I Can't Decide If This Is Karma Or Evolution In Action

From the Daily Mail: "Poacher is trampled to death by elephants while 'lining up a shot' to kill a white rhino." The article recounts:

    Two men with a high-powered rifle and an axe had crossed into the iconic Kruger National Park in South Africa looking for a potential £10,000 payday with a single shot.

    But unknown to them the white rhino herd had been following a water source along with a group of nearby African elephants sheltering from the harsh sun under trees.

    As the pair closed in on the rhinos – whose horn per ounce is worth more than gold or cocaine on the black market – the elephants broke cover and charged them.

    A Kruger National Park source said: 'The two ran in different directions but the one lining up the shot was the slowest to his feet and the elephants went for him first.

    'He was quickly overrun and the elephants trampled him into the earth and all that we found was basically a very large blood stain around the clothing he was in.

    'The other poacher made it to safety but has since been arrested. We were alerted to the incident and followed the suspect back to where the incident happened.

    'The report came in that there was not much left but a big blood stain in the earth and his clothes.

I wonder what was the last thing to go through his mind: the dirt or an elephant's foot? 

VIDEO: Update On Situation In Africa

The U.S. is getting more involved militarily and, possibly, through mercenary companies, in Africa as it appears we are entering a period of resource competition with China. Time to dig out my old copy of the novel, The Dogs of War.  

VIDEO: "The Africa Situation is Getting Crazy"
Cappy Army (30 min.)

VIDEO: South African Anti-Immigration Protests

June 30 had been a deadline imposed by citizens in South Africa to drive out illegal immigrants, culminating in protests several days ago. 

 VIDEO: "Chaos erupts in South Africa as anti-migrant protests sweep nation"
Sky News Australia (6 min.)

Immigrants Fleeing South Africa

While European leaders are messing their pants over a movie of a lone vigilante killing the worst migrant criminals, this is what actual anti-immigration movements look like: "Thousands of foreign nationals leave South Africa ahead of June 30 'deadline'"--France 24. The article relates:

    Anti-immigrant groups in South Africa have set a June 30 "deadline" for undocumented immigrants to leave the country, planning widespread demonstrations on that date and threatening a “national shutdown” if the government does not take significant action on immigration.

    Anti-foreigner sentiment has been on the rise in recent months, with protests in several major cities across the country.  

    Three people, including a Malawian man and two Mozambican nationals, were killed during recent anti-immigration protests in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape provinces. 

    South African Police Services launched a special $36 million operation ahead of the new round of protests, with acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia saying police would not tolerate violence or lawlessness.   

The protests, vandalism, and assaults have convinced many immigrants that there is no "future here anymore." The article continues:

    Organisations like Lawyers for Human Rights and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia have expressed their concern following the recent spate of violent protests.

    “What is of concern is the rise of vigilante and anti-rights groups. And this is resulting in attacks on foreign nationals through racial profiling,” said Sharon Ekambaram, who heads the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights.

    Ekambaram said members of her group “are very concerned” about the violence taking place against documented and undocumented foreign nationals, noting that many of the victims are not illegal migrants but actually have legal refugee status in South Africa.

The "racial profiling" going on isn't white versus black, or Indian versus black, but blacks targeting other blacks. 

The Lies They Tell Us: Famine and the 1985 Live Aid Concert

If you were alive in 1985 and paying attention to the main stream media's reporting of the Ethiopian famine, or were subjected to later history lessons of the same, you probably never heard the full backstory of the famine or where the money went afterward. No Pasaran delves into this topic in a piece entitled: "Live Aid 1985: What Nobody Tells You About the African Famine that Led to the Most-Watched Concert in History." 

    Although the immediate cause of the famine was a drought, it should surprise no one that the reason Ethiopia suffered more than its neighbors was because of its government. Specifically, "in September 1974, a Marxist-Leninist military junta called the Derg overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie. By 1977, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam had killed his rivals inside the junta and taken sole control." Mariam "built a Soviet-style state. He nationalized all rural land in 1975 and imposed grain quotas that peasants had to deliver to the state at prices below the cost of production." Consequently, when the drought struck, there was no surplus from earlier years, and the people starved. 

