Censorbugbear reports...: Why is there a Poor White Problem in South Africa?

Saturday, 30 May 2009

Why is there a Poor White Problem in South Africa?

16:48 |

Posted by Censorbugbear |

Edit Post

reprint of article published on Sunday, 23 November 2008

Poor whites applying for food-aid, housing told by black social workers: 'you whites can suffer now...'

Nov 21 2008 -- PRETORIA. South Africa has about 3-million Afrikaans-speaking whites. Some call themselves Afrikaners, others Boers, depending on their own family history. The common denominator for them all however is that they all speak Afrikaans, share a common Afrikaner-historical culture, display northern European racial characteristics, (i.e. often paler-skinned, often blonde, blue-eyed) and usually attend Afrikaans-language protestant churches and schools.

This tiny minority in South Africa now is rapidly being criminalised, marginalised, chased from the countryside by a great many violent attacks targetting Afrikaner rural dwellers, pushed out of the entire labour market by a plethora of anti-white laws and often, also find themselves being shouted down from political/public life by the ANC-regime.

In 1994, when the Afrikaner president F W de Klerk handed over the management of Africa's strongest Western economy to the tricameral 'black-ruled' new government, the unemployment levels among 'whítes' in South Africa was about 2%. It was indeed considered a deep disgrace among Afrikaners to be unemployed.

At that point, the Afrikaners also were among the best-educated population group in South Africa, comprised of the largest numbers of educators, medical staffers, government employees and mining/engineering experts in the country - it is fair to say that this relatively small minority group kept the wheels of this powerful economy turning efficiently and smoothly.

In 1994, Afrikaners also were the largest single group of people to employ the largest number of black people: for instance the country's 85,000 Afrikaans-speaking farmers alone, employed more than 1,3-million black people fulltime - and also housed them and their extended families on their farms: more than 6-million black people were in other words, living on white-owned farms and were reliant on the industry of this handful of Afrikaner farmers in 1994, who only ever farmed on no more than 6% (six percent) of the entire semi-arid South African land surface.

Death benefits refused for widow of killed white policeman insp Ryno van Tonder

Nov 23 2008 Rapport journalist Marenet Jordaan interviewed Sunett, widow of police inspector Ryno van Tonder, who died in June this year with another white policeman, Capt Hendrik Cronjé while posting outside a suspect location in their police car. The two police detectives died while they were investigating an organised crime unit which smuggles abalone from South Africa: a large truck had run over their police car while the detectives were observing a suspect site. The widow points out that the men were on active duty - however the SAPS has now also turned down her second request to pay the R200,000 death-benefit payouts to the widow and the four orphans because the two Afrikaner cops " had died in a traffic accident.' Police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane was moreover, coldly unapologetic when confirming this. He says 'there's a difference between a policeman who dies on duty, and one who dies in the line of duty...' Phahlane also said 'his committee was under no obligations of having to communicate with Mrs Van Tonder.' http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2431021,00.html

430,000 unemployed 'whites' in 2001 – out of 3-million:

By October 2001 -- when the last census was held in S -- it became clear how poverty-stricken the Afrikaner nation had already become after only seven years of black-majority rule.

The number of unemployed so-called 'whites' was 430,000 in the 2001 Census - out of their employment-age population of 1,863,607. And these workers were getting very low incomes: of those whites who were were happy to cling onto their jobs in 2001, 237,502 whites (13%) earned less than R1,600 a month - that's $150 a month.

The annual income of 19% of all these white households earned R38,400 annually or less. Most white households range in size from 1 to 4 members - meaning that these household need at least R15,480 a year (less than $1,500 a year) to avoid 'absolute poverty', i.e. starvation level.
Already in 2001, the census found that some 10% of all whites fell in the category which earned R15,840 or less, i.e. at extreme poverty level.
Solidarity trade union research has since found that at least 1-million of the 3-million Afrikaners -- a full one-third of the population -- have become totally destitute by 2007, often homeless, without any income and no rights to access the job market or any government welfare payouts.

