South Africa - the Seventies 

Today South Africa has almost no railway, no postal service, healthcare and daily power failures. Cholera breaks out and unemployment of 60%. It was such a rich country? Even the national airline is bankrupt.

My best friend that I met in the army emigrated to Canada while I stayed to build a life in SA. He was the smart one.

You should do another video of South Africa in the 2023 and see where it has gone

Came from Europe and worked in SA for a few years in the 1980s. ..and can remember an expression from there to describe the narration of this film: PRAAT KAK!

And the world must be proud of what they left South Africa with in 2024.

Look how it turned out

Whahahaha, in 2023 today. This video aged like fine wine. 30 years after the ANC took over, we have daily power cuts for up to 12 hours. We have 10 year old that cant read and a unemployment rate of 52% crime syndicates running state owned enterprises.

20 km from Luanda... no force in Africa was able to stop SADF. It was a directive from from the US to pull back not the resistance of the MPLA. It seems there is lot of BS history in this video.

South Africa today is a far more unsafe place for everyone. Healthcare is appalling, electricity and water supply is failing, and politicians openly speak of genocide. Africa is reverting to Africa. Any good the British and Afrikaners brought to the continent is lost forever.

This documentary is spewing garbage...South African Army was definitely not suffering heavy casualties outside Luanda. Nor was it defeated...In the documentary wont mention that the South-Africans advanced 3000km within 33 days in enemy territory while battling the cubans and Angolans. They wont mention that.

How are things better now? There was a fire in a building in Johannesburg (31 August 2023) that took the lives of 74 people. How did the gas explosion in Bree st.(19 July 2023) improve the lives of commuters? How did the riots of July 2021 improve the country?

And we've all seen what a great job Mugabe has done... 🙄

Now they bob across on the Med with rubber boats to get to Europe....

I lived for a year in Cape Town and visited SA once again later... When I first arrived there My group had some orientation... I will never forget what the man said : "Please do not read 2 copies of Time magazine and have all the solutions !"

15:00 Transkei happens to have some of the best soil and rainfall to be prosperous. SA government did not give them the dry arid part desert Kalahari or something. If only current ANC government could give whites the same type of land today!

Everyone was better off then, weather u want to believe it or not. ANC sank their own people deeper ever since on a spiral compared to most other African countries.

At least we did not drink sewerage water...we had trains and order..

Just propoganda BS. I was sure I blocked AP productions. But come back and make a "documentary" onhow well it is going with everybody.....just wear rubber shoes for the sewage water in the streets, military vehicles to handle pot hole roads and plenty of security.

Decades later: some mysterious forces turned SA into a total s-hole.

Crazy how South Africa went from near hegemon in the region to what's turning into a failed state

Interesting that it is an American narrator. Apartheid was modelled on the previaling segregationist policies of South Carolina in 1948, and until the late 1960's there was segregated housing, segregated travel, segrated Churches, restaurants and segregated beaches in America. Yet by 1976 (8 years after massive civcil rights riots across America), President Jimmy Carter was lectring the Soviets ad South Africa about civil rights.

Why are you not mentioning how functional South Africa was?.. Electricity, rail system, health system, functioning efficient police, minimal crime, no potholes, secure borders, working postal system..... The ANC has 🤬ed South Africa up...

9:00 Heavy losses?? Less than 10 troops died and a few unarmored trucks. Truth is more that US intervened and asked SA to standback as US did not expect SA to almost "drive" through the whole Angola up to Luanda!

The reporter needs to get his facts straight

And what a paradise SA is now eh? Every post colonial country descends into mess and chaos.... What could be the reason?

South Africa is going down fast

My dear friend, you commenting with your strong American accent.... if you would swallow a little piece of truth - here it is.... Why and what is the reason Detroit is what is is??? Because it is the S.A story, only on a smaller scale. :) Good luck to you, America. Time will tell. Keep voting Dem to speed up the process.

At least the country was working. Look at it nowadays, totally broken.

Look at south africa now. They were one of the richest countries in the world. Even with sanctions. Now they are one of the poorest. The tribes can't get along. Long live Rhodesia

Back when it was the richest and most powerful country in Africa.

And they have done so much with their independence. Sarcasm.

We gave the new SA government 12 years to show where they intended to steer the country. Then we took the plunge and moved to Chile where we've been living, and working, happily since 2006. No regrets.

And look at the once prosperous South Africa now. Hasn’t it all worked out wonderfully for every citizen?…..

In 1974 there were nice cars around. Beautiful cars with lots of chrome and style.

Now look at all these countries today....Angola, Moçambique, Rhodesia, South Africa next

I'm curious how so many accounts of this period in Angola's history ignore the fact that Jonas Savimbi's UNITA was established by Maoist communists and in fact received most of their training and arms from the PRC. Holden Robert's guerillas received some aid from the CIA via Zaire, and later received assistance from the Chinese and South Africans. One the USSR helped Cuba support the MPLA with troops, Western support for the FNLA and UNITA became more overt but China was always more important.