 This is the mechanism Stalin had used to engineer famine in Ukraine in 1932. The state destroys the production incentive, then extracts grain by force. When drought arrived in northern Ethiopia in 1983, there was no surplus and no buffer. Forced collectivization had already destroyed the country's food reserves years before the rain stopped.   

In short: "The famine that produced the most-watched concert in history was caused by forced collectivization, forced grain seizures, and a deliberate policy of using hunger as a weapon against civilians. Four decades later, that half of the story still does not appear in most accounts of Live Aid."

    But it gets even worse. The money raised by Live Aid was used to fund Mariam's military and, therefore, financed his killing between 50,000 and 100,000 of the Ethiopian people. 

    Yet another example of liberals being more concerned about their public image than actually helping people. 

Mobs Chase Immigrants Out Of South Africa

This article is from late March, but nevertheless is indicative that people everywhere are getting fed up with foreigners taking their jobs and driving up costs: "Hundreds flee as South Africa anti-migrant mobs go door-to-door"--The South African. An excerpt:

    Hundreds of foreigners fearing for their lives have taken shelter in community halls along South Africa’s coast, saying mobs of locals were going door-to-door telling them to leave the country.

    Mostly nationals of Malawi and Mozambique, many told AFP they had fled their homes at the weekend and spent nights in the mountains and bush, before making their way to the small-town community centres.

‘Don’t belong’

    “They said ‘you are a foreigner, you don’t belong in South Africa, so you must go’,” Mozambican Thomas Vincent Baloyi told AFP in Gansbaai, around 110km southeast of Cape Town. 

    “I said, ‘no, I got documents to be here in South Africa’. They didn’t want to know,” said Baloyi, who has been in the country for nearly 16 years working in construction and gardening.

    “They just chased us away like dogs… that is unfair because, actually, I’m a human being,” the 32-year-old said.

    “We just stayed in the bush until six in the morning.”

    Weeks of mostly small protests across South Africa against illegal foreign nationals exploded into violence at the weekend in the town of Mossel Bay, 250km up the coast, where 55 shacks were torched.

    The South African police say two people from Mozambique were killed but did not link the deaths to an anti-illegal migrant march held hours before.

    The Mozambique government said five of its citizens were killed as a “direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks”.

These are black mobs chasing out blacks from other countries. But I suspect that we will see more of this as economies around the world contract.

    In any event, the mob action has prompted the government to do something: "South Africa's president unveils crackdown on illegal migration" reports the BBC. The article relates:

    South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has addressed the nation to announce a raft of new measures to crackdown on illegal migration as tensions rise over anti-foreigner marches and frustrations about high unemployment.

    These steps include jailing employers who hire undocumented workers, setting up dedicated courts to speed up deportations of undocumented migrants and having a register with biometric data "for every person in the country" to stamp out identity theft.

    But he also warned South Africans not to take the law into their own hands.

    Over the last few weeks, several African nations have been organising the evacuation of some of their nationals as fears of violence grow.

    Anti-migrant groups are demanding undocumented migrants leave the country - and have set 30 June as the deadline.

    Last weekend, several hundred African migrants fled their homes in the Overberg region of South Africa's Western Cape Province after reports of door-to-door intimidation, as well as the deaths of two Mozambicans in Mossel Bay.

    Many sought shelter in community halls, at the beach or nearby mountains. Some have opted to return home - and this weekend another group of around 140 people boarded buses to Malawi and Mozambique.

    In Durban, foreigners have been camping outside the city's home affairs department for several weeks, saying they fear for their lives. 

The U.S. should also start jailing employers that hire illegals.  

Trump Bumps Up Refugee Cap ... For White South Africans

The Associated Press reports:

    The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will admit an additional 10,000 white South Africans into the U.S. as refugees this year, increasing its historically low annual cap but still blocking people from other countries from entering through the program.

    Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office and, since then, has turned it into a vehicle to allow Afrikaners — a group of white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers — into the U.S. Advocates say the decision to focus a decades-old program on one group has left people around the world fleeing war and strife stranded and with few options.

    The administration says Afrikaners are subject to persecution in their home country, a charge the government in South Africa denies.  

