John Pilger - Apartheid did not die John Pilger was banned from South Africa for his reporting during the apartheid era. On his return thirty years later with Alan Lowery, he describes the extraordinary generosity of a liberated people, but asks who are the true beneficiaries of a democracy - the black majority or the white minority? Won the Gold Award in the category of 'Film & Video Production: Political/International Issues', Worldfest-Flagstaff, 1998; Certificate for Creative Excellence (third place), U.S. International Film & Video Festival, Elmhurst, Illinois, 1999. Apartheid is a policy of racial segregation formerly followed in South Africa. The word apartheid means "separateness" in the Afrikaans language and it described the rigid racial division between the governing white minority population and the nonwhite majority population. The National Party introduced apartheid as part of their campaign in the 1948 elections, and with the National Party victory, apartheid became the governing political policy for South Africa until the early 1990s. Although there is no longer a legal basis for apartheid, the social, economic, and political inequalities between white and black South Africans continue to exist.
The apartheid laws classified people according to three major racial groups-white; Bantu, or black Africans; and Coloured, or people of mixed descent. Later Asians, or Indians and Pakistanis, were added as a fourth category. The laws determined where members of each group could live, what jobs they could hold, and what type of education they could receive. Laws prohibited most social contact between races, authorized segregated public facilities, and denied any representation of nonwhites in the national government. People who openly opposed apartheid were considered communists and the government passed strict security legislation which in effect turned South Africa into a police state.
Before apartheid became the official policy, South Africa had a long history of racial segregation and white supremacy. In 1910 parliamentary membership was limited to whites and legislation passed in 1913 restricted black land ownership to 13 percent of South Africa's total area. Many Africans opposed these restrictions. In 1912, the African National Congress (ANC) was founded to fight these unfair government policies. In the 1950s, after apartheid became the official policy, the ANC declared that âSouth Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white,â and worked to abolish apartheid. After antiapartheid riots in Sharpeville in March 1960 (see Sharpeville Massacre), the government banned all black African political organizations, including the ANC.
From 1960 to the mid-1970s, the government attempted to make apartheid a policy of "separate development." Blacks were consigned to newly created and impoverished homelands, called Bantustans, which were designed to eventually become petty sovereign states. The white population retained control of more than 80 percent of the land. Increasing violence, strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations by opponents of apartheid, and the overthrow of colonial rule by blacks in Mozambique and Angola, forced the government to relax some of its restrictions.
From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the government implemented a series of reforms that allowed black labor unions to organize and permitted some political activity by the opposition. The 1984 constitution opened parliament membership to Asians and Coloureds, but it continued to exclude black Africans, who made up 75 percent of the population. Apartheid continued to be criticized internationally, and many countries, including the United States, imposed economic sanctions on South Africa. More urban revolts erupted and, as external pressure on South Africa intensified, the government's apartheid policies began to unravel. In 1990, the new president, F. W. de Klerk, proclaimed a formal end to apartheid with the release of ANC leader Nelson Mandela from prison and the legalization of black African political organizations.
South Africa the new Apertheid. |
SOUTH AFRICA: THE NEW APARTHEID . The series began in South Africa where a huge rise in illegal immigration from Zimbabwe and other African states is behind an increase in racism and xenophobic violence. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy journeys from the Zimbabwean border to one of Johannesburg's most dangerous quarters to investigate.
Reporter Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Director Robin Barnwell begin their film on the Zimbabwean border with a group of Zimbabweans as they begin a long journey to Johannesburg. The South African police stop them but let them go in exchange it is claimed, for a bribe, which the people smugglers claim is routine.
The Zimbabweans say they are fleeing a collapsing state, where President Mugabeâs policies have driven the economy into crisis and where earning enough to feed their families is impossible. However, the South Africans blame them for a crime wave and accuse them of causing unemployment.
White farmers in the Limpopo border region tell Unreported World that the immigrants are perpetrating brutal farm murders and poaching their game. The team films several farmers taking the law into their own hands by rounding them up, tying them together and handing them over to the police.
Itâs not just the farmers who believe these migrants are fuelling a crime wave. The team moves on to Johannesburg and films with police in one of the cityâs most dangerous areas. They accompany officers who routinely use plastic bullets to round up suspected illegal immigrants.
Those they catch are sent to the Lindela detention centre. The team interview a group of Congolese men who accuse the guards of severely beating them. Another inmate laments that South Africans have forgotten the support that their âAfrican brothersâ gave them during the days of Apartheid and accuses black South Africans of being the âbiggest racists in the worldâ.
