South African Aparthied (1948-1990)?

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Apartheid (meaning separateness in Afrikaans, cognate to English apart and hood) was a system of
racial segregation in South Africa from 1948, and was dismantled in a series of negotiations from
1990 to 1993, culminating in democratic elections in 1994. Apartheid was designed to form a legal
framework for continued economic and political dominance by people of European descent.
The rules of Apartheid meant that people were legally classified into a racial group the main ones
being Black, White, Coloured and Asian (consisting of Indians and Pakistanis) and were separated
from each other on the basis of the legal classification. The Black majority, in particular, legally
became citizens of particular bantustans (homelands) that were nominally sovereign nations but
operated more akin to United States Indian Reservations, Canadian First Nations reserves, or
Australian aboriginal reserves. In reality, however, a majority of Black South Africans never resided
in these "homelands."
In practice, this prevented non-white people even if actually resident in white South Africa from
having a vote or influence, restricting their rights to faraway homelands that they may never have
visited. Education, medical care, and other public services were segregated, and those available to
black people were generally inferior.
Creation of Apartheid
[edit] Racial segregation and colonialism prior to Apartheid
For more information on the period of history leading up to apartheid, see History of South Africa.
The first recorded use of the word "apartheid" ([.p().tet] or [-taid]) was in 1917 during a speech by
Jan Christiaan Smuts, who later became Prime Minister of South Africa in 1919. Although the
creation of apartheid is usually attributed to the Afrikaner-dominated government of 1948-1994, it is
partially a legacy of British colonialism which introduced a system of pass laws in the Cape Colony
and Natal during the 19th century. This resulted from the regulating the movement of blacks from
the tribal regions to the areas occupied by whites and coloureds, and which were ruled by the
British. There were similar regulations in Australia and New Caledonia (Code de L'indigenat). Pass
laws not only restricted the movement of blacks into these areas but also prohibited their movement
from one district to another without a signed pass. Blacks were not allowed onto streets of towns in
the Cape Colony and Natal after dark and they had to carry a pass at all times. Gandhi, a young
lawyer at the time, cut his political teeth organising non-violent protests against these measures.
The practice of apartheid can thus be viewed as a continuation, magnification and extension of the
segregationist policies of previous White colonial administrations in what is now South Africa.
Examples include the 1913 Land Act and the various workplace "colour bars". These laws flowed
from the peace treaty signed between the Boer Republics and the British Empire at the end of the
Second Boer War of 1899-1902. However, it is claimed that the original idea behind the concept of
apartheid was more one of political separation (later called "grand apartheid") than segregation
(later called "petty apartheid"). For instance, during the Second World War, Smuts' United Party
government began to move away from the rigid enforcement of segregationist laws.
[edit] The 1948 elections and the group areas act

In the run-up to the 1948 elections, the National Party (NP) campaigned on its policy of apartheid.
The NP narrowly defeated Smuts' United Party, and formed a coalition government with the
Afrikaner Party (AP), under Protestant cleric Daniel Francois Malan's leadership. It immediately
began implementing apartheid: legislation was passed prohibiting miscegenation (mixed-race
marriage), individuals were classified by race, and a classification board was created to rule in
questionable cases. The Group Areas Act of 1950 became the heart of the apartheid system designed
to geographically separate the racial groups. The Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya which lasted from
1952 to 1960 may have influenced both thinking and policies in South Africa. The Separate
Amenities Act of 1953 created, among other things, separate beaches, buses, hospitals, schools and
universities. The existing pass laws were tightened further: blacks and coloureds were compelled to
carry identity documents. These identity documents became a sort of passport by which prevention
of migration to 'white' South Africa could be enforced. Blacks were prohibited from living in (or even
visiting) 'white' towns without specific permission. For Blacks, living in the cities was normally
restricted to those who were employed in the cities. Direct family relatives were excluded, thus
separating wives from husbands and parents from children.
[edit] The disenfranchisement of coloured voters
J.G. Strijdom, who succeeded Malan as Prime Minister, moved to strip coloureds and blacks of what
few voting rights they had. The previous government had first introduced the Separate
Representation of Voters Bill in parliament in 1951. However, its validity was challenged in court by
a group of four voters[1] who were supported by the United Party. The Cape Supreme Court upheld
the act, but the Appeal Court upheld the appeal and found the act to be invalid. This was because a
two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament was needed in order to change the
entrenched clauses of the Constitution. The government then introduced the High Court of
Parliament Bill, which gave parliament the power to overrule decisions of the court. This too was
declared invalid by both the Cape Supreme Court and the Appeal Court. In 1955 the Strijdom
government increased the number of judges in the Appeal Court from five to eleven, and appointed
pro-Nationalist judges to fill the new places. In the same year they introduced the Senate Act, which
increased the senate from 49 seats to 89. Adjustments were made such that the NP controlled 77 of
these seats. Finally, in a joint sitting of parliament, the Separate Representation of Voters act was
passed in 1956, which removed coloureds from the common voters' roll in the Cape, and established
a separate voters' roll for them.
[edit] Legislature enacting Apartheid
The principal "apartheid laws" were as follows:
Amendment to The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)
Amendment to The Immorality Act (1950)
This law made it a criminal offence for a white person to have any sexual relations with a person of a
different race.
The Population Registration Act (1950)
This law required all citizens to be registered as black, white or coloured.
The Suppression of Communism Act (1950)

