South Africa is a developing country with a history characterized by constitutional racial segregation and prejudice in the form of Apartheid through white supremacy that gave way to a non-racial democracy only in 1994. South Africa does not just reflect the nature and diversity of challenges globally, but also the strategies pursued by countries to address these issues. Government institutions, campaigns and local communities have been looking for innovative ways to improve problems of all South Africans they are dealing with. Social and economic determinants of violence and a legacy of apartheid policies such as racism, segregation, injustice and inequality must be addressed to reduce inequalities in society and build community cohesion.
In the following section, I would like to give a short insight into my research. The central question of the paper is to expose, how South Africa has changed after Apartheid and what the New South Africa looks like? In order to evaluate the way in which post-Apartheid South Africa deals with the issues, challenges and problems and accommodated its population diversity, this paper is organized in four parts. The first chapter of this paper will give a rough outline of the most important historic events in South Africa during Apartheid. The second chapter deals with internal political transformations after the end of apartheid. This part provides a context on the land issue and to the challenges post-apartheid has to address with unemployment, poverty and inequality. The third part focuses on political processes and debates about the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The last chapter is about the culture of violence against African migrants, called "Xenophobia". At the very end, there will be a final conclusion which illustrates the question and the aspects which emphasize the results regarding to the hypothesis that are made.
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Apartheid
3. Post-apartheid
4. HIV/AIDS
5. Xenophobia
6. Conclusion
7. Bibliography
List of Abbreviations
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
1. Introduction
South Africa is a developing country with a history characterized by constitutional racial segregation and prejudice in the form of Apartheid through white supremacy that gave way to a non-racial democracy only in 1994. South Africa does not just reflect the nature and diversity of challenges globally, but also the strategies pursued by countries to address these issues. Government institutions, campaigns and local communities have been looking for innovative ways to improve problems of all South Africans they are dealing with (cf. Norman 2007, 85). Social and economic determinants of violence and a legacy of apartheid policies such as racism, segregation, injustice and inequality must be addressed to reduce inequalities in society and build community cohesion.
In the following section, I would like to give a short insight into my research. The central question of the paper is to expose, how South Africa has changed after Apartheid and what the New South Africa looks like? In order to evaluate the way in which post-Apartheid South Africa deals with the issues, challenges and problems and accommodated its population diversity, this paper is organized in four parts. The first chapter of this paper will give a rough outline of the most important historic events in South Africa during Apartheid. The second chapter deals with internal political transformations after the end of apartheid. This part provides a context on the land issue and to the challenges post-apartheid has to address with unemployment, poverty and inequality. The third part focuses on political processes and debates about the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The last chapter is about the culture of violence against African migrants, called "Xenophobia". At the very end, there will be a final conclusion which illustrates the question and the aspects which emphasize the results regarding to the hypothesis that are made.
The choice to focus on the four particular areas has been primarily motivated by the fact that they have been a current issue in the new South Africa and are still present. Also by focusing on the core challenges, the contributions to this volume discuss their topics in greater depth, thereby demonstrating how the transition in South Africa is and where the limits and contradictions are.
2. Apartheid
In “Afrikaans”, the language of “Afrikaners”, the word apartheid implies things set apart or separated (cf. García-López 2008, 117). According to Dubów (1989), many scholars point to the fact that the curtain of the concept’s popularity by citing the devastation it caused when effected by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Wylie (2001), however argues that after World War II many Europeans endured to feel the need to provide an explanation for racial distinction, and they devised new justifications for racial hierarchies. Drawing invidious differences at the races due to their cultures became a more respectable type of racism than ranking them based on their bodies and biological makeup. Ross, Mager and Nasson (2011) state that the institutionalization of racism and racial discrimination permeated each aspect of everyday life. Its ideologues sanctioned to protect the purity of the white race. This turned not into an instance of racism inside the call of political hygiene, as had been the case in Nazi Germany. If Nazi discourse had rendered Jews as contaminants to be eliminated, apartheid’s racism was predicated on a recognition of the fundamental economic interdependency of the races. It took place because blacks and whites economically caught that in became imperative to adapt race by means of strongly impermeable boundaries, so that it will maintain racial “purity” and the racial hierarchies that supported white power and privilege.
