Plan B for South Africa

AfriForum, Solidarity, Sakeliga, and the Free Market Foundation are urging South Africans and their communities to state-proof themselves against the state.

State-proofing refers to steps taken by individuals, businesses, and communities to protect themselves from state incompetence, collapse, or hostile actions.

Strategies behind state-proofing include building private infrastructure, using alternative currencies, and fostering local self-reliance.

It starts with creating private alternatives for basic needs like electricity, water, and security when public services fail.

It also involves establishing local organisations, private schools, and neighbourhood networks that operate independently of government systems.

Financial sovereignty also factors into it, using decentralised assets like Bitcoin or offshore accounts to protect wealth from inflation, taxation, and government overreach.

Many wealth managers advise South African investors to state-proof their asset base by externalising discretionary capital.

They tell clients to move wealth into international jurisdictions and shift off the local grid to minimise risk from volatility, currency devaluation, and fiscal instability.

A practical example is the Solidarity Movement’s Akademia and Sol-Tech tertiary education institutions.

These institutions offer Afrikaans education and were built without any financial or other assistance from the government.

AfriForum supports grassroots community independence. They build parallel community structures to step in where local government fails.

They have created 170 community neighbourhood and farm watch networks, private firefighting and emergency response units, and pothole repair teams.

AfriForum also has a private prosecution division, which tackles cases where the National Prosecuting Authority fails.

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel explains

In an interview with the State of the Nation podcast with Mike Sham, AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel shed light on state-proofing.

He said that this action is necessary as the African National Congress (ANC) is a socialist party which wants centralised government control.

“Any party that has centralist tendencies and has a socialist approach always fails. So you had to start preparing for what would happen in the future,” he said.

“If you have a corrupt, incompetent government on a central level, it trickles down to every sphere of society.”

He said AfriForum’s aim is not an attempt to win power, but a state-proofing strategy to ensure that minority and local communities can survive state failure.

They build relationships with communities to foster the idea that they can start economic development themselves rather than be government-reliant.

“If we build these networks, the country has a good chance of succeeding. We cannot wait for the government,” he said.

He explained that the government’s first responsibility is to keep its citizens safe. “If they fail, then you have to do it yourself,” he said.

Kriel said that AfriForum is not deterred by critics who claim it is building a parallel government or something similar.

“We want to create a future for our children and all other children in this country. If the government is unable to do it, we have to take on those core issues,” he said.