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Travel | |
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Race and employment First of all, remember that blacks are the majority in South Africa. Whites and other ethnic groups form a much smaller minority of the population. From all evidence, most Capetonians, as locals are called, do not pretend about race issues. They, along with millions of other South Africans of all ethnicities, are fully aware of apartheid's legacy. Most share a desire to repair the injustices of the National Party and their white Afrikaner supporters. The Nationalists who came into power in 1948 formalized apartheid, racial separation in every aspect of South African life.
For better or for worse, probably for better, thousands of black-hating Afrikaners who had directly benefited from white rule left the country for good after the African National Congress, Mandela's party, took control. Those who stayed behind are "trying to get with the program," a taxi driver told me.
Many of the "best" jobs for most blacks in the new South Africa, however, are in government and government-related areas and the media. As a journalist, I paid particular attention to the media. Each time I watched TV and read the papers, I was surprised by the large number of black anchors, reporters, talk show hosts, columnists and writers. Many TV and print ads sport black faces, and most of the South African-produced soap operas feature black stars. But this growing number of black public figures hides another divide: one of class. The emerging black middle class has little in common with the millions of desperately poor black citizens who have not benefited economically from the fall of apartheid. Many South Africans, such as conservative political writer Ebrahim Harvey, believe that the ANC's focus on race rather than seriously looking at class-related issues stifles progress on poverty and unemployment. The belief is that in the new South Africa, enough of the old racial barriers have been removed for blacks to attend school, learn trades and otherwise accumulate enough wealth to greatly improve their socioeconomic status, or class. But too many blacks, as the argument goes, continue to blame race, the residual effects of apartheid, for their failure to move up the ladder. It is the same argument that is used in America. In a recent column for the Cape Times newspaper, Harvey writes: "It suits the class interests of the ANC, the black bourgeoisie and middle class to emphasize race and color, not only because it obscures their real class interests and how they have benefited from the system since 1994, but because they hope that by so doing more opportunities can be opened up for even greater wealth accumulation for themselves. "Let's face it, black identity has crudely become a passport to both political office and business success. The whole purpose of this concentrated focus on race - important as it is - is to hide the social malaise in which most black people are trapped, and thereby obscure the role the ANC's neo-liberal policies have played in this regard."
In the overcrowded townships, where extended families live, in the filthy informal settlements and in the urban centers, such as Johannesburg and Durban, unemployment is more than 30 percent. The ANC does not have any easy answers. Race and education How these men were educated, both having come of age during apartheid, explained the disparity in literacy, at least to a large degree. The black man attended inferior township schools, the white man excellent schools in a wealthy white suburb. Indeed, South African public education is still trying to remediate the ill effects of white rule, when "Bantu Education" was the law of the land. Bantu - the name given to a family of languages including Swahili and Zulu - is also a derogatory term for native black Africans. In 1953, the Nationalists passed the Bantu Education Act, creating a curriculum for blacks that excluded all science and mathematics courses.
Khonaye Tuswa, owner and manager of the Camissa Travel & Marketing tour company, who took me to Langa township near Cape Town, said that even now, remnants of the Bantu system affect black children, especially those born into poor families. Many of the school buildings I saw in Langa are in disrepair, for example, and most of the grounds need care. The soccer field at one high school needs new turf.
Every day I was in Cape Town, at least one leading newspaper, sometimes all of them, carried an article or column lamenting the dire straits of public education. Yet, no other social institution, as far as I can tell, is working harder to right the wrongs of the past. Still, wide gaps remain in education between blacks and whites. According to a recent government survey, 12 percent of blacks over age 20 never attended school, compared with 0.6 percent of whites. A mere 5.6 percent of blacks move on to higher education, compared with 32 percent of whites. |
Under apartheid, African, Indian and colored people were legally excluded from meaningful work, causing widespread poverty and suffering. This racist practice took a heavy toll on South Africa's economy. Adding to the nation's problems, the rest of the world had turned against the Nationalists, whose policies also were financially damaging to whites because of international sanctions and general isolation. 
Led by current President Thabo Mbeki, head of the ANC, the government implemented a broad-based affirmative action program to increase the representation of people previously excluded from all areas of society. The Employment Equity Act was passed in 1998, making "black economic empowerment," or BEE, the law of the land. BEE, along with other efforts, has helped to create black entrepreneurs, black business executives and tens of thousands of jobs that pay living wages where none existed under apartheid. 
Anyone who has driven around Cape Town and marveled at the city's wealth, fine eateries and grand buildings is surprised to see thousands of homeless black men lying under trees, along roadsides and in vacant lots. All over the city, emaciated black men stand at street corners in large groups waiting for day jobs. 
As I spoke with two South Africans, one black and one white, who attended public schools in their hometowns, I was surprised to learn that despite all of its problems, South Africa has a national literacy rate of 80 percent. But that percentage hides a harsh reality: widespread black illiteracy. 
The Bantu curriculum, as one white Nationalist official stated, was to teach a curriculum that suited the "nature and requirements of the black people." In other words, the purpose of Bantu schools was to produce a large unskilled labor force that ensured white prosperity and domination. An author of the Bantu law wrote that "its aim was to prevent Africans from receiving an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society." 
The overwhelming majority of parents in Langa attended all-black Bantu schools. They did not study science, math and other subjects that would have prepared them for jobs in the postapartheid economy. Many of them see little, if any, value in education, and do not encourage their children to study or to attend school at all.
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