Aparthied

The Group Areas Act affected the lives of thousands of people, in that many people were forcibly removed from their homes because they were living in mixed race areas that the government had allocated to other races, usually whites. Whole communities were transported by the police to new areas far away from their old homes, which were often bulldozed to the ground. In rural areas any blacks who farmed in white areas were removed, to reduce the competition to white farmers. This had an overwhelming impact on traditional society, which was often based on land ownership and the possession of cattle. Families were broken down by the Pass laws, which made it impossible for a man to bring his family with him when he went to work in town. Men lived in hostels in the townships, while their families stayed at home in poverty in the rural areas. The poverty cycle has been continuous due to unemployment due to lack of skills as a result most parents cannot afford paying for their children school fees and some children may have to leave school in order to get money to feed their family and some choose crime. Because poverty was so widespread, most young men weren't even able to pay a bride price. Not only where the effects of apartheid was bad there were also some good things such as education. Since 1970 the budget for black education was raised by about 30% per year every year, more than any other government department. In the period 1955 -1984 the amount of black school students increased 31 times from 35,000 to 1,096 000. 65% of black South African children were at school compared to Egypt 64%, Nigeria 57%, Ghana52%, Tanzania50% and Ethiopia 29%. In South Africa, the whites built 15 new classrooms for blacks every working day, every year. At 40 children per class it meant space for an additional 600 black students every day (Betty) All of these events and more had irreversible effects in South Africa. But the system of apartheid could not last forever. Inevitably it would fall and in 1990 the African National Congress took power with Nelson Mandela as President. Nelson Mandela had been jailed for more than 20 years for his struggle to abolish apartheid. For the first time, South Africa was a liberated and equal nation. For the first time the true history of South Africa was acknowledged.