The dark secret of South Africa - Human Rights Violations, up close.

WRITTEN BY: SHARANYA RAMESH

ROLL NUMBER - 3760

As much as every government tries to paint a rosy picture of their country, there are always the dark secrets that somehow find their way out. In the case of South Africa, there are the human rights violations which have gone unnoticed for a long time. However in recent times, there has been a surge of media reports that cover the various human rights violations in South Africa.
Human rights are the basic rights that everyone has, simply because they are human. The list of human rights protected in South Africa is contained in the Bill of Rights, Chapter 2 of the South African Constitution, the highest law in the country.

These human rights violations are not just violent actions but also aspects such as no accessibility to basic needs such as a water, shelter and electricity.

To deal with this issue, the human rights commission was created.
In accordance with the Constitution and the Human Rights Commission Act of 1994, the tasks of the Human Rights Commission are to:
- Develop an awareness of human rights among the people of South Africa.
- Make recommendations to the state to improve the carrying out of human rights.
- Undertake studies and report to Parliament on matters relating to human rights.
- Investigate complaints of violations of human rights and seek appropriate relief.
The Commission works with government, civil society and individuals, both in South Africa and internationally, acting as both a watchdog and a visible route through which people can access their rights.

The South African Human Rights Commission kicked-off its 2012 Human Rights Month Campaign at the Rammolutsi Township in Viljoenskroon in the Free State. In an attempt to further advance the Commission’s Poverty and Inequality Strategy, this year's theme is Water and Sanitation in South Africa – A question of Accessibility. Despite the achievements that have been made in the provision of access to water and sanitation, the Commission is however concerned about the quality of the service. The Commission carried out investigations in the areas of Makhaza in the Western Cape and Rammolutsi in the Free State and made specific findings on the inadequacies in the realisation of the rights to water and sanitation.

Subsequent to this, the Commission’s Section 5 Committee on Governance and Basic Services made further recommendations that the Commission must find ways to ensure government accelerated service delivery.
Human rights violations were also seen during the football world cup that South Africa hosted. In an effort to “clean the city”, there have been reports that police forces had used brutal measure to make the homeless shift or move away. Reports of molestation, violence and other such brutalities were also seen. there has been an increase in police brutality towards street traders, the homeless, refugees and migrants living in townships, or slums. In order to present a clean and beautiful host nation to the world, police have attempted to remove the ugly or unpleasant aspects of the country by raiding and destroying informal housing. Such actions are in violation of South African law that prohibits forced eviction.

A lot of the times, human rights violations in South Africa go unnoticed because of how much South Africa advertises its good aspects such as tourism destinations etc. However, human rights violations still exist in this country and it is time that people started taking notice of it.

South African Cuisine - a meal you'll never forget.

WRITTEN BY : SHARANYA RAMESH
ROLL NUMBER - 3760

South African cuisine is very often called the rainbow cuisine, taken, obviously from the nickname of the country – the rainbow nation. The cuisine is distinguished from other cuisines with its distinctive use of flavouring.
The food of South Africa can be characterized into two types – food by the Xhosa and Zulu tribes and then the food by the immigrants of South Africa. This blog will be focusing on the pre-colonial period tastes of the South Africans. This is because, it is very interesting to note how these distinctive flavours that now make South Africa’s cuisine so popular, came into being.
In the pre-colonial period, indigenous cuisine was characterized by the use of a very wide range of foods including fruits, nuts, bulbs, leaves and other products gathered from wild plants and by the hunting of wild game. The introduction of domestic cattle and grain crops by Bantu speakers who arrived in the region about two thousand years ago and the spread of cattle keeping to Khosian groups enabled products and the availability of fresh meat on demand. The pre-colonial diet consisted primarily of cooked grains, especially sorghum, fermented milk (somewhat like yogurt) and roasted or stewed meat. In many ways, the daily food of Black South African families can be traced to the indigenous foods that their ancestors ate. A typical meal in a Black South African family household that is Bantu-speaking is a stiff, fluffy porridge of maize meal (called "pap," and very similar to American grits) with a flavorful stewed meat gravy.
For many Black South Africans, the center of any meal is the meat. The Khoisan ate roasted meat, and they also dried meat for later use. The influence of their diet is reflected in the universal (black and white) Southern African love of barbecue (generally called in South Africa by its Afrikaans name, a "braai") and biltong (dried preserved meat). As in the past, when men kept cattle as their prized possession in the rural areas, Black South Africans have a preference for beef. Today, Black South Africans enjoy not only beef, but mutton, goat, chicken and other meats as a centerpiece of a meal. On weekends, many Black South African families, like white South Africans, have a "braai," and the meal usually consists of "pap and vleis," which is maize porridge and grilled meat. Eating meat even has a ritual significance in both traditional and modern Black South African culture. For weddings, initiations, the arrival of family members after a long trip and other special occasions, families will buy a live animal and slaughter it at home, and then prepare a large meal for the community or neighborhood. Participants often say that spilling the blood of the animal on the ground pleases deceased ancestors who invisibly gather around the carcass. On holiday weekends, entrepreneurs will set up pens of live animals along the main roads of Black townships -- mostly sheep and goats -- for families to purchase, slaughter, cook and eat. Beef being the most prized meat, for weddings, affluent Black families often purchase a live steer for slaughter at home. Vegetarianism is generally met with puzzlement among Black South Africans, although most meals are served with vegetables such as pumpkin, beans and cabbage.
After high levels of immigration and the mixing of various flavours, many of these South African traditions have now changed. What hasn’t changed however is the taste of a good South African meal. Great, tasty and wholesome! With that, I think it’s time I got myself something to eat.

