The Apartheid state and opposition in South Africa
Apartheid was a systematic and aggressive racial separation driven coherent racial ideology in all aspect of life
However, the mechanisms of apartheid were set in place long before 1948, and South Africa continues to deal with the repercussions.
Under apartheid, various races were separated into different regions, and discrimination against people of color was not only acceptable, but legally entrenched, with whites having priority housing, jobs, education, and political power.
Therefore, Apartheid was all about racial segregation, and about political and economic discrimination which separated Black (or Bantu), Coloured, Indian, and White South Africans
Four ideas central to Apartheid
i. Proposition that South African society consist of four groups; whites, coloured, Africans and Indians and each of these groups had its own distinct culture
ii. Whites, as the civilized race, were entitled to have absolute control over the state
iii. White interests should prevail over black interests; the sate is not obliged to provide equal facilities for the subordinate races
iv. The white racial group formed a single nation with Afrikaans and English-speaking components; while Africans belonged to several distinct nations, a formula that make white nation the largest in the country
Origin of Apartheid
There are three broad range of interpretations that try to explain Apartheid
a) The Afrikaner Nationalist Approach
Superiority of Afrikaner nation as God given
Afrikaner feared the existence of mass of Africans and they will be swamped if they continue being mixed
Apartheid was consolidation of such beliefs through laws and legislation
b) The liberal Approach
Believe in market forces and fundamental freedoms but defended white supremacy
Opposed to racial discrimination
They denied any economic benefits to be gained and blame it and Nationalist Party
Thus, apartheid introduced as intensification of Afrikaner nationalism and outmoded reflecting backwardness of the people
c) Radical Approach
Tend to focus on the economic and social development of South Africa
They examine class differences and class struggle between various society in south Africa
Segregationist policies were created to solve the problem of labour needs in the mining industry
Causes of Apartheid in South Africa
Many historians ascribed legislations and laws which constitute apartheid policies as a continuation of socio economic impact of mineral revolution and the labour question in South Africa
i. Impact of World War II
When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the United Party split.
Hertzog wanted South Africa to remain neutral, but Smuts opted for joining the British war effort.
Smuts’s faction narrowly won the crucial parliamentary debate, and Hertzog and his followers left the party, many rejoining the National Party faction Malan had maintained since 1934.
Smuts then became the prime minister, and South Africa declared war on Germany.
South Africa made significant contributions to the Allied war effort.
Some 135,000 white South Africans fought in the East and North African and Italian campaigns, and 70,000 blacks and Coloureds served as labourers and transport drivers.
South African platinum, uranium, and steel became valuable resources, and, during the period that the Mediterranean Sea was closed to the Allies, Durban and Cape Town provisioned a vast number of ships en route from Britain to the Suez.
The war proved to be an economic stimulant for South Africa, although wartime inflation and lagging wages contributed to social protests and strikes after the end of the war
Driven by reduced imports, the manufacturing and service industries expanded rapidly, and the flow of blacks to the towns became a flood.
By the war’s end, more blacks than whites lived in the towns.
They set up vast squatter camps on the outskirts of the cities and improvised shelters from whatever materials they could find.
They also began to flex their political muscles.
Blacks boycotted a Witwatersrand bus company that tried to raise fares, they formed trade unions, and in 1946 more than 60,000 black gold miners went on strike for higher wages and improved living conditions.
Afrikaners felt threatened by the concessions given to blacks and created a series of ethnic organizations to promote their interests, including an economic association, a federation of Afrikaans cultural associations, and the Afrikaner Broederbond
During the war many Afrikaners welcomed the early German victories, and some of them even committed acts of sabotage.
ii. High demand of African labour radicalization of African labour
High demand of labour for war post war efforts to rebuild the economy led to massive rural to urban migration.
This led to large scale of blacks in the mining industry and some reforms were seen that facilitated labour mobility and improvement of productivity of African labour
Improvement include:
- Industrial training for Africans
- Improved education
- Raising black wages and incentives
- Eligibility for pensions
- Pass laws were relaxed to facilitate mobility
All these measures were viewed by white working class as erosion of their class and job insecurity, creating more housing problem
These increased radicalization of the black proletariat classes, leading to more strikes, e.g. 1946 African mine workers strike.
