Did Apartheid succeed

Answer 1

No Black-and-White Answer

Our users have differing opinions:

• Depends what you define as succeed. If by "succeeding" you mean permanently establishing new territory, then no, it did not succeed at all. However, it was effective at first in virtually wiping out tribal control in Africa - so the act of Apartheid itself could be considered a success.
• It failed miserably.
• I agree with the previous user: the ravages of the cruel Apartheid system are still apparent many years after Apartheid is supposedly officially over.

Answer 2

Yes, for the duration of the political decision's enactment it was highly successful. It was also, however, incredibly expensive; one of a number of contributing factors to its demise.

In modern day South Africa the answer is still yes. Bantu education has ensured that every black skinned person over the age of 30 is mostly unemployable, holding neither skill nor literacy.

However, the asker's definition of 'successful' must be explained before more meaningful information may be presented. For example, if the question is one of historical value, i.e: pertaining to the physical effectiveness of segregation during the appartheid years then the answer is 'yes', the kaffir was kept so far away from white people that most white people would never have suspected that they were outnumbered by a scale of at least 30 to 1. This is fascinating to note given the racial Demographics of South Africa as a country where the white population makes up only a small, and token, segment of the greater racial profile.

If the question, however, pertains to the current state of the country and the current levels of both social and economic advancement of the country, then the answer would be 'no'. Currently South Africa enjoys a profoundly low literacy rate with the vast majority of the population so ignorant of basic studies like geography, physics and mathematics that the country as a whole is suffering from poor workmanship and ever poorer governance.

Apartheid was a foul thing to start with but South Africa has beautifully demonstrated that such a policy holds massive negative effects for any country as a whole; nagative effects which may be felt within a relatively short period of time.

The major down-side to appardheid is that the previously subjugated population now feels some sort of entitlement to massive social advancement, promised by most political parties but completely undeliverable. These people now feel 'owed' and demonstrate a strong, racially motivate hatred of the white man and want us all to [explicit language not permitted in what is advertised as an explicit forum] off back to Europe (oh the irony, most native South Africans can't even point to it on a map).

The sad reality is that when the white man settled in South Africa there were a number of large, full-scale wars fought over the land and, let's face facts, the white settler won every one of them. By the right of conquest South Africa belongs to the white man and possibly as a result of this, the current state of affairs is one bordering on a genocidal hatred and slowly starting to tip over into another racial war which will probably turn out no different than any of the others.

Were appartheid not enacted and if the local black population were immediately afforded the luxury of good, decent, formal education and equal opportunity then the current socio-political climate could have been averted.

So... the short answer is 'no' appartheid was not successful.

For appartheid to have been successful the originators of the ideal should have immediately established a shoot-on-sight policy to eradicate black people, an act which goes against even the most racist of Afrikaner's deep seated religeous ideals. For as long as a black man walks and breathes in South Africa, the levels of resentment that they feel towards white people (and that includes you Americans and Brits and you French folks) is unmatched.

Such a policy has led us down the path to hell as it will lead anyone else who tries to impose if down the same path. Don't be fooled by all that 'Rainbow Nation' [explicit language not permitted in what is advertised as an explicit forum] that the South African Tourism board is punting, things down here aren't rosy at all but we're slowly coming right and as long as some form of political stability can be maintained we may just make it through unbruised.

My personal opinion is that we're still at least thirty years away from anything that could be considered a full recovery.