NPA’s support to the people of South Africa is traced back in the 1970s and 1980s campaigning against apartheid in South Africa. After the un-banning of political parties in 1990 and the election of the democratic government in 1994, NPA saw the importance to continue support the people of South Africa in Nation Building, Reconstruction and Development.
Norwegian Peoples Aid-South Africa (NPA-South Africa) from 2004 to 2007 will work on Violence Against Women, Land and Resource Rights, and Democratic rights and participation, with specific focus to Youth rights and the right to participate.It is also important to note that NPA’s support to South Africa will be limited as compared to other Less Developed Countries (LDC) since South Africa is a Middle Income Country.
1. Country Profile
South Africa is country that was under the rule of the colonials since 1700 and 1800 and in 1948 its sovereignty was hijacked by the Apartheid governed which regarded blacks as second hand citizens and treated them as foreigners in their own country. This oppressive government imprisoned and/or killed political activists and drove others to exile. The apartheid government forcefully removed the black people from the fertile land or economically active areas and introduced the system of divide and rule which resulted in the creation of homeland states for the blacks which were 95% rural and generated poverty amongst blacks. In 1990 the apartheid, under pressure from the internal instability and international sanctions, un-banned all political parties and released political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela.
In 1994 the people of South Africa ushered the first democratic government into power with the mandate to transform and develop the country and its people. The country is presently characterised as follows:
Area : 1,223,201 km
Population : 43,054 million, Youth (%), Females (%), Males (%)
Capital : Tshwane
Languages : Afrikaans, English, IsiNdebele, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, SiSwati, TshiVenda and XiTsonga.
Inflation Rate : 12%
HIV/AIDS prevalence : 5.6 million (3,1 million are women, 2,4 million men and 96 228 babies) South Africans were estimated to be HIV positive by the end of 2003, a rise of 300,000 when compared to estimates of 2002. The highest prevalence was recorded in KwaZuluNatal province (37,5%) followed by Mpumalanga (32,6%) and Free State (30,1%) respectively, while Limpopo (17,5%), Northern Cape (16,7%) and Western Cape (13,1%)are the least affected.
Violence Against Women: Statistics in South Africa indicate that; every four women is abused by her partner and every six days a woman in South Africa is killed by her partner, and every 83 seconds a woman is raped. In response to these high levels of violence against women, the government amended the Sexual Offences Bill by also making it compulsory for rape offenders to undergo HIV testing within a specific period after the alleged sexual offence was committed. The state has also amended the Domestic Violence Act and established special courts for domestic violence cases.
Land Reform: The Land Act of 1913, enacted by the Apartheid government, codified into law the land dispossession suffered by blacks in the hands of descendants of European settlers, resulting in 26 million landless blacks and less than 50,000 whites owning 80% of the land. The pariah status of the black majority ended with the advent of democracy in 1994 when the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994 was legislated to redress the pain of 1913 Land Act. However, 10 years later only 3% of the land has been redistributed to blacks against, a far cry from the 30% promised by the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) in the first five years (1994-1999). At current speed it may take up to 100 years to return only about 30% of agricultural land to blacks. One of the main stumbling blocks to make reasonable progress in land reform is funding since about R 13 billion would be required to pay the current land owners while the 2004/5 budget allocated is R 2 billion.
Youth Development: The majority of young people in South Africa live in poverty and are vulnerable and powerless regarding the decision and choices pertaining to the quality of their lives. Their education levels are quite low and 40,9% of them are unemployed, and this is severest among the African, female and rural youth. One other problem amongst youth is the high prevalence of early parenthood. In response to these appealing conditions, government established a National Youth Commission (NYC) to advocate youth rights and insure that government departments are youth conscious and friendly. One of the major achievements of the NYC is the introduction of Tertiary Education Fund-providing educational loans to needy students, Umsobovu Youth Fund-providing financial and technical support to young entrepreneurs, and Child Support Grant-for children under the age of 11 from poor families.
The country is administered under the nine provincial governments. NPA-South Africa works in three provinces, namely Gauteng, KwaZuluNatal and Limpopo. The last two consists of more than sixty percent of rural population which under resourced and less privileged while the first one is known as the economic hub of South Africa and is overcrowded with slums and informal settlements.
