ZAMANI SAUL: Is 30 years enough to remove the impact of apartheid colonialism?

In the course of the past few years, I have undertaken three long visits to China. All the trips were part of the exchange programme between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

During these visits, the Chinese maintained the narrative that it will take them a hundred years to moderately eradicate the social, political, and economic impact of the Century of Shame.

The Century of Shame is roughly the period of the British and Japanese colonial rule and the bloody civil war between the CCP and the Chinese National Party.

It was only in October 1949 that the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, founded the People’s Republic of China. This period marked the beginning of their 100-yearlong project to eradicate the Century of Shame. This journey was punctuated by both economic and political mishaps that included the ‘Great Leap Forward’ economic policy in 1958, and the Cultural Revolution of 1966.

The Great Leap Forward economic policy was a plan to modernise the Chinese agricultural sector by the introduction of rural communes.

This policy inadvertently led to a decrease in food production from 197 million tonnes to 137 million tonnes, resulting in massive starvation and deaths of untold proportion.

The Cultural Revolution was an attempt to destroy the pre-communist elements of the Chinese culture, which were branded as the ‘Four Olds’: Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits. This campaign led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Chinese by Mao Red Guards, a paramilitary social movement.

Despite these disasters, today, China is amongst the few countries in the world with zero extreme poverty, since it has managed after 70 years of independence to extricate more than 800 million Chinese from extreme poverty.

In 2013, its GDP (PPP) surpassed that of the United States and is now the world’s second largest economy, with the possibility, by all projections, of being the world’s largest economy by 2030. There is consensus in China that to completely eradicate the impact of the Century of Shame, it will take 100 years from the year of establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Up to the present time, the Chinese continue to make authoritative reference to the Century of Shame.

In mid-2023, I had an opportunity to visit Vietnam. The country is doing extremely well, with unemployment at less than 5%, where less than 10% of households are poor, the economy is firing on all cylinders with an average annualised growth of 8%, and there are regions with economic growth as high as 12%.

This is a country where almost all major cities were decimated during the Vietnam War of 1955 to 1975. The scale of the damage caused by the war was unparallelled, and it is a policy position in Vietnam that it will take the country about 200 years to developmentally eradicate the extensive social and economic destruction of the Vietnam War.

In 1865, the US Congress abolished slavery, which was a dehumanising injustice against African Americans.

After more than 150 years, the enduring impact of slavery still looms large and defines the US socio-economic landscape. A study published in May 2023 conducted by RAND Corporation indicates that median Black households in America have approximately $24,000 in savings, home equity, and other elements of wealth and median White households have around $189,000 - a disparity they argue has worsened in recent decades.

Pedro de Lima of RAND Corporation specialises in computer modelling, and argues that it might take the US another 200 years to eradicate racial wealth disparities.

Similar to South Africa and many other countries, China, Vietnam, and the US experienced challenging historical events, whose painful aftermath continues to define their social fabric and the economic landscape.

Policy positions in China and Vietnam have communicated timeframes for the moderate eradication of the consequences of colonialism and civil war. As noted above, for the Chinese it will take about 100 years, which is roughly four generations, while for the Vietnamese it will take about 200 years, which is roughly about eight generations.

Whilst the policymakers in the United States have not indicated their position regarding such timeframes, there are concrete efforts being made to affirm African Americans; whether these efforts are adequate or not remains open to discussion and review.

The experiences in the three countries, and many more, indicate how difficult and protracted a struggle it is to deal with political, social, and economic impacts of prolonged periods of injustice, inequality and lack of regard for humanity.

Africa has been subjected to periods of slave trade, European colonialism, and modern-day neocolonialism. Today, Africa lags behind the other continents in every facet of life: whether economically, technically, politically or technologically.

In most African countries, public utilities are moribund, forcing many Africans to live under some of the most disturbing socio-economic conditions. Thus, the Fragile State index published in 2022 is dominated by African states. The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that around a third of African countries can be classified as fragile and are home to an increasing proportion of Africa’s poor.

At the continental level, the lingering question is the number of years it is likely to take for Africa to eradicate the social, economic, cultural, and territorial consequences of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, and the neocolonial looting of Africa.

While this is an important question, it is beyond the scope of this article, which has South Africa as its focus.

As the democratic administration of the country turns 30 this year, questions on the developmental journey of South Africa abound and generate intense discourse and debate.

Two things will charge up the intensity; first is the fact that this is an elections year, and second is the stark expression of the triple burden of underdevelopment, namely high unemployment, poverty and inequality.

It is true that there are many intolerable things in the country, such as the unemployment rate of just above 30%, of which about 60% is the youth. This is generally called the youth unemployment crisis, and it is to a large extent structural.

More than 50% of households are poor, despite an extensive and progressive social security net to cushion the poor. In terms of the latest IMF Gini co-efficient Report, South Africa is presented as the world’s most unequal society. The manifestation of this inequality is now not only inter-race, but intra-race.

Compounding all of this is the challenge of high levels of crimes of all categories. With all these fault-lines, it is understandable that there is across South Africa a general sense of negativity and malaise.

Given the many challenges, the question then is whether 30 years can be considered sufficient to completely - or even moderately - eradicate the enduring impact of apartheid colonialism.

By apartheid colonialism, this article refers to the more than three centuries of the colonial period and the immediate half a century of the post-colonial period of apartheid.

