South Africa

[nrupatunga]

Its been around 20 years now that apartheid has been removed and "natives" have been given power. South african society has seen various changes over two decades. A look at the south african society thorugh some articles.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All-white town fights to preserve segregation in Mandela's 'Rainbow Nation'

An all-white enclave less than an hour from South Africa's capital is fighting to hold on to a segregated life reminiscent of the country before Nelson Mandela toppled the apartheid regime.
"We feel that our culture is being threatened and we want to protect it and we want to nurture it," said Marisa Haasbroek, a writer and mother who serves as voluntary spokeswoman for a gated community called Kleinfontein. A bust of Henrik Verwoerd, who is credited as the father of apartheid, sits near the entrance to Kleinfontein.

Before moving to the town of some 1,000 residents, applicants must embrace the community's "core values," which are about being a Protestant Christian, an Afrikaner – the group descended from Dutch settlers – and speaking Dutch-based Afrikaans. No non-whites or Jews live or work within its boundaries.
Less than 25 years after the end of the apartheid regime run by white Afrikaners, Haasbroek said their specific identity was under threat.
"My son is the tenth generation with the Haasbroek name in South Africa," she said. "We are not colonists. We have been here for generations and generations building up the roads, making the infrastructure." "And suddenly we don't feel welcome anymore," she added.

A sense of crisis pervades any conversation about the future. In the event of the death of Mandela -- who made a point of reaching out to the white community and indeed appointed an Afrikaner as his personal secretary -- things were likely to get worse, residents said.
"(Mandela) reached out but I don't think his followers or the people who came after have the same spirit," Haasbroek said. "That's why people are worried."
And if Afrikaners' rights aren't protected, the children of a community that South African President Jacob Zuma calls Africa's "only white tribe" will disappear, she said.
"I don't think they'll have a future here. Will they have jobs?" Haasbroek said of her children. "Afrikaners are getting poorer and poorer. I can pack up my things and do what my sister did and go to Australia."
"My husband's an engineer, he can get a job anywhere," she added. "But what about my people?"

 

[nrupatunga]

Mandela's visible legacy: South Africa's interracial couples no longer need to hide

South African couple Thithi Nteta and Dylan Lloyd have different accounts of how they met and fell in love. "We were friends for about a year," said Nteta, a 28-year-old stylist. "I like to say that I was courting her for about a year," said Lloyd, 38.

One thing they agree on is that neither considered the other's race before deciding to become involved - even though Nteta is black and Lloyd white and they live in South Africa, a country still healing the wounds caused by apartheid.
Twenty-five years ago, strict laws against relationships between whites and so-called non-whites would have made their love illegal.During the apartheid era, homes of couples discovered to be breaking the laws were raided, and their bed sheets often checked and removed in case they needed to be used in court to prove illicit relations.

The ban on mixed marriage, designed to enforce total racial segregation, was ended in 1985 - one of the early reforms that signaled the end of white minority rule, culminating in the release of democracy icon Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison.
When he was elected president in 1994, Mandela declared: "We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity -- a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."

While a growing number of mixed-race couples are seen in thriving cities, they tend to be members of an upwardly mobile elite. Almost half of all South Africans rarely or ever speak to someone from a different race, according to a recent study by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, never mind try to ask them out on a date. One quarter of all South Africans believe the biggest divisions in society stem from income inequality, according to the study. Only 13 percent thought race was the most important division.

 

[nrupatunga]

South Africans fret about post-Mandela civil strife

Father Sebastian Rossouw recalled that before the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela many South Africans were afraid that different communities would settle scores after decades of apartheid rule. South Africa has a history of tensions and clashes between different ethnic groups and between whites and blacks. Mandela is seen as a conciliating figure and there are worries that once he's gone, violence will erupt once again.

"There is no doubt that the Mandela magic has been very important in bringing together an otherwise very divided society and there may be a moment of real concern were he to pass on," said Lawrence Hamilton, a professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg.

Peter-Paul Ngwenya, a former political prisoner who has worked with Mandela, agreed that the government needed to address fears about South Africa post-Mandela, although he did not believe there was a serious risk of violence.
"I think we must start preparing ourselves for what some people used to call WAM – What After Mandela," he said. "Through Mandela the ANC created this wonderful democracy we have. They need to assure as that we will never betray Mandela's legacy."