The ANC usually justifies its policy of radical transformation, or socialism, by warning that the alternative would be a revolution of the poor. They then argue that the numerous “service delivery protests” are proof of the impatience of the poor because of the slow pace of redistribution.
Of course, what the ANC is keeping quiet about, is that it is precisely its own socialism that is impoverishing its voters, and it is the ANC’s own mismanagement of services that is driving the poor into the streets. The poor are angrier towards the rotten government than they are towards the (white) “rich” because every day they see exactly who impoverishes them.
It is certainly true that uprisings by the poor masses pose a great danger to the country, especially with the weakening economy and the empty state coffers. However, there is one greater danger than a revolution of the poor, and that is a revolution of the “rich”. The “rich” in this case does not refer to the handful of billionaires, but to ordinary middle-class people with a qualification, a mortgage and a medical aid. According to socialists, this middle class forms part of the “rich” – especially when they are white.
Revolution of the “rich”
A revolution of the “rich” is vastly different from a revolution of the poor. Such a revolution does not involve noisy uprisings, fiery speeches, threats and violence. It is a quiet, hushed revolution that is far more destructive than an atom bomb. This kind of revolution does not destroy a city, which can be rebuilt. This revolution destroys a country permanently.
It takes on many forms because the “rich” have far more “weapons” in their arsenal than stones and firebombs. It is not launched by loud cannon fire. It starts silently with a thought in the minds of the rich that they have lost confidence in the ANC government. The next step is that the rich do not invest their savings in businesses that create jobs and pay taxes to the government.
Investments are taken overseas, with the result that jobs are created and taxes are paid over there. A strike by the rich (their investments) has a much more deadly effect than strikes by the poor. Without investments there are no jobs, and the unemployed and their children will die of starvation.
The rich reduce staff or employ fewer people. They pay as little tax as possible. They buy less, and their reduced spending leads to disastrous consequences downstream, such as factories producing less and having to lay off workers.
Leaving the country
As soon as the rich begin to feel that the country has forsaken them, they begin to leave the country. They take their skills, future taxes and job creating abilities with them. The country also loses decades of investments into their education and training. The revolution of the rich does not lie somewhere in the future; it is already raging – silent but devastating. South Africa is already the largest exporter of job creators, expertise and taxpayers. It is a double whammy: the state’s income declines, and expenditure on welfare for the poor increases. Eventually, without enough expertise and money to run a modern country, the state will collapse.
However, the rich do not actually have to leave the country to defeat the poor; they can also emigrate “inwards” by only taking care of themselves and each other. They merely “semigrate” inland, further away from the poor, and they only invest in themselves and their own community. They entrench themselves against the state by means of privatisation, technology, participating in foreign economies, getting involved in community organisations, and by residing in security estates.
The unspoken Orwellian battle cry of this rich revolution is that lifelong ANC voters are not victims, but accomplices who must bear the consequences of their choice.
There is only one way to stop this deadly revolution, and that is that governments should treat the middle class like clients who need to be retained, and not like subjects who feel oppressed. Conditions that will keep the “rich” contented will have to be created.
