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Apartheid in south Africa 1940s to 1960s
What are the effects of Apartheid
Apartheid in south Africa 1940s to 1960s
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South Africa Macroeconomic/Financial Profile
Any attempt at explaining recent South African economic history must begin with a discussion of apartheid. Beginning around the middle of the 20th century and ending in 1990, the ruling government of the National Party (NP) engaged in the systematic oppression of non-white South Africans, in what became known as the apartheid system. To understand the net economic consequences of apartheid, consider the graph in the lower right hand corner of Figure 1 which shows real GDP per capita in constant PPP US dollars from 1980 until 2008. Looking at the graph, we see that, despite a few infrequent growth spurts, the South African economy generally suffered negative growth in per capita income between 1980 and 1993.
A 1997 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report gives one possible explanation for this trend. From the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, the South African economy suffered a nearly continuous decline in domestic investment. This fact, coupled with fiscally conservative government policies, forced the economy to increasingly rely on private consumption to propel growth. However, private consumption was unable to do so because of high interest rates, high levels of personal debt, and negligible employment growth.
Although true, the above explanation does not discuss the the root cause of South Africa’s economic struggle during this period, i.e. apartheid. In the mid-1980s, growing international opposition to apartheid led to the involvement of the United States, among other countries, in a disinvestment campaign against South Africa (Knight 1990). United States participation included the passing of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, which limited investm...
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...for unemployment, according to a 2008 EIU report, recent growth in the manufacturing and service sectors have increased demand for skilled workers, while declines in agriculture and mining have decreased demand for unskilled this labor. As a result South Africa is left with a large amount of unskilled labor.
As I have shown above, South Africa’s economic performance over the last few decades can largely be explained in the context of South Africa’s political transition out of apartheid. In the years following the end of apartheid, the ANC’s reform policies have largely been successful in stimulating economic growth, promoting stability, and overseeing the transformation of the South African economy from a traditionally mining and agriculture oriented economy to a modern economy, in which manufacturing and financial services contribute a greater share of GDP.
South Africa was positively affected in the way that before the Dutch and British, South Africa had been split up into many different tribes, who though they were free were not united. Through the centuries of hardship South Africa came out of apartheid very strong and the ANC has maintained a popularity of 60% popularity for all the elections since 1994. Economically South Africa has blossomed and is the 2nd largest economy in all of Africa and has managed to triple its GDP even though it has been less than 30 years since it has left apartheid, established democracy and freed itself from many international sanctions. South Africa’s economy still has many issues though for it is still an underdeveloped country which suffers from lack of education, employment, and crime. Socially South Africa remains strong as it is united under one goal of making its nation once again great, and it has maintained its heritage and culture. In fact, a quick look at a South African site will show many articles and memorials, of days in the past remembering the struggle for freedom. Politically, South Africa has remained strong and united with the ANC still carrying the vast majority of the votes and uses a governmental system quite similar to ours with a separation of powers and a thriving democratic system. Luckily, political diversity has also started to appear with many other groups appearing making the most out of South Africa’s democracy and all of which pledge freedom and are led by native
Throughout the years, the United States of America has endured a very strong economy. Although there have been many obstacles of hindrance such as trade deficits, wars, hostile governments and embargo’s, the economic status of the United States still continues to prevail. Just to name a few, the economy of this country survives on simple commodities such as pork, oranges, precious metals and the productive efforts of its citizens. In this paper, I will not only introduce and discuss the logistics of both the United States and the United Kingdom; I will discuss its key economic obstacles and its economic well being.
Around the 1970s, due to South Africa’s internal contradictions with its economy and people, the Apartheid began its slow demise. Soon the united nation began to take notice of South Africa and began to get involved. With South Africa now in the spot light, Prime Minister P.W Botha left office due to his belief that he had failed to keep order in the country. After the reassignment of P.W Botha, F.W Klerk had taken office. The final stage of the demise of the Apartheid began when Klerk lifted the ban off the ANC and other African political parties. The last blow was the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison. Now that South Africa’s hope was out of prison he continued to ...
