Apartheid still exists, and it is disgusting.

by Matthew Field

On the 27^th of April 1994, a new day dawned in South Africa. Apartheid was dead, and democracy was born. This was a day which I did not get to see, and the promises of this day are still yet to be seen. In his inaugural address, Tata Madiba said the following:

“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.”

In this statement, he boldly said that apartheid would never again return to our beautiful land. This was an optimistic notion, perhaps too optimistic. This grand testament to freedom is only true by technicality: apartheid cannot return, because it never left.

Despite our best efforts – the TRC, regular elections and some of the broadest affirmative action policies in the world – we have failed. We are still the skunks of the world. Apartheid lives on, and Hendrick Vervoerd is smiling at us from the trash heap of history. If we carry on this path, we should soon join him.

This is a scandalous notion, that our liberation project has failed, but as history often teaches us, facts are immune to scandal. They are immune to what we want them to be. They just are.

So what are the facts?

To understand why apartheid still exists, we must understand what it was. In the simplest terms, apartheid had two grand goals of universal racism: to keep ‘non-whites’ out of ‘white’ areas, and to exert absolute control over them when they were in the parts of South Africa that Europeans had claimed for themselves. Apartheid was about separation and subjugation; all the vulgar laws of the National Party served these goals. The tragedy of our times is that these laws still exist. Yes, they are abolished and now live in history books; no government authority enforces them. The paradox of the New South Africa is that, despite this, they are still enforced; not by government, but by us. While the apartheid regime is gone, the apartheid economy still exists, and it continues to oppress.

So, let us examine the laws of the past, and see how they just cannot seem to die.

It is best to begin with one of the most infamous examples of our skunkhood, the Natives Act of 1952 (i.e. the Pass Laws). Just as Jews were forced to wear gold Stars of David in Nazi Germany, so too did ‘black’ South Africans have to carry the ‘Dompas.’ Failure to present this pass upon police request would, at best, result in assault and arrest and, at worst, death. This law is gone, but its legacy remains. ‘Black’ South Africans are routinely harassed in upper-class, mostly ‘White’ suburbs. In these gated off fortresses, the private security companies rule, and fear is the law of the land. Allow me to give an example of where I live. Every day, our security company gets frantic calls from the ‘White’ residents of our estate, and they are all the same: a suspiscious ‘black’ man is walking in the street, so he must be a criminal. It would be easy to call this an exaggeration, but the sheer number of these incidents say otherwise. Recently, a gardener (a regular face in the estate) was reported for being a suspiscious person, and all he was doing was walking home! Moreover, this is also present at entrance gates to private housing developments. A person of colour will be made to get out of the car and use the ‘workman’s entrance,’ while the ‘white’ driver can carry on unimpeded. Yes, this harassment is a far cry from the racist assaults and murders committed under the Pass Laws, but it is racist nonetheless.

We also need to discuss the Group Areas Act of 1950. This act made it illegal for people of different races to live in the same area. The most common, and tragic, examples of the enforcement of this law would be the brutal evictions of District Six and Sophiatown. In 2018, no government agent will force the races to live separately; economic and societal racism do the job instead. Why else could it be that Alexandria, a poor ‘black’ area, can be located right next to Sandton, the richest white area in the country. The same can be said for every other neighborhood in South Africa. ‘Blacks’ are economically forced into the townships, while ‘whites’ live in their own developed world. In the same city, you can find shanty towns and slums, right next to castles of privilege, and boomed off fortresses for the rich. This, while wrong, is not unusual. The same can be seen in America, Brazil, India and across the world. What makes South Africa’s economic inequality particularly pungent is its marriage with race. It is an undeniable fact of South African life: the darker your skin, the more likely you are to live in a slum. That is the legacy of Apartheid. That is the legacy of the Group Areas Act.    

Part of the reason why disadvantaged peoples cannot escape our racist division of living space is because of another apartheid law: the Bantu Education Act (1953). This act was quite possibly the most appauling out of all of them. It denied ‘blacks’ basic education. It forced people of colour into poverty by denying them the right to work in higher paying fields, as they were forbidden from acquiring the education required to do so. This was made worse by the Bantu Building Worker’s Act (1951). These acts suppressed entire generations’ economic capabilities. That is why our economy is in the toilet! We denied millions of economically viable citizens the right to contribute to the economy and the country. The saddest part of this act is that, like many others, it still exists. Poor ‘blacks,’ disenfranchised by the Bantu Education Act, cannot afford to send their children to school, encouraging the cycle of poverty. ‘White’ children, and a select few of other races, get to go to private schools or ex-Model-C institutions, while the rest of South Africa has to be content with the quagmire that is the state of our public schools. The proof is in the numbers: in 2017, the IEB matric pass rate was 98,76%, while the government pass rate was 75,1% (the actual pass rate is closer to 39% if the pundits are to be believed.) This is our greatest failure - an entire generation of Born Frees robbed of their futures.

So there you have it, apartheid is dead, but it is still breathing. It is a re-animated zombie that just will not die. Despite our best efforts, we have failed. So what can be done about it?

Please bear in mind that I am just 17, so don’t start a riot based off my two cents.

With that out of the way, here is what I think.

While it may look like the dream for a free South Africa is lost, that is not true. It is instead we who are lost. We have forgotten what freedom means. It was easy for us to rally against apartheid because of how obviously evil it was. The New South Africa is different. There is no Boogey Man for us to target. We have no Hendrik Vervoerd and we have no PW Botha. Instead we have a hazy political mess without a face. What we need to do is recognize this fact and remind ourselves that the revolution is not over; it has just begun.

The next part of the solution applies specifically to ‘White’ South Africans. We need to realize something: it is okay to be ashamed, and we should be! Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations created the most racist political system in the world, and most of them did nothing to stop it! Yet, most ‘white’ South Africans became incredibly defensive and contort when their role in apartheid is brought up. Yes, sons should not be punished for the sins of the fathers, but that does not excuse us from fixing the problems that our parents and grandparents created. We still profit off apartheid’s legacy. We cannot wash our hands like Pilate, when blood is still on our hands. The argument of “Its been over twenty years now; they must just get over it!” does not apply. Twenty years of freedom cannot undo 300 years of oppression and a complete robbery of economic mobility. Look at Germany; you will never see a German waving the Swastika, yet you will see South Africans proudly flying the old flag. We must recognize the impact we have had on our beautiful country. Moreover, we need to do something about it. How can you live in your East Pretoria mansion, while your gardener lives in a shack? We cannot do nothing.

Dear white people, we are not evil, but we have done evil things. The greatest good we can do is own up, apologize, and use our economic might to build up South Africa for everyone.

And to the rest of South Africa, please never become idle. Never forget the ideals which previous generation bled and died for: the ideals of freedom and peaceful economic change. If their sacrifice is forgotten, so too will the notion of a free South Africa.