I thought at the time that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a very good way of healing the post apartheid Country. I think the approach certainly assisted the peaceful transfer of power. Which I had the privilege to witness on the ground. Indeed, something similar should probably have been tried, difficult as it may have been, in Northern Ireland. Instead, the whole tragic blame game carries on today.
However, it still rankles that some, like Buthelezi, got away scot-free. But taking the “bigger picture” then, shouldn’t extend to rewriting history now.
I remember in the late Nineties how SABC morning radio news would have reports on the previous day’s revelations from the TRC and reports on continuous mysterious overnight mass killings around Richmond and villages in rural KZN. ANC government spokespersons would allude to the possibility of a so-called ‘Third Force’ (think white Afrikaner AWB guerillas) but never offered any explanations, whereas everyone knew it was essentially a secret tribal warfare between the mainly Xhosa ANC and Buthelezi’s IFP.
Interesting to compare and contrast Zulu traditional male warriors, whose principal roles were war making and beer brewing, with the highly developed and very professionally promoted Zulu crafts which were traditionally a wholly female preserve.
I lived in SA for almost 10 years from '82 tk '92. A year in Jo’berg, a year in PE and 7 years in Durban. Close friends are still there in PE, having retired from VW in Uitenhaig. Sadly, they are trapped there with the current exchange rate but I doubt if they’d make the move to return anyway. Great surf fishing in Sardinia Bay, I’d go back in a heartbeat rather than return to the UK if things went pear shaped in France.
I was HoD Fine Art at Rhodes, and my wife’s originally from Durbs.
We had two very dear old friends from CT visiting last week, they brought some good wine from their maison secondaire in the Ga rd and a lot of sad stories from SA.
Unfortunately things have gone extremely pear-shaped in SA and, though I’ve not been back to the UK for several years, things don’t seem too good there either (though at least they’ve still got water and electricity).
I was up and down to Capetown our insurance clients. We travelled all over the Country and in Namibia, Bots and Zim. We’ve been back many times, last was in 2017. I’d like to go again next year but for the first time ever I’m feeling cautious.
We had dinner the night of the Irish vs SA match with a couple who live in Capetown and have a holiday home here. What they told us wasn’t encouraging.
Our last visit was 2008, but we get news updates from our friends. Politically, SA has hopefully turned a corner with the recent power sharing, but as I’ve said before on the forum, I’m not a politically motivated person. My love of the country extends to the culture and lifestyle it has to offer, particularly in the Eastern Cape. Sadly, living in Durban, I never learned to speak Afrikaans, but I can handle a little zulu or fanagalore (spelling??).
Unfortunately it’ll take a lot more than power sharing to remedy the consequences of decades of basic infrastructure neglect coupled with the various consequences of global warming. For instance, the Karoo is now extending much further into the Eastern Cape and this will continue to advance the process of desertification.
The internal Eastern Cape has always been hot & dry. We camped in Oudtshoorn many years ago and the ground was like concrete, so I can imagjne the dryness spreading. I hope the new government can priorotise infrastructure above squabbling with Zuma, as this is the only route to growth & prosperity.
Yes and no. It’s incorrect to assume that this is a recent thing . Two hundred years ago the Tsitsikamma forest extended as far north as East London. Two things caused its massive shrinkage i) Large scale felling of slow growing yellow wood for Settler cottages and furnture. ii) The planting of fast growing Australian species like acacia and black wattle. These trees did enormous damage because they lowered the water table and when they burned in seasonal forest fires, they burned at a much higher temp than indigenous trees. And that’s how the rain forest shrunk so massively.
But of course in addition you had the 1820 Settlers clearing forest for farmland. But now that land can no longer economically support cattle, so everyone’s turned to game reserves or game farming of buck and ostrich.
It is evident that being a scholar at the time you have greater knowledge of SA ecology than me. I was an engineer in SA and whilst I travelled throughout the country I had little inclination to observe such things. In Joberg I was a member of Afrikaans Hangel Vereeniging and we would go fishing at the Vaal river for the weekend with a crowd of others and I remember how lush the land was around the river, but away from the river it was dry and rocky ground. This is as far as my ecological memory goes. I miss the freedom of travelling through the wild, wide open landscape. These are the memories I treasure. I have travelled a lot with my work, US, Canada, Saudi, China, but SA is the country I would choose if I had to leave France.