South Africa faces a return to apartheid-era domestic social arrangements, and back towards the foreign relations of the past, most notably those military strategic alliances with states approved by Washington then and now.

There are ominous signs that South Africa is destined to return to the era of governance and control by the people who governed the country before 1994. In this scenario, the leadership of the black majority of the country would be relegated to being a mere staffrider -- ukungenisa. There are at least three main postulates.

One is that the ANC has lost credibility and trust with the electorate. That has been discussed and written about repeatedly.

Another is that by 2012 the ANC began to seriously disappoint the countries and institutions that had historically funded the movement.

A third is that the minority in South Africa, politically represented by an axis of people like Helen Zille and Pieter Groenewald, has been caught up in the rising tide of European ethno-nationalism, pari passu with the rise of white pride and opposition to affirmative action, and attempts to "reset" the world order through money/finance, political economy, militarisation and military force.

While this is making Europe happy, those communities that remain what the late British-born economist Angus Maddison described as "Europe's outgrowth" are wedded to retaining the power and privilege of the Occident, in its...