How the Apartheid Laws of South Africa Affected the Nations Economic and Educational Structure - Research Paper Example

Apartheid in South Africa Section A: Plan of the investigation Importance This paper analyses the question “How the apartheid laws of South Africa affected the nation’s economic and educational structure?” This question is important given the current economic condition of South Africa and the education status of the blacks. South Africa till date has not made much progress since the end of the apartheid era. Method First, I have analyzed the apartheid impact on the economy of South Africa. For this purpose I have used the book The economics of apartheid by Stephen R. Lewis (1990). Second, I have analyzed the apartheid impact on the education of the Blacks in South Africa. For this purpose I have mainly used the book Black student politics: higher education and apartheid by Saleem Badat (1999). Other online articles have been used to complement the information. Aim The purpose of the research is to prove that racism is a curse for any country. Segregation strategies will always have negative impacts on the economy and education of the subdued races. Section B: Summary of evidence Effect of apartheid on economy South Africa experienced a significant growth in the economic sector between 1946 and 1975. During this period, South Africa was burdened with the pressure of preserving the apartheid system. The effort to maintain white supremacy resulted in the fall of GDP in 1987. To preserve the effort to impose restrictions on the black in the labour market, the economy of the country became dependent on migrant labour system. Initially this system did not have any negative effect on the economic growth in South Africa. However, in the beginning of 1970s, the rigid policies of the apartheid system began to have negative impact in the modern economy. The low wage rates of the blacks and their limited access to education created deficiency of labour among the natives. As the number of immigrants grew, there was ready availability of migrant labours based on temporary contracts. The manufacturing and mining sectors of the country began to realize the benefits that can be gained from “settled labour force”. The transport expenditure and the length of time involved in hiring migrant labours affected the level of gross production of the country. There were also other economic setbacks. There was growing unrest among the black communities because of the oppressive treatment. This forced the government to spend more on internal security. The younger generations of the white population were forced to join military force. This resulted in decline of income because the military pay was lower than the job market. By this time, the government attempted to consider several policies for black education which needed huge investments. The average expenditure of the government was 14.0 percent in the late 1950s, and it increased to 24.7 percent in the mid-1980s1. Effect of apartheid on education In 1953, the Bantu Education Act was implemented by the South African government as an effort to provide limited education to the black children. Before the Act was passed, most schools were run by missionaries and were funded by the government. After this Act was implemented, the government gave financial aid to black schools on conditions that they will follow the curriculum set by the Department of Bantu Education. Many missionary schools were closed down when they refused to promote apartheid. There were many protests among the black students and their parents because of a separate system of black education. According to this Act, the black children received only that kind of education that was necessary to work in factories. The talents and aspirations of the black children were ignored. This Act was designed in the way to serve the interests of the white supremacy. The black students had inferior educational resources and opportunities. Under this Act, the black children were taught that they were “perpetual children in need of parental supervision by whites”. This limited their view of their social status in the South African society. The conditions of Bantu schools were deplorable because of limited funding by the government and this had an adverse effect on the quality of education. The classrooms were overcrowded as more black students were admitted in a single school because of limited number of black schools. There was lack of textbooks and the teachers were inefficiently trained. The black students began to protest in 1976, when some subjects were made mandatory to be learnt in the Afrikaan language2. On June 16, 1976 thousands of Black students in the town of Soweto gathered outside their schools to vehemently protest against the implementation of Afrikaan. The Soweto uprising continued for several days and during this event there were hundreds of casualties3. In the history of the struggle against apartheid system in South Africa, this event played an important turning point. The young South Africans were awakened by this event and they began to participate in numerous liberation movements. After a long struggle of liberalisation, eventually such movements led to the abolition of the apartheid system in South Africa4. Section C: Evaluation of Sources Origins Saleem Badat has done his graduation in the universities of Natal (RSA), Boston (USA) and York (UK). During the publication of the book Black student politics: higher education and apartheid, he was Executive Officer of the New council on Higher Education which advises the Minister of Education on higher education issues. Stephen R. Lewis was Economic Consultant to the governments of Botswana and Kenya. In Botswana, he was awarded for his service the Presidential Order of Meritous Service in 1983. Purposes Badat, in his book has analyzed the revolutions and rebellious attitudes of students in South Africa against their educational conditions during apartheid period. The book focuses on the continuity and violence of student activism. Lewis, in his book has given an in-depth analysis of the impact that the apartheid system had on the economic growth of South Africa. The book helps the reader to understand the problems of South Africa and the consequences of various policies. Values Badat’s book analyzes the roles of South African students activisms in the “educational, political and other spheres and the factors that shaped their activities”5 (Badat, preface). This is a valuable source to use when writing on the impact of apartheid laws on the