Thirty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa is looking back on a democratic but deeply divided society. Political divisions have fueled a growing disappointment with Nelson Mandela’s liberation party, the ANC.
As a newly democratic country, South Africa got off to a euphoric start with its first free elections in 1994.
People queued up for hours to cast their votes, full of hope, optimism and joy. That positive spirit continued as Nelson Mandela was elected president after spending 27 years in prison.
The African National Congress (ANC), Mandela’s political party and former anti-apartheid movement, came into power, ending not only white minority rule but centuries of colonialist mentality. It’s still in power today.
However, looking back on the past 30 years, the assessment on the state of Mandela’s “rainbow nation” is sober: The economy in the Cape of Good Hope is ailing, society is still divided along racial lines and people feel their politicians don’t understand them.
Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has kept growing — despite the fact that the ANC made the issue a central concern when it came to power in 1994. Frustration over these shattered dreams runs deep.
Am I misunderstanding the article? Because it seems to be saying that while things are still bad, there have been vast improvements while at the same time saying that things aren’t much better than they used to be?
The dream of unity being shattered part seems to rest in the idea that there are still a bunch of white racists in South Africa. Did anyone expect white racists would just disappear once apartheid ended? Did anyone really think they wouldn’t pass that racism on to their kids? Because that’s really fucking naïve.
From what I can tell from the article itself, South Africa has made some major steps in the right direction and has improved a lot of people’s lives. It’s just still got a long way to go before things are actually equitable. It’s also really doing badly in terms of government corruption and income inequality (which have nothing to do with Mandela’s ideas about unity). It seems to me like the thrust of the article shouldn’t be that the dream of unity lies shattered, it should be that you can’t fix 50 years of apartheid in 30 years without it.
I think the main thrust is that the ANC made great progress in 10 years, then stagnated for 10 years, and is now getting progressively worse for the last 10 years. Voters therefore are not optimistic for the next 10 with ANC in power. Corruption destroys unity and respect for governing authority, just look at the USA a few years ago.
Imo, it’s not healthy when any one political party (or one head of state for that matter) governs for too many consequent years, and this goes for any country. This would automatically lead to nepotism and corruption, a dysfunctional state as the leaders become more and more estranged from its constituents. Even though I can empathise towards the voter’s choice for upholding the ANC in power for fear of regression to their past regime. Democracy, though simple in theory, can be very complex in reality.
You could be describing my Midwest American city. Democrats here have no competition, so they get away with all kinds of corruption. There have been attempts to disrupt the local party machine from within, but they’ve been unsuccessful.
Every South African I have talked to has said the absolute worst things about a country I have heard. It’s approaching failing state levels.
Everyone says the country is beautiful but the people and especially the government are terrible.
serpentza did an interesting video on South Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/live/vkU5OC2D0Hc?si=LiXv7X6azfBBhayD
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I watched 15-20 minutes of that video. I have no sympathy for white South Africans. As a group, they’re as wealthy as ever, and those who were subjugated under Apartheid are justified in their resentment.
I’ve spent about 6 months there over the past 5 years, it’s more complex than what would lend itself to supporting your statement.
I’d be happy to hear more.
I don’t think that a post on Lemmy is going to do much to reveal much, but
- the population made up of Whites has decreased from 16% at the end of apartheid to 8% today
- the government is actively implementing racist policies against white people instead of trying to create a level playing field - eg, BBE, PPR, used the NEF to withhold funds from business which were majority white-owned during covid lockdown
- the government Has a report that shows Whites make up a greater percentage of the homeless population (10%) than general population (8%)
And yet, the suburbs outlying, for example, Cape town, are largely populated by white people who would be considered working/middle class by European standards.
The generation of black leaders that are coming up now are the first generation that had even the remotest shot at a real education and such, so I would expect to see the balance tip significantly further in the coming two decades.
What I do see - independent of skin color - in South Africa is massive separation of economic classes. The minimum wage is something like usd2/hr, maybe worse - but cars cost the same as in the western world, and home prices are largely similar as well.
There is almost no hope for someone born into poverty to ever be able to own their own car, as they can’t afford to stop scraping for food from the moment they are old enough to walk.
That doesn’t change based on skin color.
