, we took an Uber to the Johannesburg Country Club to hang out with colleagues. The Uber driver was kind, interesting, honest and cheap. The country club is very good. Then I went to my barn again to visit another friend who lives in a luxury estate in Midrand. We visited the biggest malls and ate at the best restaurants. In a charming village pub, a Zimbabwean bartender from Bulawayo gave us a very interesting explanation of the history of the Ndebele in southern Zimbabwe.
The reason there was no power outage was that both friends had expensive backup power supplies, one with a diesel generator and the other with a large battery. Signs of a healthy democracy came from all media, giving Fala Fala a high profile. The clear signs of a healthy democracy are when the media is free to criticize the political leader and the ruling party, when the leader is removed from power and the ruling party is replaced by elections. South Africa has never tested this last criterion, but it has tested the rest. In the 26 years of ANC rule, we have had five presidents, all of whose successors were democrats. In Zimbabwe, the president lasted 27 years and was ousted in a military coup. Between 1959 and 2008, Cuba had a political leader (rich, middle class, white).
There is no such criticism in Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Leninist Russia, Nazi Germany, socialist Venezuela or socialist North Korea.
F. The great leader is tortured in prison and then shot in the head. The day before I left Cape Town, I bought a copy of Jacques Poe's new book Our Poisoned Country at a local bookstore. There is little hope that any of the countries in the preceding sentence will allow an equivalent of this book to be published about them.
Why do I hear beautiful weather and see green beauty everywhere I look? Just because I'm north of Joburg in December. I believe that Johannesburg has the best climate in the world, and the trees in the northern suburbs are a victory of man and nature. Summer rains usually leave the upper part of the green, and it was this year. The northern suburbs have nothing to do with the big cities where the rich live and many people live.
Different parts
My first paragraph above is shocking. This makes the odds even higher and sends a warning to be careful what you read. Personally, I learned two very different lessons from this.
First, I realize that I have to be very careful when reading about my travel abroad. A journalist can be honest or dishonest, he can lie or tell the truth, but he can completely misrepresent the country he is visiting. A striking example is the popular accounts of the October 1917 bourgeois coup d'état in Russia, often referred to as the "Russian Revolution." A small group of bourgeois terrorists led by Lenin and Trotsky took control of Russia in a coup d'état and immediately established a reign of terror that descended into brutal repression, mass poverty, starvation and even cannibalism. The working class is crushed and starving. Various Western "intellectuals" who hated capitalism and longed for the socialist dominance of their economy by people like themselves, compared to Lenin, visited Russia and gave glowing accounts of prosperity, harvests, abundance and freedom.
The brilliant, wise, funny, hopelessly misguided and downright liar George Bernard Shaw spoke of the miraculous growth of the Russian people under Lenin as starving workers sold human body parts and sometimes dead babies for food. Moscow markets. Shaw and his people wanted to be deceived. I did not want to be deceived when I was in Moscow in June 2016, but I can honestly say that in one week in South Africa I saw only what I saw in the introductory paragraph. But I know very well that in the summer of 2016, Moscow was not the representative of Russia.
Abundant natural resources
Secondly and more deeply, why can't the 99% of South Africa be the 1% as I discussed in the first paragraph? Our country is rich in natural resources. We have people who are talented, hardworking, disadvantaged, and of all races and colors. We have proven time and time again that we can be the best in the world at whatever we choose. So why do 99% of us fail?
Take Gauther's obsession. I love trains. I always prefer the train over the road. The Gautrain is fantastic and shows what South Africa is capable of. But it is special. The rest of our trains, passengers and cargo, are abandoned and out of service. They are falling apart. In our toxic country, Jacques Poe describes the horrific looting and destruction of our PRASA passenger train by gangsters and ANC ministers (who look very similar to each other). How did Gothren escape from their evil herd? When PRASA can't provide good service to anyone, how can Gautrain provide good service even to the relatively wealthy?
I said my opening paragraph was correct. This was a bit misleading. "I've only seen prosperity," I said, meaning I'd never looked out of a car window on the way to Cape Town airport. If I did this, I would see the outskirts of the smelly suburbs that fill most of the Cape Flats where more people live than "beautiful Cape Town" in the mountains and on the coast. The Cape Flats include urban and black plains with the highest homicide rates in the world. No ANC minister or EPP leader dreams of living in these black towns. All are horrified at the prospect of sending their children to school in these towns; They want poor black people to send their children to them.
South Africa has all the natural resources and all the skills people need to ensure prosperity and a decent life for all. Only politics gets in the way. There is no race. Just politics.
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The author's opinion does not necessarily reflect that of the Daily Companion or IRR. If you like what you read, please support the Daily Friend.
- Andrew Kenny is a writer, engineer and classical liberal.
