Re: [OT] Documentary on South African farm murders

On 2025-05-25 12:01 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

The weird thing is that the documentaries I've seen indicate that South
Africa was actually working quite well in the 10 or 15 years after
apartheid ended;

 
Maybe it was better than today, but I wouldn't say it with quite so much
praise. A friend went there on a railway engineering project. Foreign
visitors were routinely targeted by thieves and there was plenty of
concern about violent crime. When he was actually working with the
railroad or engineering staffers on the project, everything was fine,
but he still had to get to and from his hotel. The master contractor
ended up stiffing him on much of his consulting fee and expenses.
 
No. It was not a good place to do business unless your company was a
huge international engineering firm whose fees were routinely paid by
wire transfer. My friend was a freelancer.

 
I don't know; I've never been there. Maybe it was already fairly dire
under Mandela and Mbeke.