John Leiner
3/25/14
Period 4
A Laissez Faire South Africa
South Africa has a golden opportunity to become a strong, thriving democracy. With the end of apartheid, there are many questions about how South Africa should move forward. It is one thing to create a future in which a system such as apartheid will never be able to flourish, but to fix the devastating history of apartheid is another. In order that South Africa move forward in the direction of a promising future, it must understand that it’s past is unalterable. It must understand that simply changing the structure of the past, such as the legislation that made it possible, will only negatively impact the future, as it will upset many people. Any abrupt change will have a negative affect—we mustn’t interfere. The best solution for South Africa is to let everything play out on its own.
We cannot bring anymore change to South Africa than the change that it will experience naturally. A new governing body will be in place, as well as a new pool of voters. Politically, there is much uncertainty. With the new freedoms granted to black South Africans, the social scene will change dramatically. With jobs being granted to those that were previously jobless, South Africa will be changed economically, in addition to what economic changes come as a result of the new government. There is a lot of rebuilding that South Africa must do before the provisional government that is in place takes significant action.
Tied to the onset of apartheid was the legislation that made it possible in the first place. The laws that were implemented, though discriminatory, created structure in South Africa. People lived in accordance with those laws for almost fifty years. The laws shaped the way that people lived, often where they lived and whom they lived with. For nearly half a generation South Africans lived a certain way, and simply undoing the actions and legislation of apartheid will have a negative impact on the lives of the South African people. The lives of South Africans would be changed abruptly and dramatically, and citizens would become very angry with the government, one that they are not familiar with in the first place. It is necessary for South Africans to become comfortable with the provisional government before any significant change.
Besides the political changes are the social changes that have come as a result of the end of