The excuse given by the South African government is that South Africa has such a high murder rate that the murder rates of the Boer farmers is not abnormal. But what is abnormal is that Julius Sello Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters--the third largest political party in South Africa--is infamous for regular chanting the anti-apartheid struggle song "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" at political rallies. A chant with which the crowds join in. Nevertheless, that is not what prompted the recent bump in the refugee cap. Rather, turning back to the AP article:

    Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, and Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security, met with key congressional committees on Thursday as part of the legally required consultation process with lawmakers, according to two people who were granted anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

    During the hour-long session, Landau told lawmakers that one of the ways that Afrikaners had faced persecution at home was the erasure of their history in school textbooks, according to the people with knowledge of the meeting. The discussion infuriated Democrats, who called the approach and the consultation “indefensible.” 

Democrats have been trying to erase our history for decades so it no wonder they would defend South Africa doing the same. 

Famine Coming To Africa

Basically it is because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz according to the video, below. Oil used to produce fuel, particularly diesel, comes through the strait; and South Africa relies on Russian fertilizer that would also come through Iran and thence through the strait to South Africa. As he explains, the input costs of growing this season is too high to justify planting the crops. And since South Africa exports food to much of the rest of Africa, there will be food shortages elsewhere in Africa.  

 VIDEO: "South African farmers won't plant crops this season. Here's why:"
Willem Petzer (8 min.)

Black South Africans Protest Illegal Aliens

 A young black woman they interviewed had this to say:

Anyone just wakes up in the morning and decides that they're having problems in their own country. "Oh, let me look for greener pastures" and it's South Africa. And if we don't say anything about it or if we say something about it, we're told that it's black people. This is not a skin color thing. It's about us protecting our country, which is a sovereign state. We love our African brothers and sisters, but it's time now that they also fix their own countries for their own children and their own future. We're making it very clear to you guys, we don't want you here. 

 VIDEO: "South Africa anti-migrant protests: Thousands march, demanding illegal immigrants to leave" -- Al Jazeera English (2 min.)

Global Warming Strikes Finland and Morocco

• "Thousands of tourists left stranded in Lapland as flights are cancelled during -37C Arctic blast - with Brits left struggling in 'nightmare'"--Daily Mail. For my American readers, -37 C is -34.6 F.
• "African country sees snow for the first time in 25 years"--Daily Mail. The Atlas Mountains see snow every year, but the article is specifically discussing that "[o]n January 7, 2026, the northeastern Moroccan city of Oujda recorded two centimetres of snow in the city centre, while surrounding villages saw up to 10 centimetres." 

VIDEO: Rhodesia's Liberals

While the topic of the video is about the liberals in Rhodesia that cheered on Robert Mugabe's brutal take over of the country, it mostly focuses on one particular liberal Rhodesian politician, Sir Garfield Todd, who, even after Mugabe ordered the rape of his daughter, still supported Mugabe to his dying days. The daughter even backed Mugabe after the rape and into her old age. Thus the truest line from the host's narration: "This atrocity showcases just how oikophobic liberalism really is and how it tends toward always preferring the exotic, the stranger, and the alien over the family, kith and kin."

    As I've said before and undoubtedly will say many times in the future, liberals are stupid and evil. Or, as the psychological research shows, "people who are more liberal, especially those identifying as 'extremely liberal,' are more likely to have mental health problems." 

 VIDEO: "The shocking fate of liberal Rhodesians who backed Mugabe’s rise to power"
Willem Petzer (12 min.)

Spinning Up The African Famine Stories

On October 30, I noted Bill Gates' statement on why he had changed his mind about the threat of global warming, including his admonition that we need to start focusing on poverty and disease in third world countries. I've lived through this before, including the Live Aid concert in 1985 organized to address a famine in Ethiopia (it didn't solve anything because the Ethiopian elites wanted the famine; and there have long been accusations that some of the funds from the concert were used by the Ethiopian government to buy weapons). Are we going to see a repeat? I thought that after Gates' statement, we would shortly be seeing news stories similar to those rampant in the 1980s. And here we are, from the AP: "Sudan relief operations are on the brink of collapse, UN agency warns." The article relates:

    “Despite the rising need, humanitarian operations are now on the brink of collapse,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. It added: “Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.”

    The IOM said more funding is needed to ease the humanitarian impact of the war between the Sudanese army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The agency warned of “an even greater catastrophe” if its appeal went unheeded.

    “Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.  

The primary difference between the 1980s and now is that there will be an underlying threat that if money is not provided, Europe (and to a lessor extent, the U.S.) will see a flood of refugees and illegal migrants. How soon until USAID or something like it is back up and running and fully funded? 