This law banned the South African Communist Party as well as any other party the government
chose to label as 'communist'. It made membership in the SACP punishable by up to 10 years'
imprisonment. The South African minister of justice, R.F. Swart, drafted the law.
The Group Areas Act (27 April 1950)
This law partitioned the country into different areas, with different areas being allocated to different
racial groups. This law represented the very heart of apartheid because it was the basis upon which
political and social separation was to be constructed.
Bantu Authorities Act (1951)
This law created separate government structures for black people.
Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act (1951)
This law allowed the government to demolish black shackland slums.
Native Building Workers Act and Native Services Levy (1951)
This law forced white employers to pay for the construction of proper housing for black workers
recognized as legal residents in 'white' cities.
The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953)
This law prohibited people of different races from using the same public amenities, such as drinking
fountains, restrooms, and so on.
The Bantu Education Act (1953)
This law brought all black schooling under government control, effectively ending mission-run
schools.
Bantu Urban Areas Act (1954)
This law curtailed black migration to the cities.
The Mines and Work Act (1956)
This law formalised racial discrimination in employment.
The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act (1958)
This law set up separate territorial governments in the 'homelands', designated lands for black
people where they could have a vote. The aim was that these homelands or 'bantustans' would
eventually become independent of South Africa. In practice, the South African government exercised
a strong influence over these separate states even after some of them became 'independent'.
Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959)
This law set up a mechanism to transfer capital to the homelands in order to create jobs there.

The Extension of University Education Act (1959)

This law created separate universities for Blacks, Coloureds and Indians.
Physical Planning and Utilisation of Resources Act (1967)
This law allowed the government to stop industrial development in 'white' cites and redirect such
development to homeland border areas. The aim was to speed up the relocation of blacks to the
homelands by relocating jobs to homeland areas.
Black Homeland Citizenship Act (1970)
This law changed the status of the inhabitants of the 'homelands' so that they were no longer
citizens of South Africa. The aim was to ensure whites became the demographic majority within
'white' South Africa.
The Afrikaans Medium Decree (1974)
This decree required the use of Afrikaans and English on a fifty-fifty basis in high schools outside the
homelands.
Apartheid was implemented by the law. The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act specifically
allowed government to provide different levels of amenities for the different races. The following
restrictions were not only social but also strictly enforced by law. For example:
Non-whites. were not allowed to run businesses or professional practices in those areas designated
as "white South Africa" without a permit. They were supposed to move to the black "homelands" and
set up businesses and practices there.
Transport and civil facilities were segregated. Black buses, known as "green" buses because they
had a green marker on the front windscreen, stopped at black bus stops and white buses at white
ones. 1st and 2nd class train carriages were for whites only. 3rd class carriages were for blacks only.
Hospitals and ambulances were segregated. The white hospitals were generally of a very good
standard with well-educated staff and ample funds, while black hospitals were seriously understaffed
and under funded, with many black areas without a hospital at all.[3]
Blacks were excluded from living or working in white areas, unless they had a pass nicknamed the
dompas ("dumb pass" in Afrikaans). Only blacks with "Section 10" rights (those who had migrated to
the cities before World War II) were excluded from this provision. Strictly speaking, whites also
required passes in black areas.
A pass was issued only to a black person with approved work. Spouses and children had to be left
behind in non-white areas. Many white households employed blacks as domestic workers, who were
allowed to live on the premises often in small rooms external to the family home.
A pass was issued for one magisterial district (usually one town) confining the holder to that area
only.
Being without a valid pass made a person subject to immediate arrest and summary trial, often
followed by deportation to the person's homeland and prosecution of the employer. Police vans

patrolled the "white" areas to round up "illegal" blacks found there without passes.
Black people were not allowed to employ white people. Although trade unions for black and
"coloured" (mixed race) workers had existed since the early 20th century, it was not until the 1980s
reforms that membership of a trade union by black workers became legal.
In the 1970s each black child's education cost the state only a tenth of each white child's. The Bantu
Education Act specifically aimed to teach blacks only the basic skills they would need in working for
whites. Higher education was provided in separate universities and colleges after 1959. Very few
places were provided for blacks and all the existing and reputable universities remained white.
Black police were not allowed to arrest whites.
Blacks were not allowed to buy hard liquor (although this was relaxed later).
Black areas rarely had plumbing or electricity.
Public beaches were racially segregated, with the best ones reserved for whites (white beaches were
typically developed; whereas black beaches were situated in remote areas with little or no
development). Public swimming pools and libraries were segregated, and there were practically no
pools nor libraries for blacks. Pedestrian bridges, drive-in cinema parking spaces, graveyards, parks,
pedestrian crossings, public toilets and taxis were also segregated.
Cinemas and theatres in "white areas" (i.e. all significant towns and economic areas) were not
allowed to admit blacks. There were practically no cinemas or theatres or restaurants or hotels in
black areas. Most restaurants and hotels in white areas were not allowed to admit blacks except as
staff, unless the government had given specific prior permission (such as when African diplomats
needed to be accommodated). Black Africans were prohibited from attending "white" churches
under the Churches Native Laws Amendment Act of 1957. This was, however, never rigidly
enforced, and churches were one of the few places races could mix without the interference of the
law.
After 1948, sex and marriage between the races were prohibited. A white driver was not allowed to
have a black in the front of the car if that person was of a different sex.
Taxation was unequal the yearly income at which tax became payable by blacks was 360 rand (30
rand a month), while the white threshold was much higher, at 750 Rand (62.5 rand per month). On
the other hand, the taxation rate for whites was considerably higher than that for blacks.
Most blacks were stripped of their South African citizenship when the "homelands" were declared
"independent". Thus, they were no longer able to apply for South African passports. Eligibility
requirements for a passport had been difficult for blacks to meet, the government contending that a
passport was a privilege, not a right. As such, the government did not grant many passports to
blacks.
Apartheid pervaded South African culture, as well as the law. This was reinforced in many media,
and the lack of opportunities for the races to mix in a social setting entrenched social distance
between people.
Proponents of apartheid argued that once apartheid had been implemented, blacks would no longer
be citizens of South Africa; rather, they would become citizens of the independent "homelands". In