If we take a closer look at the history, the “Afrikaner” nationalists, namely the National Party (NP), which also used that concept and programme as the focus of its election campaign (cf. Davenport 1991, 519), preserved control of government from 1948 to 1994, and the half of the twentieth century was ruled by apartheid (cf. Worden 2012, 105). The Oxford Dictionary defines “Afrikaner ” as: “An Afrikaansspeaking white person in South Africa, especially one descended from the Dutch and Huguenot settlers of the 17th century.” The NP used ethnos theory and the Bible to explain their strategies for “separate development” (Wylie 2001,2). Ethnos theorists claimed that it is “the will of a people [... ] to remain immortal as a people,” meaning that each ethnic group had fixed traits that the state should help them maintain (Eiselen 1997, 229). In the same way many Dutch Reformed Church members thought that the biblical story of Ham explained their domination of Africans, although not all supporters of apartheid believed the story was true. Given their limited appeal, philosophy theory and conservative biblical interpretations do not explain why many ordinary whites accommodated themselves intellectually to apartheid for so long (cf. Wylie 2011,2). However, centuries before the government extended racial discrimination in segregationist laws and practices to classify the South African population (cf. Worden 1994, 112), since the early roots of colonialism in South Africa (cf. Davenport 1991, 518) but from the late 1940s the partial breakdown of legislative segregation was taken much further than before (cf. Worden 2012, 105). By the end of the eighteenth century certain racially discriminatory rules were set up (cf. Worden 1994, 66-67), but Pelzer (1980) argues that “it was only in the period between the end of the Anglo-Boer War in 1902 and the 1930s” that a cogent ideology of segregation appeared and was implemented (cf. Worden 1994, 72).
But in fact, various historical events and regulations of the apartheid system have negatively damaged the idea of group rights, group classification, ethnicity/race, minority rights, and self-determination likewise the institution of traditional leaders (cf. Henrard 2002, 46). Apartheid is characterized by its main policy of division, which was targeted at ensuring white survival and hegemony by dividing the nonwhite population along racial and even ethnic lines (cf. Kashula & Anthonissen 1995, 98). Henrard (2002) confirms that the target was to secure white supremacy and it continually posed racial and cultural purity as an ideal to be protected. Soudien describes apartheid as a scheme to disempower the non-white population (cf. Soudien 1998, 128) while giving privileges to the white, and especially the white “Afrikaner” population. Ukawuilulu (2008) notes that the white population made up less than 20 percent and the blacks 80 percent. Unemployed blacks, or more precisely blacks were dispatched forcibly to live on nonarable lands and in urban ghettoes or townships. The white minority government used violence and terrorism against blacks, they arrested, tortured, and killed innocent black men, women, and children. According to the Raman Rights Campaign (HRC) statistics, approximately 21.000 people died in political violence in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 and the life expectancy of Black South Africans was only 38 years. According to du Toit (2008) blacks were only tolerated in “white areas”, in Dutch “Blanke Gebied” as workers, and coloreds and Indians had their own residential areas. Every day, they faced legal discrimination under an unjust government that controlled every aspect of their lives - from where they could live to what jobs they could hold to whom they could marry.
