South Africa: History, Society, Economy, Politics and Government

Verane Castelnau

History

The Bantu language group first migrated south from central Africa, settling in the Transvaal region sometime before AD100. If the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in 1648, the permanent white settlement only began in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established there. Over the following decades, French Huguenots refugees, the Dutch and Germans came to the Cape thereby collectively forming the Afrikaner part of today’s population. The British gained control of the Cape at the end of the 18^th century triggering off a long conflict against the Afrikaners who decided by 1836 to undertake a northern migration known as the "Great Trek". In 1852 and 1854, the independent Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State were created. Relations between the Republics and the British government were strained. The discovery of diamonds at Kimberley in 1870 and of large gold deposits in 1886 caused an influx of European (mostly British) immigration and investment. This led to the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902 won by the British forces. The Republics were then incorporated into the British Empire. In May 1910, the Union of South Africa was created whose constitution kept all political power in the hands of the whites. In 1912, the South Africa Native National Congress was formed to fight against restrictions based on colour and eventually became known as the African National Congress (ANC). And if South Africa joined the United Nations Charter in 1945, it refused to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, driving deeper in an apartheid (separateness) policy. In the early 1960s, following a protest in Sharpville in which 69 protesters were killed by the police, the ANC and the Pan-African Congress (PAC) were banned, Nelson Mandela convicted and imprisoned on charges of treason. In 1961, booed by international community, South Africa rejected its dominion status and withdrew from the Commonwealth. Despite the 1984 new constitution, the Blacks remained disfranchised and Apartheid kept on impoverishing the country. Popular uprisings in black and coloured townships helped convince NP members of the need for a change. F.W. de Klerk reaching power in 1989 removed the ban from the ANC and released Nelson Mandela from prison. Apartheid institutions were then scrapped and politics were opened to black and coloured communities. The 1994 election resulted in massive victory for Mandela and his ANC under which reign the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to work for national healing and reconciliation. In June 1999, Mandela’s right hand Thabo Mbecki was elected president who currently wrestles with a slumping economy, a high crime rate and the country’s rising AIDS epidemic.

Society

South Africa’s population is approximately 43.6 million people. The population is multiracial and multiethnic: Blacks make up 75.2%, whites makes up 13.6%, Coloured 8.6% and Asians 2.6% of the population. The Blacks belong to nine different ethnic groups among which, Zulu is the largest making up 22% of the total population. The Dutch form 3/5 of the white population. Nearly 4/5 of the people in South Africa (Whites and Blacks) are Christians, mainly protestants. The Blacks often combine elements of Christianity and traditional African religions. Most Asians are Hindus or Muslims and there are about 100 000 Jews in the country. There are eleven official languages in South Africa including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sesotho, Tsonga, and Zulu. English is mainly spoken by whites while most Blacks speak one of the Bantu languages (Sesotho, Zulu,...). Apartheid left a mark on South African society. Whites have a standard of living that is comparable to people in developed countries. They make up 13% of the population and earn 61% of the country’s income while Blacks, who make up 75% of the population, only earn 28% of this same income. More than half the Blacks live below the poverty line. 45% of them are unemployed and 40% do not have access to clean water. The Whites can expect living for an average of 73 years while the Blacks’ life expectancy does not overpass 57 years of age. Nevertheless, the number of wealthy Blacks has increased since 1975 and the income has also increased for the poorest 40% of Blacks. Two problems are faced by the population: the political violence which can be traced to apartheid and its inequalities and affects mostly women in black urban areas. And the rate of sexually transmitted disease transmission which is climbing with an estimated 4.2 million people living with AIDS (UNAIDS’s figures).
Department of Social Development Republic Of South Africa
Link: FAO: Karte zur Bevölkerung

Politics and Government

On December 10, 1996, President Mandela signed the new constitution and it entered into force on February 3, 1997. In the 1999 elections, the major parties sharing power are the African National Congress (ANC - 266 seats in the National Assembly) whose support was multiethnic and multilingual, the Democratic Party (38 seats - major opposition party), the Inkatha Freedom Party (34 seats) and the New National Party (28 seats). The Inkatha is the mainly rural-based Zulu party that challenges the ANC on the centralisation of the country. In June 2000, the Democratic party and the New National Party merged to form an opposition party called the Democratic Alliance. The post-apartheid leaders of South Africa, namely Nelson Madela and today’s president Thabo Mbeki have made remarkable progress in consolidating the nation’s peaceful transition to democracy. Programs to improve the delivery of essential social services to the majority of the population are underway. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has considerably helped the reconciliation process since 1996. But one important issue continues to be the relationship of provincial and local administrative structures to the national government.
Link: Structure and Functions of the South African Government

Economy

South Africa has a productive and industrialised economy that paradoxically displays many characteristics associated with developing countries. It enjoys an abundant supply of resources which contributes to the development of many efficient industries including mining (world’s largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery and textile. The country also shows well-established financial, legal, communications and transports sectors and its stock-exchange ranks among the 10 largest in the world. Besides, a modern infrastructure supports an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centres throughout the region. Trade liberalisation has progressed substantially since the 1990s. Average import tariffs have declined to 14.3% in 1999 from more than 30% in 1990 and South Africa exports gold, diamonds, machinery and equipment to its trading partners namely the UK, Italy, Japan, the US and Germany.

After the apartheid a Reconstruction and Development Program was designed to create to set up strategies and improve the standard of living for the majority of the population by providing housing, basic services, education and health care. Despite the efforts, growth has not been strong enough to cut into the 30% unemployment and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era, especially the problems of poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantages groups. As mentioned above, the country’s wealth remains very unequally distributed along racial lines. President Mbeki’s will to promote foreign investment, reduce poverty by relaxing restrictive labour laws, stepping up the pace of privatisation and cutting government spending gives hope for the South African future economy.

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