Douglas Schorr

Gender-based violence isn’t just a social issue; it’s economic. The ANC’s failure to create jobs is the real culprit behind South Africa’s crisis.

I spent nearly two decades working in Rhodesia’s black communities as a young man. Back then, a man attacking a woman—or a woman attacking a man—was so rare it shocked everyone. Life had a rhythm: women produced and parented, men provided and protected. It wasn’t just tradition—it was survival, honed over a billion years. The female, the heart of the home, chose the strongest partner; the male proved his worth through effort and provision. Call it nature’s quality control—each generation built on the best of the last. Pride kept it solid, as long as the man could deliver his “2 Ps”: provide and protect.

Then 1994 hit, and South Africa’s black politicians, led by the ANC, smashed that balance. They didn’t create jobs—especially not for those pouring out of schools. A proud man needs cash to hand his partner; a proud woman needs to show what she’s built with it. Without work, both collapse—empty shells brawling in shattered homes. Right now, the ANC brags that 25 million of 60 million South Africans are on welfare. They want more—not by boosting jobs or productivity, but by taxing the few still working into the ground. It’s a house of cards, and it’s collapsing.

The elite—ANC, MK, EFF—didn’t just steal roles; they stole pride, and that’s everything. Not out of malice, but sheer idiocy. Sweet-talked by overseas ultra-liberals and, since the ‘90s, the woke, they bought a fairy tale: black Africans were “too good” for basic work—factories, farms, streets. The ANC swallowed the bait; their South Africans should be dressed in suits sitting in air-conditioned offices, shuffling paper or selling imported goods to each other, while the real work of building, making, or farming under the sun got ignored. The façade of a precious few looking so smart, so sophisticated, and so eloquent impressed the impressionable of the outside world, but internally, and those who did business with SA knew progress had stalled, productivity had dived, and competitiveness had disappeared. Reality doesn’t bend to delusions.

Centuries of isolation left skills and IQs rooted in an older world—hunter-gatherers and most recently, tribal raiders, not modern economies. The ANC ignored that, chasing woke fantasies over practical steps.

They could’ve bridged the gap with entry-level jobs, training, real work. Women, the backbone of families, had skills ready to grow too. Instead, they doubled down on affirmative action that strangles businesses and minimum wages that price their own people out of work. Millions of menial (to snobs, opportunities to be grabbed by millions) jobs—vital for any society—got dismissed as “beneath” them.

The woke started out cheering this equality in the making—affirmative action, quotas, and minimum wages would fix it all, they said. But when those policies quickly began to make SA look like Malawi, proving you need a surplus of sharp, unequal performers to make a nation work, they dodged accountability by pinning their error on white supremacy, branding every black South African a victim. Particularly the voters born, schooled, and queued in unemployment lines since 1994.

Thirty years post-separate development, pride’s gone. Warriors who once stood tall—afraid of nothing—are shadows. Women who held families together are hollow echoes of the proud mothers they were. Without jobs, South Africa’s sliding into modern tribal warfare—concrete townships replacing savannahs. SA’s “Party, Party, Party” culture killed accountability. They stole the “2 Ps each”—provide and protect and produce and parent—leaving shame and violence to fill the void.

SANNA (SA New National Army) could turn it around—work, training, community. But the ANC’s too busy dancing to notice. They’ve committed identity theft on a national scale, and the country’s paying in blood.

Here’s the kicker. 90% of this chaos disappears with jobs. Not “kill the white” chants or woke excuses, but honest sweat. A man with money in his pocket stands tall; a woman with something to show for it rebuilds the home. Work restores pride, and pride suns violence. South Africa’s burning—jobs can douse the flames.

The power message is clear: start thinking for yourselves for the country, stop the handouts, scrap the taxes, and get people working. You’ve got 24 hours, Mr. President; if you don’t accept this mission, the country will implode.