scholarly journals The Economic and Political Ramifications of Inequality in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 690-699
Author(s):  
Molefi Solomon Mohautse
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Fertile Ground

South Africa is regarded as one of the most unequal societies in the world. Apartheid engineered a population with vast inequalities across racial groups. The nature of this inequality was primarily racially based. The political and economic trajectory of the last twenty years has somewhat changed the nature and composition of this kind of inequality but fundamental continuity of deep inequality is still somehow maintained. The post-apartheid distributional regime continues to divide South Africans into insiders and outsiders. Although the political pattern is still largely racially based, a new political landscape is beginning to emerge which is based on the complexity of class and race entanglements. The rising inequality within the black community is becoming a cause for concern for the continuation of the present developmental trajectory. It has created a fertile ground for the rise of populist movements and demagogues that will seek to take advantage of those neglected by the state machinery. This paper will seek to explore the links between inequality and economic growth and political conflict by tracing the origins of income inequality in South Africa, its evolution after the democratic transition in 1994; and its economic and political implications.

Ethnic Accommodation in a Historical Case

1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Holden
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The World

I. The Political Meaning of Ethnic ConflictIf politics “in its broadest sense” is conceived as the “distribution of advantages and disadvantages among people” (Froman, p. 3), then the ultimate penalty is subordination (total exclusion from advantages) and the ultimate reward is dominance (total monopoly of advantages). The effort to change the balance of advantages and disadvantages between groups is the nexus of political conflict. In such conflict, ethnicity is a particularly important variable, precisely because it is one criterion found throughout the world by which groups are regularly assigned superior and inferior places.

The World. Challenges of the Global Crisis. Germany

2014 ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
I. Semenenko ◽  
G. Irishin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Economy Model ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Market ◽  
The Eu

The economic crisis of 2008–2009 highlighted new problems in the development of the German social market economy model and brought to the forefront the factors of its resilience that have ensured Germany’s leadership positions in the EU. Changes in economic policy have affected in the first place the energy and the financial sectors. Shifts in the political landscape have led to the appearance of new political parties. These changes have affected the results of the 2013 elections, the liberal democrats failure to enter the Bundestag has made the winner – CDU – seek new coalition partners.

scholarly journals The war poems of Mongane Serote: The Night Keeps Winking and A Tough Tale

Literator ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
D. M. Hlabane
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Historical Periods

For many South Africans who saw themselves as victims of a racist society, the twentieth century was a period of one hundred years of political turmoil and segregation. Representations of racism and the kinds of subjects it created were provided by various writers during specific historical periods. I consider the 1980s as a period in which the political conflict between the repressive white state and those who wanted change was largely undertaken through violence. This article therefore looks at the depiction of violence in Mongane Serote’s poems of the 1980s - The Night Keeps Winking (1982) and A Tough Tale (1987). As its title suggests, the article analyses these poems as “war poems”. It focuses on the political themes Serote develops in the poems. The Night Keeps Winking (1982) and A Tough Tale (1987) offer horrifying images of war and the senseless bloodletting characteristic of South African life in the 1980s. These poems, as the article will show, reveal how people's lives were damaged by the apartheid state to the extent that many people resorted to violence as a method of liberation.

scholarly journals Testing the inescapable network of mutuality: Albert Luthuli, Martin Luther King Jr and the challenges of post-liberation South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan A. Boesak
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Faith Commitment ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethical Stance ◽  
Martin Luther King

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, 50 years ago on 04 April 1968, has been recalled in the United States with memorial services, conferences, public discussions and books. In contrast, the commemoration in 2017 of the death of Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, 50 years ago on December 1967, passed almost unremarked. That is to our detriment. Yet, these two Christian fighters for freedom, in different contexts, did not only have much in common, but they also left remarkably similar and equally inspiring legacies for South Africa, the United States and the world in the ways they lived their lives in complete faith commitment to ideals and ways of struggle that may guide us in the ongoing struggles to make the world a more just, peacable and humane place. For South African reflections on our ethical stance in the fierce, continuing struggles for justice, dignity and the authenticity of our democracy, I propose that these two leaders should be considered in tandem. We should learn from both. This article engages Martin Luther King Jr’s belief in the ‘inescapable network of mutuality’, applies it to the struggle for freedom in South Africa and explores the ways in which South Africans can embrace these ethical ideals in facing the challenges of post-liberation.

Brief Historical Review of Membrane Development and Membrane Applications in Wastewater Treatment in Southern Africa

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Botha ◽  
R. D. Sanderson ◽  
C. A. Buckley
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Mine Waters ◽  
Considerable Potential ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Charged Membrane ◽  
The World ◽  
Membrane Development

Away back in 1953 few people in the world, let alone South Africa, knew or had heard about membrane desalination, but there was an increasing awareness that electrodialysis had considerable potential for the desalination of brackish water. In South Africa the development of the new gold fields in the northern Orange Free State and the problems posed by the presence of excessive volumes of very saline mine waters stimulated interest in desalination and the CSIR* in collaboration with the mining industry became involved in the development of the electrodialysis process. By 1959 the largest brackish desalination plant in the world had been built and commissioned. South Africans were thus in the forefront of this technology, even to the extent of making the required membranes locally. Our historical review of membrane development and the applications of membrane technology in Southern Africa encompasses both pressure- and voltage-driven processes. Examples of the pressure processes are microfiltration, ultrafiltration and charged membrane ultrafiltration or nanofiltration, and finally reverse osmosis with fixed and dynamically formed membranes. The voltage-drive processes considered are electrodialysis and electrodialysis reversal.

