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Speaking as a South African, that article was very interesting and didn’t seem to misrepresent anything that I’m aware of, but I’m also not especially knowledge

Speaking as a South African, that article was very interesting and didn’t seem to misrepresent anything that I’m aware of, but I’m also not especially knowledgeable in these areas. I don’t support this law myself, but as mentioned by the article it’s not as bad as Trump makes out. However, there is some context which I feel is missing from your post, in particular how it’s a bit strange that Trump even cared to politically attack South Africa. We’re pretty small fry from an economic output point of view, not nothing, but a pretty small market which although it has great potential, has been somewhat stagnant largely due to incompetence and corruption by our government. Something that would have however gotten notice in the US is that we formally filed a case in ICC against Israel for human rights violations (for the record, I would not personally speak in support of Israel or Palestine). Something else that is also likely a factor (and is mentioned in the article) is that Musk was born here. Not mentioned in the article is that he has unequivocally stated he has no love for South Africa. If I recall correctly, his family left the country while he was still in school, where he was bullied. It would be pretty natural that he has some emotional connection to here and would pay some attention to what’s happening, at the very least to things which would reinforce his existing world view on us. Another interesting thing that happened in the last couple of years is that Starlink looked into operating here, but decided not to when the government said a precondition was that a significant percentage be black owned (in practice many companies who adhere to this essentially view it as a form of tax where they’re obligated to give a portion of their company away). Our BBBEE laws which dictate that you can’t do business with the government unless your own company and all your suppliers (and their suppliers, ad infinitum) have enough black ownership is quite contentious (and a form racial of discrimination in my books) has resulted in many international investors simply walking away, Starlink amongst them, and I don’t blame them. But It’s exactly the kind of thing Musk would no doubt have heard about with Starlink and if I were Musk it would have peeved me quite a bit, possibly enough to point us out to Trump who’s always looking for a punching bag to reinforce his existing world views on injustices.

blackqueeriroh 2y ago
> Our BBBEE laws which dictate that you can’t do business with the government unless your own company and all your suppliers (and their suppliers, ad infinitum) have enough black ownership is quite contentious (and a form racial of discrimination in my books) Wait, you think that barely 30 years of laws that require a minimum percentage of Black ownership after FORTY THREE years of white apartheid is racial discrimination? Cry me a river.
- jonathanlydall 2y ago
  While I didn't initially dislike the idea of BBBEE in principle, in practice it does a lot of making already rich black people even richer even though they’re doing no extra work at all, they’re often being given money for doing nothing except sitting in an annual meeting. Meanwhile, the poor get nothing for it and are still having terrible service from the government in regard to things like education and healthcare. And entrepreneurs in smallish businesses who happen to be white (like they can control their race) get left with the choice of either not growing their business (which very likely employs a fair percentage of black people) or giving some of it away. It’s really a bit of an Animal Farm (you should read the book if haven’t) situation here, the black government may not commit human rights atrocities like the apartheid one before, but their level of delivery to the poor is almost as bad while they’re very good at enriching themselves personally. Meanwhile the middle class (white and black alike) pay huge amounts of income tax, but still have to pay for private education, healthcare and armed response services because the public services are so badly run. So considering how little I get from my tax money, I consider them to largely be a charity to those less fortunate than me, which I’m okay with in principle, but when I see the government being useless or enacting policies which stifle economic growth, it understandably frustrates me.

blackqueeriroh 2y ago

> Our BBBEE laws which dictate that you can’t do business with the government unless your own company and all your suppliers (and their suppliers, ad infinitum) have enough black ownership is quite contentious (and a form racial of discrimination in my books) Wait, you think that barely 30 years of laws that require a minimum percentage of Black ownership after FORTY THREE years of white apartheid is racial discrimination? Cry me a river.

jonathanlydall 2y ago
While I didn't initially dislike the idea of BBBEE in principle, in practice it does a lot of making already rich black people even richer even though they’re doing no extra work at all, they’re often being given money for doing nothing except sitting in an annual meeting. Meanwhile, the poor get nothing for it and are still having terrible service from the government in regard to things like education and healthcare. And entrepreneurs in smallish businesses who happen to be white (like they can control their race) get left with the choice of either not growing their business (which very likely employs a fair percentage of black people) or giving some of it away. It’s really a bit of an Animal Farm (you should read the book if haven’t) situation here, the black government may not commit human rights atrocities like the apartheid one before, but their level of delivery to the poor is almost as bad while they’re very good at enriching themselves personally. Meanwhile the middle class (white and black alike) pay huge amounts of income tax, but still have to pay for private education, healthcare and armed response services because the public services are so badly run. So considering how little I get from my tax money, I consider them to largely be a charity to those less fortunate than me, which I’m okay with in principle, but when I see the government being useless or enacting policies which stifle economic growth, it understandably frustrates me.