terms of this model, blacks became (foreign) "guest labourers" who merely worked in South Africa
as the holders of temporary work permits.
The South African government attempted to divide South Africa into a number of separate states.
Some eighty-seven percent of the land was reserved for whites, coloureds and Indians. About
thirteen percent of the land was divided into ten 'homelands' for blacks (80% of the population) and
some were given independence, though this was never recognised by any other country. Once the
homelands were granted 'independence', those who were designated as belonging to such a
homeland had their South African citizenship revoked, and replaced with homeland citizenship.
These people would now have passports instead of passbooks. Those remaining parts of the
'autonomous' homelands also had their South African citizenship circumscribed, and remained less
than South African[4]. The South African government attempted to draw an equivalence between
their view of black "citizens" of the "homelands" and the problems other countries faced through
entry of illegal immigrants.
While other countries were dismantling discriminatory legislation and becoming more liberal on
issues of race, South Africa was continuing to construct a labyrinth of racial legislation. Some white
South Africans' support of apartheid was motivated by demographics as it allowed them to continue
to dominate a country in which they were a shrinking minority.
During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the government implemented a policy of 'resettlement', to
force people to move to their designated 'group areas'. Some argue that over three and a half million
people were forced to resettle during this period. The victims of these removals included:
Labour tenants on white-owned farms
The inhabitants of the so-called 'black spots', areas of African-owned land surrounded by white farms
The families of workers living in townships close to the homelands
'Surplus people' from urban areas, including thousands of people from the Western Cape (which was
declared a 'Coloured Labour Preference Area') who were moved to the Transkei and Ciskei
homelands.
The best-publicised forced removals of the 1950s occurred in Johannesburg, when 60,000 people
were moved to the new township of Soweto (an acronym for South Western Townships).
Until 1955, Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where blacks were allowed to own
land, and was slowly developing into an entirely multiracial settlement. As industry in Johannesburg
grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient
and close to town. It could also boast the only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg[5].
It was, however, one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg and held an almost symbolic
importance for the 50,000 blacks it contained, both in terms of its sheer vibrance and its unique
culture. Despite a vigorous ANC protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of
Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early
hours, heavily armed police entered Sophiatown to force residents out of their homes and load their
belongings onto government trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land, thirteen miles
from the city centre, known as Meadowlands (now part of Soweto), that the government had
purchased in 1953. Sophiatown was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new white suburb named Triomf
(Triumph) was built in its place. This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself
over the next few years, and was not limited to people of African descent. Forced removals from

areas like Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban, and District Six in Cape Town, where 55,000
coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on the Cape Flats, were carried
out under the Group Areas Act of 1950. Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian and Chinese
people, and a further 40,000 white people, were moved in terms of the Group Areas Act.
[edit] Colour classification
Main article: Coloured
The population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian & Pakistani), and
"Coloured". (These terms are capitalised to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The
Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay
ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often
arbitrary) criteria at the time that the Population Registration Act was implemented to determine
who was Coloured. Minor officials would administer tests to determine if someone should be
categorised either Coloured or Black, or if another person should be categorised either Coloured or
White. Different members of the same family found themselves in different race groups. Further
tests determined membership of the various sub-racial groups of the Coloureds. Many of those who
formerly belonged to this racial group are opposed to the continuing use of the term "coloured" in
the post-apartheid era, though the term no longer signifies any legal meaning. The expressions 'socalled Coloured' (Afrikaans sogenaamde Kleurlinge) and 'brown people' (bruin mense) have acquired
a wide usage in recent years.
Discriminated against by apartheid, Coloureds were as a matter of state policy forced to live in
separate townships in some cases leaving homes their families had occupied for generations and
received an inferior education, though better than that provided to Black South Africans. They
played an important role in the struggle against apartheid: for example the African Political
Organisation established in 1902 had an exclusively coloured membership.
During most of the era of legally formalised apartheid, from about 1950 to 1983, voting rights were
essentially denied to Coloureds in the same way that they were denied to blacks (see Coloured). In
1983, the Constitution was reformed to allow the Coloured and Asian minorities participation in
separate Houses in a Tricameral Parliament, a development which enjoyed limited support. The
theory was that the Coloured minority could be granted voting rights, but the Black majority were to
become citizens of independent homelands. These separate arrangements continued until the
abolition of apartheid.
[edit] Other minorities
Defining its East Asian population, which is a tiny minority in South Africa but who do not physically
appear to belong any of the four designated groups, was a constant dilemma for the apartheid
government. Chinese South Africans who were descendants of migrant workers who came to work in
the gold mines around Johannesburg in the late 19th century, were usually classified as 'Indian' and
hence 'non-white', whereas immigrants from Republic of China (Taiwan), South Korea, and Japan,
with which South Africa maintained diplomatic relations, were considered 'honorary white', and thus
granted the same privileges as whites. It should be noted that "Non-Whites" including Blacks were
sometimes granted an 'honorary white' status as well, based on the government's belief that they
were "civilized" and possessed Western values. This was frequently the case with African-Americans.
[edit] Internal resistance

