This is why is South Africa very different and highly developed compared to other nations in Africa?

 

The short and not PC answer is: South Africa (SA) was colonised by the Dutch (with French Huguenots) for 150 years since 1652 who expanded and built the country to the size of the current Western & Northern Cape provinces, afterwhich the country was ruled & colonised by the British since 1806 for another 150 years, expanding up to the current size, bordering Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland & Mozambique.

Many of the Dutch & French descendants, by now called Afrikaners, did not like living under British rule and left the Western Cape area in 1836 to move with wagons and all their belongings (known as “The Great Trek”) and after some battles, treaties & bartering with African tribes established their own free Republics, namely Orange Free State, the Transvaal & Natalia. This only lasted a few years (1 to 2 generations) before war broke out with Britain and the area was consolidated under British rule. This coincided with the discovery of GOLD & DIAMONDS, which caused typical Victorian era gold & diamond rushes, drawing people from all over the world.

The British gave SA a blueprint of a modern society based on their own and SA experienced rapid modernisation & industrialization after the end of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War; from around 1905 onwards up to around 1990 (a period of huge infrastructure expansion).

From 1948 - 1994 (less than 50 years) SA was governed in most part by Afrikaner (descendants of pre-British era European, mostly Dutch, immigrants) led government, who continued building on the BRITISH MODEL, however our society was still segregated between races (kept apart except for working together = apartheid) and the black cultural groups had the least rights and could only fully VOTE in their traditional Tribal areas called semi-independent HOMELANDS.

Under British rule black & “coloured” people could only vote in 1 of 4 provinces, namely CAPE-province, but there were very few black people living in this province at the time. This system of governing on the basis of race segregation, was known as “Apartheid”. Had SA given voting right to all races in 1910, black people would have ruled the country in all the provinces except the Western Cape and the chances are SA would have been in a much poorer state today, as are it’s neighbours Angola, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique and almost all of sub-Sahara Africa. The “Apartheid-system” caused economic growth, but it also caused major civil unrest & international sanctions until SA’s first real DEMOCRATIC elections in 1994 which was won by the majority black ANC party and who has been in power for the past 26 years.

The ANC could have spent the billions of their fiscal income alot better to raise the plight of the poor eg. by prioritising EDUCATION, HOSPITALS, HOUSING & JOB CREATION in stead of wasting & mismanaging billions of Rands.

However the ANC has succeeded to create a more equal society, fairly or unfairly through BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) and have also made SA a haven for millions of foreign nationals from other African countries seeking a better future, especially Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Somalia, DRC (Congo) & Nigeria.

Also important to acknowledge: The Dutch brought Malay slaves to the Western Cape in the 1600’s and the British brought Indian indentured labourers to todays province of KwaZulu-Natal in the 1800’s. Both groups have contributed tremendously to build the SA economy.

SA also has large populations of Portuguese, Jewish, German, Greek, Italian, Lebanese & Eastern European nations who moved to SA during mostly times of crisis in their own original countries or colonies.

South Africa has had many cultural influences over the years as one can see, African, European & Asian, with many periods of conflict & upheaval, but generally our diversity is also our strength and that is why in summary SA is different and more developed than other nations in Africa.

Our basic society model is still British, which has made for a mixed society of very wealthy minority (of all races), a growing middle class (of all races) and a mass of poor, mostly African people, which unfortunately makes unskilled labour very low earning (cheap). The challenge of our collective future is to reduce the poverty gap and uplift the millions who are still poor.