OUT TO LUNCH

As I have mentioned previously, I am one of those privileged individuals who, as a permanent resident, am allowed to pay large chunks of tax each year but have no say in who I am paying it to every five years. I did join a queue back in 1994 and it was a joyful experience but I must have put my cross next to the wrong party and have been banned since then. So much for a secret ballot.___STEADY_PAYWALL___

You would be quite correct to chide me and say that I could have applied for South African dual citizenship which would have given me the vote but, to be honest, I probably couldn’t be bothered to go through all the rigmarole at Home Affairs at the time. I also couldn’t see any advantage to having a South African passport and I had a nagging worry during the turbulent 80’s that the UK and other European countries might be pressured to disown former citizens who had aligned themselves with the apartheid regime.

Unfounded as it turns out but that’s with the benefit of hindsight. Back in the mid 1980’s with sanctions imposed and a debt standstill anything seemed possible.

So as a non-voter spouse my duty was to drive Mrs B down to the voting station at 6:45 on May 29th to make her mark. The queue had already formed and there was a coffee truck doing brisk business in the dark morning.

Mrs B was back home by 8:00, complaining about the cold but saying that the IEC staff had been marvellous and helpful and that the queue was chatty and friendly. Much like the 1994 experience in fact. It turned out to be a smart decision to get in early because our slugabed neighbours opted for a vote later in the day and were still in the voting queue well after ten at night.

Despite the chilly morning May 29th turned out to be the final day of summer which, considering we are supposed to be into winter now, was pretty remarkable.

At 2:30 in the afternoon I was sitting outside on the stoep in shirtsleeves in 27C of heat. The neighbour’s cats were looking for moles in the garden and I was nursing a chilled glass of Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc and thinking about nothing in particular when suddenly a thought struck me. Would it not be a good idea to reread the MK election manifesto and see what we might be in for in the (at the time) unlikely event of an MK sweep to election victory?

Now we know the election results this turned out to be a good use of Wednesday afternoon but I have to confess that as I continued to read on the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc became considerably lighter. “Have you been drinking?” asked Mrs B as we settled down to do Wordle later in the afternoon and, like the young George Washington, I couldn’t tell a lie.

We are still some way off what some optimists are calling a ‘government of national unity’ but which may turn out to be anything but given the animosity between the ANC, the EFF and MK. That doesn’t even begin to take into account the ideological variances between all the political parties.

The MK Manifesto (on which many MK voters are relying) is pretty unequivocal. Under Pillar 1 it states:

‘South African society is dominated culturally, artistically, spiritually and economically by a minority group with an alien culture”.

Who could that possibly be referring to? Have the Martians landed? The clue could be in the term ‘minority group’ and that might possibly refer to whites or Indians I suspect.

On the subject of land and mineral resources under Pillar 2 the MK vows to:

‘Expropriate all land without compensation, transferring ownership to the people under the guardianship of the state and traditional leaders’.

So if you live in Bishopscourt you might want to start scouting around for a friendly ‘traditional leader’.

‘Ensure state ownership and control of all natural resources on behalf of the South African people, including water, spectrum and renewable energy resources’

Now here I should point out that, under Pillar 1, quite a number of us will not qualify as South African people so won’t qualify to receive ‘spectrum’ whatever that may be. But since I’ve never had it before I probably won’t miss it.

Under Pillar 3 the MK says it will scrap the 1996 Constitution and replace it with something less user friendly to the land thief aliens. It will also establish a lower house of parliament comprised of elected representatives and an unelected upper house comprised of Indigenous kings and queens as well as other traditional leaders. In other words, a great time to be a luxury car dealership.

Under the economy there is the usual magic money tree gobbledygook spouted by those who haven’t a clue about economic reality. Obviously the Reserve Bank will be nationalised and brought to heel but various other interventions will have to be introduced to make money cheap and plentiful for those who need it. A rather chilling sentence appears as follows:

‘We see continued subservience to white South Africans, with the state failing to develop the human capital and R&D capability of its population’

So, it’s all the fault of the whites who have failed to recognise the enormous untapped human capital locked within our unjust society. So much talent just waiting to emerge. The obvious solution….get rid of the whites.

Then, unsurprisingly, comes the section on sovereignty and our position in Africa and the world. The MK will:

‘Stand in solidarity with Russia, Cuba and Palestine in their struggles against Western imperial forces.

Or, in other words, sever all contact with countries like the UK, the US, Germany and other imperialist NATO countries and throw their lot in with superpowers like Russia, Cuba and Palestine.

It all makes scary reading and it has much in common with the EFF’s ideas for a perfect nation and with the more extreme elements of the ANC RET mob. The bottom line is that, whatever coalition is eventually agreed upon, the parties that have the most say are fanatically anti white and anti the West. Being fanatically anti-white and singing for the slaughter of white people is apparently not a crime according to a recent finding by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Finally, The Economist magazine cover last week featured a tattered flag and the headline “How to save South Africa”. The leader piece began:

‘Since taking office in 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa has turned indecisiveness into an art form. No matter the problem, South Africa’s president will dither about the solution’

Bearing in mind this article was written before the ANC’s drubbing at the ballot box it may have contained some hope for the future.

But the front page title is misleading because there are no tips on how to save South Africa. Indeed the leader article ends as follows:

‘Unless it changes course, South Africa, not just the ANC, will continue its slow decline. The state is weak, the economy stagnant, the ruling party decadent’.

As I frequently tell people, you may die of many things in South Africa but boredom won’t be one of them.

The MK election manifesto for those with the inner strength to read it.

***

The big question is whether Frogboiler will still have a job after all this. If the ANC were a company and the number of votes was the share price then the board would be pretty swift in getting rid of the chief executive after such a disastrous collapse in value. A sensible CEO would obviously resign to ‘spend time with his family’ before the board even got around to voting.

Bearing in mind the comments above in The Economist and Frogboiler’s reputation as a terminal ditherer my guess is that he will not be South Africa’s next President. That would be akin to the late Markus Jooste being reappointed to the board of Steinhoff.

Very sensibly Frogboiler has built himself a vast mansion overlooking the Atlantic ocean in nice, well run, DA controlled Cape Town and it is there that I expect him to retire to write his memoir the working title of which must surely be “Whether you like it or not”.