More:

• "A declaration of famine is rare. It's now happened twice in 2025, this time in Sudan"--NPR. 
• "Famine declared in two Sudanese cities cut off by war, fragile gains elsewhere"--UN. 
• "Crisis in Sudan: What is happening and how to help"--International Rescue Committee. 

Communism In Action: Chinese Copper Mine Poisons Major African River

Breitbart reports: "Chinese Copper Mine Causes Giant Acid Spill in Zambia: Major River ‘Totally Dead’." From the article:

    On February 18, a tailings dam at the Sino-Metals Leach Zambia mine collapsed, resulting in a worst-case calamity: 50 million liters of toxic slurry poured into a stream that connects to the vital Kafue River. This river provides water for plants, fish, animals, and about 12 million human inhabitants, including residents of the national capital, Lusaka. In fact, about 60% of Zambia’s population lives in the Kafue River basin.

    Environmental activists called the toxic spill an “environmental disaster of catastrophic consequences” and pronounced the 930-mile-long Kafue River “totally dead.”

    Huge numbers of dead fish began washing up on the river banks, wiping out the local fishing industry. Crops watered by the river withered and died. The Zambian military used planes and speedboats to dump hundreds of tons of lime into the river to neutralize the acid waste.

    Adding insult to injury — in fact, adding both insult and injury — another Chinese mine suffered a smaller acid waste leak a few days later. A mine worker was killed at this second mine after falling into the acid. Local officials accused the Chinese mine owners of first attempting to conceal the smaller leak and then defying government orders to halt operations. Two managers from the second mine have been placed under arrest.

The Issue of Afrikaner Refugees

Although Trump has generally cracked down on accepting refugees there is one notable exception: on February 7, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order stopping the provision of aid or assistance to South Africa, and that the United States "shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation." A couple videos that go into more detail on the issues facing Afrikaners and white South Africans more generally:

 VIDEO: "The Truth about White South African Refugees"
serpentza (17 min.)

VIDEO: "Why White People in South Africa Deserve to Suffer"
serpentza (24 min.)

Murder In The Bush

In a recent Enrichment Report, I had linked to an article about an American pastor murdered in Angola while there with his family to be missionaries. At that time, there was nothing in the article to suggest that the pastor's death had been anything but a simple murder in a remote area of a country known to have a high rate of violent crime. But it turns out that there was a lot more going on.

    In its article, "Shocking reason Minnesota pastor's wife 'had him murdered by two hit men' during Angola mission," the Daily Mail reports:

    A pastor's wife had him murdered because she was having an affair with the couple's security guard in Angola, according to police.

    Jackie Shroyer, 44, is accused of being the mastermind of her husband Beau Shroyer's murder in the African nation, where the missionary couple had moved with their five children in 2019.

    Beau, 44, was killed on October 25 after he was lured into a remote area, his hometown church in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, announced last week.

    Police say Jackie, who was arrested days after the murder, paid three men the equivalent of $50,000 to kill her husband. Two have been arrested, while a third remains on the loose.

    Jackie was having an affair with one of the hit men, Bernadino Elias, 24, who worked at the family's home as a security guard, according to officials. 

    She had apparently been having misgivings about leaving Angola when their mission ended, as reported by KVRR.

    Elias and alleged accomplice Isalino Kayoo, 23, were arrested, and a third suspect,  Gelson Ramos, 22, remains on the run.

    All of the men have criminal histories that include armed robbery and kidnapping, according to Angola's Criminal Investigation Service.

Kenyan Police Kill Tax Protestors

Per the New York Post: "Kenya’s parliament building ablaze as thousands of protesters enter, police open fire." From the lede:

    Part of Kenya’s parliament building was on fire Tuesday as thousands of protesters against a new finance bill entered and legislators fled, in the most direct assault on the government in decades.

    Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire.

    The protesters had demanded that legislators vote against the controversial bill imposing new taxes on a country where frustrations over the high cost of living have simmered for years.

    The protesters outmaneuvered police to enter parliament shortly after legislators voted to pass the bill. Lawmakers fled through a tunnel, but protesters allowed opposition legislators who voted against the bill to walk out of the besieged building.

