Insecurity and education in South Africa after 1994

Abstract

This chapter provides an introspective and retrospective analysis based on the strides achieved and challenges experienced en route to advancing development in post- apartheid South Africa. It also examines the impact of violent community protests on educational outcomes. The authors view violent community protests as a key element of insecurity in South Africa. South Africa is suffering from what Maphosa and Keasley (2014) call negative peace, that is, an absence of violence such as systemic exclusion and skewed development that results in the insecurity that we elaborate below. For the South African case, insecurity results from violent behaviour (armed and unarmed), looting, vandalism of property, and threats to peace in schools. The authors appreciate that education is a key factor in the theory of the developmental state. Many countries that developed and reversed inequalities in their societies managed to do so through prioritizing education and making it a fundamental pillar of their developmental trajectory. The Asian Tigers are typical examples of progress anchored in an education that is responsive to their developmental agenda.