South Africa’s Long Trek to Deliverance: the Lessons of Apartheid, Transition and Democracy

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English Summary

Starting in the early 1950s, the white-dominated government of South Africa led by the National Party enacted a series of laws, the effect of which was the establishment of an oppressive racist regime known as apartheid. The whole population was categorized along racial lines, primarily according to their descent and color of their skin, into several groups: white, African (Bantu), Coloured, Indian and Asian. Remaining in the position of power for more than 40 years, the National Party embarked upon an ambitious project of social engineering, in the process deporting masses of Africans into artificial homelands, in which they were expected to pursue separate development. The system never worked because of the dependence of the economy on cheap African labor. The 1970s and 1980s saw rising tensions and widespread violence, which eventually brought the warring sides to the negotiating table. The transition to democracy of the early 1990s marked the advent of the African National Congress’ (ANC) rise to power and Nelson Mandela’s ascent to presidency. Peaceful transfer of power was in no small part facilitated by the bargained impunity and negotiated retirement of a large number of apartheid’s security forces. The ANC presented a redistributive, broadly leftist development program called the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), but did not keep to it in its first term in power, adopting a neoliberal macroeconomic approach, epitomized by the Growth, Employment and Redistribution program (GEAR). Its market-oriented, export-led growth models did not bring the desired results, as the foreign direct investment evaded the country while the country’s moderate growth was mostly capital-intensive and jobless. Moreover, the cost-recovery principles adopted at the municipal level stripped many of the township and former Bantustan residents of basic service delivery and added to the widespread payment boycotts and illegal water and electricity connections. After 2000, the ANC-led government realized the need for a more assertive redistributive policy and came with a reinvigorated version of Black Economic Empowerment.

Resumé

V roce 1948 se k moci v Jižní Africe dostala Národní strana, která se stala synonymem pro odsouzeníhodný bělošský rasismus a která během padesátých let 20. století přijala sérii zákonů, kterými vytvořila systém útlaku známý jako apartheid. Podle těchto zákonů byli obyvatelé Jižní Afriky rozděleni na základě rasy do populačních skupin na bělochy, Afričany (černochy), barevné (míšence), Indy a Asijce. Během víc jak čtyřicetileté vlády se Národní strana pokusila rasy od sebe oddělit deportacemi černochů z bílých čtvrtí a sídel, přičemž množství z nich vystěhovala do neúrodných oblastí bez pracovních příležitostí, které nadto nazývala jejich ‚vlastí‘. Tento systém byl ekonomicky neudržitelný, protože jihoafrická ekonomika závisela na Afričanech jako levné pracovní síle. V 70. a 80. letech minulého století se napětí, násilné protesty Afričanů i teror páchaný vládními ozbrojenými složkami stupňovaly až do bodu, kdy byli oponenti nuceni začít spolu vyjednávat. Předání moci demokraticky zvolené vládě, kterou zformoval Africký národní kongres Nelsona Mandely, proběhlo relativně pokojně, avšak daní za něj bylo zaručení beztrestnosti a poklidného dožití množství služebníků apartheidu, především z řad ozbrojených sil. Africký národní kongres shrnul svůj volební program do tzv. RDP (program rekonstrukce a rozvoje), který však brzo po volbách opustil a nahradil ho čistě neoliberálním makroekonomickým přístupem, tzv. GEAR (program růstu, zaměstnanosti a přerozdělování bohatství). Ten se ve svých prognózách spoléhal na přivábení zahraničních investic. Investice nepřicházely a docházelo k masovému úbytku pracovních míst; přísný důraz na pokrývání nákladů na základní služby navíc připravil milióny chudých, v minulosti znevýhodněných občanů o legální přístup k pitné vodě, elektřině nebo telefonní lince, a rozšířili se neplatiči a nelegální přípojky. Přibližně od r. 2000 se rozvojová politika Afrického národního kongresu změnila a větší důraz začal být kladen na asertivně prosazovanou pozitivní diskriminaci.

1 An electoral mandate, and adherence to one’s political program once elected to power, will retain an important role in the analysis hereafter, particularly in respect to the developments in the 1990s.

2 The document was explicitly derived from the principles of the war-time Allies’ (incl. South Africa) Atlantic Charter and called for full citizenship rights for Africans and also a fair distribution of land and equal pay.

3 By the end of the war, Africans represented 50 percent of the industrial workforce (Clark and Worger 37).

4 1950s Legislation. 2009. 18 Sep 2009.