When the NP came to power, the regime quickly passed segregationist legislation in 1948. First “The Prohibition of Mixed-Marriages Act (1949) and the Immorality Act”, which made interracial marriage a criminal act, that means the act lengthened the existing ban on sexual contact between whites and other South Africans outside marriage, including coloreds and Indians. In the same year “The Population Registration Act (1949)”, which required registration and racial classification of all persons above sixteen years of age. The act enforced the classification of people into four racial groups namely White, Colored (which included “Cape Colored, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Griqua, other Asiatic and other Colored”) or Native (African or Bantu). The African group was furthermore subdivided into ethnic categories like Zulu, Xhosa and Ndebele (Klotz & Manby 1995, 28). It should be kept in mind that especially in rural areas there was a traditional distribution of Africans, including the Nguni languages (Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa and Ndebele) the Sotho languages (Sotho, Rswana, Pedi) as well as Tsonga and Venda (cf. Lopez 2008, 119). Next passed the “The Group Areas Act (1950)”, which allowed the government to determine the areas in which people of different races and nationalities could reside and own property, (cf. Worden 2007, 105; Nesbitt 2008, 100). The Act made sure that white and nonwhite persons were residentially separated, which led to the creation of townships. In cases where whites had servants who lived on the premises, their spaces had to be physically separate from the employer’s residence. Blacks (through the hated Pass Laws) were assigned to certain “tribal homelands”. The pass was a document that every African had to carry and produce for identification and it included a personal history and work history of the agent. It was a term that referred to the pass but also involved curfew laws, location regulations, and mobility. When there was a scream against the “dom pas”, which was seen as “stupid pass” government spokesmen exonerated them as “just like a passport that you and I carry” (cf. Lopez 2008, 119). Next came “The Bantu Education Act (1953)”, which brought mission schools under government control. They enforced separate school facilities and mother-tongue instruction (cf. Bogin 2008, 100). The language of the “Afrikaans” was assembled to limit access to employment for the black Africans (cf. Desei and Taylor 1997, 169). The Bantu Education can be described as a system that arranged for a subordinated position in the workplace via focus on practical subjects and in inferior curriculum (cf. Davenport 1991, 535). Under “The Separate Universities
Act (1959)” the government closed a number of black educational and training institutions and other universities were closed to African, Indian and Colored students (cf. du Toit 2008, 119). That design of apartheid was inter alia demonstrated by the official language policy that excluded any indigenous language and benefited English and “Afrikaans”, by the job reservations for “Afrikaners” in the public service, and by the attempt to promote the “Afrikaner” people through a highly compartmentalized education system (cf. Wilkins and Strydom 1978, 253) and led to apartheid’s description as a pervasive system of affirmative action for “Afrikaners” (cf. Sachs 1992, 98; Sonn 1993, 6).
The apartheid regime indeed did not limit its racial classifications to Black and White but further subdivided the overwhelming non-white majority in three subgroups namely Africans, Coloreds, and Indians/Asians. The apartheid government intentionally created a transitional position for the Coloreds and the Indians. There were many similarities in the positions of Indians and Coloreds, (cf. Carrim 1996, 50) which justifies dealing with them at the same time, while still giving some attention to certain characteristics differentiating them.
As mentioned before the Colored population is mainly concentrated in the Cape region, and the description and analysis of its situation will consequently often refer to the Cape province during apartheid. The Coloreds by no means form a homogeneous community since “mixed descent” maintains to many different combinations and agrees of nonwhiteness. Under apartheid the Colored population included a “wide variety of people from a variety of ethnic, racial, social and linguistic backgrounds: Chinese, Cape Malay, Kho, San, Griqua, Indian other Asians (cf. Rattansi 2007, 88). Rattansi also describes that the Indian descent of the South African population is mainly concentrated in the Kwazulu-Natal region. Like the Colored one, the Indian community is highly differentiated and this mainly on linguistic and religious grounds. The different Indian languages represented in South Africa are Tamil, Telegu, Hindi, Urdu, Kokney, Guj erari and Метоп, they also obey furthermore to three different religions: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. In any event Indians and Coloreds were not white enough and both suffered the disadvantages of the policy of separate development, although not at the same level as the African population, (cf. Henrard 2002,49). To a certain degree apartheid was productive in creating a sense of separate group identities as there was authentic solidarity within the categories, inter alia because the same disadvantages were set on all members of the group.
