BOTus relives the BOTha apartheid days  

Or: the Orange Monster becomes the Kroot Krokodil

Martin Challenor

To make sense of the words that follow, you have to know who the Kroot Krokodil was. He was state president PW Botha of South Africa in the 1980s. He defied all reason and common sense in upholding apartheid and so delayed democracy and decency in South Africa. Everybody else was wrong about the future of the land in the eyes of the Kroot Krokodil – which means the great crocodile and so named for his tough, if mindless, political stance.

I tried to tell PW often at the time that no matter how odious he was, how threatening, how murderous, how loud he shouted insults at his detractors, democracy would prevail in South Africa. There is, alas, so much similarity between president Donald J Trump today and PW back then, which I think will be to the detriment of good American people.

The first similarity for me is their supporters. I cannot believe the low calibre of people who support Botus. Note, I did not say POTUS, which stands for the president of the United States. I said Botus, which I will come to soon. Many of PW’s most fanatical fans were middle aged women harpies. They were the kind of vacuous, vicious, vile and vocal people I would not let near my parents, least their stupidity and awfulness spread like herpes. I look at some of the women who shout for the Orange Monster and can see and hear again the women who shouted for the Kroot Krokodil.

The similarities continue. Botus wants to kick people out of his land America, which was founded on seized native American land and fuelled by black slaves. The Kroot Krokodil did kick black people off their land that their ancestors had lived on for countless generations. I recall the Lime Hill and Roosboom removals. Forced removals now has a new champion, I see.

The Orange Monster has thugs snatching people off the street, for not having the right papers to be in America, after which they disappear. The Kroot Krokodil beat him to that. Remember the pass laws? The police used to snatch black people off the street, because they did not have the papers to be in the white areas, after which they disappeared. People will soon start to die in American immigrant cells, just as political prisoners died in South Africa. And when I hear talk denigrating diversity, equity and inclusion all I can hear is blankes alleenlik in apartheid South Africa. The term means whites only, and that did not work out too well for its proponents, did it?

One reason the Orange Monster hates South Africa is because we have a free Press and freedom of speech. PW also hated that, but was thwarted by the courts in his assault on same. Hopefully the American courts will have the resilience and honour to stand up to the Orange Monster. Botus hates South Africa because we are tolerant of religions. Botus spearheads a deep-seated hated in America for anything Muslim. Such hatred has been growing for the past six decades. And anybody who contests the hatred is wrong, just as the Kroot Krokodil saw as mortal enemies anybody who stood up for a better future for black South Africans.

Now, another thing; the military. The Kroot Krokodil spent 13 percent of the national budget on Defence towards the end of his ruin, I mean reign. However, all that money spent on shooting and killing and marching and hurting and lying served no purpose, as the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) prevailed in their countries, as did the African National Congaree at home.

The Kroot Krokodil loved his national defence force. Few other people did. The Kroot Krokodil said he had the strongest army in Africa. His great military might fell on one point: international arms sanctions precluded his acquiring the weapon he may have needed to uphold his boast.

Botus also loves his army. He has promised to unleash what he says is the strongest army in the world against too many countries for me to list here. There is just one problem. A small one really.

Botus is head of a bankrupt, broke country. America owes $36.22 trillion national debt. The national debt is 20% larger than the GDP of $30.3 trillion.

Thus, the American president is actually a beggar, begging other countries to give him cheap loans. Hence, the term Botus, the beggar of the United States. This year, his interest bill is expected to approach $1 trillion, which is more than America’s defence budget. That is $1 trillion he can’t spend on roads, health care or growing the economy. The debt lies behind his cutting aid to countries around the world. The Orange Monster does not want to borrow money to help out other people. He is quite happy through to borrow money for bombs to bomb yet again the rubble of Gaza. Imagine being killed by a borrowed bomb.

As of April 2024, the five countries owning the most US debt were Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($749.0 billion), the United Kingdom ($690.2 billion), Luxembourg ($373.5 billion), and Canada ($328.7 billion). The costs of borrowing could increase going forward if such countries might not be impressed by trade sanctions.

Global government debt is $91 trillion. More than a third of that comes from one country: the United States.  The US economy is on a path that’s not sustainable.

The American debt works out at $US 106 billion for every citizen. How pathetic, really, to read Botus’ favourite South African say his dodgy programmes had saved each taxpayer $807.  

Which brings me to the point about separate development. The Kroot Krokodil had this dream of separate development. His party carved out 10 homelands and had this idea of building up industries in the 10 areas. The trouble was that economic development follows the rules of production, not political dreams.

The Orange Monster has also put political dreams before production. At the last count, the US exported $266.5 billion worth of goods and services a year, but imported $364.9 billion worth of goods and services. That meant that America was down $98.4 billion a year on trade. The Orange Monster thinks by placing tariffs on the $364.9 billion spent on imports, he will achieve two aims. Firstly, he hopes to take a hefty share as import taxes (tariffs). Secondly, he hopes to spur domestic production. Americans import these goods and services because they can do so at cheaper prices than they would pay for domestic products and for better quality.  The Orange Monger boast that American manufactures will now produce and replace the imported goods at a viable price. For that to happen America workers would have to be willing to work for wages as low as used to prevail in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam. This remains to be seen. Also, other countries could stop importing American goods in reprisal, and so lower the American export figure.

There will be much focus going forward on the $98.4 billion a year trade imbalance. Watch the export and import figures to see how the Orange Monster is doing.  

For those of us who lived through apartheid South Africa, we see so many repeats in America today; the apartheid state of America. The Kroot Krokodil was a dictatorial bully, as is Trump, not a leader of sensible people. But here’s a prediction: as I tried often to tell PW at the time, no matter how odious you and your policies are, how threatening, how murderous, how loud you shout insults at your detractors, common sense and decency will prevail around the world, even if, and especially if, you sit in a made in America isolationist bubble.