XXX Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 19–21 июня 2019 г. Т. 2

Секция XIX 256 XXX Международный Конгресс по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки Social and political scientists, writers, publicists, even ordinary people are trying to find ways of convergence, ways to solve common problems. The situation today is a stalemate. People are ready for dialogue. The government is not. Let us also try to reflect as far as possible the spectrum of contradictions that marked the crisis of social, political and economic development of one of the richest and most promising countries on the African continent. The stumbling block of modern South African society is apartheid. Has this system added privileges to the white minority? Did it benefit the whites? Here is Leow&Kendall`s answer to this question “<…> almost every apartheid law passed prior to 1948 aimed at protecting whites from competition. In the short term, these laws did keep some whites employed who would otherwise not have been<…>in the long term they benefited no one, and they stopped South Africa from becoming one of the richest countries on earth.” 1 Other questions emerged are: Will the recovery of modern SouthAfrican society help if racial categories are eliminated? Is it worth the white minority to claim a new identity — the African one? Here is Sally Matthews` answer. “<…> eschewing whiteness and claiming another identity <…> while enjoying and defending privileges obtained through racist conquest and domination, is disingenuous. <…> Addressing continuing racism is not so much a matter of changing the ways in which people identify, but rather about changing the way in which society is structured and the way in which people behave towards each other” 2 . Is there any hope for a progressive development at the present stage? Most researchers agree that it is time to make decisions for newAfrican elites. This applies not only to South Africa and affects all spheres of public life: education, medical care, youth unemployment, forced migration of various categories of people, etc. Here is the opinion of H. Giliomee: “<…> South Africans had it right in the late 1986 when large majorities in a sample of people living in<…>the Witwatersrand preferred a joint government in which no groups dominated. Black support was as high as 75 %. The idea that South Africa could evolve into a liberal democracy and remain stable was a pipe dream that only some academics can believe in. <…> a government of national unity is the only system that can get us out of the mess <…>” 3 Coming through these quite comprehensive answers, we are to define the most prominent scenarios of the might be future of South Africa. 1 Leon Louw& Frances Kendall. SouthAfrica. The Solution //Amagi Publications (PVT) Ltd. 1989. P. 64 2 Matthews S. Shifting White identities in South Africa: White Africanness and the struggle for racial justice // UNISA Phronimon , Vol.16, Number 2, 2015. P. 123–124. 3 Giliomee H. What future for South Africa? (Published 19.07.2017). https://www.poli- ticsweb.co.za/opinion/what-future-for-south-africa.