AFTER three weeks of travelling around in South Africa, I’m still unsure of how I feel about the country. On the one hand, it has much to offer tourists in terms of stunning landscape, abundant wildlife and excellent food and drink. The tourism infrastructure is highly developed, with comfortable hotels, efficient transport links and upmarket shopping to rival Dubai’s. And yet, for a conscious observer, there is much that is disturbing in the form of desperately poor slums that orbit large, well-off cities, and their disenfranchised population.

All countries suffer from income disparities and South Africa is nowhere near the top of this list. The problem is that almost all the poor happen to be black. And once colour determines your economic status, the visitor can be excused for believing that 22 years after the end of apartheid, little has changed for the country’s black population.

Most of the rich blacks have climbed up the economic ladder by virtue of being connected to the ruling African National Congress. A network of political patronage has created a culture of entitlement that has virtually ended meritocracy.

Contracts and jobs are awarded on the basis of political connections. President Jacob Zuma has acquired a reputation for corruption and nepotism.

And most disastrously, standards at schools have been steadily eroded to make it possible for more black students to pass. Writing recently in The Star, the vice-chancellor of Free State University documented the steady decline in passing grades, and the precipitous drop in the number of students really qualified to matriculate from high school.

As we in Pakistan have discovered to our cost, few things are deadlier than falling educational standards as this single factor impinges on every aspect of society and the economy. In our case, privatisation of educational institutions by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s caused the start of the rot; in South Africa, at the end of apartheid and the election of a popular government led by the ANC, many competent white teachers were offered attractive termination terms to make room for inexperienced blacks. And when many students failed school-leaving exams, pass marks were lowered to 30pc. Even then, large numbers continue to fail.

This has implications for university education obviously, as well as, for job prospects. The government has introduced many reverse discrimination measures to compensate for the black-white imbalance thus created. Many white businessmen complain of being forced to take on black partners who contribute little to the business, and turn up only to demand their share of the profits.

And yet, before we beat the meritocracy drum, a visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg is required for a glimpse of the black side of the South African coin. In this imaginatively and sensitively laid out facility, the visitor is given a glimpse of life under apartheid. The lives of blacks, Indians and ‘coloureds’ are revealed through a series of individual displays containing faded photographs, diaries and official documents including the hated passes needed for blacks to enter white districts. Old newsreels and television interviews amplify the angry spirit of the times. ‘White Only’ signs emphasise the injustice that was taken for granted in that period.

Although 22 years have passed since apartheid was officially dismantled, increasing numbers of blacks see that white dominance has been replaced by a black political elite sucking at the teat of the ANC. For these mostly young people, the ANC is an agent for the black bourgeoisie that has formed a partnership with the white middle class, and this duopoly is running the country to its own advantage. Meanwhile, the black underclass continues to suffer unending social and economic deprivation.

Last year, when yet another university fee increase was announced, students took to the streets in a series of violent demonstrations that shook the government, and forced it to withdraw its decision. At the time, the Twitter hashtag #feesmustfall was born, and has become a rallying cry for radical young South Africans.

In a recent issue of the excellent fortnightly Mail & Guardian, Sipho Hlongwane writes:

“The debates about social and economic transformation have receded from their high points… The ANC must also grapple with the irony that, as a party of government, further transformation requires it to break and remake a system it worked very hard to join. The vast patronage network built around the reallocation of state resources and black economic empowerment deals for a connected few further reinforces its position as a protector of the system.”

The reality is that decolonisation has not led to the kind of level playing field most black South Africans had envisaged in the early, euphoric days of the post-apartheid era. To make matters worse, most of those driving around in swanky limousines and living in posh areas are still white. One huge difference between our post-colonial experience in South Asia and that in South Africa is that in the former case, almost all white colonials went back in 1947. This did not happen in 1994 when the apartheid regime fell in South Africa, and national elections ushered in the ANC. Thanks largely to Nelson Mandela’s call for peace and reconciliation, there was no bloodshed at the time of liberation.

Now, a recurring fear among white South Africans — many of whom can trace their presence to colonials who arrived in Africa in the 17th century — is that the country will go the way of Zimbabwe. Here, under Robert Mugabe, a thriving economy has been mismanaged to the point where its currency is worthless, and many are malnourished due to chronic food shortage. Highly productive white farmers have been driven out and many Zimbabweans have been forced to look for work abroad.

So for both blacks and white South Africans, the post-apartheid era has raised many questions they continue to grapple with, with no clear answer in sight. But most of them are rallying around the Twitter hashtag #Zumamustfall.

Twitter: @irfan_husain

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016