The Politics and Economics behind South Africa.

WRITTEN BY : SHARANYA RAMESH
ROLL NUMBER - 3760

As an emerging economy, South Africa has not remained completely unaffected by the turmoil in other emerging economies world-wide, especially in Asia, and lately also in Russia. This negatively affected investor confidence in these countries. However, while examining the various political and economic factors of South Africa and how the country functions under various conditions.
South Africa's peaceful and stable transition to democracy, universally recognised as one of the major achievements of the 20th Century, is not a coincidence or a mere short-term success: the realities in South Africa, which made this miraculous transition possible, are still in place and guarantee future stability. Political stability is the key to investor confidence, especially in today's world.
Fundamental political transitions are almost inevitably volatile. It therefore comes as no surprise that the period since the April 1994 elections saw–amid the overall sense of achievement and increasing goodwill–moments of political uncertainty and tension. In general, however, political stability increased as constitutional democracy became more entrenched.
This can be seen by looking at three aspects.

- The adoption of the new constitution in 1996: the new constitution, which became supreme law of the land on 4 February last year, is a model of democracy, and entrenches a separation of powers and fundamental human rights. Furthermore, the negotiations towards its adoption confirmed the ability of South Africans to resolve their differences peacefully and their commitment to make the new democracy work.

- The successful local government elections: voters in seven provinces elected their local representatives in a calm and well-structured process in 1995. In 1996 local voters in the strife-torn Kwazulu-Natal Province went to the polls as political obstacles prevented them from doing so in 1995. This Kwazulu-Natal local government election became yet another chapter in the South African democratic miracle. Not only was it procedurally smooth, but it produced significantly diverse results amid a very low incidence of political violence.

- Developments around the ANC leadership: over the first three years of post-apartheid South Africa, local and foreign observers repeatedly expressed fears about the process of succession, and uncertainty about the country's prospects thereafter during the so-called "post-Mandela era".

The government announced (Growth, Employement and Redistribution Strategy)GEAR as the cornerstone of its macroeconomic policy in June 1996. GEAR is a total strategy aiming at a competitive, fast growing and job-creating economy; redistribution of resources and creation of opportunities for the poor as well as provision of accessible health, education and housing facilities. The strategy entails budgetary reform and deficit reduction; trade liberalisation and tariff reform; flexible labour market strategies; renewed infrastructure investment; tax incentives to attract investment; and a commitment to co-ordinated policies.

South Africa has proved time and again, that through religious, social and infrastructural conflicts, the country's political and economic stability has only grown.

The blood of South African Sport - Rugby.

WRITTEN BY SHARANYA RAMESH

ROLL NUMBER 3760

To put it simply, Rugby is to South Africa, what Cricket is to India. Rugby can easily be considered one of the forces that bought together South Africa after the vast period of Apartheid. When the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup on home turf in 1995, Nelson Mandela, donned the No 6 shirt of the team's captain - Francois Pienaar, a white Afrikaner - and the two embraced in a spontaneous gesture of racial reconciliation that melted hearts around the country. A single moment, and 400 years of colonial strife and bitterness, suddenly seemed so petty. That is what Rugby means to many South Africans.

