There are times when I listen to
various radio stations and people call in to make an argument that black people
must stop moaning about apartheid, these callers point out that apartheid was
abolished in 1991, almost three decades ago and therefore black people must
move on and stop blaming everything on apartheid.
The apartheid system came into
effect in 1948 when the National Party government lead by H.F. Verwoerd enacted
a number of laws which institutionalized the doctrine of separate (black and
white people must live in separate areas) and unequal (white people are
superior to black people, or put differently, black people are inferior to
white people). Over a period of more than four decades, the apartheid system meted
out cruel and debilitating treatment on the black people of South Africa.
The goal of the apartheid system was to divide black and white by separating them from each other and use this
division as a mechanism to dehumanize black people. The result of the apartheid
system was that resources in South Africa were allocated along racial lines. To
be sure, apartheid was designed such that there were the beneficiaries, those
on the “right side”, the white people and the sufferers, those on the “wrong
side”, the black people.
Without fear of contradiction, I believe
that apartheid played itself out across a number of dimensions, and it affected
both black and white members of the population in equal but opposing measure. My
opinion is that there are four dimensions across which apartheid wreaked its
havoc on the people of South Arica, namely: political, social, psychological
and economic.
Political Dimension
In any free society, citizens exercise
their power through the ballot box on how they are governed. During the
apartheid years, citizens on the “wrong side” were robbed of the right to vote and
were reduced to passive participants who could not express their will or make
any demands on the government of the day. Citizens on the “right side” retained
their right to vote, remained active participants, able to express their will
and voice their demands to the government of the day. For many decades under apartheid,
white people voted in great numbers for the election and re-election of the National
Party. At each election during the apartheid years, black people waited and
hoped that sense would prevail over white voters and that they would vote
the National Party out of power. Sadly, it was not through the ballot box that the
National Party lost its power, it was largely through the act of one man, F.W.
De Klerk. The nobility of De Klerk’s intentions to first, remove a ban on liberation
movements and then eventually agreeing to a negotiated settlement with the same
liberation movements is an on-going debate. What cannot be argued and debated is
that the political impact of apartheid, on both sides, cannot be
over-emphasized.
Social Dimension
In any free society, citizens are
allowed all manner of rights which we take for-granted today as they are now
enshrined in Chapter 2 of South Africa’s Constitution, in the form of a Bill of
Rights. During the apartheid years, black people were stripped off many of
these rights including but not limited to: the right to move freely in their
own country; the right to make choices freely; the right to speak freely
without any fear of consequence or punishment and ultimately the right to simply
live how they preferred to live. As a result, black South Africans could not
define and determine their own destiny while white people enjoyed all the
rights under the sun which allowed them to live the lives they wanted to live. One
of the brutal instruments of the apartheid system was the “Group Areas Act of
1950” (GAA). The objective of the GAA and its subsequent variations was to separate
black people from white people. Under this law, black people could only live in
designated areas and their movement outside these designated areas was policed
through, among other instruments, the Pass Laws. The most devastating effect of
the GAA was the displacement of black families from their homes in order to
make way for white residential areas. The separation of the black and white people
in South Africa prevented them from either developing a common culture and
norms, or gaining a better appreciate of each group’s distinct culture and
norms. Therefore, the doctrine of separate and unequal resulted in black and
white South Africans at first being physically separated from each other and
then over time, this physical separation lead to a psychological separation. A separate
and divided South African society was not then and is not now conducive to
peace, and prosperity. Therefore, the lasting social impact of apartheid, on
both sides, cannot be over-emphasized.
Psychological Dimension
Apartheid had hidden effects, which
impacted the psyche of the people of South Africa, driven mainly by this doctrine
of separate and unequal. These hidden effects manifested themselves in the form
of: mistrust between the two sides and my opinion is that this mistrust persists
to this day; perceptions by one group that another was and continues to be
superior to the other. Perhaps the most devastating impact of apartheid was
that the system emboldened some white people and allowed them to gain confidence if
not perhaps arrogance about their position within the South African society. In
my view, this arrogance continues to this day. On the other hand, the apartheid system served
to crush the confidence of black people, stripped them of their dignity and ultimately
dehumanized them. Some black people resorted to drugs and alcohol abuse as a
way to escape the dehumanized state, others tragically took their own lives and others
still went into exile in search for a better life in foreign countries. I would
argue that the impact of apartheid on the psyche of both sides is long lasting,
and it will take a few generations to overcome the effects of the doctrine of separate
and unequal.
Economic Dimension
In any free society, and as alluded
to above citizens, have certain rights among them is the right to freely engage
in activities through which they can create economic value for themselves and
their families. In the current South African Constitution this right is defined
in the Bill of rights under section 22 of Chapter 2 titled “Freedom to
trade, occupation and profession”. Under the apartheid system black people had
limited choices regarding economic activities that they could engage in. This meant
that their ability to earn a decent living and create wealth was severely
limited, if not entirely non-existent. Many black people found themselves working
in low-paying, un-skilled jobs with no access to land and other means of
production. I would argue that even today, a large part of the black population
continues to have limited access to the means of production, except their own
labour. During the apartheid years, white people had unlimited access to the
means of production: land; capital and some might argue, even black
labour itself. As a result, many white people were able to earn a decent living
and others still were able to create substantial wealth for themselves and for their future generations. To this day, most of the means of production remain under the control of white
people. Today, according to the United Nations Development Programe’s human
development report of November 2013, South Africa is one of the most unequal societies
in the world with a gini coefficient of 63.1, behind only the Seychelles (the
highest) and the Comoros (second highest). Therefore, the lasting economic
impact of apartheid, on both sides, cannot be over-emphasized.
My opinion is that South Africa
has so far only addressed the political dimension of apartheid, chief among
these was to return to all citizens the right to vote. A lot more still needs to
be done to address the social, psychological and economic dimensions of
apartheid. These three dimensions will not be fully addressed as long as there
are those who deny that apartheid continues to impact lives, almost 30 years
after its abolition, and it could impact lives for many more years if this
denialism continues. Those who argue that black people must stop blaming
apartheid and move on, fail to appreciate the impact of apartheid on both the black
and white people of South Africa across the above mentioned multiple
dimensions.
Just like the National Party enacted
specific laws to entrench the doctrine of separate and unequal, the ANC
government must enact laws to first, un-do the doctrine of separate and unequal
and secondly, to create conditions conducive to a united, equal and prosperous South
African people.
Our Politicians must show political will to create effective government !!!
