Globalization In South Africa

The problem with the introduction of globalization and the democratization process in African countries is that, it did not incorporate African ethos into this intervention, as a result, African culture, political system, traditional ethics were marginalized. Africa not only became a follower but remained subservient to the West for its own development. For instance, Nigeria relied on the MTN multinational corporation to boost its Gross Domestic Product. In South Africa, Eskom is an internationally owned multinational corporation that defaults with its electric supply. The hard knock is felt by domestic businesses, the local consumers, ordinary citizen who pays rates, everyone in South Africa except for Eskom’s country of origin.

These examples

The economic crisis was noticeable at all levels and in all areas. There was a substantial decline in the industrial and agricultural production per capita. There was a big drop in average consumption of goods and services. Public and private investment fell hastily. Real wages and salaries declined sharply for most categories of workers. The rates of urban unemployment went up. The per capita volume and quality of essential services such as health, education, housing and water deteriorated in most countries. The physical infrastructure of roads, electricity, communications and building suffered from disrepair and poor maintenance (Ghai, 2000: 2).

Sub-Saharan Africa external debt rose to $227.2 billion in 1996 as against$84.2 billion in 1980 while the region's total of disbursed public and publicly guaranteed debt was estimated at over $169 billion by 1996. Total Debt service as a percentage of GNP rose from 3.6 percent in 1980 to 5 percent in1996 (World Bank, 1998: 240-244). Ironically, as the external debt and the cost of servicing them increased, foreign aid began to

These strategies considered industrialization to be the engine of economic growth and the key to the modernization of traditional economies, fundamentally because of the uncertainty over the outlook for commodity exports and the acknowledged desire to reduce dependency on imported manufactured goods. African policymakers took a stance; in affirming that governments should play a central role in implementing these strategies. As a result, with the full support of creditors, multiyear development plans were devised. According to McCarthy (1994) they involved investments in a vast array of basic industries with concomitant implementation of an arsenal of price control regulations and exchange allocations