[edit] The ANC and the PAC

These developments pushed the hitherto relatively conservative African National Congress into
action. In 1949, they developed an agenda that for the first time advocated open resistance in the
form of strikes, acts of public disobedience, and protest marches. These continued throughout the
1950s and resulted in occasional violent clashes. In June 1955, at a congress held near Kliptown,
near Johannesburg, a number of organizations, including the Indian Congress and the ANC, adopted
a Freedom Charter. This articulated a vision of a non-racial democratic state and is still central to
the ANC's vision of a new South Africa.
[edit] The Sharpeville Massacre
Main article: Sharpeville Massacre
In 1960, a group of disenchanted ANC members, seeking to sever all ties with white government,
broke away to form the more militant Pan Africanist Congress. First on the PAC's agenda was a
series of nationwide demonstrations against the hated pass laws. On 21 March 1960, black people
congregated in Sharpeville, a township near Vereeniging, to demonstrate against the requirement
for blacks to carry identity cards (under the Pass Law). Estimates of the size of the crowd vary
widely, from 5000 up to as many as 20,000 with the larger figures coming from the police, wishing
to stress how much danger they had been in.[6][7] The crowd converged on the local police station,
singing and offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books. A group of about 300
police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 and injuring 186. All the victims were black, and
most of them had been shot in the back. The crowd was effectively unarmed; many witnesses stated
that the crowd was not violent, but Colonel J. Pienaar, the senior police officer in charge on the day,
said, "Hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do
these things they must learn their lesson the hard way". The event became known as the Sharpeville
Massacre. In its aftermath the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC).
The Sharpeville Massacre was a powerful factor in the ANC's decision to take up armed resistance
against the government. From 1961, in addition to peaceful protest actions and consumer boycotts,
the organisation adopted terrorist[8] tactics, such as intimidation, bombing, murder and sabotage.
Although their units detonated bombs in restaurants, shopping centres, cinemas and in front of
government buildings over the following years, the military wings of the ANC and PAC were not a
major military threat to the state, which had a monopoly of modern weapons.
[edit] Resistance goes underground
To many domestic and international onlookers, the struggle had crossed a crucial line at Sharpeville,
and there could no longer be any doubt about the nature of the white regime. In the wake of the
shooting, a massive stay-away from work was organised and demonstrations continued.
Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd declared a state of emergency, giving security forces the
right to detain people without trial. Over 18,000 demonstrators were arrested, including much of the
ANC and PAC leadership, and both organizations were banned. As activists continued to be arrested,
the ANC and PAC began a campaign of sabotage through the armed wings of their organisations,
Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, MK) and Poqo ("Pure" or "Alone"), respectively. In July
1963, members of the ANC underground movement, including Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and
Dennis Goldberg, were arrested.

Together with ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who had already been arrested on other charges, they
were tried for treason at the widely publicised Rivonia Trial. In June 1964, Mandela and seven others
were sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism. Oliver Tambo, another member of the ANC
leadership, managed to escape South Africa and was to lead the ANC in exile for another thirty
years.
The trial was condemned by the United Nations Security Council, and was a major force in the
introduction of international sanctions against the South African government. With the ANC, PAC
and South African Communist Party banned, and Mandela and his fellow leaders in jail or exile,
South Africa entered some of its most troubled times. Apartheid legislation was increasingly
enforced, and the walls between the races were built even higher, culminating in the creation of
separate Homelands for blacks. In 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed to death in parliament, but his
policies continued under B.J. Vorster and later P.W. Botha.
Black Consciousness Movement
During the 1970s, resistance again gained force, first channelled through trade unions and strikes,
and then spearheaded by the South African Students' Organisation under the charismatic leadership
of Steve Biko. Biko, a medical student, was the main force behind the growth of South Africa's Black
Consciousness Movement, which stressed the need for psychological liberation, black pride, and
non-violent opposition to apartheid[9].
In 1974 the government issued the Afrikaans Medium Decree which forced all schools for blacks to
use the Afrikaans language as the medium for instruction in mathematics, social sciences,
geography and history at the secondary school level. Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu
Education, was quoted as saying: "I have not consulted the African people on the language issue and
I'm not going to. An African might find that 'the big boss' spoke only Afrikaans or spoke only English.
It would be to his advantage to know both languages."[2]
The policy was deeply unpopular, since Afrikaans was regarded by some as the language of the
oppressor. On 30 April 1976, students at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike,
refusing to go to school. Their rebellion spread to other schools in Soweto. The students organised a
mass rally for 16 June, which turned violent police responded with bullets to stones thrown by the
students. The first student to be shot by the police was Hastings Ndlovu, aged 15. The image of
Hector Pieterson who was killed at age 12 became an international icon of the uprising. The official
death toll on the day was 23 dead, including the two children, but some placed it as high as 200. The
incident triggered widespread violence throughout South Africa, which claimed further lives.
On 18 August 1977, Steve Biko was arrested. Unidentified security police beat him until he lapsed
into a coma; he went without medical treatment for three days and finally died in Pretoria. At the
subsequent inquest, the magistrate ruled that no one was to blame, although the South African
Medical Association eventually took action against the doctors who had failed to treat Biko. South
Africa was never to be the same again. A generation of young blacks committed themselves to a
revolutionary struggle against apartheid under the catchphrase of "liberation before education," and
the black communities were politicised.
[edit] White resistance
While the majority of white South African voters supported the apartheid system, a substantial
minority opposed it. In parliamentary elections during the 1970s and 1980s between 15% and 20%
of white voters voted for the liberal Progressive Party, whose MP Helen Suzman provided for many

