Amid hearty renditions of apartheid-era songs and wails from vuvuzelas, South African President Jacob Zuma was swept to victory on Tuesday in his party’s leadership election. Since his party—the African National Congress—holds dominant influence over the black majority of South Africa’s population, the win effectively secures Africa’s most powerful office until 2019.

Zuma’s victory has sobering implications for South Africa because he has repeatedly condemned the white minority’s control of the country’s economy, and has worked toward a widespread transfer of wealth to the nation’s black population, including the redistribution of white-owned farms.

At present, only 8 percent of South African farms are owned by blacks—a number far short of the 30 percent goal by 2014 proposed by former President Nelson Mandela. Those zealous about achieving Mandela’s target have turned South Africa into a nation where it is more dangerous to be a white farmer than to be even a policeman.

This fact is especially sobering because South Africa is awash with violence and crime, making it abnormally dangerous to be among the police forces of many of its cities.

The dangers posed to South Africa’s ever dwindling number of white—mostly Afrikaner—landowners have become so serious that a group of activists and farmers marched to the capital of Pretoria in December to demand state protection of their lives and property. “Farm murders are not only a crisis,” said AfriForum deputy ceo Ernst Roets. “They are a catastrophe.”

The Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa says nearly 1,600 farm murders have been reported since 1990, but think tanks place the number closer to 3,000.

With Zuma’s office secured for six more years, the situation for South Africa’s white farmers is not likely to improve in the short term.

Ezekiel 7:23-27 describe South Africa’s present situation with startling accuracy, and make plain that in the near term, it will only get worse. Bloody and violent crimes will be committed so frequently that they will be like the links of a chain—one right after another. This passage even discusses citizens’ homes being wrested from them, and clashes between different nationalities.

The conditions in South Africa will deteriorate to such an abysmal state that the people will eventually wage a search for God. They will cry out for Him, pleading for deliverance from the turmoil. But God explains that He is purposefully sending the punishment upon the people as correction. (To prove that this passage refers to the nation of South Africa, read the book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)

Yet there is breathtaking hope on the horizon for all races of the people of South Africa—a revolution that will replace socialistic and violence-spawning policies with a government and a body of laws that is literally perfect (Revelation 11:15; James 1:25). Ezekiel 7:27 says that God is sending the punishment on the people so that “they shall know that I am the Lord.” Bringing obstinate people to the understanding and acceptance of who He is requires extreme measures. But it is foundational to this imminent revolution.

Ezekiel 33:11 makes plain that God does not want any people to suffer. He loves all races and all nationalities, and He yearns for all men to be truly happy. But true, lasting happiness and peace can only result from obeying His perfect laws. God’s will is for the people of South Africa—and the whole world—to obey Him. Obedience to Him would saturate their lives with blessings of prosperity and peace.

To understand more about South Africa’s bleak present, and its awe-inspiring future, read South Africa in Prophecy.