Day 20 – Cape Town (Day 1)

South Africa is the southern most country in Africa with a land area of 471,445 square miles and a population of 63 million. The biggest city is Johannesburg with a population of over 1 million whilst Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital.

There are 12 official languages and over 80% of the population is black and only 7% white, although whites control 85% of the wealth of the country. ☹️

History

The Dutch first colonised the territory in 1652 followed by British occupation in 1806 after the battle of Blaauwberg. The Boers, who were descendants of the 17th century Dutch, German and French settlors, developed their own language – Afrikaans. After the British took over, the Boers formed their own independent republics within South Africa to escape British control, specifically Transvaal and The Orange Free State. They went to war with Great Britain in the first Boer war (1880 to 1881) and were ultimately defeated in the second Boer war (1899 to 1902). South Africa gained full independence from Great Britain in 1931.

Apartheid

In 1948 the white controlled National Party was elected to power and bolstered racial segregation, classifying all people into three racial groups, whites, blacks and coloureds (people of mixed-race). The government then proceeded to pass legislation and policy which disadvantaged black people in almost all areas of their lives. Location of residence was decided on the basis of skin colour. Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5million black South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to segregated neighbourhoods in (townships), often miles from their home towns, with virtually no facilities, resulting in one of the biggest mass evictions in history. In 1961 the country became a republic following a referendum which was only open to white voters.

Today we drove through the Mfuleni Township on our way back from Stellenbosch and were taken aback by the size of it. It literally runs for miles on both sides of the highway and houses approximately 60,000 black people in corrugated iron shacks. The ground along the edge comprises open sewers and open rubbish dumps, with large gangs of young children playing football in amongst it. The contrast between this (and this is one of South Africa’s smallest townships) and the obvious wealth and privilege of the white areas of Cape Town, where streets and streets of glamorous houses sport sophisticated electric fences, barbed wire, barred windows and other security measures to keep out the poor is deeply uncomfortable. In fact, South Africa is one of the most socially and economically divided countries in the world.

Following its election into power in 1948, the National Party passed the following racial laws:

1. The Population Registration Act of 1950 formalised racial classification and introduced ID cards for everybody over 18. These identity cards formalised everybody’s racial category.
2. The Group Areas Act of 1950 dictated where people were allowed to live based on their race. This involved forced removal of people from their homes which were routinely demolished and the Laws Amendment Act 1952 prevented black people from being in urban areas for more than 72 hours without a permit.
3. Mixed marriages were outlawed and sex between races was a criminal offence.
4. The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953 provided for the segregation of civil amenities and spaces, and signs stating “no blacks” sprung up everywhere.
5. The Bantu Education Act 1953 established a separate education system for black children which focused on vocational training rather than academic excellence. This has led to a whole generation of under-educated black people who struggle to find anything but manual employment.
6. During these decades, black people were entirely disenfranchised.

Black people were also precluded from running businesses or professional practices in white designated areas without a permit, which was rarely granted. Healthcare and transport was segregated and health provision for black people was hopelessly underfunded and understaffed. Cinemas, beaches, restaurants, theatres, and hotels were segregated and wages for black people were maintained at a minimal level whilst their tax rate was higher than that for whites. Education for black children was deliberately sub-standard and black students were not allowed to attend university.

All of these measures led to significant internal resistance and various political groups came to prominence, most notably the African National Congress (the “ANC”) which was banned, but which committed itself to overthrowing the apartheid system.
Throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s a total of millions of black South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and moved to new townships, the largest of which was and is Soweto. Currently approximately 10 million black South Africans remain living in townships.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 into the Tembu royal family. He studied law at university before practising as a lawyer in Johannesburg. He joined the African National Congress in 1943 and was appointed president of the Transvaal branch and became well-known for his role in the Defiance Campaign in 1952. He also formed the armed resistance wing of the ANC, which engaged in a campaign of sabotage and destruction of government property, power facilities and the burning of crops. He was arrested multiple times for sedition and in 1962 he was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government and sentenced to life imprisonment. As the resistance movement became more organised it also became more violent, with later activities involving bombing of police stations and other government building, hostage-taking and armed gun fights. Approximately 130 people were killed between 1976 and 1986, more than half of whom were black.

Over time, extreme internal resistance and growing international condemnation of apartheid led to the decision by the then president, FW de Klerk, to release Mandela in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk then worked together to bring about the end of the apartheid regime, leading to the 1994 multiracial general election, which the ANC, with Mandela as leader, won by a landslide, with Mandela becoming the Republic of South Africa’s first black president at the age of 76. FW de Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1993 for their work on the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime and for laying the foundations for a new Democratic South Africa. The ANC has been the ruling party in South Africa ever since 1994.

Post- apartheid South Africa

Following the dismantling of apartheid, unemployment skyrocketed to over 30% whilst inequality worsened. The government lacked the discipline to achieve the re-distribution of wealth and economic growth. South Africa has been going through significant political and economic turmoil during the 2020s due to persistently high unemployment, low investment, de-industrialisation, and political corruption. The country has been undergoing an energy crisis since 2007 with frequent electricity blackouts. One of the biggest causes of instability is land distribution; black South Africans make up more than 80% of the population but own only 4% of the land. White South Africans own 75% of privately owned land despite making up only 7% of the population. Corruption has been identified at every level of government and is widespread. South Africa is the most industrialised and technologically advanced country in Africa with the largest economy. However it suffers from entrenched socio-economic challenges, high unemployment of over 30% and widespread poverty. It also suffers from very high levels of violent crime and has the seventh highest murder rate in the world.