years the only Parliamentary opposition to apartheid. Suzman's critics argue that she did not achieve
any notable political successes, but helped to shore up claims by the Nationalists that internal,
public criticism of apartheid was permitted. Suzman's supporters point to her use of her
parliamentary privileges to help the poorest and most disempowered South Africans in any way she
could. Non-violent resistance to apartheid came from the Black Sash, an organisation of white
women formed in 1955 to oppose the removal of Coloured (mixed-race) voters from the Cape
Province voters' roll. Covert resistance was expressed by banned organisations like the largely white
South African Communist Party, whose leader Joe Slovo was also Chief of Staff of the ANC's armed
wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Whites also played a significant role in opposing apartheid during the
1980s through the United Democratic Front and End Conscription Campaign. Cultural opposition to
apartheid came from internationally known writers like Breyten Breytenbach, Andr Brink and Alan
Paton (who founded the South African Liberal Party) and clerics like Beyers Naud.
Some of the first violent resistance to the system was organised by the Africa Resistance Movement
(ARM) who were responsible for setting off bombs at power stations and notably the Park Station
bomb. The membership of this group was virtually all drawn from the marginalized white intellectual
scene.
[edit] International relations
Main article: Foreign relations of South Africa
South Africa officially took possession of South-West Africa after it was captured from the Germans
during World War I. Following the war, the Treaty of Versailles declared the territory to be a League
of Nations Mandate under South African administration. South Africa formally excluded Walvis Bay
from the mandate and annexed it as an exclave. The Mandate was supposed to become a United
Nations Trust Territory when League of Nations Mandates were transferred to the United Nations
(UN) following World War II, but the Union of South Africa refused to agree to allow the territory to
begin the transition to independence. Instead it was treated as a de facto 'fifth province' of the
Union. The South African government turned this mandate arrangement into a military occupation,
and extended apartheid to South-West Africa later re-named Namibia by the UN.
In 1960, South Africa's policies received international scrutiny when British Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan criticised them during his Wind of Change speech in Cape Town. Weeks later, tensions
came to a head in the Sharpeville Massacre resulting in more international condemnation. Soon
thereafter, Verwoerd announced a referendum on whether the country should sever links with the
British monarchy and become a republic instead. Verwoerd lowered the voting age for whites to 18
and included whites in South West Africa on the voter's roll. The referendum on 5 October that year
asked whites "Do you support a republic for the Union?" 52% voted 'Yes'.
As a consequence of this change of status, South Africa needed to reapply for continued membership
of the Commonwealth, with which it had privileged trade links. Even though India became an
independent state within the Commonwealth in 1947 it became clear that African and Asian member
states would oppose South Africa due to the apartheid policies being enforced. As a result, South
Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth on 31 May 1961, the day that the Republic came into
existence.
[edit] Sanctions
On 6 November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, condemning
South African apartheid policies. On 7 August 1963 the United Nations Security Council established

a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa. Following the Soweto uprising in 1976 and its brutal
suppression by the apartheid regime, the arms embargo was made mandatory by the UN Security
Council on 4 November 1977 and South Africa became increasingly isolated internationally.
Numerous conferences were held and the United Nations passed resolutions condemning South
Africa, including the World Conference Against Racism in 1978 and 1983. A significant divestment
movement started, pressuring investors to refuse to invest in South African companies or companies
that did business with South Africa. South African sports teams were barred from participation in
international events, and South African culture and tourism were boycotted.
After much debate, by the late 1980s the United States, the United Kingdom, and 23 other nations
had passed laws placing various trade sanctions on South Africa.[10] A divestment movement in
many countries was similarly widespread, with individual cities and provinces around the world
implementing various laws and local regulations forbidding registered corporations under their
jurisdiction from doing business with South African firms, factories, or banks.[11]
In an analysis of the effect of sanctions on South Africa by the FW de Klerk Foundation, it was
argued that they were not a leading contributor to the political reforms leading to the end of
Apartheid.[12] The analysis concluded that in many instances sanctions undermined effective reform
forces, such as the changing economic and social order within South Africa. Furthermore, it was
argued that forces encouraging economic growth and development resulted in a more international
and liberal outlook amongst South Africans, and were far more powerful agents of reform than
sanctions.
[edit] Western influence
While international opposition to apartheid grew, the Nordic countries in particular provided both
moral and financial support for the ANC. On 21 February 1986 a week before he was murdered
Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme made the keynote address to the Swedish People's Parliament
Against Apartheid held in Stockholm. In addressing the hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathizers as
well as leaders and officials from the ANC and the Anti-Apartheid Movement such as Oliver Tambo,
Palme declared:
"Apartheid cannot be reformed; it has to be eliminated."
Other Western countries adopted a more ambivalent position. Until 1986, both the Reagan and
Thatcher administrations in the US and UK followed a 'constructive engagement' policy with the
apartheid government, vetoing the imposition of UN economic sanctions on South Africa, as they
both fiercely believed in free trade, and seeing South Africa as a bastion against Marxist forces in
Southern Africa. Thatcher declared the ANC a terrorist organisation,[13], and in 1987 her
spokesman, Bernard Ingham, famously said that anyone who believed that the ANC would ever form
the government of South Africa was "living in cloud cuckoo land".[14]
By the late 1980s, however, with the tide of the Cold War turning and no sign of a political resolution
in South Africa, Western patience with the apartheid government began to run out. By 1989, a
bipartisan Republican/Democratic initiative in the US favoured economic sanctions, the release of
Nelson Mandela, and a negotiated settlement involving the ANC. Thatcher too began to take a
similar line but insisted on the suspension of the ANC's armed struggle.[15]
Some might argue that Britain's significant economic involvement in South Africa provided some
leverage with the South Africa government, with both the UK and the US applying pressure on the
government, and pushing for negotiations. However, neither Britain nor the US were willing to apply