What makes Rugby even more special to the South Africans is that before 1994, Rugby was almost exclusively a white man’s game. After Nelson Mandela took the reins, he converted the team into a mix of both black and white, encouraging the citizens of SA (both black and white) to come together to cheer on their union team. The Springboks, the dream team in their green and gold jackets is the union rugby team of South Africa. The Boks have an outstanding international score sheet, and for many years enjoyed a winning record against all other nations, until a slight slump in performances after South Africa's return from international isolation in 1992. However, ask any South African their favourite Rugby moment and they are sure to tell you that it is when the Springboks made it through to the final at Ellis Park where, spurred on by a frenzied home crowd, and with the whole of South Africa willing them on, they trumped the All Blacks 15-12 in extra time to lift the sport's most coveted trophy.

For many years, the biggest rivalry in internal rugby was between the Western Province and the Blue Bulls. During the early to mid-1990s this was superseded by a three-way rivalry between Natal, the Lions and Western Province. The teams fought for the much coveted, Currie Cup. The Currie Cup, the premier provincial rugby competition in South Africa, was first contested in 1892. The format of the Currie Cup varied from year to year, and finals were held intermittently until 1968, after which the final became an annual event.

Another important cup that the South African rugby teams compete for is the Vodacom Cup. The Vodacom Cup has become an important competition on the South African rugby calendar. It takes place at the same time as the Super 14 competition - starting in late February and finishing in mid-May - and thus creates a platform for talented young players who might otherwise not get a chance to make their mark.It has also been a fertile breeding ground for strong players from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, thanks to the enforcement of quotas. Quotas, successfully implemented lower down, now extend through the higher levels of South African rugby, including the Super 14.

However, what interests me the most about Rugby is that it is one of the few topics that every South African apparently seems to agree upon. Talk politics and history, you might not have a friend in every South African, but talk sports, especially Rugby and you have a friend. Rugby has done what a lot of leaders and politicians have considered impossible. It has bought a nation together.

Lights! Camera! Action! - Make way for the film industry of South Africa.

WRITTEN BY: SHARANYA RAMESH

ROLL NUMBER- 3760

After hearing about "Nollywood", "Ghaliwood" and also "Lolliwood" it is now time to hear about the film industry in South Africa.This might come as a surprise for many, but the South African film industry is one of the world’s fastest growing film industries. Not surprising considering that South Africa has been represented in various international hits as well, including Blood Diamond, Invictus and also Lord of War. However, the growing internal film industry which produces more than 100 movies per year, is a thriving source of income and entertainment through out the country.

The industry has many jewels in its possession, one of them being “Tsotsi”, the award winning South African movie about a young gangster in Soweto. This movie struck gold when it won an Academy Award for best foreign language film in 2006.

What’s interesting to note about the film industry is that it contributes to almost 3.5 billion Rands to the GDP of the country. Although South Africa’s contribution to global output is only 1.4%, the local film industry is now fast growing and is a thriving business within Africa. The benefits of a burgeoning film industry are clear, as it brings in foreign investment. Co-productions with international companies result in the direct investment of millions of Rands into the economy. SA has signed co-production treaties with 4 countries which are Canada, Italy, Germany and the UK. This means that any official co-production is regarded as a national production of each co-producing country making it eligible for any benefits or programmes of assistance available in either country. SA also has a memorandum of understanding relating to film in India!

South Africa’s film industry history started with the shooting of the first ever newsreels during the Anglo-Boer war at the turn of the previous century. Africa mirror, the weekly cinema newsreel was launched in 1913 and ran till the end of the 1980’s. SA’s first feature film which was called The Kimberly Diamond Robbery was shot in 1910.

What is interesting to note is that much of the country’s cinematic history is entangled with its apartheid ties. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, however, South Africans have been reclaiming their lost histories. The government has helped in this as they have stressed on the importance of building the country’s heritage by telling their own stories and has also set about in providing a regulatory framework, to encourage the production of local movies. The government has also taken the initiative to build a Hollywood like studio on the outskirts on Cape town to help the local producers and directors. International sponsors like Warner Bros. have also been targeted to help fund the local film industry.

South African broadcasters are obliged to meet legislated local-content quotas, which has resulted in an increased demand for local programming. More than seven South African daily dramas or soap operas are produced in South Africa.