Ministers Zulu and Chikunga in 2023 experienced extensive public scorn when they blamed the apartheid past for fires that engulfed an old building in Johannesburg, killing more 70 people; and also with respect to the current inadequacies in the national rail network.

The question arises as to whether these attacks were justified, and whether it is considered imprudent to refer to apartheid in explaining the current developmental challenges confronting the country.

In the opening paragraphs, I mentioned that after many decades, the Chinese and Vietnamese still make authoritative reference to historical injustices to explain their current developmental course. Is it inaccurate for South Africans to refer to apartheid colonialism to elucidate the developmental challenges of the country?

Colonialism and apartheid are the two major interrelated forces that shaped the nature of the South African society and the economy. The loss of ancestral lands was one of the most significant impacts of colonialism. European colonisers forcefully dispossessed black people of their land and directed them into reserves known as Bantustans.

This severely impacted on their way of life, as these were largely agrarian societies, relying heavily on their land for subsistence. These forced moves meant that they could no longer practise their traditional agricultural practices, which resulted in food insecurity and poverty.

Apartheid was a social engineering policy that deeply institutionalised racism and revolved around land. Between 1960 and 1980, more than 3.5 million black South Africans were removed from the city centres to black townships, where home ownership was effectively not possible.

The areas from which black people were moved were designated “whites only” areas. The black townships became extremely overcrowded and were distinctly cut off from infrastructure, urban utilities, and services such as water and electricity, leaving people to fend for themselves. Black townships on the outskirts of city centres were socially and economically engineered by apartheid as a pool for cheap black labour to sustain the white urban economy, while the education system for black people was designed to produce black labourers in the production value chain.

Apartheid colonialism had far-reaching consequences, with South Africans living separately and in grossly unequal circumstances. The magnitude of the disparities that emanated from apartheid colonialism are deeply concerning.

If after more than 150 years the United States remains far from addressing the impact of slavery, and after many decades the Chinese and Vietnamese have not been able to fully address the impact of colonialism and civil war, the question then arises as to what a plausible timeframe might be for realising the moderate elimination of the impact of apartheid colonialism in South Africa.

In the context of extensive human suffering and spatial injustice caused by the more than 350 years of apartheid colonialism, it would seem unlikely that a mere 30 years is enough time.

The two key planning policy documents since 1994, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the 2030 National Development Plan, expressly acknowledge that addressing the extensive socio-economic impact of apartheid colonialism is not an event, not even a short journey, but rather a long haul.

Taking cognisance of the scale of damage caused by apartheid colonialism, it is a fact that it will take the country many generations to eradicate its impact. Now, 30 years into democracy, the question is whether the development journey of the past 30 years gives hope to a significant proportion of South Africans that the country is moving in the right direction in seeking to address the legacy of apartheid colonialism.

This is a politically sensitive question, obviously susceptible to political grandstanding, populism, and ideological sentiments.

The two most recent comprehensive Censuses (2011 and 2022) and the National Development Plan Ten Year Review (2012 to 2022) serve as significant tools to enable the country to track its developmental progress.

Census 2011 was the third census conducted 15 years after the first democratic elections; the highlights included significant growth in population and number of households with access to running water and electricity, millions more people were in employment, there was an increase in the number of people with secondary education, those who had completed Grade 12 and those with post-matric training, and an increase in the life expectancy, despite the ravaging impact of HIV and its initial poor handling by government.

Census 2022 depicts similar trends, an inflection in a positive direction, about 90% of households live in formal dwellings, access to piped water at 82.4%, electricity at 94.7%, use of flushing toilets at 70.8%, and where those with access to the internet has more than doubled.

Within Africa, South Africa has the highest share of the population with access to safely managed drinking water, and the highest share of households with adequate sanitation and connection to the electricity grid. All of these major strides are due to the transformative efforts of the democratic government.

However, this journey has not been linear and not without difficulties, setbacks, and mishaps. One such continuing setback, for example, is the intolerable scale of corruption that has hollowed out state-owned enterprises, and eroded the capacity of the state. This starkly demonstrates that South Africa is not a miraculous case immune to the ills of post-colonial societies.

The NDP Ten Year Review (2012 to 2022) of the National Planning Commission notes that the economy is not inclusive of all South Africans, due to, amongst many other factors, the economic, social, and spatial legacies of apartheid.

The report further states that there are important achievements that have been realised and significant progress made on key aspects of the NDP policy, goals and projections such as education, health, social protection, and the social wage.

Without embarking on statistical therapy, these figures expose the weak foundation of the negative narrative about the 30-year journey thus far to create a better life for all. The ongoing negative narrative on developmental progress in South Africa is premised on deliberate distortions and misremembering of the past, and is often driven by political expediency.

The past 30 years has marked a period of significant progress as well as setbacks on the developmental trajectory of the country. What is certain, however, is that 30 years can never be enough to eradicate the destructive impact of apartheid colonialism.

The 350 years of apartheid colonialism continue to shape the socio-economic landscape of South Africa and will take many more decades to eradicate its impact. How many more decades it will take should not be a matter of conjecture; but a determination that is an outcome of a meaningful engagement which should take place across party lines.

This will include reminding ourselves and our children about the miseries and brutalities of the past.

By this, this article is not suggesting that the only truths on the development challenges confronting the country can only be found in the apartheid graveyards, but that simultaneously there are also valuable truths to be found in the 30-year journey since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

Dr. Zamani Saul is the Northern Cape ANC Provincial Chairperson