economic pressure upon their multinational interests in South Africa, such as the mining company
Anglo American. A high-profile case claiming compensation from these companies was thrown out of
court in 2004,[16] even though there may have been more than enough moral justification to support
the claims.[17]
[edit] South African Border War
Main article: South African Border War
By 1966, SWAPO launched raids from sanctuaries in neighbouring countries against South Africa's
occupation of South-West Africa/Namibia. This conflict deepened after Angola gained its
independence in 1975 under communist leadership, the MPLA, and South Africa promptly
challenged them, allying with the Angolan rival party, UNITA. By the end of the 1970s, Cuba had
joined the fray, in one of several late Cold War flashpoints throughout Southern Africa. The
withdrawal of Cuban troops, abandonment of South Africa by its Western allies and the collapse of
the Eastern bloc (and of the Soviet Union more generally) paved the way for the independence for
Namibia in 1990.[18]
[edit] Total onslaught
By 1980, as international opinion turned decisively against the apartheid regime, the government
and much of the white population increasingly saw the country as a bastion besieged by communism
and black anarchy. Considerable effort was put into circumventing sanctions, and the government
even developed nuclear weapons, allegedly with the help of Israel.[19] Also, South Africa is the only
country to date that has developed and then voluntarily relinquished a nuclear arsenal.
Negotiating majority rule with the ANC was not considered an option (at least publicly); this left the
government to defend the country against external and internal threats through sheer military
might. A siege mentality developed among whites, and although many realised that a civil war
against the black majority could not be won, they preferred this to "giving in" to political reform.
Brutal police and military actions seemed entirely justifiable. Paradoxically, the international
sanctions that cut whites off from the rest of the world enabled black leaders to develop
sophisticated political skills, as those in exile forged ties with regional and world leaders.
The term 'front-line states' referred to the countries in Southern Africa geographically close to South
Africa. Although the front-line states were all opposed to apartheid, many were economically
dependent on South Africa. Thus, in 1980 they formed the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). The aim of SADCC was to promote economic development in the
region and to reduce dependence on South Africa. Furthermore, many SADCC members also allowed
the exiled ANC and PAC to establish bases in their countries.
Other African countries also contributed to the fall of apartheid. In 1978, Nigeria boycotted the
Commonwealth Games because New Zealand's sporting contacts with the South African government
were not considered to be in accordance with the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement. Nigeria also led the
32-nation boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games because of British prime minister Margaret
Thatcher's ambivalent attitude towards sporting links with South Africa, significantly affecting the
quality and profitability of the games and putting apartheid into the international spotlight.[20]
A number of African countries also contributed materially and morally to the resistance movement in
South Africa.

[edit] Cross Border Raids

South Africa had a policy to attack suspected 'terrorist' bases in neighbouring countries. These
attacks were mainly aimed at ANC, PAC and SWAPO bases and safe houses and were mostly in
retaliation for bomb explosions or sabotage by elements of the ANC, PAC and Swapo in South Africa
and Namibia. The country also aided organisations in surrounding countries who were actively
combatting the spread of communism in Southern Africa The results of these policies included:
Support for anti-government guerrilla groups such as UNITA in Angola and RENAMO in
Mozambique
South African Defence Force (SADF; now the South African National Defence Force; SANDF) hitsquad raids into front-line states. Bombing raids were also conducted into neighbouring states.
A full-scale invasion of Angola: this was partly in support of UNITA, but was also an attempt to strike
at SWAPO bases.
Targeting of exiled ANC leaders abroad: Joe Slovo's wife Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb in
Maputo, and 'death squads' of the Civil Co-operation Bureau and the Directorate of Military
Intelligence attempted to carry out assassinations on ANC targets in Brussels, Paris and Stockholm,
as well as burglaries and bombings in London.
In 1984 Mozambican president Samora Machel signed the Nkomati Accord with South Africa's
president P.W. Botha, in an attempt to rebuild Mozambique's economy. South Africa agreed to cease
supporting anti-government forces. In 1986 President Machel himself was killed in an air crash in
mountainous terrain near the South African border after returning from a meeting in Zambia. South
Africa was accused of continuing its aid to RENAMO and of having caused the crash using a new
advanced electronic beacon capable of luring aircraft into crashing. This was never proved and is
still a subject of controversy. The South African Margo Commission found that the crash was an
accident while a Soviet delegation issued a minority report implicating South Africa[21]
[edit] Conservatism
The National Party government implemented, alongside apartheid, a program of social conservatism.
Certain movies, gambling and other vices were banned. At the same time, it instituted the
International Freedom Foundation. Printed or filmed pornography (of even the mildest variety) was
banned and its possession was punishable by incarceration.
Television was not introduced until 1975 because it was viewed as immoral by the authorities. Even
after the introduction of TV, broadcasting was initially restricted to a few hours a day.
Sunday was considered holy. Cinemas, bottle stores and most other businesses were forbidden from
operating from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. Abortion and sex education were also
restricted; abortion was legal only in cases of rape or if the mother's life was threatened.
[edit] State security
Towards the end of the 1970s, the government became increasingly preoccupied with security. The
South African media had always been supportive of the regime, the Afrikaans-language press
particularly so. However, after the Soweto riots, the government began to impose more formal
measures of censorship to protect its interests.

Things changed even more with the coming to power of Prime Minister and later State President
P.W. Botha. Under Botha, while the government began reforming apartheid, the state security
apparatus grew even more. As states of emergency prompted by violence continued intermittently
throughout the 1980s, the government became increasingly dominated by Botha's circle of generals
and police chiefs.
Botha's years in power were marked by numerous military interventions in the states bordering
South Africa and by an extensive military and political campaign to eliminate SWAPO in Namibia.
Within South Africa, vigorous police action and strict enforcement of security legislation resulted in
hundreds of arrests and bannings and an effective end to the ANC's stepped-up campaign of
sabotage in the 1970s.
[edit] State of emergency
During the last years of apartheid rule in South Africa, the country was more or less in a constant
state of emergency.
Increasing civil unrest and township violence led to the government declaring a state of emergency
on 20 July 1985. Then president P.W. Botha declared a state of emergency in 36 magisterial
districts. Areas affected were the Eastern Cape, and the PWV region ("Pretoria, Witwatersrand,
Vereeniging"). Three months later the Western Cape was included as well. During this state of
emergency about 2,436 people were detained under the Internal Security Act. This act gave police
and the military sweeping powers. The government could implement curfews controlling the
movement of people. The president could rule by decree without referring to the constitution or to
parliament.
Four days before the 10-year commemoration of the Soweto uprising, another state of emergency
was declared on 12 June 1986 to cover the whole country. The government amended the Public
Security Act, expanding its powers to include the right to declare certain places "unrest areas". This
allowed the state to employ extraordinary measures to crush protests in these areas. The
government censor monitored the press and the publication of content related to all "unrest
activities". Despite the government's claims that the news media in South Africa was free, the
independent media in South Africa was forbidden from reporting on the state of emergency. The
state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) provided daily propaganda in
support of the government. This version of reality was challenged by a range of alternative
publications.
The state of emergency continued until 1990, when F.W. de Klerk became the State President, and
lifted the 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid group the African National Congress, the smaller
Pan Africanist Congress and the South African Communist Party. He also made his first public
commitment to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, returned to press freedom and suspend
the death penalty.
[edit] HIV/AIDS epidemic
In 1982, the first recorded death from AIDS occurred in the country. Within a decade, the number of
recorded AIDS cases (overwhelmingly in the black population) had risen to over 1,000, and by the
mid-1990s, it had reached 10,000.
In the late 1980s, the South African Chamber of Mines began an education campaign to try to stem
the rise of cases. But without a change in the underlying conditions of mine workers, a major factor