What did the black majority to stop racism and segregation during the apartheid? The African National Congress (ANC) was formed in 1912 to fight the racial segregation and the racism of the black majority (cf. Ukawuilulu 2008, 26). The Oxford English Dictionary Supplement (OED) of 1982 defines racism as ‘prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior’. In the 1960s Nelson Mandela had risen to height in the African National Congress (ANC), a political organization in the country. Nelson Mandela spoke out against the apartheid government and its abhorrent treatment of black South Africans. The government struck back by blaming him with sabotage. In 1964 Mandela was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Over time, the anti-apartheid movement grew, both within the South Africa country and abroad (cf. Sonneborn 2010, 7). On February 11, 1990 it was going to be a wonderful day for Nelson Mandela, who was bom on July 8, 1918 in Mvezo and died in 2013. It would line the start of a new phase in his life because he spent more than 27 years in prison. At the time, he was the most famous political prisoner in the world. The ANC fiercely opposed the South African government policies known as apartheid. By the start of the 1990s, internal and external opposition had nearly brought the South African government to its knees. President F. w. de Klerk’s announcement was to avoid a complete breakdown and he decided to push for consequential political reforms. De Klerk called for an end to the government’s ban on the ANC and other political groups. He also declared that many long-held political prisoners, including Mandela would be released. Mandela had been an almost mythic figure, a symbol of the entire anti-apartheid resistance movement for decades. Finally, when he speaks to the enthusiastic mass of an estimated 250.000 people, he also reminded how apartheid has destroyed families, left millions impoverished and homeless, and fueled political strife that endangered the entire nation. Mandela’s release from prison was a cmcial event in twentieth- century history. It symbolized the beginning of the end of apartheid. When apartheid’s vicious and cruel policies finally were demolished in South Africa, not only Mandela, but also an entire nation was as last set free and they celebrated his freedom (cf. Sonneborn 2010, 6-10).
3. Post-apartheid
The OED Supplement of 1982 defines post-apartheid as ‘existing or occurring in the time after apartheid and especially after the end of apartheid in the Republic of South Africa’. In April 1994 South African government held its first election in which all citizens or the “born frees”, regardless of their race or gender, were now able to vote. The ANC’s slate of candidate won the most votes. After that the new ANC-dominated parliament elected Nelson Mandela as the first black president of South Africa (cf. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 2000). During his policy, Mandela has used the state to rebuild the country’s diseased economy and to try to implement a multi-racial order, which has been harshly damaged by apartheid (cf. Lansing 1998, 753). Wilson (2001) notes that the country was celebrated, not just for overcoming its racist past, but also for having the braveness to face the pain and suffering that apartheid caused. As already mentioned before, the general population of South Africa has a high level of trauma exposure since apartheid. The South African Stress and Health Study (2013) found out, that the most common traumatic events were the unexpected deaths of a loved one and witnessing trauma occurring to others. To be blunt, a lot of citizens were traumatized and now having mental disorders, like emotional stress (cf. BMC Psychiatry, 2013).
Since Mandela retired from public life in 1999 (cf. Bulmer 1999, 288), he has stayed active in many causes, he settled the Nelson Mandela Foundation in 1999, an organization committed to promoting human rights and social justice, (cf. Sonneborn 2010, 12). He stressed the importance of creating an inclusive nation out of political differences, following the principles of the Freedom Charter that “South Africa belongs to all in it, black and white” (cf. ANC 2010). Equality is the Chapter’s keynote in the liberated South Africa: “All people shall have equal rights to use their own language and to develop their own folk culture; All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be abolished, while the moralizing and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and disrespect shall be a punishable crime” (cf. ANC 1985). One of his wonderful citations is;
“Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous j acaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld - rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world” (Mandela, 1996).
A new flag adopted on 27th April 1994 by Fred Brownell that represented all the people who life in South Africa. The national flag was designed to show the country’s new democracy. At the time of its adoption, the South African flag was the only national flag in the world to contain six colours in its primary design without a seal and brocade. The design and colours are a summary of principal elements of the country's flag history (cf. BBC 2014). South Africa is a diverse nation with a population of over 56 million consisting of people different languages, origins, cultures, and religious practices. Officially there are eleven major languages of South Africa, which include “Afrikaans”, English, Swazi, Sotho, Swan, Ndebele, Venda, Zulu, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, and Xhosa. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa with about 12 million speakers representing 23% of the country’s population (cf. World Atlas 2017). The “Rainbow Nation” is a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu after South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994, to describe post-apartheid South Africa. According to Magri (2016) the term was intended to encase the unity of multi-culturalism, therefore in the new South Africa are four main “race groups”: the blacks who make 80.2%, Coloreds who make up 8.8%, whites who make up 8.4% and Asians who make up 2.5% of the national population (cf. B3G10be 2017). South Africa introduced a new ideology in the name of nation building: “rainbowism“, that describes common ground and sameness rather than a focus on difference and was meant to fight racism and discrimination (cf. Mukoya 2016). Against this experience of inequality, the government promised to build one million new houses within five years after inauguration (cf. Huchzermeyer 2003). These new houses were also supposed to be make the existing cities more compact and more integrated, but it is fact, that the new South Africa has challenges due to water and electricity. UN Water (2017) emphasizes that 60 percent of the population living in urban environments and 40 percent in rural settlements. Presently 77 percent (of total percent of total use) has access to surface water, and recycled water (14 percent of total use). Because of immigration and population growth, expansion in rural settlements is putting stress on South Africa’s water supply. Currently, 19 percent of the rural population needs access to a reliable water supply and 33 percent do not have basic sanitation services. While rural citizens suffer the most, over 26 percent of all schools (urban or rural), and 45 percent of clinics, have no water access either. Now South Africa has a policy called “Free Basic Water Access”. According to the South African Constitution every citizen is entitled to a certain amount of water regardless of his ability to pay for it and the amount of entitlement be 6000 liters per household per month (cf. The Water Project 2018). Mission 2017 believes that the solutions including the use of water meters and truck delivery routes, will highly shorten the amount of water being wasted or lost.