The South African film industry is one of the many forms of entertainment that is available to the people. To help me understand more about what the film industry meant to the locals, I spoke to Zuri Tewa, a 16 year old South African movie buff, who said, “The movies are great because like all great movies they are about the people. They narrate our history and they talk to us about who we are. I know we are not as big as Hollywood, but it is still lots of fun. These movie actors are like stars to me,” She also told me that she tries to watch all the movies she can because going to the movies was her favourite part of the weekend.

It is interesting that in a world where movies either mean Hollywood or Bollywood, a country like South Africa has their own thriving local film industry. What is more encouraging is what this film industry means to the people. For them, this is a platform where actual South African history -not just various interpretations of it made by foreign films- can be told and watched and learned about.

The Legend that is Nelson Mandela

WRITTEN BY: SHARANYA RAMESH

How do you even begin to describe a personality like Nelson Mandela? Where would you start? In an attempt to convert my awe of a man that almost single handedly led a nation to it’s stature, I shall write my next blog on Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, an activist, a Nobel peace prize winner, president and humanitarian.

Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961. After joining to ANC (African National Congress), he was later sentenced to life imprisonment after being accused of sabotage of various government activities. He then spent a gruelling 27 years in prison and was released in 1990 after which he led his party to start multi racial democracy talks that then led to him being elected president.

After becoming president, Mandela bought about many changes which included the introduction of free health care for all children under the age of six , launched the development and reconstruction programme, passed various acts such as the Skills Development Act, The Labour Relations act and TBCE act. He also helped bring access to water for more than 3 million people and connected 2 million people to the electricity grid.

Mandela was the oldest elected president of South Africa when he took office at 75. After he retired, he did not rest on his laurels. He went on to work with many social and human right activists. He is also a vocal supporter of the SOS children’s campaign.

In an address at the Olympics, Mandela said one of the most inspiring things I have ever heard. He said, “For seventeen days, they are roommates. For seventeen days, they are soul mates. And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors. Seventeen days as equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries. What a wonderful world that would be. That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games.”

Nelson Mandela is more than just a leader, a human rights activist and a fighter for freedom. To me, he is a role model. One cannot speak about South Africa without praising the legend that is Nelson Mandela.

Kruger National Park - The BOSS of all National parks.

WRITTEN BY: SHARANYA RAMESH

When one thinks of South Africa, one of the first things that pops into their mind is the Kruger national park. In 1895, Jakob Louis van Wyk introduced in the area of the old South African Republic, a motion to create the game reserve which would become the Kruger National Park. Lying in the heart of the Lowveld is a wildlife sanctuary like no other, its atmosphere so unique that it allows those who enter its vastness to immerse themselves in the unpredictability and endless wilderness that is the true quality of Africa. To give you an idea of how large this vast national park is, think of it like this – The Kruger National park is larger than Israel. That’s how large this national park is.

The Kruger National Park lies across the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo in the north of South Africa, just south of Zimbabwe and west of Mozambique. Very broadly speaking, the Kruger National Park is flat with a few gentle hills, and people tend to classify the area of the Kruger as unvaried and dry, which is rather like saying South Africa is sunny - it conceals an amazingly rich diversity. The Kruger National Park is divided into no fewer than six ecosystems - baobab sandveld, Lebombo knobthorn-marula bushveld, mixed acacia thicket, woodland on granite, and riverine forest. The entire park can be divided into 4 regions, northern, eastern, western and southern.

North of the Orange River is a semi-arid region covering 7 000 square kilometres that sees very little rain. Vegetation here changes very little from the unvarying shrub mopane, which thrives in hot, low-lying valleys. This is the northern region. The southern region encompasses of the Crocodile River in the south and the Sabie River in the north. The southern region is also host to the jagged ridge of the Lebombo Mountains along the border with Mozambique, and the highest point in the park, Khandzalive, in the southwestern corner - almost in counterpoint to Pretoriuskop that lies in the west of the southern region of the Kruger National Park.

This is the land of baobabs, fever trees, knob thorns, marula and mopane trees underneath which lurk the Big Five, the Little Five (buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and rhino beetle), the birding Big Six (ground hornbill, kori bustard, lappet-faced vulture, pel’s fishing owl and saddle-bill stork) and more species of mammals than any other African Game Reserve and any other place in the world.

The Kruger National park is undeniably one of the most talked about national parks in the world and even through just pictures, one can see how absolutely breath taking it is. A visit to the Kruger National Park, is something this student is hoping will happen very soon!

Apartheid in South Africa - The reign of White over Black.

