Addressing Citizens in South Africa Essay Example

Apartheid exhibited some of the worst treatment of citizens in world during the time of its occurrence. After years of leaders emerging to fight against the South African government for citizens rights and equality, they did in fact end this dark time, however the traits of South African culture today, say otherwise. The conclusion of the Apartheid in South Africa allowed for equal rights for all South Africans based on a constitution however, modern-day South Africa struggles to correct social inequalities- economic, civil, and property, created from the apartheid decades earlier.

The Apartheid to the United States can often be related to the Civil War or Civil Rights time periods. The Apartheid in one of the main South African languages translates to apartness. (Evans, 2011) The idea of apartness was created and influenced by South Africa’s National Party in the late 1940s. The National Party believed that there needed to be a seperation of groups in South Africa. Such groups mainly regarding skin color were heavily influenced. Because of the want for separation with skin color legislations were passed to enforce groups to live, develop, and think separately (Evans, 2011). They were not allowed to communicate with others, unless they were a part of their group. The rulers of the National Party really wanted to leave non-whites at a disadvantage because whites were the minority and they were afraid that they would lose jobs, language, culture, and customs they brought to the country. White South Africans at the time were solely from different countries in Europe. The idea of separation during the time period was frowned upon throughout the world. The rest of the world was

attempting to fix segregation problems at the time. South Africa was years behind the thoughts of other countries (Evans, 2011).

The inequalities during the Apartheid varied from class and race. As mentioned before the idea of the Apartheid was to separate by race, the whites wanted to be the superior group. If you were black during this era you had many inequalities. The subjects of the inequalities included marriage, race, government, church, education, land and labor (Evans, 2011). To begin all inequalities were able to come about because of legislations. Interracial sex and marriage was illegal. South Africans had to be registered in one of the four race. On top of racial registration, urban areas were segregated by groups, known as racial zoning. The subject of government was a heavy one during the Apartheid. If you did not believe or support the government it was illegal. Such people like Nelson Mandela ended up being imprisoned based on this legislation. Blacks were also not able to serve in a parliamentary position in government. Church, education, land, and labor all had legislations that deprived blacks from basic rights. Education was only offered to black males and it was very poor in quality. Church run education had been banned support from the government. Blacks were offered either no labor or it was very poor pay and conditions, such as working in mines (Marks, 2012). As seen, the inequalities blacks faced were very forceful and unfair.

The inequalities in South African culture were carried on for decades. It was not until the late 1980s that the end of the idea of the Apartheid came to and end. South African Prime Minister

P.W. Botha resigned after he realized he was losing support of ruling the country and National Party. His successor, F W de Klerk did something that surprised all of people of South Africa. In 1990, he addressed Parliament by announcing how he was lifting bans on prisoners and other parties. The country waited in anticipation for the release of Nelson Mandela. They knew that he was the sole person who had continued to advocate for equality for all of South African before he was imprisoned. Nelson Mandela’s presidency in 1994 allowed for a change in South Africa however, present day South Africa greatly exhibits the attitude of the Apartheid (Bialostocka, 2018).

Modern day South Africa exhibits much of the traits the Apartheid did. The inequalities during the Apartheid including race and education qualities have had not experienced many changes. Many Universities and Research Councils in South Africa have researched what really has changed and as said before the attitude of the culture has remained the same. Now, one of the biggest things that came from the Apartheid was the development of the South African Constitution. The Constitution of South Africa was created in 1996 by Nelson Mandela and the South African Republic. The purpose of it was to provide a legal foundation for rights, duties republic, sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the government. Many citizens wanted a constitution but, today they do not follow with the Constitution itself (Seekings, 2011).

Economically, the country of South Africa is known to be one of the worst in the world. South Africa is more unequal than during the dark times of

the Apartheid. Research done by the World Bank has said that South Africa’s Gini, a measure of statistical representations for income) increased from 0.59 in 1993 to of 0.63 in 2009, making this South Africa of the most unequal societies in the world. Between 1991-1996, the White middle class grew by 15% whilst the Black middle class grew by 78%. 47% of South Africans are in poverty, under the national poverty line of US$43 a month and the number of people living on less than US$1 a day has doubled from 2,000,000 in 1994 to 4,000,000 in 2006. This compared to the Apartheid has been a 32% increase of South African citizens (Seekings, 2017).

Corruption in the country has been rank twenty first of forty two countries on Transparency International's corruptions perceptions index in 1995. By 2016 South Africa’s ranking went to seventy second of one hundred and seventy seven countries. During the Apartheid is was rank eight spots lower. The police force in South Africa has been accused of many of these corruptions. Jackie Selebi was accused and defeating the ends of justice over his links to a murder suspect. Much of the police force during the Apartheid was uncorrupt in the justice system. The government does next to nothing to help the efforts of solving corruption. The morals of citizens are worse than the Apartheid because whites are trying to place corruption on the government since their National Party failed (Seekings, 2017).

