While the world’s attention is focused on soccer and the World Cup in South Africa—the so-called rainbow nation—we learn from a reader that life is hell for many white people there and the lucky ones are escaping as virtual refugees to the West and to Australia.
Previously we told you about the Huntley case in Canada, where this South African white man sought asylum from the persecution he was experiencing because of the color of his skin. Last night we heard from a reader, Lee, commenting at this post about her life in South Africa.
Please also visit this post I wrote in April about the intriguing issue of whites being the new refugees. I wonder will the political Far Left embrace them as they do people of color?
Here is Lee:
Why just the focus on Afrikaner whites? I am a white english speaking South African. In the past two years I have seen and experienced racist acts and policies destroying the lives of me and my husband and the people I know around me. Not one year has passed where my husband and I have not either been mugged, held up at gunpoint, robbed ,racially harrassed (racial harrassment is a daily event!)or been in an event where we felt a great threat to our lives, and most often its a combination of the above mentioned. This has happened at such a variety of places that walking around anywhere in Jo-burg is done with your heart in your throat pumping with fear.
Everyday brings with it a number of renewed major and minor traumas,all of which communicate a clear message that your days as a white person in South Africa are numbered. As we come out of our flat to go to work in the mornings the pavement is lined with the same black people everyday and evening watching your every move. The people residing in the block of flats can not at any time make it obvious that they might go away for more than a day without the garuantee of being burgled (which has happened countless of occasions). We got burgled in the first month we moved in when we slept over at a friend’s place. Quite a few people had faced the armed burglers in their flats. There was a man that lived there who set his alarm clock to go off throughout the night in order to keep watch on his car, due to the continuous car theft and the constant inaction and apathy to address it.
As you leave you will(garuanteed) be approached and asked to give either cigarretes or money or both and meet with an aggressive response should you not have any of these to offer. A general rule is to walk away as quickly as you can because the person is likely to follow you either threatening, scowling, swearing or wailing (THIS IS NOT AN EXAGERRATION!)
Worklife is fraught with racial tension. Both my husband and I was unemployed and turned down in jobs for months due to the colour of our skin (B.E.E -the Black Empowerment equity policy)or being too over qualified. While working at a retail shop, people would on a number of occasions ignore my manager (who was black)and wait for me to finish with a customer which could take up to a half hour in order to ask me for money. Often my husband would express his concern about a security guard at his work who takes pleasure in telling him that he is going to kill him. Another friend of ours has three degrees in law and is yet to find any concrete work because of the colour of his skin. There are numerous friends who are qualified yet face destitution because of B.E.E.
There is no social security in general, if you should lose your job. The U.I.F (unemployment insurance fund) queues are endless and the office turns you away month after month disregarding your social position with impunity, despite you paying monthly installments for years. The degrading situation of being told by a black person that “This is great” because “Its payback time” is a common and daily event (not to mention the other offensive comments that come with it). Paranoia, depression, anxiety and suicide is a normality in our daily social circles.
A large proportion of these mental conditions are also a result of the lawless conditions we endure. In our previous residence, we were bombarded with continuous noise that rattled our windows. Everyday of the week it would start at midnight continuing up to four in the morning. Weekends the noise would start off at three in the afternoon and on holidays it would start at six in the morning both extending around the clock with one hour breaks inbetween. It caused numerous amounts of traumas for various residents arround the area as the offenders grew in confidence with gun pointing, racial confrontation/accusations, threats and assault, due to the inaction of the police.
Not once have the police gone further than filling out statements (which was in extreme cases) and the procedures for some incidences are so packed with beaurocracy that no one has the adequate knowledge, time or resources to follow it through. Many fear for their lives if they speak up because of this and most are silenced by race accussations.
Recently we came to Australia, undergoing the hopefull procedure of attaining residency,. The event was a miracle and this short period has painfully exposed our trauma of South africa, as we constantly find ourselves having anxieties in scenarios this first world presents as perfectly safe. There are an array of tourists that have visited South Africa with mixed experiences. Our story is about the local South Africans (English and Afrikaans) stuck in this reality, many being too afraid to talk in fear of being targeted. This is their story too.