The Strengths of China's Charm Offensive: Changes in the Political Landscape of a Southern Taiwan Town under Attack from Chinese Economic Power

2017 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 956-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Keng ◽  
Jean Yu-Chen Tseng ◽  
Qiang Yu
Keyword(s):  
Political Identity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contract Farming ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Economic Statecraft ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Taiwanese People ◽  
Southern Taiwan ◽  
Hearts And Minds

AbstractChina's trade with Taiwan has a political motive: winning the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese people. The effectiveness of China's economic statecraft can be examined in the Syuejia (Xuejia) case, where Taiwan put up strong resistance to the generous benefits offered by China. This article investigates the political implications of the Chinese-designed contract farming programme in Syuejia and argues that if economic favours are delivered, and positive impressions also created, political attitudes can be revised. Without these two prerequisites, however, replicating the Syuejia results elsewhere and thus disturbing the cross-Strait status quo will be difficult. When put in a theoretical context, the changes in the political landscape of Syuejia illustrate the interplay of economic interests and political identity.

scholarly journals Employment Equity

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Barend Röges Odendaal
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Employment Equity ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
The Past

The Employment Equity Act, 1998, Act 55 of 1998 was created in order to bring about a paradigm shift in South Africa’s labour relations, transforming it into a system based on equality. This change in the political life of all South Africans has brought about huge challenges to employers and employees alike. Seen as a threat to some, others view it as a positive beacon. If the Act was correctly implemented, South Africa will be heading towards a better competitive market and the workforce should be equally representative of the population. This paper aims to illustrate whether the Act has achieved its goals over the past 13 years by means of analysis and assessment of reports and statistical reviews. An overview is offered in the form of a literature review of the Act and defining the current legislation thereof in conjunction with management theory. The paper challenges the perceptions of all South Africans and finding possible solutions to areas in which the Act has failed. The paper further proposes action steps for the effective implementation of the legislation and for the process to follow to ensure that is fair in the sense that all employees can compete on equal terms.

scholarly journals Humanism in the Autobiographies of Edward Said and Nelson Mandela: Memory as Action

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Jihan Zakarriya
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
The Political ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Bear Witness

This paper focuses on the concept of memory as a form of humanist activism in the autobiographies of Nelson Mandela and Edward Said, namely The Long Walk to Freedom (1994) and After the Last Sky (1999), respectively. I have chosen Mandela and Said because they dedicated their lives and efforts to the service of the cause of freedom in South Africa and Palestine. Their engagement with the political causes of their countries turns into a concern with worldwide struggles for human rights and racial equality. While Mandela emerged as a vital force against apartheid in South Africa, Said was a well-known and influential Palestinian critic and intellectual whose writings tackle the Palestinian struggle for justice within the worldwide experience of imperialism and its binary oppositions of white/black, male/female, superior /inferior. I argue that their autobiographies bear witness to the plight of Black South Africans and Palestinians as both a shared memory resistant to erasure and as a call for justice. Mandela and Said use their personal memories and life stories to construct a public reading of the meanings of the events that shaped them. Both are concerned with the ways their people have been represented by others, and how they struggle to represent themselves.

scholarly journals A Suitable Paradigm: the Indian Founding and the world

Jus Cogens ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Fowkes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Paradigm Case ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

AbstractWhat is the relevance of the Indian case for South Africa? And what should South Africans, and the rest of the world, make of the claim in Madhav Khosla’s India’s Founding Moment that we should recognize India as ‘the’ paradigm case for modern constitutional democracy? The constitutional projects of India and South Africa are naturally connected, but Khosla’s book helps to bring out what is perhaps the most important of the connections. Both are founded on an insistently democratic constitutionalism, in places where most inhabitants had long been told they were not suited or ready for democracy. Both display the conviction that boldly giving the vote to all, in these circumstances, is a powerful way to construct a democracy. This idea is crucial for understanding many aspects of both constitutions. This makes India a natural paradigm case for South Africa and many others. The stronger claim, that it is ‘the’ paradigm case and should succeed the United States to this status, can become more complicated once one tests it out globally (like the US claim). Finland and Ireland are especially strong and earlier examples of what Khosla sees as ground-breaking in India. Latin America’s somewhat different post-colonial trajectory makes India a more imperfect paradigm there. But that said, treating India and its founding as paradigmatic may well be the single best step to take for a more balanced view of the constitutional world, and this book’s elegant erudition makes it a real scholarly pleasure to do so.

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