A case for separation in South Africa

The Cape Party in South Africa has a proposal for the area formerly comprising the Cape Colony to secede from the rest of South Africa, and be an independent homeland for the Coloured and Afrikaner nations (who share a common Dutch heritage).

This seems like a win-win situation. The black nations, assuming they don't themselves split up (Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the IFP had something to say about that recently), would no longer be oppressed by White Monopoly Capital. They would have the mines (coal, gold, platinum, everything). They would have the most fertile farms, in the Free State, old Transvaal, KwaZulu-Natal and most of the Eastern Cape. They would have the busiest port in Africa, Durban. They would have the KZN coast tourists, and the Kruger National Park tourists.

There would be no question of how much affirmative action to implement, or how much Black Economic Empowerment is required to right the wrongs of the past. The population would be almost homogeneous (if the government continued to see all blacks as the same, and not separate them into nations of Zulus, Xhosas, Sothos, etc.). BLF and the EFF could stop their negative whining, and focus on building up their nations instead (a problem they share with some on the right). With less diversity in the country, politicans can focus more on improving their country rather than just group interests.

The Coloureds and Afrikaners would get Cape Town, with its relatively small industrial base, the Garden Route, with its tourism, and the great big nothingness that is the Karoo. But it is the part of South Africa which was never inhabited by the black (Bantu) nations before the whites arrived. In comparison with other colonisation efforts (like the Mfecane or the Cape Frontier Wars or British expansion in Natal), the Dutch colonisation of the Cape was fairly peaceful - so peaceful, in fact, that the Dutch and Khoisan mixed to start the Coloured nation of today.

As a general rule, Diversity + Proximity = War. But if the differences between groups are small, and they are not forced to mix, it can succeed. Switzerland, with its German, French and Italian groups, is the usual example given. In the UK, the English haven't fought against the Scots and Welsh in a long time. I can't guarantee that a country made up of Coloured and Afrikaner nations (with the probable addition of the English and Indian nations in South Africa) will be free of strife and inter-group rivalry. I can say, with almost complete certainty, that a separation of the non-black South African nations from the other nations will be more peaceful. And I'm sure even the extremists and racists of both sides don't want a race war if they can help it.