Thirty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa is looking back on a democratic but deeply divided society. Political divisions have fueled a growing disappointment with Nelson Mandela’s liberation party, the ANC.

As a newly democratic country, South Africa got off to a euphoric start with its first free elections in 1994.

People queued up for hours to cast their votes, full of hope, optimism and joy. That positive spirit continued as Nelson Mandela was elected president after spending 27 years in prison.

The African National Congress (ANC), Mandela’s political party and former anti-apartheid movement, came into power, ending not only white minority rule but centuries of colonialist mentality. It’s still in power today.

However, looking back on the past 30 years, the assessment on the state of Mandela’s “rainbow nation” is sober: The economy in the Cape of Good Hope is ailing, society is still divided along racial lines and people feel their politicians don’t understand them.

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has kept growing — despite the fact that the ANC made the issue a central concern when it came to power in 1994. Frustration over these shattered dreams runs deep.

  • juicy@lemmy.today
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    6 months ago

    You’re holding on to that strawman so tight your knuckles are turning white.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      What point are you making then?

      [Video about south Africans white and black being victims of violent crime]

      You said you have no sympathy for white south Africans.

      That’s just an outright racist statement. Whatever happens to any white South African, what they deserve it? It doesn’t matter? They had it coming? I want to know. Then you try to back up your racism with stats about poor funding from a black majority government

      I’m asking you what your views are. It seems obviously to me your racist.

      Some 3 year old baby gets shot and slowly bleeds to death. You don’t care? Would you say that’s good?

      I have no sympathy for white South Africans

      It seems clear to me you don’t care what happens to any white south African because (and only because) they are white. That couldn’t be more racist.

      • juicy@lemmy.today
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        6 months ago

        My point is that it’s racist to focus on the plight of white people in a country where by any objective statistical standard white people are far better off than the rest of the country and are just a tiny minority. It’s like stepping over people bleeding out to put a bandaid on scraped knee.

        The white people in South Africa should have paid huge reparations. They got off easy, and now want us to feel sorry for them because they are experiencing some of the strife and violence that is the direct result of apartheid. They are like a physically abusive parent seeking sympathy when their adult children are openly hostile and struggling with mental health from the childhood abuse.

        • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Think that video talk about everyone. The only person talking specifically about white people is you. In which you seem to be saying fuck them they all deserve it because they are white.