The SA Institute of Race Relations research also showed that 'white' unemployment had soared at much higher proportional rates than among other population groups: between 1998 and 2002 white unemployment rose by 74% - whereas the average increase for all the population groups combined was 39%.

This shows the dramatic effect of the ANC regime's race-based anti-white labour- and black-economic empowerment policies are having on the white population. - but especially the Afrikaans-speaking segment.

So what is life like for white Afrikaners in South Africa under black rule?

On Nov 20 2008 Beeld newspaper ran this picture of two homeless, impoverished Afrikaners, André Snyman and Leanie Steenkamp, left, who are among the 1,500 families who have moved into the derelict, 375-roomed, 395-hectare Westfort leprosy-hospital west of Pretoria. Locally it's known as 'Dark City' because it's so dangerous. Another resident, Pieter Breedt, said people even moved into the mortuary and the toilets. The hospital closed its doors in 1997 - and more than 1,500 families have now made it their permanent home, including 500 illegal migrants from other parts of Africa. There's no running water or toilets. Breedt said he had fixed up a borehole-pump and now sells the local residents clean water for R1 per 25 l. "I use my own power-generator to pump up the water. That's just for drinking water though, the toilets haven't worked for four years,' he said.

This is just one small example of the survival skills Afrikaners now must use to survive in South Africa under a black-ruled government.

By 1997, the Solidarity Trade Union movement 's charity arm called Helpende Hand/Helping Hand was getting flooded with requests for food-aid and temporary housing from empoverished, homeless and unemployable Afrikaners just like this couple. They found that very often, Afrikaners are being deliberately denied access to any free food and other charity hand-outs from ANC-government officials. With requests for help streaming in from all across the country Solidarity had to undertake an urgent new census of its own to determine the exact extent of Afrikaner poverty countrywide - and to find out where these pockets of poverty were.

Investigative journalist De Wet Potgieter hit the road on their behalf with his camera, travelling to five of the most populated provinces to visit Afrikaner communities and investigate matters at first hand. And he found that countrywide, the economic and physical survival ability for the Afrikaner nation had become exceedingly bleak. A similar survey also found the same picture in the Western Cape, undertaken by Mrs Erika Rossouw of Helpende Hand: http://www.helpendehand.co.za/images/report_helenzille.pdf.

Rossouw and Potgieter also discovered that many poor white children were 'lured into a life of prostitution, sexual enslavement and drug addiction, mainly by Nigerian criminal gangs operating from the cities.

And they also found that while Afrikaners were very keen to work and often were multi-skilled, asll the Afrikaners they interviewed told them of their experienced when applying for jobs -- 'that they were being turned away everywhere with often very rude, threatening comments such 'you are too white, go back where you came from'.

One meal a week:

"Poor white (Afrikaners) are caught in a spiral of misery and the little money they may get from meagre pensions barely keeps them alive from day to day," she writes in her October 2008 report to Cape Town mayor Helen Zille. "People laid off by government- and private employers after 1994 are being told that they are 'too white'. She found that most of the poor whites in the Western Cape could only afford one R4-meal a week for their families...

131,000 Afrikaner whites were living in backyard shacks and tents by 2006

The major problem suffered by poor Afrikaners is the aching lack of housing. During the 2006 survey of Stats-SA it was found that 131,000 whites had no access to housing at all, but were living in informal shacks in backyards. (Stats SA).

Rossouw and Potgieter both found that the white Afrikaner population also is increasingly moving to the Western Cape and Gauteng - being pushed from all the rural areas and rural towns, and thousands of Afrikaner farms now deserted -- with this population increase showing 35,22% in the Western Cape from 2001 to 2006, and in Gauteng, 37,66% . Just to catch up with the backlog for housing empoverished whites -- no new houses are being built for them now -- some 14,000 new houses a year would have to be built for the next ten years, this report notes - most in the Western Cape and Gauteng.

White poverty is not very visible because the Afrikaner population in South Africa is so small: only 7,5% of the entire population, and they are becoming even more invisible because the black population is still swelling by millions of new migrants from the rest of Africa.

