{"id":1393,"date":"2022-12-12T13:58:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T11:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2022-12-12T13:58:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T11:58:25","slug":"do-blacklives-matter-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/do-blacklives-matter-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"DO #BLACKLIVES MATTER IN SOUTH AFRICA?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Precious Zinhle Ntuli<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During days like these where cost of living is too high and the current state of
our economy, high rate of unemployment, inflation rate, fuel hikes, people
have been struggling to keep up and have smooth sailing lives especially black
people in South Africa as they are being treated unfairly compared to other
races by our Government Officials. It gets to a point where one must ask
themselves \u201cDoes a black person\u2019s life ever being considered in South Africa?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLACKLIVESMATTER is a political and social movement that started largely in<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

the United States of America in July 2013 to highlight racism and discrimination
experienced by black people in the country, and that was mostly performed by
the law enforcement where a lot of black lives were lost. In South Africa racism
is the main source or should I say root to all the inequality against the black
nation. The standards of living for black communities are way too poor
comparing to the standards of living in the white dominated communities, and
our government is the reason.
Being black in South Africa comes with a lot of baggage, like having to fight
poverty, discrimination, being treated like a criminal, growing up in an
environment you do not wish your kids should grow up in. A black person must
rely on the Government for a better future but most of the time the
Government turns a blind eye to those black communities. Our government
would introduce programs that \u201cmay empower black people\u201d but those
programs are the ones that oppresses blacks even more due to the corruption
that takes place within our government. That\u2019s where you find more black lives
been lost as they fight so hard to be part of those programs. Our government
has neglected the needs of the black South Africans by allowing
undocumented foreign nations to take over our economy and occupy a lot of
jobs that would empower or bring change in a black man\u2019s life, that results to
black on black hate where you find Black Africans killing each other and it
seems like the higher authority with the government does not care about the
lives of black South Africans at all. As a black South African you must fight in
every stage of your life.
These days there is a high rate of substance abuse and majority are black
people, there is a high rate of unemployed graduates and majority are black,
there is a high rate of Gender based abuse and majority are blacks, the rate of
crime has escalated, and the rate of murder has risen so high and majority of
people that are affected either as victims or perpetrators are black. You can go
to correctional facilities, and you will find most people who are in there are
blacks, every day in South Africa at least 71 people are murdered and most of
them are blacks due to crime, unemployment and lack of recreational facilities
in black dominated areas.
The former president of the Republic of South Africa Nelson Rholihlahla
Mandela said on the day of his release after he served 27 years in prison for
fighting against the oppression of black people by the Apartheid government \u201cI
have fought against white domination and I have fought against black
domination\u201d, but till today a white person is more privileged than a black
person, a white person is more protected than a black person ,even the media
is mostly on the white persons side.
In most of the media content that we see on our social platforms, news, and
daily television programs a black person is being oppressed and degraded, the
higher authority within the government should not allow that to happen. On
our television and other broadcasting cooperations these days they show
programs that are likely to degrade the dignity and lives of black people in the
name of \u201centertainment\u201d more than educational programs that may empower
and encourage black people to be better. It is entertaining for the media when
a black person suffers or going through hardships, but I call it a slow poison
because its slowly killing the progress of black people. Television shows like
Uyajola99 ,Mamazala ,Mnakwethu ,Umndeni and many more television
programs like that are one of things that kills black peoples visions and dreams
but our Government are turning a blind eye against that. It shows that black
lives don\u2019t matter at all.
A lower class black South African can not practice their rights in anyway
possible in this country. In most cases their rights are being violated and
undermined by people in higher ranks within the government, law
enforcement and public services. When speaking of public services its very
shaming because most of the public servants are black people who take
authority from the government. When you go to a public service (clinics, police
station or municipal offices) in white dominating areas the service is way too
different and better to the one in a black dominated area. Most of black
dominated areas (townships) are not we facilitated, and some are not in a
suitable condition for human to live in, yet white dominated areas are always
taken care of and are always a priority to public servants, and that shows that
being black in South Africa clearly means you are on your own and will always
not be prioritized in anyhow. The education system and how it as it is favors
whites than blacks.
The only curse of a black man in South Africa is being black. The color of your
skin is always going to be a challenge when it comes to your success because
your success will always be questionable. We are living under the \u201cBlack child
you on your own\u201d circumstances. How can a black man succeed, break the
poverty chain and generational curses if their lives don\u2019t matter? I think its
time we the youth of South Africa, raise the #BlackLivesMatter awareness and
stand in solidarity in one accord to end the Racism, inequalities, political and
social diversities and say, \u201cTake care of black lives matters, because BLACK
LIVES MATTERS\u201d.
This is my own opinion and I am open for discussion and questions based on
my above statement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Precious Zinhle Ntuli During days like these where cost of living is too high and the current state ofour economy, high rate of unemployment, inflation rate, fuel hikes, peoplehave been struggling to keep up and have smooth sailing lives especially blackpeople in South Africa as they are being treated unfairly compared to otherraces by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":1198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44],"tags":[109],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1394,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kathradafoundation.org\/essay-competition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}