Thirty years of Black rule has seen South Africa degenerate from the beacon of Africa into just another basket case on the Dark Continent. And I have decried and chronicled each distressing milestone of its patented descent into the heart of darkness.

Chronicling South’s squandered freedom

I joined the anti-Apartheid movement in the early 1980s. In the grand scheme of things, my participation was modest. But to this day, it fills me with unbridled pride.

However, reflecting on the hundreds of commentaries I’ve penned since launching this blog in 2005 saddens me deeply. The titles alone sketch a timeline of my growing frustration and disillusionment.

So, I can think of no more fitting way to mark South Africa’s 30 years of freedom than to list the titles to 30 of them.

1. “Happy Birthday, Nelson (Madiba) Mandela,” July 18, 2005
2. “Happy Birthday, FW de Klerk? Yes, For He’s (Now) a Jolly Good Fellow!”  April 3, 2006
3. “South Africa: More Reviled for Its “Fight against Aids” than the US Is for Its “War on Terror”? August 21, 2006
4. “South Africa gives same-sex couples the legal right to marry!” December 1, 2006
5. “Mandela joins Lincoln, Disraeli and Churchill in Parliament Square,” August 31, 2007
6. “Oprah is NOT Running a School for Scandal in South Africa!” November 2, 2007
7. “In South Africa, Xenophobic Blacks Prove Almost as Deadly as Apartheid Whites,” May 23, 2008
8. “South African President Mbeki Forced to Resign… Hail Zuma?!” September 22, 2008
9. “South Africans form New Party to Cope with ANC’s Apartheid Tactics,” December 17, 2008
10. “South Africa Bans Dalai Lama from Peace Conference to Appease China…?!” March 24, 2009
11. “Black is Beautiful! Just Not in South Africa,” January 5, 2010
12. “Nelson Mandela Is a Traitor and an Albatross?!” March 9, 2010
13. “The World Cup – South Africa!” June 11, 2010
14. “South African President Zuma Snubs Obama (Michelle That Is),” June 24, 2011
15. “Julius Malema: President Jacob Zuma’s Mini-Me,” August 18, 2011
16. “Zuma Doing for South Africa What Mugabe Did for Zimbabwe,” September 11, 2010
17. “South Africa Betraying Its [ANC] Values,” May 13, 2011
18. “Is Nothing Sacred? ‘Being Mandela’ – the Reality-TV Show?” March 18, 2013
19. “ANC Shamed for Treating Mandela like a Carnival Freak,” May 2, 2013
20. “Chief Prosecutor Condemns SA President Zuma and His ruling ANC,” October 21, 2013
21. “Mandela Is Dead,” December 6, 2013
22. “South Africa Joins Ranks of Countries ‘Selling Its Sovereignty to China’,” October 3, 2014
23. “Wither South Africa,” April 10, 2017…
24. “South Africa Replaces Corrupt Zuma with Captured Ramaphosa,” February 16, 2018
25. “Aping Zimbabwe, South Africa Expropriating White Farms to Give to Blacks,” August 12, 2018
26. “Alas, as Much as SA Lifts Up Mandela, It Will Never Live Down Zuma,” September 29, 2018
27. “Heart of Darkness Comes to Light as South Africa Apes Worst of Zimbabwe,” July 15, 2021
28. “Nelson Mandela International Day Finds South Africa Lost,” July 18, 2022
29. “South Africa Is Sending Arms to Russia – Because China Ordered It To,” May 12, 2023
30. “South Africa Accuses Israel of Genocide at ICJ,” January 11, 2024

Mandela must be rolling over in his grave

In his inaugural address as South Africa’s first democratically elected president on May 10, 1994, Mandela famously declared:

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign.

(The Guardian, February 10, 2001)

Clearly, he could not have foreseen that liberated Blacks would end up oppressing each other almost as much as apartheid Whites oppressed them.

Cry (still), this beloved country.