Great time and we were a 1st World country where everything worked. A GREAT ARMY AND POLICE FORCE. Now we MOERTOE.

Back then it was clean and orderly in South Africa. They really do have the reverse midas touch.

Looked like a great place, in the Seventies.

and now nobody has a job and everyones lifestyle is horrendous.

Hey look at that, a working bus. Need to find more old videos from 50 years ago to see that again. Thank you.

To know who was right, just look at the before and after. It's easy to understand. Look how South Africa was before and look now.

South Africa is doing so good today with their black ANC. Life could not be any better for them. They got their just desserts. Ha ha ha!

Neva thought as a non white south african i would long back to these days.😢😮❤

I miss these days and Rhodesia

Look at the country today,its a dump,poverty and despair everywhere.

They can't run themselves, its sad and unpleasant fact but demonstrably true. South Africa now is well on its way to the same state as every other African nation.

Why does everything looks so clean

South Africa abandoned my Rhodesian friends to the international community. They ultimately suffered the same fate. Those who betray are in turn betrayed.

"Southern Africa" (region) no es lo mismo que "South Africa" (country).

Check how prosperous south Africa used to be . Check how stuffed up and broken down this country is now .

South Africa today is certainly not the promised land that many hoped it would be. Even former president Thabo Mbeki expresses his concern over how the state is failing. Watching the news makes it seem like piles of shit is raining down uniformly across the country evenly everywhere, and that the middle class folk who still choose to live in SA are just boiling frogs. Maybe I'm a boiling frog. It's possible. I've never really lived anywhere else, and as a white man, I live quite comfortably compared to most. That doesn't mean that despite my white privilege I don't also work hard for a living. That doesn't mean that working hard is even a good thing, or that it is virtuous. But, working hard for a living is something I enjoy, and in my culture, for as originally Calvinistic, protestant, prude, misogynistic, homophobic and racist as it may have been, hard work, is a virtue, if not the biggest virtue of all in the eyes of many of my people. Whether they even realise it or not. "Hard work is its own reward." - is a core value, and historically, whether by force or not, it is what this country was built on, whether we like it not, whether its a good thing or not. Being and Afrikaner and growing up in a farming community in Mpumalanga and now living in Cape Town for the last 7 years, I do believe that there is a glimmer of hope. But it is very unlikely that the seed of that hope will come in the form of the likes of populist movements and political parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters, or the African National Congress in its current form. A culture based in historic injustice and a core belief in entitlement to reparations, may be just, but also hopeless. For as much at the ANC has lost its soul to opportunistic criminals, the DA, appears to suffer from an illegitimacy complex, and the EFF flip-flops around and pivots towards whichever tactical advantage is nearest in the moment, it would be naive to think that none of the political parties in SA currently have any semblance of a "core value" to speak of. But the EFF might currently be the only political party who has a core value, that it (or its leader) may also be unaware of: Like a crack addict, would do anything for the next hit no matter the cost, the EFF's leader Julius Malema can't say no the the next opportunity to rile its supporters up very fervently around whatever apparent issue... Only for it to emerge that his true message circles the same grievance every time, and ultimately suggests the same solution: Some form of retributive justice! That is what the EFF ultimately wants. Restitution / reparations and retributive justice at any cost, no matter if everyone ends up being off much worse in the end. Economically this kind of talk only leads to ever more capital flight and even worse destabilization and poverty. It also won't make this country (SA) more diverse, but rather even more unequal and more divided across the middle class and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. More inclusivity, diversity and mutual understanding, that is not based in retributive justice, but rather pragmatic attitudes in the interest of progress, I believe is the best way forward. South Africans are innovative, and diversity brings with it a lot of creativity. Why do you think the US is still, despite everything it does wrong in the word, regarded as the most innovate country in the world? It's because they're basically a nation of immigrants from all over the world mixing and living, and working together in all the different ways that people do. Historically, people congregating and forming factions around their generational trauma and mutual brittle psyches has never yielded much progress, but rather led to genocides instead.

And how independence work out ....

So basically South Africa went from a 1st world to a 3rd world nation when Apartheid ended.

Does anyone else watch this and think Sputh Africa used to be much nicer?

Miss the good old days 😂😂

If you don’t understand why South Africa and other African states align themselves with Russia and China please listen from 4:20 of this video.

And what do we have today chaos

I really sympathize with the...White people of South Africa

Ahhh the good old days

Back when she was great.

" To be an enemy of the USA is dangerous, to be an ally is deadly ", Henry Kissinger.