    The office of the Nairobi governor, a member of the ruling party, also was on fire. The office is located near parliament. Police water cannons were being used to extinguish the fire.

    Protesters could be heard shouting, “We’re coming for every politician.”

    Police officers also fired live ammunition and threw tear-gas canisters at protesters who sought treatment at a medical tent set up at a church near the parliament complex.

 I bet CNN, et al., won't be calling these protestors "tea-baggers". 

News From Wakanda: Monkey Pox Outbreak

U.S. News and World Report relates that "Spread of Deadlier Mpox Strain in Africa Has CDC Concerned." The article warns that "Mpox is spread through close personal contact" such as through sex, and that "[a]lthough anyone can get mpox, men who have sex with men are particularly at risk, and those who have HIV are more vulnerable to severe disease." "'In two outbreaks [in the DRC],'" the article continues, "'sexual transmission of clade I MPXV was reported among men-who-have-sex-with-men and both male and female sex workers and their contacts,' the researchers said." (brackets in original). In addition, the article relates that "two thirds (67%) of suspected cases and more than three quarters (78%) of suspected deaths have occurred in persons aged 15 years [or younger]." (brackets in original).

Another Biden Foreign Policy/Military Disaster

You might remember last summer that Niger suffered a military led coup. The U.S. had a large airbase in Niger that it used for the GWOT and probably other things. Russia apparently offered encouragement to the junta, because when faced with the threat of military intervention from leaders in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the junta's rulers asked for assistance from Russia's Wagner Group which has provided "assistance" to other countries in the region in kicking out the French.   

• More: "Unconfirmed Reports of Wagner Group Personnel Aiding Coup in Niger"--Red State.
• More: "War Looms Over West Africa As Niger Coup Deadline Arrives"--Newsweek.
• More: "U.S. turns up pressure in critical ally Niger as region faces threat from Russia-loyal Wagner Group"--Los Angeles Times.

    The Biden Administration apparently believed that the American airbase was going to serve as leverage over the junta leaders, but it didn't turn out that way. Rather, as described in an April 18, 2024 article, "Nightmare in Niger — Exclusive: Biden Administration Leaves Hundreds of U.S. Troops ‘Hostage’ in Niger" from Breitbart, Niger insisted on kicking the U.S. forces out of the country, but Biden would not let the airmen and troops leave:

    More than 1,000 U.S. troops are effectively being held “hostage” in Niger with medical supplies running low — stuck between the military junta-controlled government’s demands for them to leave and the Biden administration’s refusal to let them go home after the end of their deployments, according to a report prepared by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

    In addition, the report accuses Biden administration officials of trying to cover up the situation to lawmakers, as well as to troops deployed there and their families anxiously awaiting their return.

    “Our troops are currently sitting on a powder keg caused by political indecision at the top of the Department of State and Department of Defense. With a military junta in charge — who detests our presence and considers us unserious and predatory — the situation seems to be setting the groundwork for catastrophic diplomatic collapse like we saw during the 2012 Benghazi attack. Additionally, these troops are already running short on necessary, life-saving supplies, such as blood and medications,” the report by Gaetz’s office said.

    “They are, in effect, hostages of an indecisive Commander-in-Chief,” the report said.

    The report is based on interviews by Gaetz’s office with troops currently stationed in Niger, who reached out to Gaetz’s office after they did not receive assistance from the Departments of Defense and State.

    The service members are currently deployed to Airbase 101 (AB101) in the capital of Niger, Niamey, as part of the 768th Expeditionary Airbase Squadron (768 EABS), which is comprised of active duty and reserve forces, Air National Guard airmen, Army Special Forces and contract support. There are about 450 personnel at Air Base 101. Until the takeover by the junta, the base was a major hub for U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) against terrorist groups Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State in West Africa, Boko Haram, and Ansaru. It was also a hub for U.S. military advisers supporting Niger’s forces.

    The U.S. troop presence became threatened after the military junta, known as the Conseil National pour la Sauvegarde de la Patrie (CNSP), or the National Council for the Safeguard of the Fatherland, declared it had taken over the country on July 26, 2023. Just a few months before, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had praised Niger as “a model of resilience, a model of democracy, a model of cooperation.”

    The junta declared in March 2024 a cancellation of the military accords with the U.S., after a series of meetings with Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Commander Marine Gen. Michael Langley, according to the report.