After the transition from 1994, Bennedsen (2014) explains that the government of the ANC decided, that it was needed to resolve the economic disparities created by Apartheid policies which had favored white business owners. The definition of Black economic empowerment (BEE) in the 2001 Commission Report is:
"Black economic empowerment is an important policy instrument aimed at broadening the economic base of the country - and through this, at stimulating further economic growth and creating employment.
BEE was introduced in South Africa to ease the inequalities created by the oppressions of the past. It aims to create a reality in which the earlier disadvantaged people will be in a position to make a significant contribution to its economy. According to Bennedsen (2014) the BEE programme officially started in 2003. Due to his critics, that just the blacks benefit, this led in 2007 to the introduction of a modified programme called Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). The difference in these policies is while BEE sought to right the wrongs of the past, B-BBEE aims at allocating the wealth of nation across all races and genders. The B-BBEE strategy mandate to increase the number of black people participating in the country’s economy. “The current ‘Preferential Procurement Regulations’ stipulates the 80/20 preference point system for the procurement of goods and services with a rand value of R1 million” (the DTI 2017). White South Africans say it has become harder for them to get a job because of a policy aimed at helping to rectify past apartheid wrongs, called black economic empowerment. They claim, that they are victims of “reverse racism”, but in fact this is just a myth, because it can be traced back to the black population, who make the majority in poverty (cf. Chalklen 2015).
The question is, whether BEE improved the chances of finding a job. In South Africa, it is often stated that the developments by the private sector reproduce the brutal social and spatial inequalities of the country (cf. Lemański 2004, 101). Democracy has certainly benefited many, including a relatively small black
middle-class elite, but most South Africans persist to live in poverty and are a divided society (cf. Pallotti 2016, 12). According to UNDP 2009/10 South Africa rank among the most unequal countries in the world in term of its income and wealth distribution. Today a quarter of the labour force is seeking work but cannot find it (cf. Matrass 2016, 55). Matrass (2016) also claims that the ruling ANC regards unemployment as the number one development challenge. South Africa's unemployment rate decreased to 26.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 from 27.7 percent in the previous period (cf. StatsSA 2018). StatsSA’s (2017) poverty trends report shows that one in two South Africans live under the poverty line, amounting to about 30 million people living in poverty. Enea (2017) says that black African’s remain the majority of those living in poverty with 46.6% affected, followed by coloreds at 32.2%, with less than 5 percent of Indians living in poverty. For whites, the amount is below one percent. The majority of those living in poverty are children aged 17 and below. In general, children (aged 17 years and younger), black Africans, females, people from rural areas, those living in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, and those with little or no education are the main victims in the ongoing struggle against poverty. In 2017, the food poverty line was adjusted up toR 531 per month. This makes 45,5$. Who is most vulnerable to poverty in south Africa? The Eastern Cape had the highest share of poor residents at 72.9%. Limpopo was marginally lower at 72.4%. Gauteng province had the lowest share of poor residents. In 2015, 33.3% of people who lived there were poor, (cf. Africa Check 2018). The average yearly income of the white household is US $37.000. The Indians/Asians have US $17.800, the Coloreds $10.500 and the Blacks have just an income of $5000 (cf. StastsSA 2017).
