South Africa

All countries are unique in their own way, but some stand out more than others. South Africa is a very unique and different place.

It would be difficult to point at another country and say they are more culturally diverse than South Africa. With this diversity also comes complexity, and we have had a very complex history where our differences have defined our country.

With all this complexity and negative history, South Africa and the people that live here are amazing in so many ways. The amazing people is what makes our Democracy amazing, and something worth fighting for.

Minority Rule

Throughout history, there are examples where a small minority rule and controls the lives and fortunes of a larger group. All monarchies for a long time were examples of a small wealthy elite group ruling over a poor majority.

South Africa for a long time hand a similar situation where a small group of people ruled and controlled South Africa. They were not a monarchy and linked by blood and family. They were a political party, linked by skin colour and political ideology.

In a true Democracy, the people hold the power and are responsible for holding its leaders accountable. When there is any form of minority rule, the people do not hold the power and power is controlled by force in what is called a Dominant minority.

All forms of minority rule lead to situations where choices are made, not based on what is best for the people and majority, but what is best for maintaining the minority rule.

All forms of Socialist governments are also a form of minority ruled governments that only serve the party and government, and make choices that further concentrate power in the hands of the political elite and dis-empower the people.

Today South Africa is a Democracy lead by a Socialist ANC government. Even though we are a Democracy, we are once again in a situation where we have exchanged one minority rule for another. It has been disguised as being good for the people and the poor and it was made possible by the way that we vote as the people have handed over their power in a Democracy to the ANC.

Country Of Racists

Based on South Africa's history and Apartheid, racism is a common theme and if you believed the media, especially social media most people would think that South Africa is a country made up exclusively of racists, but is this true or accurate?

History is full of examples where a few people in a position of power had what they believed to be a good idea. Then they would use their position of power to execute on that idea, and everybody else would just have to accept it.

For the most part, Apartheid was created by Daniel Malan, Johannes Strijdom and Hendrik Verwoerd. Here we have a situation where an idea created by a few men lead to laws passed and a minority government empowered by these laws and everybody else forced to accept it.

Just because Apartheid was created and existed does not mean that everybody agreed or had the power to change it. There was no consultation processes or way of objecting to the laws.

Then, 40 odd years later, on the 17th of March 1992, the White population of South Africa voted in a referendum. They were asked if they support the negotiations that had started to end Apartheid. 69% of White South Africans voted YES, showing us just how little support Apartheid had among the White population. Some also believe many of the 31% that voted NO did it out of fear as it was a very fearful and uncertain time.

Patriot Democracy does not believe South Africa is a country made up of racists. Rather a country where a few men used their power to create an unjust race-based system and empowered themselves. Unfortunately, that system shaped a country, and its people for over 42 years and left many scars.

Most Amazing Democracy

The 1994 elections and the end of Apartheid is a unique moment in history. It is difficult to find another moment in history that compares.

South Africas Democracy is an example of a country where the power went from a minority ruled, authoritarian and oppressive government to the people without a war or a peoples revolution but by choice. There was conflict, and unfortunately, many people died, but there was no prolonged civil war.

The end of Apartheid was a unicorn event in history because this is not the way oppressive minority governments generally change power. Patriot Democracy believes this to be an amazing accomplishment, and something we should all be very proud of. It is a rare moment in history to find a situation where the people in power and government negotiated and handed over power without war in this way.

To understand how unique and significant this is we need to keep in mind that when the National Party unbanned the opposition organisations and released Nelson Mandela from prison to entered negotiations at CODESA. They did it knowing that if successful they would be out of a job and will be putting their lives in the hands of their enemy.

On the other side of the table, Nelson Mandela, a popular black leader that after 27 years of imprisonment did not come out angry calling for vengeance and retribution but rather carefully guiding his party towards negotiations and calling for reconciliation.

The rest of the world acknowledged this unique accomplishment by awarding Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk both the Nobel Peace Prize.

Young Democracy

A Democracy is not something that if you have it it just works. A Democracy requires education, effort and maintenance. Countries that have been a Democracy the longest seem to be complacent and newly formed Democracies struggle to change and understand how to use their Democracy to improve their lives.

A new Democracy is similar to a new business. The choices made in those early years can lead to the Democracy failing or it can survive and grow stronger. As it grows stronger, people's lives will also improve dramatically.

If anyone in a Democracy thinks that voting is pointless, or start arguing about it being a numbers game and nothing ever changes. Then we have a situation where we have not done a good enough job teaching people how Democracy works, and how the people have the power in a Democracy.

The power the people of a country have and control in a Democracy can easily be given away and lost, leading to a Democracy failing and falling into the hands of greedy dictators.

South Africa is a very young Democracy, and we are currently sitting in at fork in the road. The choices voters make in the next few years could take South Africa in a direction that will strengthen our Democracy, improving the lives of the people of South Africa. Or it could weaken our Democracy, maybe even destroy it.

Phases Of Democracy 30 Years Later

South Africa currently has a very immature Democracy, that is very fragile. This fragility shows in the form of escalating corruption and the rule of law failing.

For a country's Democracy to progress from an immature, to a mature Democracy, there needs to be a peaceful transition of power from one political party to another. Only once a country has been able to change governments after a multi-party, free and fair election, can that country be considered a mature Democracy.

South Africa's Democracy will have its 30th anniversary in the 2024 elections, and it is taking place against the backdrop of rampant corruption and crumbling infrastructure.

The next three years will challenge our Democracy as we stand on the edge of a knife. If the people decide to hold the current government accountable, we could transition and mature to the next phase of our Democracy. If the people of South Africa do not hold the ANC government accountable, we could see our Democracy failing, as the evil criminal elements of government take over completely.

