Economic history of South Africa
[citation needed] Population growth had created a land pressure that had seen the tribes move steadily from the origins in central east Africa.
[2] The end of apartheid was followed by substantial improvements in housing, health care, and access to basic government services for the South African population.
[4] The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (c.11th – 13th century CE) was a medieval state in South Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers.
To deal with the problems, the company established a garden at the foot of Table Mountain and bartered cattle from the Khoikhoi to supply to passing ships.
Persecuted Huguenots from France turned their hands to wine production and Germans and British grew the nascent industrial base and developed modern farming methods.
Slaves were also imported to the South African region for work on the large scale wine plantations founded by European settlers.
[10] The province of Natal, a British colony, was found suitable for sugar production but the local Zulu tribes could not be attracted as cane cutters as they lacked the skill and competency to work.
The Afrikaners formed two independent inland republics, the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) and the Oranje Vrystaat (Orange Free State).
The subsequent diamond and gold rushes saw further migrations of a range of nationalities including Cornish miners and eastern European Jews amongst others.
But perhaps the greatest impact was the influx of international capital to finance the mining operations, including the arrival of Cecil John Rhodes who formed De Beers and Anglo-American.
In a measure to force labour to the mines, Rhodes, who had turned from forming the De Beers Company to politics, secured the passing of the Glen Grey Act in 1894.
The mines also attracted labour from neighbouring countries such as Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Mozambique (that was then a Portuguese colony) that kept wages of black workers down.
The dispute quickly escalated with the South African Communist Party joining on the side of the miners while also promoting the idea of racial equality.
Those dispatched to the gallows purportedly went quoting the rallying cry of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Communist Manifesto, saying, "Workers of the world unite".
[citation needed] Among the white population there were many Afrikaner sharecroppers (tenant farmers who shared their crops with their landlord in lieu of rent).
While English-speaking South Africans dominated industrial and commercial life Afrikaners banded together in mutual financial organisations that in due course were to become major players in that sector of the economy.
[citation needed] In 1948, a government was elected that introduced the policy of apartheid (segregation) that was aimed to allow different racial groups to progress in their own separate areas.
In the two decades following the rise to power of the National Party, whites (particularly Afrikaners) rose above all other ethnic groups in South Africa through their dominant and tactful performance in the labour market.
[15] Economic dominance during this period was made possible by Black South Africans and migratory labour from Malawi, Lesotho and Portuguese Mozambique who all experienced poor working conditions and relativity low wages.
[17] Many English-speaking South Africans had participated in the heavy discrimination that preceded apartheid, and tacitly supported the legislation while paying lip service to opposing the laws.
[citation needed] Under the Nationalist Party, the country embarked upon a dirigiste program of economic expansion involving the creation of several state-owned enterprises (or “parastatals”, as they were called), including Iscor (steel), Sasol (synthetic fuel), Eskom (electricity), and later Transnet (rail), and Telkom (telecommunications).
Ironically, during the 1980s gold reached its highest price as a result of international tensions reaping huge profits for the mining company conglomerates.
[citation needed] However, the financial benefit for the mining companies of continuing to support the system eroded as international capital stopped flowing into the country.
At the same time they embarked on the Reconstruction and Development Plan to improve services including housing, education and health to blacks only as a means to achieve equity.
