I am told that the Chinese pay R15,000 for a visa to come to South Africa. Upon their return to China their R15,000 is refunded…as seen from the traders on all our streets the reality is that citizenship in South Africa costs R15,000 for those who fly here. For those who walk here it is free. I’m not sure if the Nigerian drug lords arrive in robust 4x4’s, but they too get here.

Those to the right of our political spectrum tell me that this is a sneaky way for the ANC to enlarge their constituency. Those to the left of our political spectrum haven’t noticed that any invasion has taken place, because I never hear Malema complaining about foreigners taking the jobs from locals. He wants the government to create more jobs, but I’m not sure he can define his own objectives any more.

But let me first deal with a consumer issue before I continue with the employment dilemma.

I’m a tall guy and because of that I need to buy the larger size clothes. In the past I could walk into our very well known upper class department store and take my size without fitting it in the change rooms. Last year the shirts I bought were 15 cm shorter than my old shirts. So I wrote to them complaining about it. The reply I got back shocked me into the reality of why we have this unemployment crisis.

They said they would contact their buyer in Hong Kong and ask the factories in China to cut the larger sizes longer for our taller South African men. This particular department store is forever advertising all their environmentally friendly farming principles. Yes we need to keep our food as organic as possible because it is high fashion in Sandton and Camps Bay to prove you care about the environment, but have they thought about all those people in Mitchells Plain without work that once made my shirts in Cape Town?

Tell me in all honestly if you are arriving at Melrose Arch or The Waterfront to shop for a shirt, do really care if you pay R100 or R200 for a shirt or even R500? This famous department store of ours is our African version of Harrods. Yes laugh, but you are shopping there to show the world you have arrived and not to find a bargain.

But when you drive home in your BMW Convertible thinking how good you are going to look in your new clothes, have you ever thought about that single mother in Mitchells Plain that not only has to fight starvation but all her dreams of a prosperous future has been crushed because the ANC has the strangest destructive economic principles and the department stores are just cashing in on the stupidity of our leaders.

Can someone explain to me why we owe China…or Zimbabwe or Nigeria? Forget about the funds provided pre 1994 to the ANC, this is 18 years later and our own people are unemployed. Mugabe didn’t have the foresight back then to see what mess he would ultimately create for himself but the Chinese knew they were making the best investment in Chinese history. They have even now built us the AU Headquarters at $200 Million. They are doing this because they care for us?

64 Million Chinese relocate each year to other parts of the world. Nobody tells us how many end up here, but if I look at our streets we are about to make rice our staple food and stop growing maize. Sorry I forgot for a moment we don’t need to grow maize any more because our farms will lie dormant like the ones in Zimbabwe.

What are these Chinese selling here? We all know fake Nikes, but seriously now, they have become a national department store for the Chinese factories. So those workers back in China have food, but my own people are starving. People with skills in the Cape are starving. Now we are just talking about one particular industry.

Most alarming is the fact that these informal traders from China, Somalia and Nigeria are not VAT registered and therefore don't contribute to our country's upkeep. That in return makes it possible for them to undercut the local traders by 14%. Unfair disadvantage, don't you think? We need the VAT on their sales because how else are we going to be able to pay the elderly their pensions?

At what point will the local auto manufacturers decide they are fed up with all these unachievable labour laws and poor productivity and move manufacturing to their Chinese factories and then all of you flashing around in the shiny “German” cars would be driving “Chinese” BMW’s?

When all of the ANC’s policies eventually crash and explode in their faces, the Chinese will just board another plane with their fake watches and trade somewhere else, but what about my people here? We won’t have a factory left manufacturing anything because Cosato would have introduced a 16 hour work week by then.

We should all stand up and stop buying ANYTHING manufactured in China. If we employ a person, make sure he/she is a South African. For the sake of all the unemployed people in the clothing industry make sure your T Shirt is made here.

If only every one of you reading this would stand by me and mail our African Harrods and demand South African clothes, then we can take charge of our own destination. We have the power, but we are not using it. If we don't buy the consumer goods from China, we will save our own manufacturing industry. It is achievable.

Stand by me please. This is our country and let us the citizens fix the wrongs that the ANC is committing against us.

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