This essay will briefly discuss the key features of the apartheid system, the main reasons that led to the collapse of the Apartheid era and the prevailing legacy in political circumstances. These issues will be unpacked through firstly identifying and explaining the key features of the apartheid system, briefly highlighting and explaining the factors that contributed to the collapse of the Apartheid era and lastly by looking at the ways in which the past is still shaping South Africa’s present political circumstances.
2. The key features of the apartheid system
According to Thompson (1990), the National party government which came into power in 1948 applied apartheid in a plethora of laws and executive actions. Among the most crucial laws that were legislated, the Group Areas Act No 41 of 1950 which resulted in millions of people being relocated through forced removals was one of the legislations that resulted in a lot of people suffering especially the people of colour. This is because the South African population was segmented into four racial groups of which comprised of the Whites, Coloured, Indian and African and each of these groups had their own way of doing things/beliefs. Barring in mind that the above mentioned racial groups had different beliefs, whites were seen as the people that were more educated and dominant than the other races. Hence they had first preference in everything that was of importance to all the humans as a whole which even then resulted in them (whites) being the largest nation in the country.
3. The key factors contributing to the collapse of the Apartheid era
Things started looking up for the oppressed human races (blacks, coloured, Indians) In February 1990 when President FW de Klerk publicized Nelson Mandela's release from prison and began the slow disassembling of the Apartheid system. In 1992 a whites-only election was conducted in which this disassembling of the Apartheid system process was approved. South Africa then held the first ever democratic elections in 1994, in which people of all races had equal rights to cast their votes. A Government of National Unity was then formed, with Nelson Mandela as the president and FW de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputy presidents.
Quite a number of countries withdrew from investing in South Africa due to the fact that they lost confidence in its ability to be able monitor its economic affairs accordingly. This sudden doubt was mainly caused by the instability of the political affairs in South Africa. These above mentioned factors contributed significantly to the collapse of the Apartheid era.
4. The ways in which the past continues to shape South Africa’s present political circumstances
Social racism is one of the things resulted from the past and still shape South Africa’s present political circumstances. This is because even though it is stated that this kind of racism is invincible it hurts more than the visible one. A good example was made in which more blacks are listed among the richest people in this country but still get undermined by some of the ignorant whites who still have the mentality that they should be the only race that dominates all the other races. The authors went on to say that there are few whites that are concerned about they are viewed by other people, but there are many blacks that still suffer and have to put up with racial judgements that are uncalled for.
5. Conclusion
This essay has briefly discussed the key features of the apartheid system, the main reasons that led to the collapse of the Apartheid era and the prevailing legacy in political circumstances. In the process of this brief discussion, a number of issues that arose due to the political state of South Africa were raised and also unpacked. This includes the Group Areas Act that was legislated in 1950 which resulted in people being forcefully removed from the areas that they used to stay in due to their race. The issues that led to the collapse of the Apartheid era were also mentioned and briefly unpacked. Lastly, this essay looked at the ways in which the past still has an influence in our daily lives and social racism was identified as the most dominant after-effect issue that is still dominating in our societies. Hopefully one day the South Africans will one day be able to overlook the past and stop basing their attitudes and ways of doing things on Apartheid.
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