Apartheid was a political, social and economic segregation policy that was majorly used in South Africa to separate people based on their skin color, class and other discriminative factors. In this system people who were not European by nature were given harsh treatment. The apartheid policies were meant to bring the citizens together but the way they were implemented kept the majority disadvantaged in all aspects of social life.
The beginning of Apartheid
Apartheid in South Africa dates back in 1948 when the National Party, which was of all Whites, came into power and started enforcing race laws (Hamill J, 2018). Race laws of 1948 prohibited non-whites from marrying whites. They also specified jobs that one could do based on their race. These laws became worse when Population Registration Act was enacted in 1950 categorizing people as White, Black or Colored (these were the Indians and the Asians). The native Blacks who were the majority of the population were treated harshly as they were required to carry pass books when accessing the areas that were set apart for the Whites. Failure to adhere to these laws the victims who were majorly blacks were tortured, imprisoned without trial or killed using police suppression (Stanford University, n.d.).
Black’s protests to stop the pains of apartheid did not yield fruits. The government that was all Whites and favored the Whites continued to formulate and pass laws that inflicted the Blacks more. For example, the protests against the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 made the government to enact the Public Safety Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1953 that gave the government power to impose strict state of emergency and penalties that included whipping, imprisonment and fines. The Bantu Authorities Act was meant to make the Blacks foreigners while in their own country through the establishment of “homelands” (these were also referred to as Bantustans) that were areas designated for Blacks alone within South Africa (South Africa History Online, 2019).
The goal of apartheid was the minority Whites to control the majority non-whites, especially the Blacks, both politically and economically. The system of apartheid was more of White supremacy. What the government of the day did gave the Whites preferential treatment. The population of the Black in 1978 in South Africa was around 19 million, while the Whites were 4.5 million. But, the Whites occupies 87 percent of the South Africa land leaving the natives with only 13 percent of the land size. And, still the Whites continued to remove the natives from their lands by force and congest them in Bantustans and thereby making them more poor. The Blacks were kept in reserve lands that were near mines, factories and arable lands for the whites in order to be providing labor which was poorly paid and the working conditions were not safe (BLAKEMORE E, 2019).
The reunification lesson that can be borrowed from Germany
Economically in 1978 the natives were getting around 20 percent of the national income and the rest was going to the Whites. This made the Backs not to have access to better infrastructure, good education and better health care services. Politically the natives were denied political and voting rights on matters of national politics. The native’s political rights were limited to homeland affairs (History.com Editors, 2020). Whites wanted to control the South Africa parliament and nations leadership alone.
Despite the end of apartheid almost three decades by now, South Africa is still a divided nation. The lessons learnt from German reunification can still be used to make South Africa one strong nation. For example, the national income should be distributed equally to bridge the income disparity gap. More resources should be deployed to help the natives raise their standards of living. This can help in eliminating or lowering the crime rate that is too high (Cook N, 2020). The crime rate in South Africa is less motivated by criminal reasons, but socioeconomic disparities contributes in its growth. The current government of Africa National Congress (ANC) which has more than half of the National Assembly seats should initiate reforms that will minimize resource allocation disparity. This will ensure more Blacks gets access to education and as a result their unemployment rate will go down. Also, basic public services should be distributed according to the number of people without factoring in race orientation. This will play a bigger role in reducing race motivated crime.
