The 1960 Republic of South Africa Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the 1960 Republic of South Africa. Answer: The 1960s Changes The 1960s was and still is a historical period in the history of the Republic of South Africa. The period was met with the implementation of the apartheid and the significant internal opposition. There arose discriminative racial policies and intense police violence and brutality. Several other events also ensued and included the neutralization of the political dissent through the declaration of the State of Emergency. There was also massive arrest, detention or even exile of the political activists. The political activities led the revolt against the implementation of the apartheid policies. The rebellion sought to derail the implementation plans and abolish the merging of the white minority rule. The revolt led to the massacre of some unarmed protesters, commonly known as the Sharpeville massacre. The massacre is perceived as South Africa's turning point. All these and many events that took place in South Africa led to many changes. In this respect, therefore, the primary role of t his paper is to discuss the social, political, cultural, and economic changes of the 1960s turbulence. Additionally, the paper will also assess the effects of these changes to the planners and planning as well as how the two responded to the changes. South Africa encountered numerous political changes, particularly, after the ban of the ANC (African National Congress) and PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) anti-apartheid movements (which took place after the Sharpeville Massacre) (Lissoni, 2008: 79). The ANC and PAC were, however, unwilling to yield to the ban. Consequently, there arose underground plans that continued the struggle. The ANC together with the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) formed the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) while the PAC set up an armed group known as Poqo (Lissoni, 2008: 267). The South African government, on the other hand, were hard on the activists and other protesters hence it passed security laws that allowed the arrest, imprisonment, and detention of the activities. The political pressure from the government was overwhelming to the movement a factor that led some activities to go to exile. However, while in exile the SACP, PAC, and ANC established military training bases, camps, and offices (Lissoni, 2008: 4 4). Later, what ensued was the spread of the Anti Apartheid Movement to Holland, Sweden, Britain, and several other countries (Lissoni, 2008: 49). The formation of the liberation movements meant more pressure on the South African Government hence its inability to abolish apartheid. The 1960's apartheid had adverse effects on the economic growth of South Africa. The economic productivity and profitability in the country were primarily affected by the import substitution strategy (Bhattacharya and Lowenberg: 41). Moreover, the investors recorded lower profits and return on investment due to the discriminative labour. Essentially, investors and other savers were unwilling to invest in long term projects thereby reducing the investment rate in physical capital (Marais, 2013: 53). Similarly, the education policies of 1960 are led to minimal human capital investment particularly on black workforce (Bhattacharya and Lowenberg: 40). Therefore, there was no equilibrium between the human and the physical capital. Additionally, South Africa experienced both social and cultural segregation. Segregation permeated every aspect of life including schools, transport, trading, settlements, work places, public social places (beaches, theatres, and beaches), and churches (Clark and Worger: 36). Evidently, the whites and the non-whites were not permitted to socialize, relate or mix whatsoever. Blacks, therefore, were unequal to whites. The latter was treated with respect and prestige (Walker, 2000: 263). Moreover, there was an Act that prohibited mixed marriages between the whites and the people of colour (Clark and Worger: 40). Another Act, the Group Areas Act (1950) divided the country into different areas which were later occupied by various racial groups. The law according to Worden (1996: 1017) played the apartheid's primary role of laying the foundation for which social separation was made upon. The social, cultural, economic, and political changes had adverse impacts on planners and planning. In other words, the planners and planning were directly affected by these changes. Firstly, the recognition of planning profession was difficult (Coetzee and Retief, 2013: 39). For this reason, the planning was difficult, and the planners had, therefore, to rely on the South Africa national government not only to write a draft but also to implement the policies. Moreover, Coetzee and Retief (2013: 39) contend that the planners secured employment in the local, provincial or the national government. For this reason, the planners and planning were affected directed in that the planners could not go against the government policies. Thus, the national level planners played a key role in perpetuating the apartheid planning policies. Other times, the planners were bestowed the responsibility of drafting and legislating these policies. Nonetheless, Coetzee and Retie (2013: 39) noted the contra diction that existed in the planning schools and among the planners. Some planners willingly supported the apartheid policies while others were opposed to them though they had to fulfil their roles as mandated by the government. Some planning schools also opposed the apartheid planning policies as well other planning that promoted apartheid and segregation. The response of the planners to the mentioned changes seems to have followed the political waves that swept South Africa in 1960s. As aforementioned, planners were employed by the government. This translates to the fact that they responded to the government apartheid policies. Some politicians and planners, however, believed that the planning process allowed political and public participation (Coetzee and Retief, 2013: 51). Nonetheless, the closure of South Africa to the rest of the world, the planners did not prioritize the trends that allowed public participation (Rugui, 2015: 37). In conclusion, it is arguable that South Africa experienced social, political, cultural, and economic changes in the 1960s. Although there may be some benefits, the country encountered adverse effects especially with the emergence of the apartheid era. These changes saturated all aspects of life. The changes mainly affected those against apartheid while they benefited the proposers. As a consequence of these outcomes, planning and planners were also affected. Planning as a profession and planners as professionals were affected by these changes since they were expected to pledge allegiance to the government. For this reason, some planners were left without an option other than fulfil their duties at the expense of propagating apartheid policies. Others including planning schools were opposed to these policies. The Government's immense influence on planners and planning affected the manner in which the public participated in the drafting of policies that directly affected them. References Bhattacharya, R. and Lowenberg, A.D., (2010). Impact of apartheid on economic growth: implications and empirical evidence from South Africa. Comparative Economic Studies, 52(1), pp.38-61. Coetzee, J., and Retief, M. (2013).Cities to be Tamed? Standards and Alternative in the Transformation of Urban South Conference Proceedings. The Journal of Urbanisation, (26)1: 38-54. Clark, N.L. and Worger, W.H., (2016). South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid. Routledge. Lissoni, A., (2008). The South African Liberation Movements in Exile, c. 19451970. PhD., University of London. Marais, H., (2013). South Africa pushed to the limit: The political economy of change. Zed Books Ltd.. Rugui, P., (2015). Review Amendment of the Planning Profession Act (36 of 2002). Walker, V.S., (2000). Valued segregated schools for African American children in the South, 1935-1969: A review of common themes and characteristics. Review of Educational Research, 70(3), pp.253-285. Worden, N., (1996). The making of modern South Africa: Conquest, segregation and apartheid. The English Historical Review, 111(443), pp.1016-1018.