The awakened the whites community that these radicalization might jeopardize their position
iii. The rise of racist ideology
In respect to WWII, racist ideology embodied in fascist movement in Europe especially German socialism (NAZISM) whose main idea was pure race influenced the National party and Afrikaner nationalist to adopt such line racial separate treatment
iv. The Rise of National Party
The United Party, which had won the general election in 1943 by a large majority, approached the 1948 election complacently.
While the party appeared to take an ambiguous position on race relations, Malan’s National Party took an unequivocally pro white stance.
The National Party claimed that the government’s weakness threatened white supremacy and produced a statement that used the word apartheid to describe a program of tightened segregation and discrimination.
Fagan Report
In 1946, Smuts appointed a committee chaired by Fagan to investigate racial questions in urban areas
Total segregation would never work
Industry and commerce needed a permanent and settled black urban population
It was impossible to return all the existing townspeople to the reserves, which were already overcrowded
Migrant labor should be discouraged
African families should encouraged to settle in locations under strict controls
Sauer Report
Fagan report paved the way for D. F. Malan to appoint another commission chaired by P. O. Sauer after National party victory in 1948 to investigate the racial questions and how the party could deal with it.
And apartheid or separate development was the only the way forward
Recommendations
There should rigorous separation of races in South Africa in view to maintain white as a pure race and protecting the indigenous as a separate communities belonging to the reserves
Racial intermixing was a suicide and threat for white community
African reserves should be the fatherland for African population and in towns they were just visitors, they should also isolated places for Africans
Africans should never belong to Trade unions and not involved in strikes
Education for Africans should be freed from missionaries
Africans should have no part in central government including colored in the Cape
Indians should be treated as immigrants community with no local representations in the government
Migrant labour should continue
Influx of Africans to towns should be controlled
These two recommendations laid the foundation of what collectively known as Apartheid (apartness)
With the support of a tiny fringe group, the National Party in 1948 won the election by a narrow margin.
The National Party and United party formed a union government headed by D. F. Malan
What the National Party did after 1948 was to make colonial segregation and discrimination more systematic, and more far reaching, and more rigorously implemented and policed.
National Party main goals
The nationalist goal of promoting Afrikaner interests. They got status in state institution, enterprises through affirmative actions, official contracts
The racial goal of pursuance of racial privileges to promote white supremacy
Soon after coming into power, the government began to give effect to these goals and ideas discussed earlier by passing wide range of apartheid laws to ensure racial separation in all aspects of life and to control the movement and economic activity of blacks
Basic apartheid laws pertained to
- Social
- Urban areas
- Restriction of movement and pass laws
- Industrial colour
- Education
- Repression
- Governance
Implementation of Apartheid in South Africa
Population Registration Act (1949)
Provided the machinery to designate the racial category of every person; and every South African had to have to register and obtain identification document stated his or her race
Laws pertaining to social interaction
The prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act (1949)
a) Prohibited marriage between whites and people of other races
b) Immorality Act (1950)
Prohibit sexual intercourse between and blacks, whites and coloured. Police were allowed to raid houses
c) Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953)
Government empowered to enforce provision of separate amenities e.g. restaurant, trains, public offices, etc.
Segregation in Urban Areas
i. Group Areas of Act of 1953
Segregating all racial groups in urban areas. Special racial categories were set for whites, Indians, blacks
ii. The Native Settlement Act of 1956
Launching massive scheme of settling and resettling housing of blacks in towns ways from white neighbors Shanted towns e.g. SOWETO
iii. Section Ten Provisions of 1952
Africans were denied not born in town, to live unless you prove that you have continuous employment and one employer for 10 years or you have been living in that urban areas for 15 years otherwise you removed to Bantustans (Homeland location)
iv. Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1953
Building squatting towns far away from big towns and control influx in towns
Pass and restriction of African movement
The Native Act of 1952
Abolition of parcel and consolidation of documentation
Required African to carry reference books required by state showing personal details where you came, where you were born, pay tax, photo, employer, occupation
Aimed to limit African movement
The Native Laws Amendment Act (1952) and Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Act (1955) tightened the terms under which African men and women might legally live in urban areas
Industrial colour bar
The Native Labour Act of 1953 excluded African workers from the formal system of industrial relations
Settlement of Disputes Act and Industrial Conciliation Act (1956) extended the operation of job colour bars withdrawing Africans from forming trade unions and mixed union and extended job reservation for whites
Education
The Bantu Education Act (1953) which redefined the content and purpose of African schooling and vested its direct control in the Department of Native (later Bantu) Affairs; as well as laws on Coloured and Indian education and on tertiary institutions.
