The Challenges Of Social Justice And Inequalities In South Africa

Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) have suggested that the historical claims of white supremacy within nations such as the UK and South Africa, has created racial conflicts and segregation between ethnic communities. Relating back to Weber’s example of the caste system, the “authentically white” (Caliendo and Mcllwain, 2011:22) communities are dominant and control the minority communities. Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) argue that the “authentically white” have increased wealth and status, which they use to create boundaries and exclude the ethnic groups within the community. An example of this would be the issue of Apartheid in South Africa throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Apartheid can be defined by the New Oxford English Dictionary (1998) as “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race” (Guelke, 2005:61). Throughout the period Guelke (2005) discussed the fact that the minority white communities within South Africa ruled over the black majority, living “a lifestyle with a standard of living matching the very richest countries in the world” (Guelke, 2001:1-2), whilst the black communities lived in extreme poverty. Linking back to the system of monopolistic social closure, the white population viewed themselves as the elite members of society, and via legislation such as the native policy, used their power to justify the exploitation and segregation of the black South African

It has been known throughout the years the class conflicts between people around the world and how it affects many, but during today's times it is not as bad as the times when racial segregation took place between South Africa’s white minority and non-white majority. Nadine Gordimer, is a born and raised South African novelist whose writings focused on exile and alienation. She wrote many novels and short stories that related to South Africa's unjust political situation between the whites and non-whites in the 1900’s. One of the short stories that she wrote is “Country Lovers” which portrays the life in South Africa during those times and how apartheid, a policy that controlled any type of relation between white and black South African’s endorsing racial segregation and racial discrimination against the blacks, ruled over the country. Class played a big role in this short story because the way the whites and non-whites were treated was very different and their opportunities were not equally shared. I believe the ideology of racism was why the non-white South Africans were treated so poorly. This all makes me aware of where I stand in acceptance by other of my social, economic, or political practices. I come to realize that things like this still happen today.

The Struggle for equality, Even though there were a lot of groups struggling for equality there were similarities and differences between all the groups. Black people in south african and african american were struggling for their equality. Because they didn't have the rights like white people. According to martin luther king speech he said “one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” They were separated from white people, they didn't have their freedom. They can't eat in the same restaurant where the white people eat, they were separated from schools. They also can't get married from white women.

This paper will be outlining the basic structure of the laws that segregated the black population of South Africa throughout the 1900’s. It will also be explaining important people involved in the dismantling of apartheid and the foreign nations that helped to influence South Africa’s government to change. However, the primary goal for this paper is to inform the reader about the reasoning behind apartheid, the events leading up to it, and how it was reformed.

We commence by examining South-African apartheid and its historical and theoretical context. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation used in the overtly racist regime in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. It was based on laws that banned “marriage and sexual relations between different “population groups” and requir[ed] separate residential areas for people of mixed race (“Coloreds”), as well as for Africans” (Fredrickson 3). These laws were based on the same obsession with “race purity” that characterized other racist regimes, most notably Jim Crow America and Nazi Germany. The system was justified in terms of “cultural essentialism” and “seperate development”. Cultural essentialism means that each culture has inherent features that differentiate the members of this cultural group from others. The concept of separate development

Cape Town is South Africa’s oldest city and is closely behind Johannesburg as the nations largest city. This capital city is known for is breathtaking landscapes and vibrant culture. However, Cape Town is home to a conflicted history in which is still evident in it’s urban fabric today. Apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial segregation created an immense divide in the populations of Cape Town. Not only was this divide social, but it was physical as well. Communities were segregated by race into varying townships. While this injustice was ended nearly two decades ago, inequality and divides are still extremely noticeable in the makeup of the city. While many changes have been made to society in Cape Town, there is still much room for

Twenty years into democracy, the high poverty rates of the post-Apartheid government is an indication of the high income inequality and also a clear view that improper policy formulations or planning. The ANC at some point forgot to create policies which could be consider or uplift ordinary citizens instead of benefiting those who are already better off, and to add up, the current situations encountered by the current leadership is an indication that they have not advanced to narrow down the income or economic inequality gap between the rich and the poor. However, let’s give them credit that at least there are few rich black people than before even though there still remain the dominance of white people on the economic platform of getting

