Separate development as a framework for peaceful change in South Africa

Abstract

The policy of separate development as a framework for development in South Africa is ana‐lised within the context of adopting nation‐building and socio‐economic progress as the joint objectives towards which change should be directed. The crucial determinents of the process of development are identified as (i) the plural (segmented) population structure based on racial and cultural differentiators; (ii) the historical pattern of interaction between the major population groups based on some form of social, political and geographical separation coupled with an increasing measure of interdependence in the economic sphere, and (iii) the peculiar configuration of the prevailing power structure characterised by the concentration of most effective forms of formal or institutional political and economic power in the hands of the Whites.

To attain its policy objectives, the National Party government launched an elaborate programme directed towards the systematic disentanglement of the various non‐White racial and ethnic groups from the social, economic and political structures of the Whites and the creation of separate arrangements and opportunities for the progressive self‐fulfillment of each major group in accordance with its own traditions and values, and where practicable to develop into independent states within their own territories. An outline is given of the divergent ways in which official programmes of action affect the major non‐White population groups — the Blacks, Coloureds and Indians.

In conclusion a brief assessment is made of the problems obstructing the successfull implementation of the policy of separate development.