What would South Africa be like #IfApartheidDidNotHappen?

As the world rose from Wold War II like a phoenix through the ashes in 1945, another kind of war, apartheid, was waged in on the black natives of South Africa by the white minority through the leadership of the Nationalist Party.

The right-winged Nationalists or ‘Nats’ as they called themselves had clear motives when they took power in 1948 through a government of coalition; segregate and condemn black people to poverty and the dark corners of the earth patch while promoting the Afrikaner culture. Do you understand why most South Africans hate Afrikaans? The system was cruel and made them second class citizens in their own country.

Apartheid – an Afrikaans word for segregation – was a legal system of political, economic and social separation of the races intended to maintain and extend political and economic control of South Africa by the whites, who had arrived in a country by boat in 1652. Although the system ended with democracy in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the president, its reminiscences are visible in present day South Africa.

If you are social media savvy or at least on the micro-boggling site twitter you would have seen of the many trending topics in South Africa this morning #IfApartheidDidNotHappen.

While some tweets are frivolous and inane, a few got me thinking about what would have happened if South Africa did NOT suffer the ills of apartheid and the subsequent long term effects. What if the colonialists came to the continent and shared in the wealth of the land?

How apartheid made life difficult for black South Africans

1. Apartheid was a systematic exploitation of natives by the white minority
2. It which enforced classification of the population into four racial categories: white, Coloured, Asiatic, or native.
3. Apartheid implemented the Group Areas Act of 1950 which, enforced the separate areas of residence by race across the country
4. The Act confined blacks South Africans to the ‘homelands’. To travel anywhere, they needed permission, which was in a form of a ‘dompass’
5. In 1953 the government passed the Bantu Education Act enforcing racially separated educational facilities from schools to universities. The Act was aimed to direct black or non-white youth to the unskilled labour market

Above are the infamous words of Hendrik Verwoed, the architect of apartheid and the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 to 1966 

Top 5 tweets on If Apartheid did Not Happen

your name and skin colour would not determine a salary increase, job interview and promotion #IfApartheidDidNotHappen

— candice christians (@CandiceGMC) December 13, 2016

#IfApartheidDidNotHappen colonialism wud still have happened. The effects of the 1913 land act would still be there. So what now?

— Zwuur (@Mfondiny) December 13, 2016

#IfApartheidDidNotHappen black families wouldn't have absent fathers, hurt and struggling mothers, angry and neglected children.

— Lunga (@Lunga_Altray) December 13, 2016

#IfApartheidDidNotHappen 80% of the economy wouldn't be owned by less than 10% of the population.

— Lucy Magwa (@LuMagwa) December 13, 2016

#IfApartheidDidNotHappen Nelson Mandela would have spent that 27 years with his family, went to his parents and his son funerals.

— Anathi Maqungo (@NattyJaeM) December 13, 2016

Share your views with us. What do you think would be different if there was NO apartheid?