Only in South Africa #1
Gareth van Onselen presents an ad hoc collection of the bizarre occurrences that make SA’s problems unique
The gatekeepers of South African patriotism are often at pains to point out that our country’s many and various difficulties can all be found elsewhere and to stress that, given this fact, we should take some comfort from knowing our situation is not singular but universal. SA’s problems are not unique. We are experiencing little more than the growing pains any democratic dispensation struggles through. Don’t panic. This is all normal. Is it though? Over the past two decades the country would seem to have battled through a series of events that appear profoundly abnormal. There are common issues, to be sure — crime, corruption, mismanagement and so on — but the particular way in which they manifest here seems as extraordinary as it is spectacular. For the most part, they suggest a level of incompetence unmatched elsewhere. Only in South Africa is a new, ad hoc series that seeks to document those problems specific to our country and its administration and that defy both logic and the...
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