Discrimination

post-Apartheid

Economy

The economic discrimination towards black during apartheid was very strong and deep-rooted into South African society. Although a lot of step forwards have been done, economic inequality towards black people is still very actual. The reasons why this phenomenon has persisted until contemporary times are various, but everything can be reconducted to one aspect: during apartheid, black people were segregated in poor areas and struggled to move to other areas because most of the land was owned by white people.

Some data properly portray the situation today:

  • 90% of poors are black (while only 79,5% of the total population is black)

  • according to 2006 data, 70% of the land was still owned by white people

Causes of discrimination

  • High unemployment rate (29%, 2020 data from traidingeconomics); 90% of unemployed are black

  • Growth, Employment, And Redistribution report included some measures accused of being similar to those during apartheid by the South African unions

  • The Reconstruction and Development Programme didn’t resolve the problem of racial inequality due to its short duration

  • Educational opportunities: black people are unable to enter good schools because of the low-income of their families and the fact that good schools are always situated in affluent neighborhoods. While 58.5% of Whites enter form of higher education, only 12% of Blacks manages to do so.

Society now

Society today is still a lot divided. While it is a fact that black people continue to suffer from economic discrimination, it is not that evident that white people are limited a lot too. The new programmes for black economic empowerment and South Africa’s policies of affirmative action are considered by a wide number of Whites as a part of racial discrimination towards them. In particular, it is often reported by white people that various jobs are reserved to Blacks, or overall Blacks are preferred over Whites. A self-explaining example can be the strike of 3000 white workers at a petrochemical firm, who protested against the fact that only black workers have been offered company shares (find out more here or watching the video on the left). On the other hand, some important newspapers claims that Whites are not actually the victims bringing out data about black discrimination (like this article from “The Washington Post”, that compares the South African situation to what is going on in the United States).

White workers of a petrochemical firm protesting

Video about the still marginalized coloured community

Interracial peace: possible?

There are a lot of different opinions, though the only certain thing is that the dream of peace and reconciliations between races, for which Mandela lived his life, is far from becoming an actual thing.