This I remember well. From my brothers. All deceased now. 😢

Te students protesting against segregated education, I'm sure they are the same ones that condemn the burning of campuses now.😂

I am Angolan. I Became a refugee at the age of 14 in 1975. It wasn’t the MPLA that caused South Africa.’s defeat. The South Africa army was just 18 km away to enter the only MPLA stronghold name Luanda, the capital of Angola, and win the war,despite the heavy presence of the Cuban army heavily armed by Russia. It was The UN that decided to demand that South African army withdraw from Angola. We the population were left at the mercy of the terrorist and tyrannical communist regime MPLA. They grabbed the power by force. They committed atrocities, massacres too horrific to describe. I am now 66 years of age, living in the safety of the U.K. However the memories are quite raw. I’m the lucky ones that survived the MPLA murderous spree.

What is South Africa now under a corrupted Communist ANC rule. In South Africa there are many tribes with different cultures . The problem is another culture cant rule over another culture. Please do some research on the current situation in South Africa.

I love AP. Always full of half truths!

Narrative driven. Now it is a *hit hole.

South-Africa was the strongest economy in Africa fact. Was the only African country with apartheid...

Definately not historically correct regarding MPLA stopping the SADF

As a Dutch person, I always feel vicarious shame when I see videos about South Africa, especially those about politics.

I find it a bit rich America trying to act like they were so good when they were just as racist .

So now South Africa is a failed state. Well done guys

Hard to believe South Africa used to be such a backwards hellscape. Thank goodness for change.

South Africa has made such great progress since the terrible days of the 1970's. Since 1994 it has transformed itself, for *all* of its citizens, into the rape & murder capital of the world. And that is a rare achievement for any nation.

Must see the unemployment.. Poverty and crime/corruption now..

Look at them now...oopsie

Just reading the comments on this video, I can already see this is some BS account of what actually happened, thank god for comment sections.

This is not exclusively about South Africa. Southern Africa would have been a more apt titel. Southern Africa are the handful of countries at the southern end of Africa. South Africa is generally referred to in short for The Republic of South Africa

A question: Is Africa better off today than in the 1970s?.... Inquiring minds want to know.

Now it chaos and misery for all, good job.

been to south africa several times in the early 80's , i loved it

Tribalism 😮

As a young child in 1967 we moved to South Africa from New Zealand, I found it a disturbing place and the level of tension was self-evident, that said of a lot of the comments in this video are sort of superficial if overall correct. My Dad couldn't wait to leave the place, his complaint was they paid the whites three times as much but expected them to work six times as hard. I lived in Cape Town in Claremont which was a new apartment suburb (for whites), as six year old boys we would walk around the Cape coloured area next door that was very old, with Cape Dutch houses, we were completely defenseless and utterly naive, (our parents were just too busy elsewhere), but we were never harmed or even threatened. School was a real challenge, the level of discipline was way above NZ levels, which were also based on corporal punishment at the time. Anyway, I look back on it now as an interesting opportunity to have been able to view the historical reality of something that was a big issue back then. Nobody gives a tinker's about the place now.

No more apartheid! So South Africa is doing great now?

Distorted report

Love this history, thanks for it. Would love to see South Africa - The 80's

So.....How is South Africa today??? Sad...

So much history... and so many things have changed since then.

The Europeans were the greatest gift the Africans ever recieved. With the end of the old countries in Africa, everyone has lost.

The narrator is talking a load of bull shit as this is not what happened. America betrayed South Africa and asked SA Troops to move back from Luanda as they were after the oil in Angola.

What a very one perspective opion....... Very leftist...

There is so much propaganda and bs in this vid

Southern Africa was developed back then 😢

This video has a lot of inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

20:42 Die sind aber ganz schön am schunkeln^^ Deutsche Gemütlichkeit/German comfortableness. I love my people so much! Got relatives down there and they had to sell their farm in the 90s and subsequently moved to Swakopmund. They always send a package with beer. Used to be Hans Drought or Windhoek but now they send home brew. One of my cousins tries to buy some farmland again with an Afrikaner he met @ his work place but the prices are way too high!

hum now as west African l see how Southern Africa countries are stronger as nations than west & central Africa very interesting those history videos that west & Central Africans should see & build stronger & serious nations/republics my IVORY Coast isn’t yet a nation/republic very sad indeed

The afrikaners were right. Look at South Africa and those areas in Europe and US were blacks are either in big numbers or ruling

Things are now so much better for all with black ruled governments in Africa and black ruled cities in USA (Chicago, New Orleans, NYC) 😂😂😂 Btw nobody says anything about the return of colonialism in Africa from China. I guess it’s ok if it’s non white and talks about communism.

This is a good example of Left Wing and Liberal propaganda. To comment on every piece of misinformation would require pages. The reason being the producer never stuck to a time line but jumped from the early 1960's to the 1980's and then the 1970's and it confuses the viewer. But the truth is, is the interference of the internation community in the internal matters of a Sovereign State caused what we now have on South Africa.