The team then travel to the suburb of Diepsloot where the local South African business community has written an extraordinary letter to Somalian shopkeepers asking them to leave. The shopkeepers - who say theyâre asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants - fear they will suffer similar violent attacks to those suffered by other immigrant communities.
A group of protestors gathers, demanding that South Africa should be for South Africans only. One woman tells Unreported World that black South Africans fought long and hard to gain their freedom that these benefits are now being stolen by illegal immigrants.
The team are then allowed to film on board a train returning 400 Zimbabwean illegal immigrants back to the border. Some are so desperate to remain, that they throw themselves from the moving train during the night. Almost all say they will be back in the country within a few days. Given the ever-worsening economic environment in Zimbabwe they say they have no other choice.
 Map South Africa Black Africans comprise more than three quarters of South Africaâs population, and whites, Coloureds (people of mixed race), and Asians (mainly Indians) make up the remainder. Among the black population there are numerous ethnic groups and 11 official languages. Until the 1990s, whites dominated the nonwhite majority population under the political system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, but South Africa is still recovering from the racial inequalities in political power, opportunity, and lifestyle. The end of apartheid led to a total reorganization of the government, which since 1994 has been a nonracial democracy based on majority rule.
South Africa is bordered on the north by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; on the east by Mozambique, Swaziland, and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The nation of Lesotho forms an enclave in the eastern part of the country.
 Nelson Mandela South Africa has a multiracial and multiethnic population. Blacks constitute 79 percent of the population. The main black ethnic groups are Zulu, Xhosa, North Sotho, Tswana, South Sotho, and Tsonga. Whites account for 10 percent of the population: More than half are Afrikaners, and most of the rest are of British descent. Coloured people account for 9 percent of the population, and Asians (mainly Indians) 2 percent.
The white, Asian, and Coloured populations are highly urbanized. The largest concentrations of Asians and Coloured people are found in KwaZulu-Natal and the three Cape provinces, but lesser numbers of both groups live in Gauteng. English-speaking whites and Afrikaners live in all cities, but Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, and Pietermaritzburg have more English speakers, whereas Afrikaners are predominant in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and many of the industrial and mining towns on the Witwatersrand.
More than half of the blacks are urbanized, mostly living in formal, low-income townships or informal, rapidly growing settlements. Millions of blacks still live in rural communities in the ten former bantustans. The black population of Johannesburg and the rest of Gauteng Province is ethnically mixed, but in other cities one group tends to be dominant: Zulu in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, Sotho in Bloemfontein, and Xhosa in Port Elizabeth, East London, and Cape Town.
The apartheid system left a profound imprint on South African society. Most whites enjoy a standard of living and way of life comparable to people in the worldâs most developed countries. Distinctive features of this lifestyle include an emphasis on sports and open-air living, which reflect South Africaâs pleasant climate. Sports play a major role in schools. Rugby is particularly popular among Afrikaners. Cricket is popular among Afrikaners, English speakers, and increasingly among other groups as opportunities and facilities gradually improve. Swimming and water sports, tennis, and golf are all popular in the white community.
 Apartheid Wealthy Asians, Coloured people, and a small but growing minority of blacks have lifestyles similar to whites. For the great majority of South Africans, however, life is vastly different. Housing in the townships consists of mostly single-story dwellings, but houses are much closer together than in predominantly white suburbs. Barracklike hostels house single black men and migrant workers. An increasing number of urban blacks live in shantytowns around major cities with minimal facilities and long distances to travel to work and shops.
Recreational facilities are minimal in both townships and rural areas, but people play soccer wherever there is open ground. There are many churches, even in informal settlements, and they play an important role in social life. Township shebeens (unofficial drinking houses) take the place of pubs. Incomes restrict most blacks to a staple diet of mealies, or maize, which is made into a porridge, cheaper cuts of meat, some fruit, and vegetables. People commonly drink tea; beer, which is often home-brewed, especially in rural areas, is the main alcoholic drink.
Women are still more disadvantaged in South African society than in Europe or North America. The post-apartheid government is anxious to promote gender equality, but traditional attitudes are slow to change. Women from all ethnic and racial groups are involved in the labor market, although this often reflects economic necessity rather than preference.
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Nice website, but please remove the video about South Africa, as it has a severely twisted evangelical Christian slant, and does not show a true representation of South African reality, especially concerning religion.
A South African