So the result? Reminiscent of Afghanistan:

• "ANOTHER MAJOR BIDEN DISASTER: Niger’s Russian-Backed Military Junta Agrees to Release 1,000 US Soldiers After Biden Announces Plans to Abandon the $100 Million US Airbase in the Country"--Gateway Pundit.
• "U.S. hands over $110m base to Niger junta to release 1,000 U.S. Army hostages, watches helplessly as base goes to Russia"--American Thinker. 

News From Wakanda: Police Kill 9 Members Of Gang Of Murderers And Rapists

The Daily Mail reports:

    The violent gang of 11 young men aged between 18 and 22 had been behind a vicious mini-crime wave in the suburb of Durban for over a year and were wanted for at least five murders.

    They had used automatic weapons, pistols and machetes to bring fear to locals and forced three families out of their homes in Mariannhill which they took over as their gang HQ.

Luckily South Africa has strict gun control laws to prevent this very thing. The article continues:

    But on Wednesday their luck ran out when a team of elite firearms officers were sent in to deal with them after they gang-raped a helpless woman in front of her mum and sister.

    The masked and armed gang burst in through the kitchen door on March 28 and beat the 52-year-old mother and her two daughters age 16 and 24 in a blatant house robbery.

    But then their attention switched to the eldest daughter who they then began to strip and then gang rape while the terrified mother and younger sister had to watch and listen.

    Less than a week later nine of the gang lay dead in their HQ which had been turned according to locals into an 'abattoir' where they died during a two-minute gun battle with cops.

    Swift justice was delivered on the ruthless gang by the crack KZN Provincial Stabilisation Team who had been mobilised after a tip-off as to where the gang were hiding out.

    Angered by the brutal rape which had inflamed tempers in the terrified community the police team went in under the cover of darkness but a lookout warned the criminals.

    The gang made the mistake of opening fire first and in a devastating response the firearms unit returned a barrage of fire which ended the young lives of the 9 desperados inside.

    Two of the gang are believed to have escaped and are being hunted down by the team.

    Yesterday the families of the nine dead gang members made a tearful procession past a dozen police vehicles and pathology teams to identify the bloodied bodies of their loved ones.

You can almost hear the anguished cries of "but de dindu nuttin'!"  

News from Wakanda: Power Shortages Worsen

 A little over a week ago, BNN Bloomberg reported that "South Africa Faces Most Severe Nationwide Power Cuts in Months." Per the article, "state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. announced that it would implement so-called Stage 6 outages — taking 6,000 megawatts of demand off the grid — from midnight Saturday [February 10] until further notice." This, even though the utility had returned two units to operation. The reason for the outages was that two other units were being taken off line, apparently because of the need to replenish two pumped storage dams. 

    But there may be more to this than just poor maintenance and the run-of-the-mill corruption common to Africa. Energy Central, in its article, "South Africa’s Power Cuts: Sabotage, politics, and election fears cloud the grid" published last week, notes a connection between the outages and pronouncements from the Democratic Alliance (DA), a main opposition party to the ANC in South Africa. 

    At the heart of the [outages] issue lies Eskom, the country’s primary electricity supplier, plagued by aging infrastructure, financial woes, and reports of sabotage at its facilities. In 2022, Eskom reported instances of interference at key power stations, including Koeberg, Hendrina, Tutuka, and Camden.

    However, the crisis escalated in 2023, with daily outages lasting up to 12 hours becoming the norm. This fueled speculation and suspicion, leading to reports suggesting links between the power sector issues and political figures or parties.

    One key focus is the Democratic Alliance (DA), a main opposition party. A leaked letter, allegedly addressed to a DA employee, mentions recommendations for actions in the energy sector, coinciding with the timing of increased power disruptions.

* * *

    The DA has publicly advocated for Eskom’s privatization, arguing it could improve management and address sabotage. However, this stance, coupled with the pre-election timing of the outages, has raised questions about potential manipulation of voter sentiment.

    Adding another layer of concern are observations that power outages are less frequent in areas where DA leaders reside. This, coupled with the party’s stance on privatization, has sparked discussions about the potential use of energy management as a political strategy.

However, even this may be disinformation by the ANC seeking to discredit the DA, which is viewed as a more moderate, "classical liberal" party versus the corrupt, socialist ANC.