The Effects of COVID-19 are Deepening Inequality in South Africa
Molly Whittington, Online Staff Writer
April 10, 2021
View from Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa. Romain Pontida.
Over twenty-five years have passed since the segregation laws of apartheid in South Africa have been abolished, but the inequality remains. The country has a massive disparity in wealth distribution, unequal access to public services, and imbalanced political power. The pandemic has only reinforced the severity of these inequalities.
Apartheid translates to "apartness" in Afrikaans. The system of enforced segregation was instigated in 1948, with the passing of multiple acts that enforced the separation of Black and White people within South Africa. The government of South Africa also strengthened “pass” laws, which required non-white people to carry documents authorizing their presence in areas restricted to White access only. Racial segregation existed in South Africa long before apartheid. The 1913 Land Act forced Black South Africans to live in reserves, renamed as townships. After the National Party's election in 1948, the government began enforcing racial segregation and engraining racist policies into law. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 mandated segregation of living areas and left only a small percentage of South Africa for Black citizens to form 'homelands'. Government forces Forcefully moved many Black citizens out of cities and into undeveloped townships, where they had to rent land and were far from their places of work. Many Black South Africans still live in these townships.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequality in every aspect of daily life. As of March 20th, 2021, there have been over one and a half million COVID cases and over fifty-thousand deaths in South Africa. The overwhelming majority of these cases and deaths have been in the low-income, high-density communities, populated mostly by Black citizens. As stated by Helen Schneider, professor of public health at the University of the Western Cape, "this is a disease of inequality. When you're living among gang warfare, and you're facing insecurity and poverty, you're not necessarily going to put social distancing high on your list of priorities."
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), South Africa "suffers among the highest levels of inequality in the world when measured by the commonly used Gini index", which measures the distribution of wealth in a country in comparison to a completely equal distribution. The IMF defines inequality as "skewed income distribution, unequal access to opportunities, and regional disparities". Before the pandemic began, in 2018, a World Bank report found that South Africans who were disadvantaged from Apartheid policies had fewer skills and assets, earned lower wages, and were more likely to be unemployed than South Africans who were not disadvantaged. Economic and political decisions made during apartheid have enduring effects on inequality and have not yet been addressed.
Apartheid was initially repealed in 1990 by the government of President F.W. de Klerk. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1994 and was elected President after a lifetime of fighting for equality. South Africa has been a democratic country since 1994, but structural issues are still heavily influenced by apartheid policies.
The policies around education are one of the most telling examples. On March 10th, 2021, students in Johannesburg took to the streets to demand that the University of the Witwatersrand allow enrollment for students who owe money to the institution. Many South African students are part of a group known colloquially as the "missing middle", students who do not qualify for financial aid but cannot afford tuition without it. A large majority of this "missing middle" are Black students. These policies are set-up to perpetuate generational inequality in education, which is essential in the fight against inequality. Amnesty International condemned the country's education system, stating, "South Africa has an unequal school system. Children in the top 200 schools achieve more distinctions in mathematics than children in the next 6,600 schools combined. The playing field must be levelled." COVID-19 has only exacerbated education issues.There remains a disparity between internet access from home in urban areas compared to rural areas. 17.3% of households in urban areas had access to the internet, while less than 2% of rural households had this access. The wealthy can continue receiving their education or working at their jobs. While the poor are left unemployed, unable to continue their education, and unable to distance themselves from one another due to overcrowding in the townships. Within South Africa, the wealth is still dominated by the White demographic, while the Black majority are still confined to poor conditions, lower incomes and unequal human rights.
South Africa has made great strides towards equality in the thirty years since apartheid was abolished. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has only proven that there is much more work to be done at the structural and institutional levels to ensure that all South Africans have access to public amenities regarding health and education.