WRITTEN BY : SHARANYA RAMESH
ROLL NUMBER - 3760

"We speak out to put the world on guard against what is happening in South Africa. The brutal policy of apartheid is applied before the eyes of the nations of the world. The peoples of Africa are compelled to endure the fact that on the African continent the superiority of one race over another remains official policy, and that in the name of this racial superiority murder is committed with impunity. Can the United Nations do nothing to stop this?"
— Che Guevara, speech to the United Nations as Cuba's representative, December 11, 1964.

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority non-white inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War. Following independence from England, an uneasy power-sharing between the two groups held sway until the 1940's, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to enforce and maintain their control over the economic and social system. Initially, the aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60's, a plan of “Grand Apartheid” was executed, which emphasized more on territorial distribution and divide and also police repression if these “laws” were not followed.
Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs. Non-white political representation was completely abolished in 1970, and starting in that year black people were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands called bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states.
There were many laws that were enforced upon the citizens of South Africa during this period. The first apartheid law was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which formalised racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of eighteen, specifying their racial group. Official teams were established to come to an ultimate conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. This caused difficulty, especially for coloured people, separating their families as members were allocated different races.
The second pillar of grand apartheid was the Group Areas Act of 1950. Until then, most settlements had people of different races living side by side. This Act put an end to diverse areas and determined where one lived according to race. Each race was allotted its own area, which was used in later years as a basis of forced removal. Further legislation in 1951 allowed the government to demolish black slums and forced white employers to pay for the construction of housing for those black workers who were permitted to reside in cities otherwise reserved for white people.
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marriage between persons of different races, and the Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race a criminal offence. These laws not only just differentiated between the Whites and the Blacks, it was violent, resulting in the death of many black Africans.
The rise and spread of apartheid was a long and difficult struggle for the blacks in South Africa. Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence as well as a long trade embargo against South Africa. Since the 1950s, a series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more violent, state organisations responded with increasing repression and state-sponsored violence.
Reforms to apartheid in the 1980s failed to stop the mounting opposition, and in 1990 President Frederik Willem began negotiations to end apartheid, culminating in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, which were won by the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela.
Even though apartheid as a regime does not exist today, racial discrimination can still be considered the order of the day. The South African government, is working hard towards establishing unity amongst the people in its country. As Oliver Tambo said, “Apartheid cannot be reformed; it has to be eliminated.”

South Africa - The Rainbow Nation.

South Africa, home to more than 50 million Africans, is the country that I have chosen for the next few blog entries. While in the other articles, I will try to explain the diversity that is South Africa, my first blog post will be of the people.
The rainbow nation, as it is otherwise called is a suitable name for a nation that has an extraordinary diversity of races, tribes, creeds, languages and landscape. The people who live in this country itself are extremely different in nature. Of the 45 million South Africans, nearly 31 million are Black, 5 million White, 3 million Coloured and one million Indian in South Africa. The black population of the country itself is divided into four major ethnic groups, namely Nguni, Sotho, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda. There are numerous subgroups of which the Zulu and Xhosa (two subgroups of the Nguni) are the largest.
One of the largest tribes, the Zulu tribe is extremely prominent in South Africa. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African revolution, during the 19th and 20th centuries. Under apartheid Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens.
The Xhosa tribe which is another major tribe in South Africa are speakers of the Bantu language and they life in the South East part of South Africa. Xhosa, which also means "angry fighters" is a tribe that has many internal conflicts. These conflicts could also be attributed to the fact that there are many sub tribes also present just within the Xhosa tribe.
Other than these two main tribes, the population also consists of White South Africans who are the boers who migrated there a few hundred years ago and who developed the language Afrikaans which is the national language of south Africa and bears a lot of similarity with German.
Also, there is the Indian population. The Indian south Africans were taken to south Africa as slaves to work on sugar cane farms around the time that mahatma Gandhi went there and have been there since , about 100 years or so. They were primarily from south India so alot of their culture is inherited from India but mixed with local cultures and traditions. "Many of our cultures and traditions are from the South of India. If you trace my family back, you can see that there are people from Tamil Nadu," says Aarti Logiaxu, who is an Indian South African. Her family and her have been in South Africa now for many years.
A country with a diverse population like this one, is a land filled with various layers. I hope to explore these layers in terms of culture, food, politics and many more in the next set of blogs.

SHARANYA RAMESH
ROLL NUMBER - 3760