There has been much commotion recently occurring in South Africa. To be quite frank, I wasn’t too familiar with the South African conflicts and what exactly was fueling the war. So I decided to so some much needed research on the current issues plaguing South Africa and its citizens. A lot of the recent controversy has to do with a bill that was passed, Land Exploration with Compensation, that essentially authorized the confiscation of land owned by white Africans to be redistributed to Black South Africans (Ryan, 2018).
Segregation has been a great divider and a root of much of the chaos presented in South Africa. In South Africa, about 70% of the country’s land is owned by white, which is only about 9.1% of the population (Ryan, 2018). On the other hand, approximately 76% of South Africa is black and 90% of blacks live in impoverished conditions. The function of the bill was to create some kind of equality between blacks and whites in South Africa. The purpose and end of this bill is somewhat slightly similar to affirmative action in the United States; to level the playing fields.
Personally, I feel this bill will be unsuccessful and will do more damage to the country than the apartheid itself. If we have learned anything from history is that nothing good comes out of taking things by forceful, unwelcomed action. While I understand the disparities between blacks and white are great, I do not believe that this bill is the route to go. A major problem with South Africa are its leaders and their agendas, which are not necessary transparent. This bill proposes that farm land be redistributed to blacks with no type of compensation to the white land owners. According to Luke Ryan, the “redistribution does not mean that those endowed with the responsibility of keeping the farm [will] know anything about farming. In Zimbabwe, this led to a massive shortage of food and even went on to famine and starvation” (Soferep News, 2018). If the leaders of South Africa truly wanted to promote peace, stability and equality they would open the dialogue between the parties to pass legislation that would benefit both races. This leaders should focus on empowering the impoverished with work and educational opportunities so that they are able to better help themselves and future generations ahead.
Reference
Ryan, Luke. “What’s Happening in South Africa?” SOFREP, 2 Mar. 2018, sofrep.com/100335/whats-happening-south-africa/.
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