When I was in junior high (right after the last ice age) we saw a PR movie made by SA. In it they talked about how they didn't manufacture anything there and how they depended upon technology and products from the West for nearly everything. At first I wondered why someone would release such a film, but then I realized that it was sort of an apology for the price of oil (this was just a few years after the embargo). Even then they were aware that they had a problem.
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