Post-apartheid Segregation in South Africa

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All men should be treated as equal. However, some people think they are superior to the others. For almost fifty years, South Africans were segregated by apartheid, a system that separated South Africans by their skin colors. The purpose behind this system was to separate the colored people from the whites in favor of white minority to have power over the black majority. Many people had to move out of their homes in designated “White” areas even though they already settled in the areas before the system was established. This system officially came to end in mid 1990’s when Nelson Mandela came to power. However, the remnants of apartheid still exist in South Africa. Thus I decided to investigate the causes of segregation in South Africa.

Apartheid started in when the Group Areas Act was introduced in 1950. This law drove the black people from the designated “White” areas in order to attain more perfect segregation. According to Outcast Cape Town by John Western it stated, “up to 1 in 10 Capetonians (nearly all mixed-race “Coloureds”) were ejected from their homes, in order to achieve a more perfect segregation” (Western, 1981,1996). Consequently, so many people lost their homes where they lived for their whole lifetime and had to move out to the outskirts of the cities. The government officials claimed that the law was to prevent any racial conflicts. Western stated, “… segregation is in the interest of all, is enshrined in the “friction theory… the belief is simply that any contact between the races inevitably produces conflict” (Western, 1981, 1996). It’s a pretty good allegation for introducing the law by saying that “we want peace among every people”. However, in truth, the law only benefited the white minority. The g...

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...riority." New York Times, March 23, 2012. https://blackboard.syr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3178578-dt-content-rid-8098063_1/courses/33750.1142/Polgreen 2012.pdf (accessed March 5, 2014).

Teppo, A, and M Houssay-Holzschuch. "Revolution for Liberalism." Canadian Review African Studies. (2013). https://blackboard.syr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3178564-dt-content-rid-8098064_1/courses/33750.1142/Teppo and Houssay-Holzschuch 2013.pdf (accessed March 4, 2014).

Tony, Samara. "Cape Town After Apartheid Crime And Governance in the Divided City." (2011). https://blackboard.syr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3178520-dt-content-rid-8098076_1/courses/33750.1142/Samara 2011.pdf (accessed March 5, 2014).

Western, John. "Outcast Cape Town." (1981, 1996). https://blackboard.syr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3178075-dt-content-rid-8094165_1/courses/33750.1142/Western_excerpts.pdf (accessed March 5, 2014).

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