Native education should be controlled in such a way that it should be in accord with the policy of the state
African education to follow government syllabus, emphasizing vernacular languages, preparation of Africans for manual labour and making them inferior
The Native Council were supposed to incur the cost of education
Controlling of textbooks
Segregation of higher education through University education Act of 1953 prohibiting Africans attending whites universities
Repressive legislations a further set of laws passed by the new National Party government sought to restrict legally permissible forms of political behaviour and protest:
The Suppression of Communism Act (1950) not only proscribed the Communist Party of South Africa but created a series of offences under an extremely broad and vague definition of "communism";
The Criminal Law Amendment Act (1953) a response to the 1952 Defiance Campaign made it a criminal offence subject to heavy penalties to break any regulation "by way of protest, or in support of any campaign against any law"
The Public Safety Act (1953) which gave the Minister of Justice the power to declare a state of emergency during which the ordinary law of the country would be suspended;
The Criminal Procedures Act (1955) which, among others, allowed the state to designate the location of trials anywhere in the country irrespective of the area of abode of the accused, and gave Attorneys General the right to prevent the granting of bail.
The Prohibition of Interdicts Act (1956) which denied Africans the right to lodge interdicts and stop actions that may cause harm.
The Unlawful Organisations Act (1960) in the terms of which the ANC and PAC were declared unlawful in April 1960;
The General Laws Amendment Act (1962, 1963, 1965) including the "Sabotage Act" which defined sabotage breathtakingly widely, so as to include tampering with property and the illegal possession of weapons and granted police the authority to detain people without charge and in solitary confinement for single or successive periods of 12 days (1962), 90 days (1963), or 180 days (1965)
The Terrorism Act (1967) introduced the concept of indefinite detention without trial and provided startlingly broad definitions of "terrorism“
The Internal Security Act (1972, amended in 1976) consolidated the legislation detailed above, retained the major "offences", provided for indefinite "preventive detention", and further restricted the jurisdiction of the courts.
Governance
The Abolition of the Native Councils of 1951
The Bantu authorities Act of 1953 allowing Africans to elect their local governments
The promotion of Bantu self government Act of 1958 creating Bantu homelands and every African should belong to these homelands.
Ten homelands were allocated to different black ethnic groups: Lebowa (North Sotho, also referred to as Pedi), QwaQwa (South Sotho), Bophuthatswana (Tswana), KwaZulu (Zulu), KaNgwane (Swazi), Transkei and Ciskei (Xhosa), Gazankulu (Tsonga), Venda (Venda) and KwaNdebele (Ndebele).
The Separate representation of Voter Act of 1954 prohibited the Cape colored from voting
Apartheid society
Whole sectors of South African society the law courts, churches, health, media, education, business, sports and cultural sectors both actively and indirectly reinforced apartheid exclusion, discrimination and the violation of human rights.
Tens of thousands of black South Africans were funneled through the apartheid courts, usually without legal representation and with racially and ideologically biased white, male judges and magistrates in charge, and turned into criminals in the process, compounding racial polarisation.
At the highest level there was clear support for apartheid, as many judges were political appointees.
