The Undiscussed Issue of Overpopulation in South Africa’s Decline

Executive Summary

• South Africa’s large increase in its black population is a major reason for its decline.

Introduction

South Africa has been in a steep decline since the election of the ANC. Little discussed is how much this decline has been related to South Africa’s overpopulation problem.

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South Africa’s Population Growth

South Africa’s growth in population is rarely discussed as a reason for South Africa’s decline. South Africa’s growth is apparent from a few graphs of the population of South Africa below.

In 1910, the black population was less than 4 million. Now, in 2021 it is 47.5 million people. Observe that the black population rose enormously from deficient levels (the statistics do not return to the country’s beginnings). 

The claim of South Africa belonging to black Africans is not based upon any historically supportable claim but upon the racist concept that any land in Africa belongs to black Africans. However, if this is the standard, why are blacks allowed to purchase and own Europe? Black logic is very clearly stated that Africa should be for Africans and whites, regardless of how long they were there, and what their ancestors did to improve the land, should leave — however, also that if European societies don’t allow a large number of Africans to immigrate to their countries, then their policies are racist.

Constant Immigration From Desperate Neighboring Countries

There is intense poverty in South Africa, but the ANC is doing a poor job of preventing desperate Africans from neighboring countries from immigrating to South Africa, which is still preferable to their home countries. In this way, both the black South Africans and the new immigrant blacks from neighboring countries want to exploit what a European culture created. And now there are fights between new and old black immigrant groups. There is only so much of what the Dutch created to go around. Blacks in other parts of Africa seek to immigrate to Europe, as what their black-run societies can provide is not acceptable to them.

When income inequality is mentioned in South Africa, the large-scale illegal immigration from neighboring countries is left out. The previous white rule under De Klerk is not responsible for the lack of border enforcement since 1994. Naturally, the more Africans are allowed to immigrate from neighboring countries, the higher the income inequality will be. A country must enforce its borders, and it is destabilizing not to do this. I have never once seen this aspect of South Africa discussed in any media.

The Growing South African Population Combined With Infrastructure in Decline

In the mid-1980s, the black population in SA numbered around 20 million. In 2021 it numbers 47.5 million. Was the original SA infrastructure, which reached its peak under white rule in the early 1990s, designed for another 27.5 million blacks?

The answer is no.

• SA is now trying to provide for a country of roughly 32 million people as in 1985 or 37 million people as it was in 1991 (notice the increase of 5 million people in just six years) but for 58.5 million people in 2021.
• When there was a transfer to black rule, it was not expected to mean a massive immigration of more blacks from the surrounding countries.
• With continual black immigration, SA’s problems keep becoming more difficult to overcome.

I was able to find a rare article explaining the overpopulation in South Africa, as you can see in the following quotation.

But when broken down, it varies considerably, according to the most recent government estimate I could find, that dates to 1998: 1.5% for whites, 2.2% for Indians, 2.3 for coloureds and 4.3% for black Africans. Population pressure is not a crisis somewhere down the line. It is now. – IOL

I used a calculator, and I don’t think 4.3% is correct. If blacks had a 4.3% annual growth rate would be much higher than the black population today.

We have arguably the greatest unemployment crisis in the world and it is getting worse, not better. – IOL

And this quote.

The current cause of overpopulation is the MILLIONS of Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambiqeans, Somalians, etc, etc poring across the pourous borders of South Africa. The other cause is the social grant system that rewards mothers for having more babies. South Africa might have eliminated poverty, but created a population explosion. – Quora

And this quote.

I decided to write to you today because I feel that there is one particular problem that we as society and the government institutions aren’t giving enough attention. That problem is “over population”.

I think that every problem we as a country are experiencing is directly related to over population. It is quite simple, there are just too many people having children and with too many new humans added to the current population everyday I cannot see how our systems can keep up. Every issue from service delivery to education to employment is directly linked to the number of people in our country and on our planet.

I know there are campaigns like ‘love life’ which are meant to educate the youth on having safe sex but I feel the main problem lies with educating and changing the culture of the African man. A prime example is our President Mr Zuma who has 21 kids. This culture and train of thought is embedded deep within the black male.

My domestic worker who lives with us has a child of 3 years who she cannot afford to look after yet her husband wants another child because in the “African black community” you are seen as more of a man and you have a higher ranking within the community based on the number of kids you have. It is this type of thinking that in my opinion is causing all the problems.

For every 1000 houses the government builds there are another 5000 new babies born and those new babies will grown into adults and have more children that will require more housing. It is a never ending cycle and it all boils down to the fact that we as the human race are multiplying without any regards for the consequences and the burden we place on our economy and our governments.

White families are having less kids because they are educated enough to see the damages it has, but black parents just seem to carry on with no idea of the problems they are causing. I honestly cannot see how the situation will ever improve if we do not find a way of curbing the numbers and controlling the amount of new humans added to the existing population. – Times Live

An academic paper reinforces this quote from 1986 on black overpopulation in South Africa. This is explained in the following quotation.

The current rate of world population growth is one of today’s major problems and constitutes a threat to the future of all mankind. Oyer three and a half billion people live on our small, in places overcrowded planet, and if the present rate of growth continues this figure will double within the next thirty to forty years.

It would seem that the present high birth rate obstructs the alleviation of poverty.

Africans (especially men) politicise family planning – a hindrance to achieving socio-economic advancement. Their suspicions will probably continue until family planning is offered as part of a broader health service, which should even investigate infertility problems. The quality and quantity of contraceptive services has to be improved. The government’s family planning program should motivate people to have smaller families. This suggests a need to attend to each of the behavioral determinants of fertility, as well as the political/ institutional basis for effective fertility control.

The question of population control might remain a thorny one until Blacks are convinced that real political reform is on the way. Until then many Blacks just cannot accept the argument that resources are limited. While some of the reactions are purely emotional, with family planning being attacked as “genocide” by African groups, others are more pointed. – Population Explosion and Poverty Amongst Africans in South Africa (1986)

Curiously, this paper proposes ending apartied as a way to reduce population growth in South Africa.

One of the answers lies in the abolition of apartheid which has caused some of the misery experienced in the country. Professor Jill Nattrass of the University of Natal also supports this. She said, apartheid has contributed to the alarmingly high population growth rate in South Africa. Writing in the issue Indicator SA, she said, by slowing down urbanisation and westernisation, especially of Black women, apartheid has contributed to the population growth rate
(Natal Mercury, 15/7/1985). – Population Explosion and Poverty Amongst Africans in South Africa (1986)

It is unclear if this author meant ending apartied or instituting black rule (obviously, if blacks vote, they will vote in a black government, so they seem to go together). Ending apartied and moving to black rule has only made the overpopulation in South Africa worse.

However, from just a few articles and there. This basic math is left of entirely of the analysis. Instead, the media and the ANC are still blaming something that ended 26 years ago. And no one is talking about the overly high population growth.

Conclusions

South Africa has outgrown its infrastructure and its ability to provide for its population. However, because blacks in South Africa do not agree with limiting their population growth, and because the infrastructure and systems of South Africa, through seriously diminished (due to black government maintenance) they are still far better than what can be found in the neighboring countries. This combined with the poor border enforcement by the ANC (which is a type of infrastructure maintenance), means that South Africa’s population will continue to grow uncontrollably.

Everything written in this article is just factually what has occurred in South Africa, however, it would no doubt be considered offensive to black South Africans.