educational structure of South Africa. The author has used books like Economic obstacles to Black advancement by I. Abedian (1986), Historical Sociology by P. Abrams (1982) and other. He has also used AZASO National Newsletters of June, 1983 and November, 1983. He has used articles from newspapers like Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Post of Johannesberg. Lewis in his book The economics of apartheid has focused on the “relationship between the apartheid system and patterns of economic growth, and the constraints this relationship imposes on policy options”6. The author has given the names of many sources as reference. Some of the books has used are like F.D. Brown’s Amandla: the rallying cry against apartheid (1985), Ruth, Steele and Gurney’s The South African connection: Western investment in apartheid (1973), Merle Lipton’s Capitalism and Apartheid (1978). Limitations The sources used by both the authors are mainly secondary ones and hence the facts presented by him might not be absolutely precise. Section D: Analysis Historical Background In the seventeenth century the English population in South Africa dominated the Dutch descendants who were knows as Boers or Afrikaners. To maintain their own identity the Dutch established new colonies like Orange Free State and Transvaal. It was in the year 1900 that diamonds were found in this land for the first time. This led to invasion of the land by the English and it initiated the Boer War. The conflict centering on power sharing between the English and the Boers remained till the 1940s when the Afrikaners National Party gained a strong majority. The National party started the apartheid system to gain control over the economic and social system. Initially the main focus of this apartheid system was to maintain the minority rule of the white and to curtail the rights of the black population. The apartheid laws were enacted in 1948 to give a formal shape to racial discrimination. In 1950, the South African people were classified into three racial groups which were white, black (African) or colored (mixed decent). The colored group mainly contained the Indians and the Asians. The black people received inferior kind of public services while the white people enjoyed all the privileges. Marriage was prohibited between the whites and the non-white groups. Segregation was also done in the residential areas by forcefully removing the black people. The Blacks even faced the humiliation of proving their identity before entering into non-black areas although South Africa is originally the land of the blacks. All these unethical laws were strongly implemented and anyone who did not follow the law was punished7. The Bantu Authorities Act was established in 1951, to abolish local governments for the blacks. This Act introduced “tribal, regional and territorial authorities” in the Black areas. In these areas, the Blacks were given political rights. This strategy of independent statehood was to make the Blacks citizens of allotted states and take away their rights as citizens of South Africa8. Authors’ conclusion The economic development of South Africa was affected by the racial discrimination during the apartheid period. Although the country has always been rich in mineral sources, the economic growth was halted in the 1980s. The author Stephen R. Lewis connects this with the “diseconomies of the apartheid system and the costs of preserving the white rule”. To maintain the white supremacy over the blacks, the government restricted the blacks from holding lands and getting proper education and training. The government also made huge investments on implementing strategies to curb the power of the blacks, and since such investments did not yield any economic gains, there was an overall decline of the economic structure9. In the field of education, the author Saleem Badat felt that the blacks have been the victim of the Bantu Education Act. The whites felt that it was their inherent right to dominate in the scientific and technical fields in the job market. As a result of this the blacks were not allowed to receive “middle and high-level” training in these fields to maintain the division of races. The Bantu Education Act was implemented mainly for the purpose of curbing the economic development of the Blacks and to deny them social status and political rights10. Section E: Conclusion Research question In the 1994 elections the apartheid period came to its conclusion in South Africa and the blacks began to have majority power in the government. The formal attitude of the government of South Africa began to change rapidly in all sectors of life including education where class distinction had the most long lasting effects. Although a small section of middle class blacks were able to develop in that period, but mostly the black community received no education to help them obtain jobs. Even in the post apartheid period, race remains an important cultural issue. Although people in South Africa now have a liberal attitude towards other races, they still prefer to socialize with culturally similar people and marry within their racial groups. Final judgement on the books The book by Lewis establishes the relationship between apartheid system and economic development of South Africa. It provides a clear picture of the economic problems in the country and can act as a guide for policy makers of other countries like United States, Europe and United Nations. The policy makers can analyse the effects of any sanctions they make regarding trade and finance against South Africa. The book by Badat provides information about the struggles and difficulties faced by the Black students in the era of apartheid. It talks about the struggles of anti-apartheid organisations against the injustice of the Bantu Education Act. References 1. Badat, Saleem. Black student politics: higher education and apartheid, Pretoria: HSRC Press, 1999 2. Gill, M.S. Human Rights Human Wrongs, New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2004 3. Joubart, Annekie. The power of performance: linking past and present in Hananwa and Lobedu oral literature, Volume 1, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004 4. Lewis, Stephen R. The economics of apartheid, USA: Council on Foreign Relations, 1990 5. “Soweto Student Uprising”. Overcomingapartheid, n.d. March 23, 2012 from: http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?id=5 6. “The History of Apartheid in South Africa”. Stanford, n.d. March 23, 2012 from: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html Read More