contributing to the epidemic, success could hardly be expected. Long periods away from home under
bleak conditions and a few days leave a month were the apartheid-induced realities of the life
thousands of miners and other labourers worked. Compounding the problem was the fact that as of
the mid-1990s, many health officials still focused more on the incidence of tuberculosis than HIV.
The most violent time of the 1980s was 198588, when the P.W. Botha government embarked on a
campaign to eliminate opposition. For three years police and soldiers patrolled South African towns
in armed vehicles, destroying black squatter camps and detained thousands of blacks and coloureds.
Some of those who were detained died in incidents ranging from outright murder by the authorities
to suicide. Exact numbers are impossible to ascertain but is estimated by some to be hundreds and
by others to be more than a thousand. Rigid censorship laws tried to conceal the events by banning
media and newspaper coverage.
The ANC and the PAC retaliated by exploding bombs in restaurants, shopping centres and in front of
government buildings such as magistrates courts, killing and maiming civilians and government
officials in the process. It was the ANC's goal to make black townships ungovernable by forcing
residents to stop paying for services and attacking town councillors and their families with petrol
bombs.
Residents who resisted such tactics were murdered by placing a burning tire around their necks, a
process known as necklacing. During ANC-enforced consumer boycotts residents were forced to eat
soap powder and drink kerosene if they were alleged to have bought from white-owned shops.
During this period an average of more than 100 people died as a result of black-on-black violence in
the black townships every month with the figure increasing to as high as 259 per month between
1990 and 1993.
In the early 1980s, the white government began to admit the need for change, due to a combination
of internal violence, international condemnation, and changing demographics whites constituted
only 16% of the total population and dropping, in comparison to 20% fifty years earlier. Recognising
the inevitability of change, P.W. Botha told white South Africans to "adapt or die". In 1984 some
reforms were introduced. Many of the apartheid laws were repealed, including the pass laws. A new
constitution was introduced, which gave limited representation to certain non-whites, although not
to the black majority. But Botha stopped short of full reform, often reiterating that he would only
negotiate with groups who did not have a policy of violence, and many blacks as well as the
international community felt that the changes were only cosmetic. Protests and resistance continued
full force, as South Africa became increasingly polarised and fragmented and unrest was
widespread. A white backlash also arose, giving rise to a number of neo-Nazi paramilitary groups,
notably the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), led by Eugne Terre'Blanche. The opposition
United Democratic Front (UDF) was also formed at this time. With a broad coalition of members, led
by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Reverend Allan Boesak, it called for the government to
abandon its proposed reforms, and instead to abolish apartheid and eliminate the homelands.
International pressures also increased as economic sanctions began to dig in harder and the value of
the rand collapsed. In 1985, the government declared a state of emergency that was to stay in effect
for the next five years. The media was censored, and by 1988, 30,000 people had been detained
without trial and thousands tortured. Media sympathy to the system was reaching a low.
In 1986, President Botha announced to parliament that South Africa had "outgrown" apartheid. The
NP government began a series of minor reforms in the direction of racial equality, while maintaining
an iron grip on the media and all anti-apartheid demonstrations. The police entered the townships
and Homelands in this time to clamp down strongly on any protests, killing many people in the

process which caused even larger protests. As the security situation in South Africa continued to
deteriorate, many white South Africans fled the country as refugees.
International pressure on Botha's government continued to grow, with the US and UK now actively
promoting the solution of a negotiated settlement with the black majority. Early in 1989 Botha
suffered a stroke, resigned on 13 February 1989 and was succeeded later that year by FW de Klerk.
In his opening address to parliament in February 1990, in what has come to be known as the
'unbanning speech', President De Klerk announced that he would repeal discriminatory laws and lift
the ban on the ANC, the UDF, the PAC, and the Communist Party. Media restrictions were lifted,
and De Klerk released political prisoners not guilty of common-law crimes. On 11 February 1990, 27
years after he had first been incarcerated, Nelson Mandela walked out of the grounds of Victor
Verster Prison as a free man.
Having been forced by the UN Security Council to end its long-standing military occupation in
Namibia, South Africa had to relinquish control of the disputed territory, and it officially became an
independent state on 21 March 1990.
[edit] Negotiations
Main article: Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa
From 1990 to 1991, the legal apparatus of apartheid was abolished. In a referendum in March 1992,
the last whites-only vote held in South Africa, voters gave the government authority to negotiate a
new constitution with the ANC and other groups.
In December 1991, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) began negotiations on
the formation of a multiracial transitional government and a new constitution extending political
rights to all groups. Months of wrangling finally produced a compromise and an election date,
although at considerable human cost. Political violence exploded across the country during this time,
particularly in the wake of the assassination of Chris Hani. Hani, the popular leader of the South
Africa's Communist Party, was assassinated in 1993 in Dawn Park in Johannesburg by Janusz Walus,
an anti-Communist Polish refugee who had close links to the white nationalist AWB. It is now known
that elements within the police and army contributed to this violence. There have also been claims
that high-ranking government officials and politicians ordered or at least condoned massacres.
In 1993, a draft constitution was published, guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion, access to
adequate housing and numerous other rights, as well as explicitly prohibiting discrimination on
almost any ground. Finally, at midnight on 2627 April 1994, the old flag was lowered, and the old
(now co-official) national anthem Die Stem ("The Call") was sung, followed by the raising of the new
rainbow flag and singing of the other co-official anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("God Bless Africa").
The election went off peacefully amidst a palpable feeling of goodwill throughout the country.
The ANC won 62.7% of the vote, less than the 66.7% that would have allowed it to rewrite the
constitution. As well as deciding the national government, the election decided the provincial
governments, and the ANC won in all but two provinces. The NP captured most of the white and
Coloured vote and became the official opposition party.
Since then, 27 April is celebrated as a public holiday in South Africa known as Freedom Day.
In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for the
peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic

