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South Africa: The struggle continues 25 years after apartheid
JOHANNESBURG, May 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Twenty-five years after the end of
white-minority rule, South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries
in the world, held back by corruption and crime.
As the country holds elections Wednesday in which the African National
Congress (ANC) is all but certain to retain power, here is some background:
– Decades of apartheid –
The race-based system of apartheid that favoured the white minority over
the black majority became official government policy in 1948.
It governed all aspects of life, restricting non-whites to unskilled jobs
and inferior education, services and living conditions.
Whites controlled politics, the economy and the land.
The system was dismantled nearly five decades later, after a long and
bitter struggle, its demise sealed by the April 1994 elections in which
blacks were able to vote for the first time.
– Mandela –
Then ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in jail for his
efforts to overthrow apartheid, became South Africa’s first black president
in 1994.
His release from prison in 1990 heralded the country’s transition to
democracy for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize with the last white
president, F.W. de Klerk.
Mandela committed to only one term, stepping down in 1999. Internationally
respected as an icon of reconciliation, his death in 2013 was met with an
outpouring of emotion worldwide.
Later, in-fighting and graft scandals within the ANC peaked in 2018 when
Jacob Zuma was forced to step down as president.
– ‘Rainbow Nation’ tarnished –
The optimism of the post-apartheid “Rainbow Nation” has waned amid
widespread complaints of weak governance, poor public service delivery,
corruption and crime.
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The number of regular houses, as opposed to makeshift shacks, increased by
a quarter since 1996, as did access to electricity (61 percent), according to
a Centre for Risk Analysis survey in 2019.
But about one in five black households are classed as living in extreme
poverty compared to 2.9 percent of white households, the Institute of Race
Relations says.
With a population of 56.7 million (2017), the country still has “one of
the highest inequality rates in the world,” the World Bank says.
Most of South Africa’s arable land, meanwhile, remains in the hands of
white farmers.
– Economic woes –
The second-strongest economy in Africa behind Nigeria, South Africa is the
world’s top producer of platinum and a leading supplier of gold, diamonds and
other minerals.
However, mining has shed about 300,000 jobs, now only making up about
seven percent of gross domestic product from a peak of some 20 percent in the
1980s.
Having seen sharp gains from 1994 to 2006 with annual growth above five
percent, the economy crashed in 2008 at the height of the global financial
crisis.
Growth was just 0.8 percent in 2018 and is projected to be 1.3 percent for
2019, the World Bank says.
Official unemployment is at 27.1 percent, reaching 53 percent for people
younger than 35 — among the highest rates in the world.
– Sunny SA –
With unspoiled beaches, vineyards and animal reserves, the country was the
continent’s leading tourist destination behind Morocco in 2017, according to
the UN’s tourism authority.
There were more than 10 million visitors in 2017, and the sector
contributed 10 percent to the economy.
The country hosted Africa’s first World Cup in 2006 and is the sole nation
on the continent to allow gay marriage.
But crime remains persistently high — the murder rate rose in 2017 to
about 57 a day.
South Africa also has the biggest HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world, with 7.1
million people living with HIV, the UN says.
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