White, white, white - history repeats itself –Part 1

Her tweet was insensitive but true, the backlash furious and nonsensical. Why? I blame black guilt, which I understand very well, because I'm white.  'I grew up in Rhodesia,' I said out loud recently, whilst taking a walk with my son (he's 35, I'm 69).His face soured.  'Why do you have to say that? Why can't you say Zimbabwe?'

'Because they're not the same thing. Rhodesia was different from Zimbabwe. I never lived in Zimbabwe. Rhodesia is where I grew up.' There was a tense silence.

'Why do I still identify with Rhodesia?' I wondered. 'Why do I hold onto some old imperialist identity? Is there really a difference, and is that difference important enough to insist on, out loud, in the face of all the damage colonialism has done?'

Rhodesia and colonialism were wrong. Agreed. But why not talk about them? In fact, in a country reeling from a poverty crisis that is only escalating, and will tear this nation apart if something meaningful is not done (and soon), how can we not talk about them?

Because colonialism is not over, not by a long shot. That 'wrong' history is repeating itself. Colonialism has been on the go since 1415. The nations of Europe, with their armies and the cross of Jesus at the fore, have conducted a vicious assault on 'non-whites' everywhere with the stated goal of promoting Christianity and Capitalism, while hauling back to Europe all of value. The various independencies of previous colonial territories would seem to have been the end of that process, but they were not.

Colonialism is still alive and well, except now we call it 'globalisation', 'free trade', etc. Today, instead of the European nations of old, the drivers of colonialism are the massive corporations and bankers. There are new owners of the world's capital. They define which currencies are worth what and they own the banking system, armies and armaments. They have taken over ownership of the government from the people and their goal is singular - maximum profit.

They are headquartered wherever the taxes are best but mainly in the US and Europe. In their operational areas, such as Africa, they employ through corruption and bribery a new class of manager - the local African who wields the power of the vote.

Mostly they're Black Africans, men and women who substituted their socialism and people advancement dreams for wealth and cover-page status - exactly how we whites controlled the population in Rhodesia, until they rose up and bit us. In 2007 there were 6,200 black millionaires in South Africa; 14,700 in 2014; and as late as 2015 over 17,000. The new black middle class has more than trebled over the past 12 years to 5.81 million, completely overshadowing the fast declining white middle class, now estimated at about 2.5 million.

How much the South African middle class earn is difficult to work out. Standard Bank reports the 'low emerging middle' class annual salaries start from R51,000, the 'emerging middle' starts at R111,000, and the 'realised middle' range from R240,000 to over R380,000.

And there is the growth in government and city and municipal council employment of mostly non-whites. Government employment, as at 2014, has jumped to 2.7 million employees. The assumption has to be made that the government (and compliant city and municipal councils) is committed to at least the minimum wage for every single one of those employees.

University of Cape Town marketing professor John Simpson is quoted as saying, 'the black middle class is keeping the economy alive ... ' Well, with those salaries it would be the driver, but it isn't necessarily a mark of prosperity for South Africa. Most of South Africa's big exports are raw resources sent overseas to have value added to them. It is a process that has been followed since Rhodes's time. The little exports of finished goods South Africa does manage is of small consumer type items such as food stuff, and it all goes to her poor(er) neighbours.

This means South Africa's new emerging middle class is not adding value. Instead, it's buying and selling houses, cars, insurance, food, eating in franchised restaurants and generally creating debt, the mainstay of the corporacy and its banks.

In 2010, 16 years after the ANC adopted the White Nationalist Party's Capitalist principles by which to run the country, the average income for South Africa's black folk was R10,000 per year.[5] Some 60% of South Africans, 99% of them non-white, still live under poverty conditions, scratching away a living in informal settlements and the old homelands.

At the same time there has been a surge upwards as hundreds of men and women who twenty years ago promoted themselves as liberators have embraced the greed system and become rich beyond dreams - Ramaphosa, Gordhan, Sexale, Motsepe[6], Mbete[7], Trevor Manuel[8] and wife[8], billionaire Mbeki, Mboweni[10]... the list rolls on.There doesn't seem to be much trickle down to the ordinary folk. To me South Africa seems just like the old Rhodesia, with the few living off the backs of the many. Surely it would be both logical and reasonable to argue South Africa's horrible inequality world record is, in the main, now black driven? Aren't the new elite treating their own kind as objects out of which to make money in exactly the same way as Imperial Britain treated South Africa?

Is it not logical to point a finger and say the ANC-led government are the new colonists by behaviour and employment of capitalism and religion?

Why didn't the president forget all the colonial bull, cut out the mythological and announce he and his government are going to stop corruption? The talk is that corruption has cost South Africa R700 billion, and I'm guessing that does not include all the contracts to mates to do what they quite clearly cannot do.

What isn't falling apart? Water is, electricity, health,[11] schooling, railways, harbours, airways are.

'Why is Africa, a continent blessed abundantly with natural resources and excessive value of human capital, yet to find its rightful place in world politics? Africa is very rich with natural possessions such as fertile soil, enough rain and sunshine for cultivation, raw materials, oil, gas, gold and many other major resources, but corruption and bad governances are the major reasons for the visible miserable poverty, unmanageable sufferings and deaths on the continent' is the statement of Front Page Africa.[12]

Africa is yet to find its rightful place because the old system of Colonialism is still active, now driven by the continent's current leaders. I see a mirror of the privileged society I grew up in. Capitalism is not freedom, but continued slavery, colonial style.

* DOUGLAS SCHORR is a former soldier and district commissioner in then Rhodesia. He is today a committed critic of capitalism and colonial legacies, citing them as the source of poverty in Africa. His first book, The Myth of Smith, is available for sale on Amazon Kindle as are the short stories Mr Boomslang & 7 Other Rhodesian Fireside Tales. Schorr blogs at www.douglasschorr.com