Nelson Mandela’s economic legacy: a rapid turnaround after a long struggle
Anna Sonny, 6 December 2013
Nelson Mandela, the former South African President who led his country out of apartheid, died at the age of 95 on Thursday 5th December. He will be remembered as the man who achieved the seemingly impossible peaceful transition to democracy in a tinderbox of racial tension.
In 1994, when Mandela came to power, his party faced an economy that had been left in tatters by decades of apartheid; growth had been under 1% for most of it, while the ‘homelands’ – the supposedly sovereign states where black Africans were forced to live with no freedom to move or look elsewhere for jobs – restricted economic productivity and kept the black majority in acute poverty.
During the 1980s, boycotts and trade sanctions from the international community who rallied against the oppressive regime eventually weakened the government enough to bring its proponents to the negotiating table, but had a severely negative impact on the economy.
A programme of political and economic restructuring meant growth increased to 3% under Mandela. Trade sanctions were lifted during the 90s as South Africa not only lifted its own internal barriers but was integrated into the global economy. Over the period 1993-2008 the average personal incomes for Africans increased by 93%. South Africa’s experience as a free, democratic nation led to the creation of a black middle class, and the country is now the largest economy on the continent.
Challenges still remain, however. Unemployment is high, at 24.7%, and is particularly high amongst those under the age of 35. This age bracket, which makes up 40% of South Africa’s population, is the generation that grew up under apartheid, and struggle to find work due to illiteracy and lack of skills.
There is no doubt that the country has some way to go in terms of reducing poverty, unemployment and inequality, but it has certainly come a long way very quickly. After spending 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela made history by becoming South Africa’s first black President. His own long walk to freedom mirrored the struggles of his people against an oppressive regime that came shockingly close to entering the twenty-first century. After almost half a century of apartheid, the country’s rapid turnaround in the first few decades has been remarkable.