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Racism Still Lingers in South Africa
Although South Africa's human rights situation has been greatly improved over the past seven years, the fledgling democracy still faces numerous challenges in dealing with the apartheid past and defining the new road to a society free of racism.
After the African National Congress came into power in 1994, the first democratic government led by former president Nelson Mandela dedicated most of its vigor to drawing up and putting into effect the new constitution, which is molded by the experiences of the apartheid past and the hopes for the future. It enshrines and defends equality among different races and tribes in South Africa, and prohibits any racist act against human dignity.
In order to build a non-racial new South Africa, the Constitutional Court was set up to guarantee freedom, the Public Protector to protect individuals from all kinds of human rights abuse, the Youth Commission to promote the interests of the young people who are the majority of the South African population, the Commission on Gender Equality to ensure that old discriminatory habits and practices are eradicated through education, and the South African Human Rights Commission to protect and promote all human rights in the country.
Moreover, the Employment Equity Act and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act were also passed by the National Assembly to ensure that all South Africans, especially the black people, are not discriminated when they are engaged in business and social activities.
Since the introduction of the new constitution and related anti- racism laws, South Africans' living conditions have been generally improved.
Income disparities between the poorest 20 percent of the black and the richest 20 percent of the white have been so far narrowed by half in comparison with seven years ago, indicated a latest report by the Bureau of Market Research of University of South Africa.
Andre Ligthelm, a professor of the university, attributed the gains to a combination of affirmative action and the increased employment of blacks in the public service, adding that the end of apartheid inequality in welfare and pension payments is also a significant factor in helping reduce the income gap.
A recent survey by Statistics South Africa shows that nearly 70 percent of the black people are now living in formal dwellings, a 35 percent increase as compared to that of 1994. And the proportion of households with a telephone or mobile phone rose by more than 25 percent to 34.9 percent during the same period.
In terms of access to education, the government's budget allocation for the blacks' education also grew by 8.7 percent compared to seven years ago, and at present 95 percent of the black people under the age of 18 can afford to go to school, the survey added.
In spite of the great achievements, most of the 29 million blacks in the country are still not satisfied with their lives, with 48 percent of them believing that their lives have remained the same and 32 percent saying that their quality of life has even deteriorated, largely because racism and racial discrimination remain ingrained across all sectors of the society.
The most horrible racist incident in the post-apartheid period was unveiled in November 2000 when the South African Broadcasting Corporation made public a 1998 video footage. It depicts that three Mozambican illegal immigrants were brutally savaged by six South African white policemen and their aggressive dogs in a so- called "training exercise" in Benoni near Johannesburg. Another barbaric act took place in March 2001 when nine white men murdered a black teenager in the Northern Province.
The aim to deracialize the economy has also not been achieved with the minority whites still grasping the economic power of the country. According to a recent survey of black professionals and job seekers by Vertex Commercial Services, a South African recruit company, racism is rampant in the information technology industry.
Lee-Anne Thomson, managing director of the company, said that 56 percent of the black participants in the sector felt that their careers are being impeded by some sort of discrimination, and 95 percent complained that physical makeup, namely skin color, usually plays a key role in employment.
Almost all the participants felt strongly that even though they are given the same job title as their white colleagues, they are not offered the same depth of job responsibilities, and technical projects allocated to them are seldom of a mission-critical nature, Thomson added.
The tourism industry has also failed to transform itself to reflect the new South Africa. According to Vali Moosa, minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, white tourism companies are continuing to be the beneficiaries of revenue raised by increased investment in the sector, noting that most black individuals are excluded from acceding to training opportunities such as tourist guides.
The blacks attributed the continuous economic inequality to the lack of the government's commitment to the black empowerment process, urging that the government must take a tougher stance on this problem.
Local economic analysts pointed out that these racist attitudes in the economic, financial and business sectors must be changed, because the black economic empowerment is a struggle for the achievement of the integrated objectives of economic growth, poverty eradication and the building of an egalitarian society.
However, the government defended that it has its own difficulties in implementing the Employment Equity Act because most white employers do not take the legislation seriously at all.
In this regard, Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party Blade Nzimande stressed that it is necessary to carry out a massive consumer boycott of goods and services from manufacturers, suppliers, farmers and shopkeepers found to be racist.
Thami ka Plaatjie, secretary general of the Pan Africanist Congress also said that discriminatory conduct in the economy must be challenged and eradicated, and racists must be hauled before the court or even jailed, emphasizing that "to simply fail to use the state power and authority that have been given to the government by the people who voted for it defies basic rationality ".
In general, racism is still lingering in South Africa. As what South African Justice Minister Penuell Maduna confessed on March 21 this year to mark the Human Rights Day: "We still have a long distance to traverse to create the society envisaged in our constitution."
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