South Africa's Slow, Inevitable March Towards Collapse

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[randomguy]

I’m from Zimbabwe.. 10 years ago when I was in highschool I told my SA friends that they needed to vote the ANC out or they’ll become like Zim. They laughed and told me SA could never become like Zim. A gross underestimation of what institutional incompetence can do to a country

[jackbacon]

imagine being given a fully developed country with infrastructure and tons of natural resources and not being able to do anything with it

[byLokie]

I live in Melbourne Australia and have a work colleague who is ex South African. Last year his sister came for a holiday and one night I invited them to my house for a BBQ. My home doesn’t require barbed fences or extra security. My friends sister was visibly shaken by this fact and took ages to calm down. How strange that looked.

[zandershorty]

South Africa was the destination of our annual holiday for 12 years between 2001 and 2013. We loved the country, beautiful, clean and well organized. However, during these years we saw a clear decline in everything. Our last holiday in 2013 was almost unrecognizable from the first one in 2001. That was our last time sadly.

[psycold]

To give you an idea of how ridiculous SA is now, instead of actually fixing the blackouts, they issued a statement saying that the term "blackout" is racist, and renamed it, "load shedding".


Truly the pinnacle of progress.

[xConceptZA]

As a South African who doesn’t want to ever leave this place, this video makes me so sad and so angry. The absolute and complete incompetence and astounding corruption of the past and present president and other ANC leaders has royally screwed us all, no matter what colour we are

[kaylat]

This administration is putting many families in difficult situations. A lot of people are financially struggling to live, put a roof over their head and put food on the table. Things are getting worse these days, if you don't find means of multiplying your money you might wake up a day to realise you didn't plan well for yourself and family…

[mjribes]

The reasons for SA's downfall:

1) The civil service being flooded by people who had no experience. A friend described that as giving a Ferrari to a 17-year-old who had never driven a car. A crash was inevitable.

2) Experienced white engineers were made redundant throughout the state-owned power, water, telecommunications and transport organisations. They were replaced by inexperience (and sometimes unqualified) black people. Strict race quotas meant that those white ex-employees could not be brought back.

3) The ANC government became corrupt and the separation between the party and the state evaporated. Party members were given preferential placement into jobs in state-owned enterprises. Merit as a basis for employment have been replaced by party loyalty.

4) The government decided to use race as a motivation for voters. Black voters were encouraged to see white politicians as the enemy.

5) The "brain drain" is real. University graduates are leaving in their droves. I did that. I finished my masters and left 2 weeks later. I didn't even attent my graduation ceremony. I completed my PhD abroad and stayed there.

6) No one wants to hold Rands. Every friend and relative I have in South Africa holds a bank account in Europe that they load with any spare money they can get out of the country.

[sophrapsune]

The regression of South Africa is ultimately just a symptom of the ANC’s epic levels of corruption and misgovernance.

[Codyrayify]

My nephew did part of his internship, to become a doctor in South said an ER doctor in Canada could go his entire career without ever seeing a stab wound to the South Africa....you'll see one...every day!

[Rein]

We drove to the airport one last time in December 2023. It was heartbreaking and you feel gutted, but as this video explains so well, if you have the choice to leave you almost don't have the choice to stay...

[RichardKingADI]

Why should South Africa be any different from the rest of the continent...?

[malbirrell]

A mate of mine was a farmer in Zimbabwe and left with nothing but his life. He told me years ago that SA was going to end up exactly the same as Zim

[sarahwing]

I am a South African now living abroad. My entire family left SA one by one. My 5 siblings and I all left to different countries, wherever we found opportunities. last to leave was my parents 4 years ago. I miss SA so much but I know I have no future there, and without my parents there it doesn’t even feel like home anymore. I’m very fortunate to have the means to emigrate and start a new life, but I don’t personally enjoy being a foreigner everywhere I go. But most of all I’m terribly sad that my family is scattered across the globe. This happens to a lot of South Africans. If you are lucky enough to live near family don’t take it for granted.

[itsvmmc]

This is insane. I remember when South Africa was around the same level economically as most post-Soviet countries. But now many post-Soviet countries are growing steadily, while South Africa seems to go backwards.

[cripplingdepression]

I hate to say it but it was predictable, the only reason why SA got so developed in the first place was the arrival of boers, Dutch people who know how to make society work in a sedentary lifestyle which is diametrically opposed to most of the continent.
Sendentary as opposed to itinerary lifestyles were extremely uncommon for millenia in the continent, simply because in a place where the winter doesn't force you to buy a strong home, you have no need for hard insulated construction, which means all your construction is at best temporary, which does mean moving is no issue, which then implies that when farming stops yielding good results you can just blame the soil and move elsewhere.
Europeans have, for millenia, had to face a winter that would kill everyone who did not have a heated home and stockpiles of food every single year, which forced them to develop advanced sedentary societies with land ownership, division of labor (hunting, farming, selling, administration, education, security, healthcare, miners, loggers), farming the same soil every year and so developing ways to fertilize and respect the soil they grow food from. But also, antisocial people have over hundreds of years been kicked out of said societies and were less able to have children.
Africans have not faced the same challenges as Europeans, and so when they kicked out Boers and europeans from power, SA's administrations became just like those of most Sub Saharan African countries: corrupt, short term oriented, unable to plan for the next season let alone years...
And it's not a race thing, it's just the consequences of millenia of people planning ahead for the future vs people whose reflex is to only act when the deadline comes because in ost African countries, putting ressources on the side to prepare for the future is just setting yourself up for getting that stuff stolen tomorrow...

[telcobilly]

I moved to SA as a kid from the US in 1968 and returned to the US in '79. A good amount of my friends have left the country.
AC - Alternating Current
DC - Direct Current
ANC - Absolutely No Current

[itsorcacraft]

As a South African I 100% agree with this video. This country is collapsing faster and faster every year.

[gregsutton]

South Africa is declining, but declining to the Sub Saharan African Norm.

[durosennen]

all already seen in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe. From an organized country and a large exporter of food and industrial products. With the absence of any production and hunger. Currently, SAR lives on inherited goods, and even that is being consumed and slowly disintegrating.