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South Africa’s renowned cultural diversity is depleting to nothing more than the culture of consumerism versus the culture of poverty. South Africa in the new millennium is a nation divided only by those who can consume and those who cannot.
Governing South Africa as though it is a developed nation will be its ultimate downfall. Liberal economic policies, with high hopes of “Redistribution through Growth”, have set up the ‘new’ South Africa for failure. The foundation; built with what is now called “white privilege” and structured for “financialisation”, has recognised South Africa as an upcoming contender in the global arena. We’re an international investment hub boasting the most efficient financial structures in the world but we also happen to take first prize for having the widest income gap in the world. The consistent encouragement of liberal markets and capitalism in Africa baffles me. Globalisation has us all believing that individual consumerism and the ability to buy is more important than uplifting and providing for our own people. Capitalism is propelled by competition and in unequal developing countries it becomes easier to take advantage of those who started with a disadvantage.
The liberal, capitalist approach into the democracy, with no clear interventions on redistribution and alleviating the financial structures imposed by the Apartheid government, is leading us only to an anticipated dead end. Despite the foundation of “white privilege”, the expanding of the “middle class” up to this point is mainly due to the further sacrifices of those currently in poverty. The majority of the resources used to build up the middle class certainly did not come from white privilege, as they still own most of their wealth. A main disadvantage to capitalism is greed. Self-indulgence and self-gain encourage individuals to keep profits to themselves, which prevents any economic growth from trickling down to the masses. Hence, 21 years into the democracy, the upper and middle class sectors prevailed at the expense of those still in poverty. However, South Africa’s development is approaching a plateau. The middle and upper class of South Africa are minorities. Their development alone can no longer hold up the economy of this country. Without REAL changes in the lives of those who suffered the MOST from Apartheid structures, the economy will collapse.
During the “rise” of the middle and upper classes a new culture was born. From personal experience, I found that in order to join and be accepted into this middle or upper class one is often expected to leave traditional culture behind and join a somewhat Western consumerist culture. In order to succeed one is expected to be an “ordinary” South African in the sense that you attended the right schools, wear the right brand names, live in the right suburb and have the right accent; with “right” implying “white”. This is the consequence of starting with a foundation of white privilege. Hence, to be an “ordinary” South African today, one would aspire to climb the social ladder to the norms of “white privilege”.
On the other hand, there is the largest group of South Africans. Those isolated in poverty stricken “townships” and “informal settlements”. Despite their cries to join this “new” South Africa, they are shunned and blamed for their own poverty. The majority of our country fit into this category and yet their lifestyles are nowhere near that considered “ordinary”.
South Africans never won freedom; instead we negotiated a culture of consumerism. Oppression in South Africa is no longer only based on race. In our democracy, one can reduce the oppression inflicted on oneself by accumulating wealth and conforming to the “ordinary” South African. The ANC negotiated the opportunity to allow everyone to compete for wealth, with those with accumulated white privilege getting a head start. To make up for this disillusionment South Africans deny everything and feel ‘shame’ privately. It is considered ‘shameful’ for a non-white to admit that their family does NOT come from long lines of wealth as much as it’s shameful for a white person to admit their family benefits from Apartheid wealth. Instead of embracing redistribution and alleviating the wrongs of the past, South Africa is a nation full of people who are ashamed of their skin colour, wealth or lack thereof. Two decades after Apartheid I don’t think we’ve come very far at all…
