Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

TDoMarmalade t1_j2ukodb wrote

My dad talks about this all the time. It was once a country that had struggles but you could live there fairly well, but now it’s a complete shitshow. Load shedding is a result of what makes the country so unappealing; rampant corruption, unmaintained infrastructure, rampant crime. Shanty towns actually hook up to the power lines, putting huge strain on the grid without providing income to the power companies, and the government does nothing about it. He used to talk about going back to visit, he doesn’t any more.

7

NARMA416 t1_j2vts85 wrote

Are you surprised? The blame goes back to the Apartheid regime who only built proper infrastructure for White communities, which represent only a small proportion of South Africans. Now that a greater proportion of the population has access to basic services and resources (rightfully so), there's not enough to go around.

The racist Apartheid regime should have thought about the consequences of underinvestment outside of White communities years ago. They thought that Apartheid would last forever I suppose.

Edit: It's amazing how may people are ignorant of the long-lasting impacts of apartheid on South Africa's ability to care for its citizens today. I'm not excusing mismanagement and corruption, but white South Africans like to blame everyone but themselves for the country's problems.

The backbone of South Africa's infrastructure (e.g. healthcare, energy, etc.) was built for only a tiny minority of the population. It is therefore incapable of supporting the entirety of the country's population without substantial investment and restructuring, which is difficult to do in a handful of decades.

−9

makavelihhh t1_j2w1mes wrote

Apartheid ended 30 years ago.

10

NARMA416 t1_j2wy8iw wrote

I'm well aware of that, but you can't reverse decades of neglect and underinvestment overnight. It's a structural problem that will always hold South Africa back.

−2

makavelihhh t1_j2x5ms2 wrote

I'm sorry but I don't agree. You cannot blame something that happened 30 years ago for something that got incredibly worse from 2016 to 2022.

Maintaining you electrical infrastructure is the bare minimum that a serious government should be able to do.

The problem I suppose is incredible corruption at every level of SA society. This is for sure linked to the Apartheid, but it cannot be used as an excuse today.

3

NARMA416 t1_j2x5z11 wrote

It's not just the electricity grid - it's healthcare and everything else. The hospital infrastructure was only built for the tiny white minority, but now everyone must use it. You can't build a healthy country on infrastructure that was made for a small few. This can't be solved quickly.

1

NARMA416 t1_j2xe7fy wrote

And this is coming from someone born in another colonial country called Canada. Canada treated (and still treats) its Indigenous peoples HORRIBLY. The country's policies over several centuries resulted in the subjugation, mistreatment, abuse, and in some cases even complete eradication of Indigenous people and communities.

The difference is that Indigenous peoples in Canada make up less than 5% of the population versus over 80% in South Africa. Imagine being so stupid that you would mistreat, subjugate, and underinvest in people and communities that make up over 80% of your country's population. And you wonder why South Africa is in such poor shape with high crime, high unemployment, bad infrastructure, etc.

1