This study investigated whether democratic South Africa
embraces democratic principles to respond to domestic problems or is merely an
extension of colonial and apartheid states in implementing the same brutal
means to address the challenges it faces. In contrast to the colonial and
apartheid policies which resolved challenges through violence carried out by
police, army, imprisonment, exile, or banishment from the country against
protesters who demanded democratic rights, democratic states are expected to
use democratic means such as engagement, negotiation, discussion, persuasion,
and participation. This is a qualitative study that used secondary data
extracted through the desktop. The
reviews of journal articles, newspaper articles, and books were done to obtain
data for this study. The study has found that democratic South Africa still
embraced the same violence meted out by colonial and apartheid machinery to
suppress demands from its citizens. Finally, it found that decolonization in
South Africa was about the replacing of a ‘species’ of men with another
‘species’ of men without any change towards addressing student problems. This
is revealed by the manner it handled the #FeesMustFall campaign. #FeesMustFall
leaders as students were shot at, arrested, and imprisoned in the same jails
built and used by the colonial and apartheid states. During the 1976 uprisings,
the apartheid state unleashed its army and police on black children, with
arrested, and murdered, others were forced into exile. This study recommends
that South Africa should adopt democratic means that are within the parameters
of human rights to resolve issues.
Author(s) Details:
Mavhungu Elias Musitha,
Department of Development Studies, University of South Africa
(UNISA), Pretoria, 0001, South Africa.
Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/PLLER-V5/article/view/13450
No comments:
Post a Comment