Apartheid and the Environment

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Apartheid and the Environment

South Africa is a prime example of the stark and unsettling conditions that exist throughout the world among race, gender, poverty, and the environment. Among the many inequalities which exist is an ailing environment which provides meager employment and playgrounds for the black population of South Africa. The environmental and social crisis originates in apartheid through the combination of poor land, forced overcrowding, and poverty (Ottoway 219). As the years go by, in addition to the already well known social crisis, more and more dumping sites will be uncovered and environmental disasters that have been concealed under apartheid will come to light. The new government will have to implement responsible legislation and regulations to protect the environment and control corporate behavior in the most industrialized country on the continent.

For most of the last half-century, the black majority of South Africa has had no means to fully express itself in the mainstream media of their nation ('Media Restrictions in South Africa' 67).

The reason for this stems from the oppressive system under which South African blacks were forced to live under. The name for the system was apartheid, and it involved strict racial segregation and an ideology of white supremacy.

From the birth of legal apartheid in 1948 up until its turbulent end this past year, white South Africans were extremely concerned about both preserving this system of

rigid racial separation and gaining acceptance for it. Many acts were passed by the government to try and keep the media from reporting the stark conditions existing in South Africa. The Sabotage Act of 1962 prevents the press from printing any material which could incite civil disobedience or violence (Laurence 78). The law is so vague that it can be stretched to cover...