In general, no economy can grow by excluding any part of its people, and an economy that is not growing cannot integrate all of its citizens in a meaningful way. Now many challenges and problems due to inequality and poverty in the new South Africa were mentioned. The next chapter gives a rough outline about the HIV/ADS epidemic.
4. HIV/AIDS
According to Phillips (2001) the spread of infection could be linked to legacies of the past, such as the mobility oy young male migrant workers. The first two South African “Acquired immune deficiency syndrome ” (AIDS) cases were diagnosed in 1982, but the disease remained within a white, homosexual ghetto until 1987 when the first African case was diagnosed, (cf. Johnson 2009, 182). In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared 1st December as the first World Aros Day. In May 1986, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses said that the virus that causes AIDS will officially be called “Human immunodeficiency virus’’ (HIV). This virus destroys a type of white blood cell in the immune system called a T-helper cell. HIV is transmitted through transfusion of contaminated blood and organ transplants, unprotected sexual intercourse, sharing of contaminated needles, between the mother and her infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. It is spread when an infected person’s body fluids (semen, blood, vaginal and anal fluids, breast milk) enter another person’s bloodstream. To prevent HIV, Avert (2017) suggests having practice safe sex and not to share syringes and needles, if you inject drugs, because it leads to better long-term health. Testing for HIV is important. According to the Medical Dictionary AIDS is defined as an infectious disease caused by HIV. AIDS refers to a set of symptoms and illnesses that occur at the very final stage of HIV infection and patients will may develop Kaposi’s sarcoma if left untreated it will lead to death (cf. Avert 2017). If HIV is left untreated, it may take up to 10 or 15 years for a person’s immune system to be completely destroyed. There is currently no cure, but the earlier HIV is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can start and affected people can live long and healthy lives and it is also important to mention, that the more people testing, the better (cf. Avert 2017).
HIV/AIDS not only comprised a major public health crisis in the post-apartheid South Africa, but for more than a decade it also caused one of the most controversial policy challenges to the Mandela and Mbeki governments. When the ANC took power, many of its leaders were aware of the risk HIV/AIDS. “Predictions of its capacity were included in the 1994 National Health Plan for South Africa, and the National AIDS Convention in South Africa AIDS plan, which the Government of National Unity adopted as policy in 1994” ( Heywood 2004b, 2-3). The ANC took up most time and energy in the first few years of democracy and the virus was ignored for several years. The first president of the new South Africa Nelson Mandela mentioned AIDS during his presidency and only broke silence when one of his sons died of the disease five years after he left office (cf. Thornton 2008, 11).
In 2003 Mandela admitted in a BCC interview: “I wanted to win and I didn’t talk about AIDS”, he “had not the time to concentrate on the issue” (Heywood 2004b, 3nl). Johnson (2009) argues that it was essential to take firm action in the early years of the Mandela government, but he did nothing, which is a huge failure of leadership. HIV/AIDS treatment became speedily politized and president Thabo Mbeki publicly declared that Aros was a western disease and that retroviral medicines were toxic. They argued that poverty and malnutrition were more acute problems (cf. Johnson 2009, 188). Mbeki argued that AIDS was a disease of poverty and this was the base cause one had to tackle. President Mbeki also adds that people die from anything (cf. Johnson 2009, 211). This was absurd in a country with the largest number of AIDS victims, in a middle-income developing country (cf. World aids Conference 2010). Marais (2001) blamed him for the silence and utterly unscientific public statements. He also got criticism when he refused to meet Nkosi Johnson (HIV-positive boy who died at the age of 12), the child AIDS activist. Nkosi has been a symbol of HIV/AIDS because he encased the reality, the injustice and the discrimination of the epidemic. When he stood on the stage in Durban in July last year at the 13th International Aids Conference, Nkosi had a message, due to the behalf of those living with HIV in a country who were shunned and attacked in the past:
"Care for US and accept US - we are all human beings, we are normal, we have hands, we have feet, we can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don't be afraid of US - we are all the same," Nkosi said (The Guardian 2001).
The virus has terrible consequences: Victims become anxious, depressed, and suffer a whole range of bipolar, compulsive, eating and substance-abuse disorders and they have a suicide ate thirty-six times the normal, because they face prejudice, racism and discrimination (cf. Johnson 2009, 211).
