Transcription
[Music] Welcome to a new episode of With Open Cards. In South Africa, the parliament building in Cape Town was severely damaged by a fire in January 2022. In the symbolic Victorian building, South Africa's last white president, Frederik de Klerk, announced the end of apartheid in February 1990. South Africa is still struggling with the scars of the past in the 21st century: great ethnic and social inequality, corruption at the highest political levels. The country has not become the exemplary land for the continent that many had expected. Archbishop, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu called his country the Rainbow Nation. However, the country has not yet found peace. The Republic of South Africa lies in the extreme south of Africa and borders the Indian Ocean to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its neighboring countries are Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, as well as Lesotho, an enclave within South Africa. The country is 1,223,000 square kilometers in size and had about 60 million inhabitants in 2021. The seat of government is Pretoria, the two chambers of parliament meet in Cape Town, and the Supreme Court of Appeal is in Bloemfontein. South Africa took a long time to achieve its independence. Let's take a look at its history. From the 8th century onwards, Khoisan people settled in the area. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established a supply station in present-day Cape Town, where French Huguenots and slaves from Asia and Southern Africa soon lived. In 1814, Great Britain conquered the colony, and in 1833, it abolished slavery. This was unacceptable to the descendants of the European settlers, the Boers, whose economy depended on slaves. They decided to leave the area and moved northeast in the Great Trek. This led to conflicts with the indigenous Khoisan people and the British. Finally, the Boers founded two independent republics: the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Later, there were further conflicts with Great Britain over these territories, especially after the discovery of gold. These conflicts between 1880 and 1902 went down in history as the Boer Wars. In 1910, victorious Great Britain formed the Union of South Africa from the Cape Colony and Natal, as well as the two Boer republics. Descendants of European settlers, the whites who called themselves Afrikaners, now enacted laws of racial segregation. In 1948, the ruling National Party defined apartheid, a division of the population into four groups: whites, blacks, Asians, and coloreds. Five million people were driven from rural areas into reserves and from the cities into poor housing in the townships on the outskirts of the city. In addition, there was a requirement to carry identification for stays in white areas, strict separation between whites and non-whites in everyday life, a ban on sexual contact between the so-called races, and on mixed marriages. In 1970, the country, now renamed the Republic of South Africa, transformed the reserves into "homelands" called "Bantustans," in which people effectively lost their South African citizenship rights. In 1976, unrest broke out in the southwestern suburb of Johannesburg, which spread throughout the country and was supported by the ANC, the African National Congress. From the 1980s onwards, protests were also supported by other countries. However, apartheid was only abolished in 1991. In the first elections without racial segregation, in 1994, the ANC won, and Nelson Mandela was elected president. A revolution. The ANC has been in power ever since. Since 2008, represented by President Zuma, South Africa has been divided into nine provinces. In 2019, 80% of the population were black, 9% colored, 8.5% white, and 2.5% Asian. This ethnic and cultural diversity gave the country its nickname, the Rainbow Nation, a term coined by Desmond Tutu. The concept of the Rainbow Nation is now famous, but even in 2022, South African society is still marked by the scars of racial segregation. The inequality is all the more unbearable as the country possesses numerous natural resources. Agriculture, whose yields are sufficient for the country's self-sufficiency, accounts for 5% of the gross domestic product. In 2020, despite the pandemic, it accounted for 13% of exports. The diversity of the country allows for diversified agriculture: large cattle-raising areas, intensive grain cultivation, wine and tomatoes in the Mediterranean climate region, sugarcane, pineapples, and bananas in the tropical climate zone. However, white farmers primarily benefit from the agricultural sector. The country is also rich in mineral resources. Mining accounts for 8.3% of GDP. In 2009/10, South Africa was the largest producer of gold, platinum, chromium, and manganese, as well as the fifth-largest producer of diamonds. And as the world's largest producer of coal, it remains 80% dependent on fossil fuels and has Africa's largest CO2 emissions. South Africa is also the continent's country with the largest industrial sector. It accounts for 26% of economic output and employs a quarter of the working population. The most important sectors are petroleum, chemicals, metal and wood processing, and automotive manufacturing. In addition, South Africa has a well-developed transport network, a legacy of the colonial era. The railway network connects the country with the rest of Southern Africa, and numerous ports connect it with the rest of the world. However, the service sector is the driving force of the economy. It accounts for 61% of GDP and employs 72% of the working population. The companies are mainly located in three large urban agglomerations. In contrast, the former homelands are poorly connected to the transport network and benefit little from economic dynamism. Tourism has also increased significantly in recent decades, and South Africa is the second most popular tourist destination in Africa after Morocco and on par with Egypt. Particularly popular with tourists are the beaches, natural landscapes, and national parks. Estimates suggest that the industry accounted for between three and eight percent of gross domestic product before the Corona pandemic, with 700,000 jobs. In 2020, tourism practically came to a standstill due to the pandemic. South Africa thus has numerous advantages, but since 2013, it is no longer the largest economy in Africa. It has since been overtaken by Nigeria, and Egypt is close behind. Several factors are responsible for this decline. The country has been in a severe economic crisis since the late 2000s. Foreign investors have lost confidence after numerous corruption cases and financial scandals surrounding former President Jacob Zuma. Public debt has risen sharply since 2008/10, and the pandemic has further exacerbated the recession. Unemployment reached a record high of 34.9% in the third quarter of 2021, and among black people, it is even 57%. With the end of apartheid, inequality did not disappear. In 2009/10, whites earned on average three times as much as blacks, and about 75% of black families lived below the poverty line. This inequality also affects healthcare. In 2017, only 10% of black people had access to medical care, compared to 72% of white people. In such a precarious social and economic environment, the crime and murder rates remain very high. Nevertheless, the ANC continues to have significant influence in Africa and beyond. After the abolition of apartheid, South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth and the UN, and in 2002, the African Union was founded in Durban. South Africa acts as a mediator in several conflicts in Africa. Thanks to its economic power and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, it is the only African country to belong to bodies like the G20 and the BRICS states. China is particularly interested in South Africa. Since 2009, it has been South Africa's most important trading partner, ahead of the former colonial powers France and Great Britain, and the USA. In 2021, South Africa received the most Chinese direct investments. South Africa, once perceived as the driving force of the continent, is still struggling with the scars of the past: social and ethnic inequality, violence, and corruption. In January 2022, the commission investigating corruption concluded that under President Jacob Zuma, a "state capture" had taken place. It uncovered systematic collusion between the executive and the private sector, particularly with an industrial family of Indian descent, the famous Guptas. For today's topic, we recommend "South Africa: History and Present" by Christoph Marx, a book about a country considered the cradle of humanity, published by Kohlhammer. And it is Maria Frick who is responsible for the "Sünde die so Regina Niveau von Genolier," published by Tallone. This concludes our broadcast for today. We will see you again next week at the same place and at the same time. Until then, you can find us and our geopolitical aspects on arte.tv. See you soon. [Music] [Music]