South Africa".[22]
[edit] Legacies of apartheid

[edit] Economic inequality and Black

Economic Empowerment
Many of the inequalities created and
maintained by apartheid still remain in
South Africa. The country has one of the
most unequal income distribution
patterns in the world: approximately
60% of the population earns less than
R42,000 per annum (about US$7,000),
whereas 2.2% of the population has an
income exceeding R360,000 per annum
(about US$50,000). Poverty in South Africa is still largely defined by skin colour, with black people
constituting the poorest layer. Despite the ANC government having implemented a policy of Black
Economic Empowerment (BEE), blacks make up over 90% of the country's poor but only 79.5% of
the population.[23] [24]
Part of the policy of Black Economic Empowerment is the imposition of 'employment equity' targets.
In terms of this, companies are assessed based on their racial composition. To attain the 'correct'
racial balance in a company, the Employment Equity Act allows for legal discrimination against
White males and to a lesser extent White females when appointing staff. Government contracts and
a few in the private sector are also preferentially awarded to companies with good BEE ratings. In
September 2006 the Labour Ministry ordered private companies to classify their employees
according to race. The classification was to be done based on a form that every employee had to
complete, which used the apartheid-era racial categories. On the form the employee had to confirm
whether they regarded themselves as White, Indian, Coloured or African.[25] This caused some
controversy and some employees refused to classify themselves saying it was a return to the race
classification system of the Apartheid era. In such cases employers were forced in terms of the
Employment Equity Act to do a classification based on the general appearance of those employees
who refused to classify themselves.
[edit] Land ownership inequality and land claims
Eighty percent of farming land still remains in the hands of white farmers;[26] the requirement that
claimants for restoration of land seized during the apartheid era make a contribution towards the
cost of the land "excludes the poorest layers of the population altogether",[23] while a large number
of white farmers have been murdered since 1994 (roughly 313 per 100 000 annually) in what
campaign groups claim is a campaign of genocide.[27][28] Human Rights Watch contend that the
publicity given to these murders and attacks removes attention from the plight of poor black rural
people, and contend that they are purely criminal in nature. [29] Regardless, crime against white
farmers receives strong media coverage. Opposition against land reforms fear that by removing
commercial farmers from their land and dividing up the land to poor urbanized people with no
comprehension of agriculture or agricultural management would lead to a state of famine like the
one being experienced in Zimbabwe at the moment.

In Durban a large movement of shackdwellers has mobilized against city authorities claiming that
popular attempts to desegregate the city in the 1980s are now being reversed by the mass eviction
of shack dwellers.[30]
[edit] Establishment of the "crime of apartheid" by the International Criminal Court
Main article: Crime of apartheid
South African apartheid was condemned internationally as unjust and racist. In 1973 the General
Assembly of the United Nations agreed on the text of the International Convention on the
Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The immediate intention of the Convention
was to provide a formal legal framework within which member states could apply sanctions to press
the South African government to change its policies. However, the Convention was phrased in
general terms, with the express intention of prohibiting any other state from adopting analogous
policies. The Convention came into force in 1976.
The Rome Statute defined Apartheid as one of eleven crimes against humanity. Citizens of the
majority of states, including South Africa, which have ratified the statute can be prosecuted by the
International Criminal Court for committing or abetting the crime of apartheid.[31]
[edit] See also
Africa Hinterland (Arms smuggling operation)
Discrimination
Nuremberg Laws
Second-class citizen
Settler colonialism
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
White supremacy
When Smuts Goes
[edit] Movies referencing apartheid
Lethal Weapon 2, regarding corrupt South African government officials in 1989.
Stander, about the South African police officer-turned-bank-robber, Andre Stander, during the 1970s
and 1980s.
Cry Freedom, a true story about the activist Steven Biko and journalist Donald Woods
The Power of One, based on the novel by Bryce Courtenay
Sarafina!, a musical depicting the Soweto Riots.

Cry, the Beloved Country, based on the novel by Alan Paton.

A Dry White Season based on the novel by Andr Brink
A World Apart
The Color of Friendship
In My Country, based on the book Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog
Catch a Fire, based on the story of Patrick Chamusso, an apolitical man who becomes a terrorist
against the South African state.
Red Dust (2004) starring Hilary Swank based on the book Red Dust by Gillian Slovo, about the Truth
& Reconciliation Commission trials which gave amnesty to those who told the whole truth about
atrocities committed during apartheid.
Books Refernecing Apartheid Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane Kaffir Boy in America by Mark
Mathabane Miriam's Song by Miriam Mathabane
[edit] References
Meredith, Martin. In the name of apartheid: South Africa in the postwar period. 1st U.S. ed. New
York: Harper and Row, 1988.
Meredith, Martin. The State of Africa. The Free Press, 2005.
Hexham, Irving, The Irony of Apartheid: The Struggle for National Independence of Afrikaner
Calvinism against British Imperialism." Edwin Mellen, 1981.
Visser, Pippa. In search of history. Oxford University Press Southern Africa, 2003.
Louw, P.Eric. The Rise, Fall and Legacy of Apartheid. Praeger, 2004.
Federal Research Division. South Africa - a country study. Library of Congress, 1996.
Book: Crocodile Burning. By Michael Williams. 1994
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid