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Apartheid Policies in South Africa

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of South Africa's apartheid policies on the blacks in that nation. The word "apartheid" means "apartness" and the policy is intended to provide separate development for the four different races that currently reside in South Africa, namely whites, blacks, Indians and those of mixed racial background. However, the concept of apartheid has been utilized by the white minority in South Africa as a political means for maintaining dominance and control over

the other races. Because of apartheid, South Africa is the only nation in the world today where racist policies are part of the legal system and where skin color "irrevocably determines the place of a category of nationals in the social hierarchy" (Cornevin 11).

The system of apartheid is enforced by the white minority through the use of largely oppressive tactics. All decisions pertaining to the lives of South African blacks are made by the members of an all-white parliament (Ngcokovane 20). The system of apartheid has enabled the whites of South Africa, who are a small minority there, to obtain a huge majority of the nation's income and lands (Boesak 5). Apartheid has required that all blacks in South Africa be classified according to race and that they carry documentation at all times. Most South African blacks have been segregated to Bantustans, or "homelands," where there are hardly any usable resources for maintaining self-sufficiency. For this reason, virtually all South African blacks must seek employment among the white population, thereby furthering their economic and social dependence. Among the serious problems that this process has caused for blacks in South Africa is an infant mortality rate estimated as being as much as five times higher in the Bantustans than anywhere else in the country (Siddiqui 6).

The effects of apartheid are felt throughout South Africa. Post offices, government buildings, liquor stores, lib...

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Apartheid Policies in South Africa. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:36, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686746.html