Analysis of the Riot in South Africa

Introduction

A few days ago, on 15th April, 2015, a terrified riot aimed at foreign residents happened in South Africa. For years, South Africa was named by its multi-racial environment and well-developed in economics. It is also called rainbow country. However, the whole riot is not happening suddenly and unreasonably. This essay is going to analyze the reasons that South Africa can become the second largest economy[1] in Africa and also the reasons why there are such problem happened in South Africa. Finally a conclusion will be drawn.

Become the First Class in Africa

Once upon the time, South Africa was one of the British colonies. Like many other colonies, British warlords not only brought humiliation but also great opportunities of industrialization. After the year 1866, gold mines and diamond mines were found in South Africa. Gold and diamond became the main export products and brought great amount of wealth to South Africa. Besides, after the establishing of the Republic of South Africa, the development in manufacturer, especially steel-making, led to huge economic growth to the country. The whole manufacturer industry made 16% of the nominal GDP in 2008. Unlike Venezuela, other industries like agriculture, fishery and service industry are also well-developed in South Africa compared with other African countries. Multi-race, especially the high percentage of white residents plays the very important role of the economic development of South Africa rather than other African countries.

Problems of South Africa

However, behind the great success, problems in South Africa are even more serious.

First and the most important problem is the high unemployment rate. In 2010 the official number was 24.2% which means based on the official statistical office there were 24.2% of labors could not find jobs in labor market. Actually the official number just counted those who were willing to work but not those who had already given up finding a job. In fact, there were only 41% of the whole population in labor age that were working in 2010. The cheerful social welfare for unemployed people even encouraged people not to work, which also made government’s burden heavier.

Secondly, the great distinguish between black people and others also aggravates the hate in normal people’s heart. Even if Nelson Mandala pushed very hard on the equality between black and white, in deep side of people’s mind blacks are still poor,dirty and uncivilized. In South Africa, 53.8% of people were under the poverty line and the Gini coefficient was 0.62 in 2011. The majority of those poor people are black. And they are also the majority of the riot happened recently.

Thirdly, in South Africa, illegal immigration is also very serious, especially in contraction,tourism and housing service industry. Because the salary of those illegal immigration are generally lower than local people. This makes the employment opportunities even fewer than before. Although the immigration policy have been more and stricter since 1994, there are supply and demand, then there are market. Local residents hate rich people but hate foreigners even more.

Forth is about the labor union. The labor union in South Africa asked that the growth rate of wage should be greater than inflation rate which is around 5%. They usually hold big campaigns and strikes. Finally government rose the growth rate of wages to 7.5%but only the members of labor union can enjoy newest salary. Those nonmember people are usually farmers and fishers who are all local residents. So the gap of income level between the each industry amplifies as time passes by, so does the unsatisfactory inside poor people’s mind.

Conclusion

Every time a riot or a campaign happens, there must be some reasons behind it and these reasons are usually not made by the people but the government. Governments tend to blame on the chaos made by people and regard them as criminals. But try to imagine who would like to go on the street fight against a well-organized government rather than stay at home enjoy their happy life. The people are just sometimes irrational so that they think violence is the only way to solve the problem and force the government to become well-organized enough so that they can have happy life. If government cannot see through it and try to solve the problem,then the problem is always problem and violence will happen once and once again.Now what South African government should do is to figure out a way to decrease the unemployment rate instead of just making statement of strongly denunciation of the criminal.

Reference

1.http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=aGnjEFXV401K0WBzibJcvd0WtuBhnogj-csZc-cRN6006GbFKFnT6vXsqoYtIEPrtJPGPmhghieiE-ikM1ccwLPzGbAgptTHEFEdf0x3Dy2AzRFVdd1Dei-Dsb7wzWFQ#10_1

2.http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-04/04/c_1110108153.htm

3.http://data.worldbank.org/country/south-africa

4.http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8D%97%E9%9D%9E%E6%8E%92%E5%A4%96%E9%AA%9A%E4%B9%B1?fr=aladdin

[1]The first one was South Africa before 2014. Now it is Nigeria. But lots of scholar still regard South Africa as the most successful economy in Africa because per capital GDP of Nigeria is lower than South Africa.