BBC (2006) reports a scandal before Deputy President Zuma taking office, he was put on trial in for rape. He announced the court he “had showered” after an unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, thinking this would reduce his risk of being infected. This made world headlines and was a dangerous myth, which could affect the whole population. And this very graphic example of behavior that leads directly to the spread of AIDS had a far stronger role model impact than anything obtuse that Mbeki ever said on the subject.”
In 1999, the WHO announced that AIDS was the fourth biggest cause of death worldwide and number one killer in Africa. Once Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described Aros as South Africa’s new apartheid (cf. Independent Online 2001). South Africa has the biggest and most high profile HIV epidemic in the world with 19% of the global number of people living with HIV. In 2016 globally 36,7 million people were living with HIV positive, around 30% of these same people do not know that they have the virus. South Africa has the biggest Antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme in the world. In 2016, more than 3 million people were receiving ART, which relates to 56% of people living with HIV in the country. In 2012, just 31.2% of people living with HIV were on ART. In 2016, 4 million people were on treatment while in 2009 the rate was 500.000. According to the United Nations Programme on HIV AIDS (UNAIDS), A million people are living with HIV in South Africa among whom 56% adults and 55% children were accessing ART. Among pregnant women living with HIV 95% were accessing ART or prophylaxis to prevent transmission of HIV to their infant. Orphaned children and single parent families were stretching social services (cf. Worden 2007, 162). Children who lost one or both parents to AIDS make 63 percent. South Africa had 110.000 aids- related deaths and 270.000 new HIV infections in 2016/2017 (cf. Avert). It is important to describe, why South Africa is challenging with the spread of HIV/AIDS. The knowledge about gender and sexuality is not featured in teaching and learning about HIV/AIDS (cf. Morrell et al. 2009) with sex considered as taboo. Despite high levels of basic awareness about HIV/AIDS, knowledge gaps persist (cf. Glover 2012, 21). Glover also writes that in South Africa is less enlightenment, ignorance about the virus and less access to medicine due to poverty. But in the new South Africa Mbali (2016) argues, AIDS has proven significant not sightly in its reflection of various forms of social exclusion and injustice, it has also been politically important as it has been an issue which has catalyzed some of the first successful post-apartheid civil society campaigns against the ANC government. She also shows that the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is successful use of “cause lawyering” and chancing forms of political mobilization around the socio-economic right to access to health care services in the context of the AIDS epidemic in post-apartheid South Africa. In addition Iliffe (2006) notes that TAC led mass campaigns to demand free medication. Pallotti (2016) states in particular the TAC’s prosecution for the provision of the antiretroviral drug “Nevirapine” for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV and says that Aros activism is relevant. PMTCT is just one of the prevention programmes in South Africa. There is also “Condom use and distribution, which the Aids Healthcare Foundation ’s (AHF) supports. They celebrate the International Condom Day (February 13), and their message is, that condoms are “Always in Fashion. The purpose is to remind the general public of the importance of using a condom when engaging in sexual behavior. Using a condom not only prevents the chances of pregnancy, but also prevents sexually transmitted infections (STIs). They are hosting activations and events around South Africa, distributing condoms and conducting HIV/AIDS testing (cf. Talk of the Town February 2018). Another prevention programme is HIV education, which was implemented in all public primary and secondary schools in South Africa (cf. Avert 2017). More information is required from teachers and learners about the negotiation of gender and sexuality in order to develop appropriate responses to the disease because it is important to consider for education (cf. Glover 2012,216). The last one which will be mentioned is HIV awareness (cf. Avert 2017). McIntyre, Bruyn & Gray (2008) confirm that there have been numerous initiatives to halt the spread of HIV, including national campaigns by the government and a wide array of local initiatives by community and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) strategies have focused on information-based media campaigns to raise public awareness about the disease, for example loveLife, aimed making sex behavior an accepted component of youth culture.
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- Eda Turan (Autor:in), 2018, Current issues, problems and challenges in the New South Africa, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/435636
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Laden Sie Ihre eigenen Arbeiten hoch! Geld verdienen und iPhone X gewinnen. -
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Laden Sie Ihre eigenen Arbeiten hoch! Geld verdienen und iPhone X gewinnen.