The county of South Africa is an economically flourishing country and probably the most advanced country on the continent of Africa. However the entire continent of Africa is probably the most undeveloped part of the world. Why is South Africa so different from the rest of its continent? Karen Politis Virk explains that it is because of South Africa’s developed economy and diverse population (Virk 40). South Africa has three main ethnic groups: African, Afrikaners, and the mixed race. The Afrikaners and mixed races have many roots to Europe and Asia giving the nation even more diversity and a culture melting pot. This set the nation apart from the rest of the African nation in which the majority of the residents are of native African descent (Virk 38). There has been no mixing of cultures or ideas in the nations as there has been in South Africa. South Africa has less problems with diseases and socio-economic problems. The reason for South Africa’s success could be because they have had such a tumultuous and interesting history compared to the rest of the continent The majority of the African continent is underdeveloped for one simple reason: diversity (Abdullkadir, 634). The rest of Africa has all had some sort of outside influence, but the influence did not stay with the people. The Boers developed differently than the rest of Africa, and the breaking point is the Boer War.
In 1990, South Africa became a totalitarian state. Apartheid is still in full effect. There is extensive racial violence in the streets. The country is economically suffering from sanctions from many other countries in protest of Apartheid.
In the period from 1959 until 1999, Consumption (C) increased from approximately 63% of GDP to about 68%, with an overall increase of about 7.88%. However, the proportions of the components of C, namely Durable goods spending (DG), Non-Durable goods spending (NDG), and Services spending (S), do not seem to move in a corresponding way. Of the three components, NDG suffered a dramatic loss as a share of GDP (-31.98%), DG remained nearly the same (-2.6%), and S increased by nearly 58%. I will treat each of these components separately in a discussion of some of the underlying reasons for their relative changes.
Supporting fact two: The economy of the country continued to grow, despite the sudden change of power. South Africans salaries increased: there used to be 12% of workers payed 2$ a day and after the abolishment of the apartheid, it went down to 5%. (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23041513)
Unemployment is a macroeconomic factor that is pertinent to an extensive economy at a regional level. Therefore it affects a large population rather than a few select individuals. Unemployment does not only have social costs, but economic costs too. The ILO, International Labour organization, defines unemployment as, ''People of working age, who are without work, but available for work and actively seeking employment.'' Therefore implying that it is a state of an individual looking for a job but not having one. Unemployment is one of the key indicators in determining the economic stability of a country; hence governments, businesses and consumers closely monitor it. There are numerous aspects that might lead to unemployment such as labour market conflicts and recessions in the economy. There are two main types of unemployment, which can be focused on, seasonal and cyclical unemployment. Seasonal unemployment occurs when a person is unemployed or their profession is not in demand during a particular season. On the contrary, cyclical unemployment occurs when there is less demand for goods and services in the market so consequently supply needs to be decreased.
South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it legal for Europeans to dominate economics and politics (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”).
The harmful impact of globalization on South Africa has been apparent , through the financial squeeze and through market- oriented policies that have silent economic and reorganization, in job losses, crisis in schooling, closing of hospitals, make wider loopholes in the social security net, water cut offs, the degeneration housing shortage, and unrelenting starvation and poverty in a perspective of deepening discrimination in what is already the second most disparate nation on the globe.
Artadi, Elsa V., and Xavier Sala-i-Martin. The Economic Tragedy of the XXth Century: Growth in Africa. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2003. Print.
The majority of the continent of Africa has not been as economically progressive as the other continents in today’s world. However, over the past few years, it has been rapidly growing. Although there have been multiple countries in Africa that have reflected a strong growing economy, such as South Africa and Botswana, there are many other countries that are still corrupt and are still struggling to grow as a nation. There are many challenges that are facing Africa currently. Some of these major challenges being, corrupt governments, vicious cycles of aid, and poverty traps. However, among these challenges, there still lies to be great opportunities for Africa within their technology and business sectors.
Long before apartheid Diamonds and gold were found in South Africa by Europeans. This led to European colonization of South Africa. War between the English and the Dutch erupted in South Africa for the natural resources. They soon came to an agreement to make money off of cheap labor and slaves. The English and Dutch Europeans felt they were superior to the native South Africans. The use of slaves by the Dutch East Company made wages for working South Africans low. Then England emancipated slaves and slavery was traded with segregation. Race started to correspond with class in the social system with white being at the top of the system.
Economic development is highly dependent on the natural resources for food and energy production, which inputs to manufacturing, and to absorbing wastes and pollutants. Thus, there is a high dependency on farming. However, South Africa is not rich in agriculture resources; ...
Apartheid in South Africa became a huge issue due to the loss of human rights. Apartheid segregated and created problems between the whites and blacks of South Africa. Many of the blacks of South Africa had their rights violated due to the National Party making the white minority more powerful. Which automatically made the white richer and the black poorer. This was all changed when Nelson Mandela and F.W. De Klerk joined the African National Congress (ANC) and stood up against the National Party which created a more equalized South Africa.