Unjust and Corrupt Practices in South African Government

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 age of Imperialism, European countries sought to colonize the world. It all came crashing down as European countries became involved in conflicts and could not sustain this infrastructure. In South Africa, European ideals were held so strongly in the government that segregation was the norm long after Europe and North America had become desegregated. Africa was seen as a place to steal from, whether it was slaves, minerals, riches, or land. From the constant European intervention and inability of nations to function on their own and control their people, Africa has become a vacuum of centralized power with new puppet democracies controlled by dictators and warlords. European control was a very hands-on way of controlling every aspect of African life in the government, infrastructure, culture, technology, religion. When African countries became independent, it was a struggle to adopt their new identity Because of the overpowering European dominance in every aspect of live, Africa was deprived of the chance to learn and develop on its

Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.

When an individual has got lot of resources, they are usually wealthy. This might be true for most but not for Africa. Africa is said to be the richest continent in the world when in terms of natural resources (Ebegubulem, 2012). Yet it is the poorest according to the nominal Gross Domestic Product calculation (Mannak,2008). That is why I agree with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf”s statement that she made at the Nelson Mandela annual lecture in 2008, which reads: “Africa is not poor, it is poorly managed”. It is seen that Africa is wealthy yet it is encountering low levels of economic growth as it is not developing. Is it because of power? As Africa is one of the continents which suffered greatly from the independence of its land, which was under the

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

From 1948 to 1994, South Africa functioned under the policy of apartheid, a system of racial segregation and white supremacy in which nonwhite racial groups were deprived of their South African citizenship and forced to live separately from whites. Stripped of their rights and marginalized in a country where they were in fact the majority, nonwhites launched strikes and campaigns of passive resistance against the all-white South African government. One freedom fighter stood out amongst the rest: Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid revolutionary, who would stand with others at the forefront of the nonwhites’ fight for their rights. Presently, Mandela is regarded as an international hero in the struggle for black liberation who dedicated his life to the abolition of racial oppression in South Africa and to correcting the injustices of the apartheid, using his political power and moral authority over the people. Despite the controversy he faced and the sanctions placed against apartheid opposition, Mandela has managed to leave a legacy of harmony in South Africa today.

South Africa 's history and politics are complex and dominated by the country 's harrowing journey to end apartheid.

Prior to apartheid control, white supremacy and racial segregation was prime in South Africa and was greatly intensified thereafter. The vulnerable social and economic

Much has been written on the failure of the state in Africa. Incessant political instability, high crime rates, lack of access to education and health care, deteriorating public infrastructure, and environmental degradation are

South Africa is known for its extreme levels of income inequality because referring to 2016 statistics it's found that 10 percent of the total population earn around 55%-60% of total income in the country. In relation to more developed countries they tend to be around levels of 20-35%. Also, another interesting statistic to refer to was, according to a new tax and survey found that under 10% of the South African population owns at least 90-95% of all available assets which is big enough of a shock factor for a lessor informed person to understand the truly grave situation that the South African economy is under. The next 40% population the group that is often considered to be the middle class earn around 30-35% of all income, but only own 5-10% of all wealth which is incredibly low for the so called “middle class”.

A large portion of the Black population who voted for the African National Congress (ANC) in the inaugural democratic election, did so because they believed that a government-approved socialist revolution was on the cards. The ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP), under the leadership of Joe Slovo, had been open about their commitment to their two-stage strategy – the struggles against apartheid and capitalism were two separate battles, that had to be addressed in two separate stages. National liberation would need to be achieved, before the question of a socialist revolution could be addressed. Luxemburg’s critique of revisionism seemed to reign true in this scenario – the struggle against apartheid came to overshadow the struggle for a socialist transformation. The mass revolutionary struggle of the 1980’s came to be replaced by a reluctant acceptance of reformism. The reformists within the South African government argued that capitalism had reached a stage in which it was no longer necessary to call for revolution. While it proved possible to remove the political institutions of apartheid within the framework of capitalism, the partnership between capitalism and racial domination could not be removed without the worker-driven socialist

Every country has a story to how it made a name for itself regardless if it was good or bad. Today the beautiful South Africa is known as the rainbow nation, for it’s diversity in culture. However, that name was earned after many blood rivers and broken homes.These “blood rivers and broken homes” I speak of occurred during an era called Apartheid. The name “Apartheid” is an afrikaans name which means segregation. It took fifty years for South Africa to redeem itself from being known, for violence and destruction. Liberation and freedom was in high demand but it wasn’t up for trade. The National Party Government of South Africa was a white government who loved the gift they had seen in South Africa however, who likes sharing gifts?

The effects of apartheid have long outlived the days of its existence and there seems to be no sign at this point of South Africa completely moving past it. There is, however, always hope, and solutions are much sought after. In August 2011, former Archbishop Desmond Tutu1 announced his suggestion to rectify the wrongs of the past by implementing laws that require all white citizens to pay a special tax. This would serve as reparation to symbolically account for the benefits that white people as a whole acquired as a result of the apartheid regime. My stance on the matter is that the apartheid laws were rules disadvantaging members of a certain race, and this act which violated human equality and dignity was deeply frowned upon. This suggestion by Desmond Tutu is essentially trying to seek revenge by enforcing rules on the beneficiaries of the past laws that disadvantage them based solely on their race. One instance cannot be described as horrific, while the same thing forced onto a different race is seen as justified. This ideal of reconciliation in South Africa will further be discussed by referring to the views expressed in ‘Transformative Constitutionalism’2 and ‘Transformative Adjudication.’3 The Constitution of South Africa4 will also be explored, with the intent of determining whether the perspective of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is justified.

Over the years immigrants have migrated from their native lands to different countries with the hopes and dreams of benefiting from the valued resources other developed countries have to offer. Migration occurs mainly for the purpose to gain better opportunities and life chances. In most cases, depending on an immigrant’s personal characteristics and physical traits being similar to that of the dominant groups the process of assimilating into society is less difficult; however, for those that are not close in physical traits to the dominant group have a

This is a good reminder that what we have here in south Africa is special. For most of history, people have been trapped in un unified societies, where the same people always stays on top and everyone else never had the chance .But South Africa is exceptional because , here , we believe that every human being, is unique, and that every human being has a right to go as far as their talents and capabilities will allow us to work .Like most South Africans, this is a personal representaion . My great grandparents came here in search of opportunity to improve their lives and give their children the opportunity for a better life. And they left me something that not many people can