One of most difficult things during the Apartheid was a right to basic education. The constitution allowed for every citizen in between certain ages granted education. However modern day South Africans do not

experience an equality for education. Black South African education has nearly doubled since 1995. While they enter higher education in increasing numbers, there is wrongful racial distribution of them 58.5% of Whites and 51% of Indians enter education beyond high school. However, 14.3% of Coloureds and 12% of Blacks only enroll. For the past five years the global competitiveness survey ranks South Africa last out of 148 for the quality of maths and science education. They are ranked second to last for basic education. Education as a topic is a top poor area in performance post-apartheid South Africa. This also leads to the biggest causes of poverty and inequality (Seekings, 2017).

“Race issues and race discrimination are very pertinent issues in our country and the opinions of females and males on many issues differ profoundly.” states the current President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. Within the country Black people are more confident than they were during the Apartheid. However, millenials of the black community feel that they are not confident. They feel as though they are excluded from the constitution, mainly because they did not live through the Apartheid. This feeling for being unconfident thrives off of gender issues in sociology. Many younger people do not vote because of feeling that they do not matter, they will not even register. Only about thirty three percent of people born after 1994 who are eligible to vote, are registered to (Seekings, 2017).

Not only are black millennials affected by the issues of race within the country but, as a whole blacks face inequalities in many areas as a whole race. Money, job employment, and living standards are three of

the most difficult issues blacks face. The 2011 census of South Africa took a look at incomes between races greatly. The Census concluded that there has not been an increase of incomes in black households since about the early 1990s, before the Apartheid. The income of the white South African is over six times as much money as the black population income. Researched by the Census, the annual average income of black South Africa households is about 5,700 U.S dollars. Compared the the white population income of 34,300 U.S dollars(Bialostocka, 2018).

In addition, blacks are not offered the employment opportunities whites are. The jobs they had to do during the Apartheid focused in mines. Although there has been much more expansion than just mine work since the time, the jobs blacks are offered are low income at the finest, comparing to where we see the unfairness in income equality. Employment opportunities for blacks are so low income they do not even want to work the jobs, they would rather not work. Most blacks are employed on farms or corporations by a white man, paid very little for extreme work conditions. According to Statistics South Africa, In 1994 the unemployment rate was around twenty percent, which is not even near the rate in the United States at modern day. A recent labor force survey in 2017 concluded that the unemployment rate was over four percent more. On an expanded rate of unemployment (the inclusion of people who have no desire to work or to look for work), the rate rose from thirty one percent to thirty four percent in 2017. The unemployment rate in terms of race

is seven percent white to seventeen percent black. Blacks being the dominant race, this is an unfair trait that is still experienced in South Africa because of the racial outlines of the Apartheid (Bialostocka, 2018).

Living standard have at no surprise stayed the same in since the Apartheid. Legislation from the Apartheid separated different races and ethnic groups greatly. IN the present day many of these neighborhoods remain the same way because of fear in the opposite race, such as places like the black community of Kayamandi. They do not want to leave because it is still frowned upon to mingle with the other race unless you are working for them so, they just do not bother (Mariotti, 2011). Today, many of those neighborhoods haven't changed. “The legacy of apartheid is still very clearly visible,” wrote Cape Town web developer Adrian Frith. “I suppose that was to be expected (Evans, 2011).

Lastly lack of government participation in striving to make South Africa better has failed time and time again in a numerous amount of ways. Not only do they offer poor education and opportunities to their citizens but, the basic needs of life are not supported by government. During the Apartheid the government did many things to try to provide clean and sanitary life to their white citizens but, today neither white nor black citizens get high quality necessities. Continually there is a lack of basic services, things like shelter, water, food, and electricity are overlook immensely. This has led to many frustrations in even poorer communities and the violence of citizens has increased as well. Demonstrators participate in outrage such as doing things like destroying public

property, burning down government establishments, and facing the police force, to where there sometimes is not one (Evans, 2011).“There have been limited gains for the government post-apartheid South Africa,' according to the University of Johannesburg’s Social Change Research Unit. 'The frustration is such people are willing to lose something for their cause (Seekings, 2017).

The “Rainbow Nation”, known as South Africa may attract many tourists each year because of the great beauty of the country in some parts. The beauty of South Africa is solely dependent on the actual land of the country and wildlife itself because much of the issues the country has faced past and present do not make a cause for it to be beautiful. The decades of the Apartheid made much of the country decrease in opportunities to make the country the best it could be. White rulers overpowered blacks who were born and raised in the country, much like the Civil War time period to the United States. The segregation issues and handling of government and other issues was one of the worst times known to man (Shula, 2012). Once realized the overthrow of government was not working is when the issues were thought to start being resolved.

Nelson Mandela’s freedom and being elected to the first black President of the United States made an impact on South Africa but, many of the issues since than have stayed in the same attitude or traits as the Apartheid. Racial inequality was a huge issue during the Apartheid and today it is the leading cause to the failure of the country (Mariotti, 2011). Racial inequalities have led to a multitude of problems such as

employment opportunities, living conditions, educational opportunities, income inequality, government failure, and corruption. People in South Africa still have the same beliefs has the Apartheid. Although there is a Constitution that was created to solve most of these problems it has been over twenty years and people with their beliefs just do not care or bother. Millennials realize most of the problems and are more of an understanding generation but, they feel worthless because of what other people think about them (Parillo, 2008). The statistics of these issues prove the South Africa exhibits in depth an attitude of the Apartheid in there culture and who knows when it will be solved.