Yet the outside world, in particular that "great citadel of democracy and freedom," the US, remains blind, deaf and dumb to what is happening here.

Despite all their zealous and sanctimonious denials, Mandela, Mbeki & Co have failed, shamefully and humiliatingly, in their administrative task. As we endlessly stress, they have, in their few short years in power, transformed a once well-ordered, productive, civilised and successful country built with stupendous toil and struggle out of the wild African bush, into a noisome, anarchistic, criminal, AIDS-ravaged cesspool, a country without law, order or justice.

Unless very soon halted, the damage will be irreparable. What we are now seeing is a massive rural disaster, this at a time of rapid population growth. No economy can long survive a near-total breakdown in law and order such as that now overwhelming SA. If public opinion, here and overseas, is not aroused, the results will be catastrophic. The stakes are very high: SA’s very survival.

Till now, the ANC/SACP have largely got away with it because SA whites, living in a constant state of fear, stress and despair, have seemed weary, hopeless, disheartened and disillusioned, frozen into inaction, into an intellectual and moral paralysis. But now, with the odds fast becoming insupportable, the White logjam is at long last showing signs of breaking up. As this is written, so mass demonstrations protesting the farm slaughter are being staged nation-wide by organised agriculture, backed by the huge cooperative movement, labour, business, industry, the churches, taxi organisations, ratepayer forums and others.

It must be emphasised that these people, though deeply angry, are not seeking confrontation. They seek deliverance, not vengeance. What they want is a radical change in government attitudes, anything to jolt the ANC into remedial action. And they want the death sentence reinstated.

The effort is spearheaded by the SA Agricultural Union (SAAU), representing some 40 000 commercial farmers and 45 000 small scale farmers. Apart from the humanitarian aspect, they feel that the ANC and its Communist mentors take little cognisance of agriculture’s great economic importance to SA.

While cash wages on farms are generally lower as opposed to those in urban employment (a worldwide economic phenomena) the families of farm workers are usually housed free, are provided where feasible with light and water, have no transport costs, are usually allocated some land which they can use for their own domestic purposes, while many if not most of their children receive their primary education on farm schools. Well over 5 000 primary schools are sited on farms, providing education for almost 500 000 children.

Alongside this, the cooperative movement is also one of the country’s leading employers. With 1 500 branches countrywide, more than 80% of the total marketing and handling of agricultural products is done through cooperatives, representing an annual turnover of more than R22 billion, total assets of some R13 billion and a net profit of R530 million. Additionally, agriculture provides a market of more than R10 billion a year for manufactured products such as fertiliser, pesticides and veterinary remedies and services, as well as farm equipment.

To date Mandela & Co, quite forgetting that it is the farmers who feed the masses, have shown remarkably little understanding of the magnitude of the threat posed both to national stability and the national economy should agriculture suffer further major setbacks. But, indeed, the crisis is nearing the point where it could soon threaten SA’s status as one of the few remaining African states still self-sufficient in food production and one of only seven countries in the world which are regular food exporters.

The ANC and its more radical wing have obviously not yet cottoned on to the fact that if they do not look after the country’s commercial farmers, they will eventually lose them. So far, not many have left SA, because assets are fixed. But signs of dissatisfaction are there. Young people are farming elsewhere or choosing not to farm at all. Where the facts of life (and particularly death) in SA are concerned, ANC/SACP leaders appear to be slow learners.

There could be two main reasons for this, both highly suspect. One, with an election coming up, they do not believe that the protection of White commercial farmers rates as a high priority among Black voters. Two, that it simply does not matter if the SA agricultural industry collapses and disappears because they could buy food more cheaply elsewhere. Both attitudes would be in line with the ANC’s myopic approach to other matters of critical national importance.