Last year in Cape Town I had the pleasure and privilege of working with a lovely and skilled gentleman. He was born into near-poverty and managed to get himself into a reasonably decent I.T. job. He told me that legally he is ‘coloured’ but he grew up in a ‘black’ area. (Visually he looks very similar in skin tone to Wesley Snipes) He said the first thing he did when he got his first I.T. job was move to a ‘white’ neighborhood which “was pretty much all coloureds anyway” - I asked him to explain this to me, and long story short, he said that it wasn’t about skin tone, but the level of violence and risk to property. He then showed me his stab wounds which he alleges he got “just for walking in a black neighborhood.”
So there is definitely a perception among the population that race is connected to status/economic advantage/etc. - but it doesn’t necessarily represent today’s reality.
I stayed in a reasonably upscale hotel during that stay, and based on hotel breakfast attendance, I have no doubt that the race makeup of hotel guests was representative of the race makeup of the general population.
There’s no doubt in my mind that historically, white South Africans held all the cards, but for people born after the 80’s that doesn’t seem to be the case any more. The next couple of generations will see that flip completely, I think, but the wealth gap is so severe that the ‘walking-dead-poor’ class will continue for generations to come.
All of this to say that disadvantaging Whites today because they were winning during apartheid isn’t helping anyone except those at the top of the economic ladder.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Anyone that gets raped or killed deserved it because they are white. Brilliant.
Strawman much? South Africa eliminated political apartheid, but economic apartheid persists. They didn’t finish the job. When you have huge economic disparity, you are going to have resentment and unrest. White people are a tiny minority in SA, and their racism and violence during Apartheid made it what it is today. No shit SA has problems. You created them! My sympathy lies with the struggling poor who struggled under Apartheid and now struggle under a corrupt ANC.
The video is about killings and rapes so no its not a strawman. You are the one saying you have no sympathy for those people mentioned in the video.
There are millions of White South Africans there. Lots of then are born after apartheid so had absolutely nothing to do with it. But I guess you got some north Korean ideas on multi generational suffering.
Also there is suffering between the black fractions within Africa. For some reason people seem to group all the black people in south Africa as one homogeneous group. But some tribes absolute hate the other tribes and have killed each other just out if racism. The country is a mess.
They were born into an economic apartheid even if political apartheid has ended. And they’re only 7.3% of the population.
Only 18% of the local population regularly use private providers and despite being much smaller than the public sector, it accounts for about half of expenditures. About 79% of doctors work privately, leaving only 21% of doctors for the public sector. The distribution of healthcare resources is inequitable because it disproportionately favors private health care. There are over 120 medical schemes that historically excluded black South Africans until 1970 and still mostly cater to wealthier demographics. Medical schemes vary by occupation and the capacity of people to afford them. The schemes requires members to pay copayments and for services not included in the benefits package. Only 16% of the population has a medical scheme because the cost is still a barrier to a majority of South Africans. About 73% of white individuals are members of a medical scheme, 52% of Asian individuals and only 10% of black Africans, indicating a clear racial disparity in private coverage.
So what’s your point here? White people deserve to be killed and raped?
Good quote. Maybe the government that has been in power for the last 30 years should have done something about that.
You’re holding on to that strawman so tight your knuckles are turning white.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
However, looking back on the past 30 years, the assessment on the state of Mandela’s “rainbow nation” is sober: The economy in the Cape of Good Hope is ailing, society is still divided along racial lines and people feel their politicians don’t understand them.
These dynamics have trickled down to affect everyone in the country, regardless of race or income: high unemployment, crime and poverty, as well as the rising cost of living, are among the chief issues that continue to plague South Africa.
In the upcoming May elections, in which President Cyril Ramaphosa is running for a second term, the party could fall below the 50% majority threshold for the first time, forcing it to enter a power-sharing arrangement with an opposition partner.
Under Zuma’s leadership, the neologism “tenderpreneurship” was coined, describing government contracts — tenders — being handed over to eager entrepreneurs who rarely even pretended not to have family or friendship ties to those in power.
Verne Harris, executive director of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, wondered “why we didn’t do better,” after the advent of democracy, questioning whether three decades are enough time to erase the trauma and the legacy of the long and profound processes of colonialism and apartheid.
“For this reason, South Africa is pushing for reforms in the UN Security Council, and is a member of the BRICS bloc, which claims to fight for fair rules and economic partnerships,” said Guilengue.
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