| | The endemic violence sweeping South Africa is often said to be the fault of apartheid. If the point being made is a moral one then this is obviously true. However, if a holistic explanation rooted in material, social and historical processes is being sought then two questions have to be addressed: why is this occurring now when apartheid is in demise rather than 15 or 20 years ago when it was at its peak? Furthermore, why in a society where whites historically have dominated and oppressed blacks, often violently, are black people killing each other rather than whites? Posing these questions recasts one's whole way of looking at violence; that the roots of violence should be sought in the effects of the disintegration of apartheid rather than its continued implementation. Discusses: Violence and the disintegration of apartheid; Rapid urbanisation and changing social divisions; Political reform and competing power centres; Solutions. |
