Apartheid entailed rules, laws, policies and ways of lives that ensured and secured the minority rule and domination of the whites over the non-whites for economic and domination reasons. It aimed to secure the ‘superiority’ and domination of the whites over the blacks and to preserve the inferiority, degradation and dependency of the non-whites by the whites in all spheres of life and practices. For centuries of colonialism, and particularly during the five decades of apartheid, whites benefited from considerable preference, preferential treatment and superior conditions, services and funding in all spheres and areas of life than the non-whites who were meant to serve the whites.
The country provided for the whites and did everything it could to exclude the non-whites, who had no political power and participation. It used them as a cheap workforce for the whites to prosper economically and to enjoy a high quality of life at the expense of the non-whites whose existence was to ensure a good and prosperous life for the whites with no need to compete over resources and prosperity with the non-whites. It provided very poor services, education, employment opportunities, housing, infrastructures, transportation, to the non-whites and very good services for the whites, and deprived the non-whites from growth and fulfilment opportunities in order to sustain their status as the servants of the whites. It used divide and rule, fear and terror, oppression and intimidation to control the non-whites and sustain their inferiority and poor cognitive skills. Transformation in South Africa means shifting this situation to an inclusive democracy of majority rule and none-oppression where apartheid and colonialism had finished their existence, and the country legally became a democracy of majority rule with every South African being entitled to cast one vote for a party that he or she believes can represent his or her interest best, and the country is moving and carrying out procedures to ensure equality, equal opportunity, wellbeing and good, decent, quality of life for all its people. Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 and the outlawed African National Congress (ANC) became a legal party. In 1994, after negotiations among all factions in South Africa, the first democratic elections took place in South Africa and Nelson Mandela, representing the ANC, became the first Black president of the Republic of South Africa. The country began the process of closing out the large gaps between apartheid and a democracy of equality and equal opportunities for all. The process of narrowing the gaps among the racial groups in South Africa and particularly between Whites and non-Whites started as the policies of the new regime. The development, successes and progress of the non-whites, Blacks in particular, have been focused on. This leads to questions about the success of the process of fixing the injustice of the past and narrowing the gaps among the racial groups that is meant by ‘transformation’ in order to assess its achievement and its quality. How should this narrowing of the gaps and ensuring equality and equal opportunities for South Africans be done? What does it mean? What does it means in relation to the advancement of the country in relation to the world in terms of objective criteria of economics? Are the non-whites advancing, catching up with the whites, and becoming more equal to the blacks in job opportunity, earnings, level of education, schooling, satisfaction and fulfilment, wellbeing and quality care, the quality of basics such as health care, housing, participation in competitive sports, education, training, higher education, transportation, entertainment, water and nutrition, electricity and job opportunity they receive? Is their advancement satisfactory, quick enough, real enough, likely to least, productive? Is it done well and fairly – what are the problems, the unexpected problems? Are some areas doing better than others? Which ones? Why? What happens to the formerly strong whites when the resources are focused on closing the gaps between the formerly deprived non-whites and them? What happens to the country that does it? How does it grow as a country? Is it just a racial thing purporting to advance the formerly deprived non-whites and bring them to the level of the whites? What happens to a country that focuses on that aim and does not focus on the advancement of its strong population but mostly on the weak and formerly deprived? Can it make a progress as a country in relation to the world or does it have to regress as its strong population, the former dominating elite, is not catered for, due to the formerly deprived taking political power and the overall contempt towards the former elite that oppressed the majority population for centuries? Can transformation take place when the weak gradually, little by little, becomes stronger and the strong becomes weaker and regresses? Won’t the strong drag the weak with it as it is regressing as the whole country regresses? The gaps between the formerly deprived and the formerly dominating will be narrowing but the country will collapse into itself as the formerly strong will not be not progressing with the formerly derived weak. Will that be transformation? Does transformation also mean catering for the strong and making sure it takes the entire populations with as it as progresses and catering for the weaker, making sure it progresses.
Current rating: 0 (0 ratings)