Legacy Of Apartheid

After Apartheid was dismantled, what do we see,? What as a country are we left with, what is the legacy that remains?

Many think that the legacy of Apartheid was racism when the reality is that this is a minor part of what Apartheid left behind.

A very large amount of poverty is the true legacy that Apartheid left behind.

Millions of South Africans are struggling to survive, struggling to find work, live very difficult lives for no other reason than they were born during Apartheid.

Even if we routed out all racism in South Africa, the poverty left by Apartheid will continue to remain.

Most Amazing People

Most people in their lives are focused on what is in front of them. The things that affect our daily lives directly, but if we had to lift our heads and take a look around, we could see something amazing.

You don't have to look very far to see South Africans helping each other. NGO's working hard to help the lives of the poorest people of this country. Ordinary people, donating their time, skills and often money to try and make South Africa a better place.

South African's are some of the most generous, loving and caring people trying their best to survive and help each other under very difficult circumstances.

People from all walks of life, social workers, lawyers, accountants and vets, to name a few. There are people in almost every industry and field trying to help make South Africa a better place. We only need to lift our heads and notice what is going on around us.

Different But The Same

When you look at the average South African family home, and you strip away the cultural and language differences. What you are left with is often described as the core family values.

Many black families are often described as conservative and Christian, in the same way, that many white families are described as conservative and Christian.

If we strip away the differences that are easily seen from the outside. Removing the differences in race and culture. What we are left with is very similar across South Africa. We all want our children to be safe and want our children to have a better life than we had.

South Africa is culturally a very diverse place, but when we strip away the differences, Black, White, Coloured, Indian, fundamentally we all want the same things in life and our core fundamental family values are all the same.

Economics Of Government

When Apartheid ended most South Africans with great anticipation and nervousnesses, waited to see what would happen next. We all put our trust in a new government that would move us forward as one country, and start to fix the problems we are facing.

There are many examples of countries that have shown how with the correct economic policies, poverty can be reduced. By growing the size of the pie and pulling more people into the formal economy, poverty will melt away.

Herein lies South Africa's biggest challenge. The ANC government is not promoting expansionist and inclusive economic policies. They pursuing redistributive controlling Socialist policies, that empower government and enslaves the poor.

One of the best examples where the ANC will do what is best for the ANC at the expense of the poor and the people of South Africa is the termination of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between the UK and 12 EU countries in 2012 and 2013.

These are some of our biggest trading partners, and because these agreements could stand in the way of the ANC nationalising private businesses, they decided to terminate them. Since 2013 we have seen a steady decline in the economy, foreign direct investment and job creation.

The fact that the economy is performing poorly for the last 7 to 10 years is because the ANC knowingly decided to sacrifice the economy. The ANC only does what is best for the ANC and its power at the expense of the South African people.

Directing Anger

Many South Africans are very angry, the promise of a better life for all has not materialised, and many feel they are suffering more today than even under Apartheid.

If we had to look at our Democracy from 1994 to now, we could easily divide it into two halves. In the first half there was a lot of optimism, reconciliation, and working together for a better South Africa. The second half feels more like we back in Apartheid hating each other, angrier than ever before, and tensions between cultural and race groups keep rising.

We need to ask ourselves, who benefits from our anger? Who benefits from you and me being angry at each other? Why did tensions get worse after it had improved so much? Is it possible that our anger is being manufactured and being used against us, and we being used and manipulated?

The Apartheid government used race to divide South Africa, and the ANC is doing the same thing again. The ANC is trying to push for a Socialist take over where the government owns everything, and that means the ANC would own and control everything.

To achieve a Socialist takeover, they need to convince enough South Africans to support them or not push back. To achieve this, the ANC needs us all to be divided and angry at each other combined with creating issues and crises they can control and can manipulate in their favour.

The only people that benefit from us being angry with each other is the ANC. Most of the anger and tension between white, black, rich and poor has been manufactured, as part of a very carefully thought-out plan where the ANC plan's too keep the poor, poor and controllable and to grab more power for the ANC leaders through the promotion and advancement of Socialism.

Black Voting Power

When we look at past election results, we can see that many South Africans still, unfortunately, vote based on race rather than Democratic principles.

South Africa is estimated to have 59 million people in 2020, and of that 41 million are black, making up 79% of our population.

The future of South Africa and our government is overwhelmingly chosen by the black majority. This means that if the black community wanted to change our government they could. No other race group is large enough to compete.

When we look at the black vote, it seems to split into 3 large camps.

• The "ANC loyalist", that seems will vote for the ANC regardless of their performance.
• The "non-voters", that have given up and don't vote at all.
• The "black opposition", that will vote against the ANC.

The black opposition seems to struggle to find its place in the world, as it seems to shift in mass from one party to the next and in the last election largely settled on the EFF and partly on the DA. When this opposition does not win enough to challenge the ANC, the black opposition loses faith and voters shift again. Never really give time for the opposition to grow and challenge the ANC.

Non-voters often chose to not vote out of protest, not understanding that not voting always favours the currently in power, and so not voting has the same result as voting for the ANC.

Political accountability is when voters hold politicians accountable, something that the majority of South African voters seem to be struggling with.

Real Change & Bright Futures

Patriot Democracy believes in the people of South Africa, and if given the opportunity the people of South Africa will be able to help each other, and fix the problems we are facing together as one nation.

Real change does not happen because of the political party that is in power. Real change happens when people choose to work together regardless of the political party in power.

South Africa is an amazing place, with amazing people, and Patriot Democracy believes we have a bright future as long as we believe, trust and respect each other.

We have done it before, and we can do it again.