Underdevelopment

§3.2 Causes of underdevelopment in South Africa Apartheid In the 17th century South Africa was colonised by the English and the Dutch. Around 1900 South Africa became independent from England. In 1940 the Afrikaner National party got a strong majority, they invented “apartheid” to make sure they could control the economic and social system. In 1948 they imposed laws for “white-only” jobs and in 1950 people of South Africa were officially classified into 3 groups: white, black (African) and coloured (rest). There were strict rules for the black people, e.g.they had to carry a kind of passports with them when they wanted to go to a “non-black” area. In 1951 the government assigned all black people to the so called homelands. They needed a passport to get out of their homelands (to enter South Africa). When Africans didn’t follow the rules they could be whipped, imprisoned or get a fine. In 1960 a large group of black people protested against the laws. The government called out a state of emergency, which provided the police with many tools of repression e.g. they could whip or imprison the black people without a trial. This lasted for 156 days. In this period 69 people were killed and 187 wounded. Nelson Mandela was a black lawyer who was in prison for 38 years due to the Apartheid. He was released in 1990 and 1994 he be came the first black South African president. This was the end of the apartheid. But it wasn’t the end of the poverty and underdevelopment. The country is still developing and they have a long way to go to become a first world country. Corruption + Repression During the apartheid there was a lot of corruption and repression. Though there’s no apartheid anymore, there is still corruption and repression. There are different kinds of races in South Africa, they are African, coloured, Indian/Asian and white people. The white people still get paid better, and African, Indian/Asian and coloured people still live in slums and haven’t got much money. But the repression is much less than it used to be because they are developing. There is still a lot of corruption. Policemen who aren’t paid much let offenders go for a little sum of money, etc. This makes that there’s a huge difference between poor and rich. But also on the corruption part South Africa is developing.
Arms trade Not only the apartheid and corruption are causes of underdevelopment in South Africa, very much money is spend on arms. That’s a huge cause of poverty (and so a cause of underdevelopment). E.g. South Africa has a deal of £100,000,000.- a year to supply Hawk jets. They’d better spend that money to attend to their other problems because it’s more important for a country to have healthy, well-educated inhabitants than to have a well-armed army. Soil erosion 42% of the inhabitants live on just 13% of the South African land. This overcrowding causes soil erosion. The erosion makes the land less productive, farmers are forced to further overuse the land. The intensive agriculture and overgrazing causes greater degradation. So it’s a vicious circle. Soil erosion is both a symptom of underdevelopment and a cause of underdevelopment (desertification, drought, floods, famine and poverty). Lack of education People in South Africa very often don’t have enough money for good education, because of this they can’t get a good job, don’t get a high salary and so they can’t pay good education for their children. It’s a vicious circle (poverty circle). And because of this many people in South Africa aren’t good educated, which decreases the development of a country. Illness Illnesses in South Africa make that people can’t work, and can’t earn money. Many diseases can’t be cured because people don’t have money for (western) medicines. Especially aids is very bad for the development. Crime There is also a lot of crime in South Africa: people are murdered without a reason, people are attacked on highways (when they are driving there), there is much violence against children, etc. It’s said that South Africa is the most dangerous country in the world which is not at war! When there is a lot of crime people don’t spend their money on basic needs and they move to other cities (slums) leaving all their possessions behind because they think it’s safer there. So crime can also be seen as a cause of underdevelopment.