< 2005. Flair Esslemont, The Boss, Burnside, Christchurch.
December 2005. George Goussard's dispatch: "In February 2006, Koffiefontein mine will close. All De Beers mines are making big losses except Venetia and Finsch (breaking even). Kimberley will probably also close all underground work in the near future. The strong Rand (about R6.20 having been R12 against US$ a few years ago) is killing mining exports. Daily reports of mine shafts closing.
Cheap eastern textile imports are closing many textile factories. Yet the property market is frenzied. Middle-class 3 bedroom houses in the Strand start at R800 000. Construction projects sell out before the first sod is turned. Speculators sell a "house" for a profit, before the first brick is laid. There're many 4x4s. Harley Davidsons, about R200 000 each, are common on Sunday roads. Many people are living in expensive security-complexes.
Defence Force is a joke: Navy needs funds. State bought overseas submarines, but they must come by ship, as there're few qualified submariners to operate them. Organizations in SA must be 80% black. Military Academy stopped for 6 months, as there're few qualified lecturers. Whites are forbidden jobs. Commandos are disbanded. [Bye-bye]. Two expensive training planes fell from the sky, as a 'political decision' enabled black learner-pilots to re-do their exams, after repeatedly failing exams.
Despite murders being more than 18000 per annum, no one may own more than one firearm (nothing semi-automatic, except a pistol). It's hard getting a new firearm licence. Thousands of white cops, forced out of the old SAP, now run private detective agencies. You use them if you want a serious crime investigated. Denel arms manufacturer was almost bankrupt, and corruption was exposed, so government removed the black CEO, replacing him with a white guy, I assume temporarily to fix the mess.
There're hundreds of private schools in SA. Tertiary education: shambolic, standards dropping. About 140 MPs (approx. 40%) were caught out in a travel fraud, but only about a dozen have been prosecuted so far. Government announcement: '37000 government employees are fraudulently getting monthly welfare payments.' Ramos, ANC bigwig, appointed to save the railways, appoints a male Afrikaner to save the railways.
Average age of Zimbabwe whites: in the 6os. 1000s of whites living a squatter-camp existence - 18 to a three-bedroom house.
Too many young qualified people emigrate. Pretoria psychologist consults white women and families whose men work overseas, then vanish, abandoning SA families. Whites resist state racist policies: Whites enter 'African' on state forms, as race classification died with apartheid."
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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