SOUTH AFRICA

Political Economy of Race and Class of South Africa

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Abstract

The shared government of South Africa is an experiment noteworthy of all people because of the many challenges faced between the majority native black Africans and the former white ruling class. The paper explores the status of post- apartheid, in relation to the native Africans and the colonial Afrikaners sharing rule of government and the relationship on a global scale.

Political Economy of Race and Class of South Africa

Introduction

South Africa has appeared from a ruthless history of apartheid and colonialism into an epoch typified by a Constitutional government and democratically elected with a Bill of Rights that forbidden bias on the basis of ethnicity, religion, gender, race, and color. Apartheid refers to a formal system of racial subjugation, repression and segregation that discriminated its people. Hence, it was opposed by the United Nations and viewed as an offense against humanity.

Since transitional era of South Africa, a new constitution was introduced in 1994, and the Republic of South Africa is emerged as a sovereign, democratic state established on the subsequent principles:

Dignity of human - realization and attainment of equality, and the progression of human liberty and rights

Non-sexism and non-racialism

Supremacy of the rule of law and constitution, and

Widespread suffrage of adult, a nationwide common roll of voters, regular elections and a democratic government's multi-party system, to guarantee openness, responsiveness and accountability.

Geography of South Africa

South Africa covers the south end of Africa, its extensive coastline occupying over 2,500 km from the border of the desert with Namibia on the coastline Atlantic, south, near the border of Africa and then north to the frontier with subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean

The lowland coastal region is narrow through much of that distance, soon leads to a mountainous escarpment which divides it from the towering inland plateau. In certain places, particularly in the KwaZulu-Natal province in the east, a greater distance detaches the shore from the escarpment.

Size and Provinces

South Africa covers a total land area over 1.2 million sq. km, and is a medium-sized country while making it approximately the same size as Colombia, Mali, Angola and Niger. With comparison to United States, it is one-eight; whereas, doubled to the size of France and more than thrice the size of Germany. South Africa measures around 1600 km from east to west, and approximately same from north to south (Meisel, 1994, pp. 8-60).

South Africa has nine provinces that differ significantly in size. The crowded and the smallest is Gauteng, while Northern Cape is highly urbanized region with the arid, vast and largest area that takes up roughly a third of the total land area of South Africa.

Pre-Apartheid History

History of South Africa

Background Information

South Africa is a country of diverse ethnic groups, and the divergence between these ethnic groups has dominated the history of the country. For about thousands of years, the natives to South Africa are the Khoisan who has lived there, although the greater part of the population includes the offspring of ...