What I am about to relate is news I received from my wife (currently in Zambia), early this morning, which would have been evening in that region of Africa.
This pertains to the "Xenophobic Campaign" (to give it a name) conducted on 30 June against various and sundry foreign black residents and workers, wherein the Campaign participants (mostly native Zulus) marched en masse through city business and residential districts to collar and displace any whom they deemed "foreign", dragging them from their homes and businesses, to be conveyed to the nearest border crossing and expelled from the country. This was mainly directed against workers originating from other African countries, especially neighboring ones.
Although the present U.S. attention is directed toward the situation of the SA white population, they were substantially unharmed by this campaign, having robustly armed up and determined to resist. In several cases where the mob congealed around a white dwelling, a few warning rifle shots were sufficient to cool their ardor and make them move along. As she put it, the whites had thrown all respect for the gun control laws aside, in favor of stern and armed resistance. Seemingly, the government had larger problems with the X Campaign.
The X Campaign had apparently been led by some woman, who was sufficiently funded for the whole affair to afford transportation in armored Land Rovers and to be dressed elegantly. My wife is convinced that this whole Campaign is calculated to destabilize the government of SA. By whom, we had no clear idea. She surmised criminal cartels, for a wider hand. i speculated China, desirous of African footholds.
But nothing happens in a vacuum, and the redoubtable President Cyril Ramaphosa (a complete bag of cowardly shit) recently discovered he was unable to attend a meeting of African heads of state in Ghana. He had been declared persona non grata, as the home nations of the expelled foreigners took extreme umbrage at their treatment. As a result, these nations were embarking on reciprocal expulsions of South Africans, and the termination of business arrangements with South Africa. Likewise, air flights to South Africa declined to nothing, being rerouted to neighboring nations. Oliver Tembo airport now resembles a ghost town. No incoming or outgoing flights. (My wife must travel to SA in a week for eye surgery. She is anticipating being The Passenger coming through the main airport. We found that droll.) And, of course, in an application of the Mugabe Effect, there is no economic productivity from the small businesses that the mob had deranged and dispossessed. Various shortages are now appearing (or disappearing as the case may be).
Supposedly in reaction to this reaction, Ramaphosa called out this woman leader of the Campaign as a culprit. However, underground video circulated showing her in attendance at a high level party, quite cheerful and enjoying herself. Ramaphosa is putting on a face, but he still reeks of political B.O.
Possibly in light of this reaction, the Campaign organizers have announced they would focus their effort in and around Durban, a major port city in the province of Kwazulu-Natal, the former homeland and present stronghold of the Zulu tribe.
There are also sporadic reports of internecine conflict within the Campaign.
So, it remains to be seen where this will go. The whites are entrenched and solidly armed, with the tacit acceptance (if not approval) of the totally undermanned and ineffectual government forces. (They claimed to have made arrests of hundreds of Campaigners, but there were thousands on the march.) The government is now faced with international and internal repercussions of these violations, to the immediate detriment of the economy. This may possibly induce them to put a lid on the whole affair---but once the genie is out of the bottle, on a rampage, it is very tough to put it back in again (particularly when the Economic Freedom Fighter party [communists] led by Julius Malema are all in favor of such dispossession). The thought is that Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa's predecessor and eminence grise, is also behind what is going on.
Again, this is what my wife has heard as best as I can recall. Apologies for any inadvertent errors or misunderstandings. Fog of war.
...why isn't this sticked...
Good question. Not for me to say. Maybe it will take a while for it to gain traction. I expect being stickied does not happen without the Mods' consensus.
Some long months ago, I made a report from Zambia on covert USAID activities that my wife discovered by accident, thinking it was germane to the then flap over USAID. Very little attention, and the report simply slid off the screen. I am sorry for that. The evidence was that USAID had been maintaining a detachment of armed men for some unspecified purpose in the heart of Lusaka (immediately adjacent to the U.S. Embassy) and was trying as fast as possible to liquidate all evidence without any remaining paperwork.
Good question. Not for me to say.''
...originality is not condoned on this platform...
...hold the line Patriot...
It'd be kinda fun to sit around a fire together someday to gripe (and laugh) about the various hand slaps and egotistical abuses of power that may or may not have happened here...
It'd be kinda fun to sit around a fire together someday to gripe (and laugh) about the various hand slaps''
u/#howl
A single mod can do a sticky.
Not my call. But thanks.
Thank you for this dasting report!
...well done...
Aye. Thank Q u/killerspacerobot for the direct connection to the habbenings on the ground IRT.
Very interesting, yet also I'm in agreement on how things pan out... hard to analyze without further development. Things could get ugly with a quickness, prayers that it doesn't and that you guys stay safe robo!
Heads need to be on swivels. Now that Jacob Zuma may be involved (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Zuma), there's no telling where this might go. He is Zulu by birth, a former member of the ANC, a communist, a Mugabe wannabee, and the list is endless.
Our hope is that they bog down in disarray after so thoroughly damaging SA's standing internationally and economically. Our daughter needs to remain there for another month before she can "get out of Dodge." Other relatives are planning on repatriating to Zambia. Everyone is looking over their shoulders. There is a growing sentiment among neighboring countries that "turnabout is fair play", to send SA citizens back where they came from. This would be unjust, but one can hardly say it would be unfair.
Me? I'm as safe as any citizen in the state of Washington...God rest our souls.
What a mess. Praying your family stays safe.
Thanks. My daughter is under the wings of some white friends.
Remember Rourkes Driftπ
The spelling is actually "Rorke's Drift." The battle is represented very dramatically in "Zulu" (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99crzfGtTKI Mind the lyrics for "Men of Harlech" written especially for the film by John Barry.
The whites have armed up. The blacks have a healthy fear of bullets.
I first saw Zulu in the summer of 1964 Navy R&R in Sydney Aus. (sorry about the spelling-ignorant fingers). Micheal Caine's debut performance-his fillings were quite evidentπ
Praying for your family! ππ€
tribal warfare without the machetes?
I don't know what they are using today, but the traditional Zulu weapon was the assegai short spear. Pretty wicked and effective. I wouldn't mind having a pair.
Dude can write
I even learned a couple new words.