In the article ”Learn about South Africa”, Hannah Lantos educates us on how Black and coloured people who lived in South Africa, had little rights until a man named Nelson Mandela came along and restored equality. The native people in South Africa lived peacefully until diamonds and gold were discovered and many people went there to work in the mines and to own them (Lantos par.3). The conflict still continued and the native people had a very difficult time.”The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership or land by ‘Black’ to the small percentage of 7%” (Lantos par. 4). The National Party was elected and they intensified the racial segregation program (Lantos par. 4). A man named Nelson Mandela was against this unfair apartheid

South Africa has long been known for the racist policies that were implemented by the government during apartheid. In reality, many of these policies were introduced before apartheid, and thus South Africa today is affected by centuries rather than just a few decades of racism. The racial practice and policies of the nineteenth century that developed out of South Africa’s mineral revolution were then carried into the apartheid era, and are of particular importance for black South African families. The desires of the white population to have sufficient labour and to monitor it while reserving urban areas for whites occasioned the government to create restrictive laws starting in the late nineteenth century which were carried into apartheid. These laws and practices broke apart the South African black family and has resulted in enduring consequences for black families and South Africa.

Twenty years after the end apartheid in South Africa, there still stands the same Squatter town with tin sheets as roughs and the same living poor living conditions that were established in the early 19 hundrends. These Squatter towns are present throughout South Africa, all known for their different colorful characteristics, and lack of racial diversity. With “63% of black children living in households earning less than 800 rands, compared to only 4% of white children” racial inequality is enormously existent. In “South Africa 58.5% of whites and 51% of Indians enter some form of higher education, compared to only 12% of blacks.” [21 The overall lack of economic and educational opportunities for blacks in South Africa is appalling. In a nation were 80% of the population is black, one can truly see a sobering example of how powerful and lasting systematic and historical racism is, even when there is overwhelming majority in the population; that majority population can still suffer from oppression.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.

South Africa endured one of the worst colonialisation any country could have went through, whereby the Apartheid regime objectively disregarded the economic participation of the black over to those of the white population. However, the new democratic government would thereby be challenged with effectively having to deal with the challenges in which the past government had left behind. Therefore, in effectively trying to deal with the issues, alternative approaches have to be implemented in order to deliver on the challenges of the public. On the contrary, this essay will critically compare and discuss the liberal and free market, as well as the state interventionist approach as alternative solutions in dealing with current issues of social security, the health and school systems. Which would be able to transform current developmental challenges facing South Africa. In summary, the essay will thereby state which approach can transform South Africa in effectively dealing with developmental challenges currently facing South Africa.

South Africa is an upper-middle income country with a population of 52 million people and a GDP of 312.80 billion US dollars (“Statistics South Africa | The South Africa I Know, The Home I Understand”, n.d.). The country has the second largest economy in Africa; it plays a prominent role in sub-Saharan Africa and in the continent as a whole. South Africa was hugely shaped by the apartheid legacy, a system of racial segregation that began during the colonial rule and was officially enforced by the National Party after the elections of 1948. Apartheid regime ended in 1994 and the newly elected government led by the African National Congress (ANC) had to deal with enormous challenges in terms of poverty and huge inequalities. ANC’s election manifesto, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) emphasised that “attacking poverty and deprivation” must be “the first priority of a democratic government” (Statistics South Africa 2014). RDP was an ambitious socioeconomic framework focusing on addressing “economic imbalances” and “democratising” the economy (ANC, 1994 cited in Francis, 2006), redistribution through major land reform, house construction and service provision. In 1996, the RDP was substituted by a neo-liberal programme “Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR)”, which was an export-led orthodox macroeconomic strategy coupled with trade liberalisation. This rightward shift of policy aimed at maintaining the confidence of international

Before 1994 South Africa was a country based on Apartheid rules and regulations. The Parliament was the highest legislative body and it interpreted laws as it pleased, mostly in favour of ‘white Christians’. Any other race or religion was treated in an unfair and sometimes inhumane way. These laws were mainly based on Roman-Dutch law and influenced by English law.