This is a country where the official segregation policy (apartheid) was ruthlessly practiced for decades, despite global criticism and pressure, and the great public movement led by legendary leader Nelson Mandela. Even though it has been over 15 years since the apartheid regime was ended, there are lingering traces of this shameful policy that legalized and institutionalized white supremacy. In order to make this bitter determination, it was enough to smell the prevalent and intense air of segregation in Cape Town -- the most developed city in South Africa with a population of more than 5 million and a white majority.
The city, which resembles a paradise on Earth, is divided de facto into districts. The apartheid, officially abrogated by Mandela when he took office, still continues with all of its implications in this country where people used to be discriminated against and defined as white, coloured, Asian and black. Despite governmental power being held by blacks, whites have all kinds of social, economic and political privileges and advantages. While the business world runs under the hegemony of white imports coming from foreign white labor (on the pretext that there is a lack of qualified domestic labor power), tens of thousands of black university graduates have difficulty finding a job.
One of the results of Mandela’s struggle was the dismantling of apartheid and the removal of international sanctions. With this change, the South African economy rapidly developed. However the properties that gained value after apartheid were still held by whites and much of the wealth stemming from development is still flowing into their accounts. As the already-rich whites grow richer (thanks to the work of a black administration that reopened the gates of South Africa to the world), the majority of blacks still suffer misery and poverty.
As whites continue to enjoy high living standards complete with the kinds of possibilities and comforts that could be found in the US or developed European cities, the black people can only get such jobs as servants and cleaners, which the whites won’t lower themselves to take. Furthermore the money they make from these difficult jobs only allows them to afford homes in slums full of tin houses with neither running water nor electricity. The blacks, who live far from the comforts of the whites, drag out a wretched existence deprived of all sorts of social security. With the black population suffering under the scourge of the AIDS virus and other contagious diseases, the average life expectancy is on par with the poorest of African countries. Meanwhile, the whites live long and prosperous lives according to European standards.
This great social gap between the blacks and whites produces anarchism and an upsurge in crime rates among a black population writhing in poverty and harboring hatred against the whites. It is for this reason that South Africa is one of the most unsafe places in the world today. It is probably not possible anywhere else to come across signs reading, “Beware of receiving an armed response,” unexceptionally displayed against theft or seizure outside the villa-type homes in the white or hybrid neighborhoods.
This country, where admittance to certain places is still discretionally decided by businesses, is one of the most unfortunate examples of legal regulations being unable to bring equality or justice to a society. It is truly distressing to see that there is not one iota of practical black-white equality in the European-standard streets of this country, despite the end of apartheid and legalized equality.
A group of colleagues and I had a change to speak about a wide range of topics with the black editor of South Africa’s “Business Day and The Weekender,” Mzimkulu Malunga. What he told us verified the observations we had made about South Africa. The most crucial point made by Malunga was that these inequalities and injustices continue even with blacks in power. Although we may not consider this to be quite the same in our country, Malunga’s points reminded us of Turkey. I wonder why...
However, as in the entire world, the people of South Africa are also aware of the recent developments that occurred in Turkey. Therefore they are really curious about what has really been happening in Turkey. When we came together, Malunga inquired what was happening. We answered him as much as it was possible. What particularly attracted Malunga’s attention was that the current system in Turkey approached people from the certain segments of the society, whether they be the prime minister or a minister, discriminatorily.
Malunga was bewildered to find out that headscarf-wearing students are not accepted to universities in our country, the headscarf-wearing wives of the prime ministers and ministers cannot enter the presidential palace or any public place, and a certain segment of the society is always viewed with a suspicion and stances are adopted against them according to those suspicions, and finally that the recent presidential election crisis stemmed from the lifestyle of a minister and from his headscarf-wearing wife.
We had difficulty objecting to Malunga’s words: “It turned out that I did not tell you about the segregation in my country in vain, since you also suffer from similar problems in your own country. The problems of South Africa are actually not too different from the ones in your country.”
What can we say; those who damage modernism and democracy with their inhumane attitudes in this beautiful country, where people have no other goal but living freely and justly, and those who try to perpetuate this at the cost of sacrificing all the democratic values should be ashamed!
