Subprime lending

Among the most exploited South Africans during 48 years of white minority misrule were the vineyard workers who were often paid with daily rations of wine to supplement their pitiful wages. Known as the “dop”—Afrikaans slang for “drink”—the practice was outlawed in 1960, but it was only after voters of all races went to the polls to abolish apartheid 34 years later that the Black majority government began to enforce the ban. In late 2000, I went to South Africa’s wine-growing region in the Western Cape to interview a white attorney who had recently purchased a vineyard in the hopes of fulfilling his lifelong dream of producing award-winning wines.