Rossouw found many pockets of 'white poverty' in the Western Cape often at charity-missions, such as at the Klein Akker farm in Kraaifontein; the AGS Pinsterpark in Strand, Morgenzon shelter at Wellington, Rietbos, Melkbosstrand, where people including young children, live in wooden shacks hidden inside a thicket right behind the police station.

"Whites tend to find shelter in backyards of relatives or in public parks, often living in tents. " Solidarity trade union reports also indicate that Afrikaner whites often move around with their tents -- to avoid losing their children to social welfare departments, where white children, being far in the minority, often face a lifetime of abuse and neglect, both physical and sexual. At Melkbosstrand, the Afrikaner poor have been promised proper housing for years but are still waiting.

There is also much hidden poverty among the Afrikaner pupils in Parow - traditionally always a working-class Afrikaner-suburb -- Rossouw reports, with the children often being are too embarrassed and ashamed of their poverty to accept any food donations at school.

Solidarity warns that this points to a far greater problem of poverty in the entire surrounding area.

At the ACVV in Koeberg, Loftdal International Church in Maitland and Parow, and The Haven's various shelters, Afrikaners also do show up for charity handouts at the soup kitchens. Many are homeless families.

Ruyterwacht - textbook misery:

An entire seperate section was dedicated in the report to the mayor about the Communicare non-government housing project, which provides housing for 2,949 families -- of whom 1,667 (57%) are white Afrikaans-speakers. The problems experienced by these Afrikaner tenants range from invariably rude treatment by the black employees at Communicare, to discrimination on the housing lists -- and downright threats that they will be evicted if they dared to complain.

The entire Ruyterwacht area - historically always an Afrikaans-speaking area for whites, has seen an influx of coloured Afrikaans-speakers in recent years. However the greatest number of residents are still whites. Many rent homes and then sublet parts of these houses to homeless families.

The Ruyterwacht senior sentre has 270 members of whom 200 are whites, all older than 55 years and 90% dependent on their monthly pensions of R940. They live in rented school hall premises and get meals TWICE A WEEK at the cost of R4 per meal.

Only one R4 meal a week for the whole family...

Many of the couples and households (often pensioners support their children and/or grandchildren) can only afford one R4 meal a week for the entire family.
Many of the Ruyterwacht pensioners hire their homes from Communicare - a total of 304 Afrikaners hire from them. However the Afrikaners report that they are often treated very rudely and with threatening attitudes by the black workers at Communicare.

Whites live in fear and dread...

Statements are being made to Afrikaners such as 'you whites have never suffered, so you can suffer now...' 'if you are not satisfied, move to Delft,' and 'you may have stayed in your house for 28 years but it's not yours yet.' Solidarity Helping Hand union obtained the services of an attorney to make certain that the Afrikaner residents renting from Communicare would not be kicked out of their homes if they dared to complain to the mayor about these problems...

"These people live in fear and dread of the very people who are supposed to be helping and protecting them. And similar problems exist for (Afrikaners) who have been on the waiting lists for years. Communicare refuses to let anyone see the waiting lists. Other people who have been on the waiting lists for shorter periods, than Afrikaners who have waited for years often get houses assigned first....' Rossouw wrote in her report.

Verbal, emotional abuse... Solidarity writes: "The verbal and emotional abuse, combined with the secret waiting lists, creates a lot of mistrust towards Communicare among those who rent homes from this non-governmental organisation.'

Also noted: 'Whites report having to pay a higher percentage of their pensions on rent than other races do. This creates a perception that Communicare uses discriminatory criteria when determining rent. This creates further mistrust.'

Afrikaner squatters - kids play in rubbish heaps:

Afrikaners also live in a small squatter camp located at Ruyterwacht. Rossouw counted fourteen children ranging from infants to teenagers amongst them, some have lived there as long as four years.

"The children play among heaps of rubbish as stray dogs tear open the refuse bags. There is only one tap for drinking water on the entire site. The two portable bucket toilets for 35 people, are only empties once a week.These factors combine to create a very unhealthy environment which is conducive to the spread of disease'.