South Africa’s new apartheid?

The widening gap between South Africa’s rich and poor is one of the greatest disparities in the world.

Millions of South Africans, living below the poverty line, are still reeling from the legacy of the apartheid era which ended in 1994.

When anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, of the African National Congress was elected president in 1994, he promised redistribution of land to black South Africans as well as a ban on evictions, overturning decades of laws that denied black South Africans basic rights, and forcefully removed them from their homes.

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But 16 years later, only a small fraction of the land owned by whites has been distributed, and many black South Africans have been driven out of their shelters by the very same government that promised to fight for their rights.

On the next Riz Khan show, we ask: Is class-based discrimination South Africa’s new apartheid?

We speak with Dara Kell, the co-director of documentary Dear Mandela which highlights the forced evictions in post-apartheid South Africa; and S’bu Zikode, the president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, one of the largest organisations of the South African shack dwellers movement.

This episode of Riz Khan aired from Tuesday, November 23, 2010.