Racism in South Africa

Racism is the discrimination and antagonism directed against a person or a group of people regarding their membership to a particular ethnic or racial group. South Africa is one of the well-known countries in the world to be influenced by the Apartheid rule.

 

The Rise of Anti-Immigrant Violence Went Unanswered

It is believed that in the wake of the most recent wave of anti-immigrant violence, there are hundreds of foreign nationals who want to leave South Africa.  Some are believed to have already evacuated back to their mother countries. This act has left the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to send his envoys around the African continent to gauge the political and social fallout from this violence and his inaction. The victims include fellow Africans from Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

An Impotent Response

The South African government has made futile attempts to evade political and moral responsibility. The presidents administration is engaging in fancy rhetorical footwork by characterizing the attacks on foreign nationals in the country as mere criminality but not xenophobia.

Two Reasons For Dishonesty About the Violence

The administration has two reasons as to why it is resorting to this type of dishonesty. Firstly, there is a complete account of the xenophobic motives behind the attacks being made on foreigners that would raise some serious political and legal questions.  The willingness and the capacity of the South African government to meet its international obligations.  And also, to affirm protection to the universal rights of the foreign nationals in the country.

The second reason is to concede that the attacks’ sole motives include xenophobia and are to invite moral and political shame. It is particularly shameful for any government that benefited from historic support provided by many African countries to be ruling the African National Congress Party and its leaders in exile during the darkest moments of the fight against the Apartheid regime.

The Horror of Apartheid

In South Africa, there was Apartheid racism. This was a system of racial segregation in the country enforced through the National Party’s legislation. This was also the governing party from the year 1948 to 1994. Under Apartheid, the rights, movements, and associations of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed, and the white minority rule was maintained. This ideology was also enforced in South West Africa, which was also administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate until it gained its independence as Namibia in the year 1990.

The Most Recent Feeling of Post-Apartheid White Racism

There is also an account of the Post-Apartheid racism in South Africa. Although the Apartheid was abolished in South Africa, there are still discrimination cases against black people; some argue that institutional racism is still every day in South Africa. There is a real estate agent named Penny Sparrow who lives in the coastal city of Durban, who compared the African people as a whole to dirty monkeys that litter on the white-only beaches. She was then apologetic and defended her words and claimed that they were only being taken out of context. She was fined R1, 400 ($98.04) per month, and sentenced to a two years jail term by the court for these remarks.