In recent days both President Ramaphosa and a cabinet minister have attributed current issues in South Africa to the legacy of apartheid. Without doubt legacies of apartheid remain in this country almost thirty years after the birth of a democratic and non-racial South Africa. Glaring examples of this are the spatial distribution of South Africans and the significant differential of income and employment amongst South Africans which in large measure remains defined by race. However, can the tragic events of a fire in a “hijacked” Johannesburg building be attributed to apartheid as was done by a cabinet minister? Is the poor state of many municipalities across the country due to the lack of town planners a consequence of apartheid as suggested by the President?
Healthcare during apartheid was segregated and limited both in quality and access for Black, Coloured and Indian communities compared with White South Africans. But can the parlous state of public sector healthcare in South Africa today still be attributed to apartheid? After 30 years while health services are no longer segregated in truth the quality of much of the public health services is not what is should be. Public hospitals and clinics are overcrowded, often dilapidated and in many instances still dependent on infrastructure from the apartheid era. It is true that in the last three decades new health facilities have been built across the country but in many cases even these have not been appropriately staffed and adequately maintained. National Health Insurance touted by government as the solution remains, despite pending legislation, a far off reality.
So-called “Bantu education” of the apartheid era was intended to prevent Black South Africans advancing educationally and limit their entry into various sectors of the economy but can the current poor state of basic education delivered by many public sector schools still be attributed to this? Learners particularly in township and rural schools receive eduction of lesser quality than those fortunate to attend lessons in more affluent areas. After thirty years there are still schools where learners are obliged to utilise pit latrines and sit in dilapidated overcrowd classrooms.
Populist rhetoric refers to the power of what is termed White Monopoly Capital implying that the economic power and wealth gained during the apartheid era remains concentrated among White South Africans. The concept of monopoly capital is a Marxist concept describing when wealth in a society is concentrated in large corporations as opposed to smaller family oriented businesses. The reality is that both corporations such as Anglo American, De Beers and Richemont SA with their origins in South Africa and companies dominant in the South African retail environment such as the Pick ‘n Pay Group and Shoprite benefited from aspects of the apartheid era and remain controlled by what could be termed “White capital”. In that sense it is true that long shadows of apartheid do persist and that so-called Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) has favoured only a select few.
The unemployment rate in South Africa in the second quarter of 2023 was marginally improved at 32.6% but this figure only reflects the number of people actively looking for employment and the number of people who are actually unemployed is significantly higher. This level of unemployment is one of the highest in the world and in a recent address the Minister of Finance admitted that government strategies to increase employment had been disappointing. Again can the high level of unemployment which affects Black South Africans to a significantly greater extent than White South Africans be deemed solely to be an apartheid legacy and a consequence of White Monopoly Capital?
There can be no doubt that a majority of White South Africans today still have a better life style than the majority of their Black compatriots and that this differential reflects in large measure an unchanged status quo from the apartheid era. After 30 years with government policies intended to address this imbalance should the current reality not have been very different?
As a member of a Western Cape Government delegation I visited Munich in 2006, a city in a country much of which was almost totally destroyed during the Second World War as a result of a failed and brutal Nazi regime. On a tour of the city accompanied by my host, a government official in her late sixties, she described her experience as a child living through the harsh winter of 1945 in the basement of bombed building. Yet in Munich 60 years later, there was no sign of that destruction and only signs of progress and prosperity. We in South Africa are halfway toward that 60 year mark, and yet rather than progress and prosperity, many citizens are experiencing just the opposite.
After centuries of discrimination against people of colour in many countries but in the case of South Africa enforced by national apartheid legislation for over four decades it was unlikely that the consequences, social, spatial and economic, would be reversed in thirty years. However, should the changes not have been greater and if this has not occurred where does the fault lie?
Every tax rand should be utilised to the greatest benefit of the majority citizens of this country and not a privileged few. The precious resources of government must be maximally directed toward the provision of basic services to which every citizen is entitled, which as a health professional I feel very strongly must include public health services that after 30 years should be far better than they currently are. Rather than tilting at the windmills of White Monopoly Capital and Radical Economic Transformation like a latter day Don Quixote, the country needs policy makers and leaders who are prepared to create an environment conducive to a vibrant growing economy that will allow every citizen and the country to develop to their full potential.
Undoubtedly apartheid still casts long shadows over the South Africa of today and has left its scars that cannot be denied. However, I would argue that not withstanding this, much of what a majority of South Africans experience daily should have been very different from what it is. We need to honestly accept that many of the challenges that the country currently faces have to a significant extent been self inflicted over the last three decades. Whilst not ignoring the past rather than looking back over our shoulders at shadows, the country should be looking forward and moving forward lead by decisive leadership that is prepared to put the people first and themselves second!