Judges condoned the barbaric practices of the apartheid security police and gave apartheid terrorism laws a veneer of legal respectability
Together with magistrates and prosecutors they were quick to defend or cover up police brutality and thereby facilitate the work of the apartheid security system
Resistance to Apartheid
Struggles against Apartheid are historical events
The responses before World war II was built on the framework of laws passed i.e. constitutionalist protest
Their forms of reactions was through sending petitions, demonstrations, sending delegates to present their grievances. It was a moral attempts to persuade the regime to end racial discriminations
In 1913, the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) which was renamed in 1923 as ANC was formed
Their major issues that focus on was
- Land (after 1913 Land Act was passed)
- Trading rights
- Industrial color bar (exclusion of non whites)
- Franchise rights
The oppressed races did not unite and there was an element of mutual antagonism struggle as enemies
This situation was transformed by development during the World war II
High level of industrialization and demand for labour leading to massive proletarization
Rapid migration (rural to urban led to increased radicalism)
These transformed the politics of the oppressed (radicalized) and cemented by the oppressive legislation(apartheid or segregation) taken by the government
In 1943, group of young professionals, college students within ANC formed ANC Youth wing which was radical led Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela and they issued a document "African Claims" which among other things proposed a bill of rights like universal suffrage and free movement.
These demands was dismissed by Premier Smuts as unrealistic
In 1944 and 1946 there several strikes e.g. African mine workers strike (1946)
In 1949, ANC Youth League annual conference adopted a program of action which would sustained and involved direct action.
This involves strikes, boycott and civil disobedience
In January 1952, ANC and South African Indian Congress formed a Joint plan council organized a campaign of civil disobedience
In 1953, National Party came into power with more Apartheid legislations
In 1955, with cooperation of the SAIC, South African Colored People Organization, multiracial South Africa Congress of Trade Unions, the ANC convened a Congress of the people in Johannesburg consisting 300 delegates
In this congress, Freedom charter was proclaimed destined to;
Non racial democracy and South Africa belong to all who live in it
Repeal to all discriminatory legislations
Equal opportunities for all education and employment
Fundamental human rights
The government responded by enacting further repressive legislations, and in December 1956 156 people were arrested and charged with high treason for conspiracy and violence
In 1958, ANC annual conference, there was a split within ANC over the issue of policy of multiracialism
Group of Robert Sobhukwe opposed multiracialism (Africanist against Charterists)
They also thought ANC was infiltrated by idea of communism
In 1959, Sobukwe organized his followers under Pan African Congress (PAC).
This led to a disastrous results
In March 21st ,1960, PAC decided to launch anti pass campaign violating pass laws. Large number of Africans assembled at police stations without passes
At a police station at Sharpeville near Johannesburg, opened fire, killing 67 Africans and wounding 186 people
The massacre provoked widespread protests, riots and marches in other towns like Cape Town ; and even international outcry
As disturbances mounted, the government responded by declaring State of Emergency, mobilizing the army and outlawing ANC, PAC and arresting large number of dissidents from all races
These measures was to broke up the campaign
Apart from ANC, PAC, civil societies, individuals opposing apartheid particularly liberal whites, churches, various professionals, authors, journalists (e.g. Nadine Gordimer, Peter Abrahams, J. M Coetzee, Denis Brutus, Alex la Guma), university especially English medium universities, students organizations, all blamed government unlawful actions and responses
The year 1960 was therefore a watershed in the modern South Africa history
What happened after Sharpeville massacre?
State of emergency and outlawing political activities of the black political organizations led to more underground movement and radicalization of their movements.
Before, their ban, ANC leaders were committed to non violence.
After the incidence, Mandela and ANC decided to drop unrealistic non-violence method and resorted to demanding freedom through force
At the end of 1961, their earlier attempts to meet state violence by revolutionary violence was not successful forcing ANC to form a military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (The spear of the Nation); and PAC formed Poqo (Pure) and African Resistance Movement(multiracial organization conducting bomb attacks to government facilities)
Government acted swiftly to these sabotage and underground movements
In 1962, the Sabotage Act was passed affecting fundamental rights and culminated in 1967 Terrorism Act.
What these laws do?
- Extended the power of the police to violate basic human rights and civic liberties
- Arrest without warrant
- Detention without trial
- Denial for legal rights
- Physical and psychological torture
In 1963, 17 leaders of Umkhonto we sizwe including Mandela were arrested.
ANC and PAC were forced to operate from neighboring countries or in exile.
The ANC trained thousands of exiles to carry out sabotage missions and incite unrest aimed at rendering the townships ungovernable.
ANC in exile has three main task
a) Recruitment of guerilla forces
b) Organization and training
c) Equipping guerilla forces
1960s South Africa was surrounded by forces that were not sympathetic to the guerilla forces like South Rhodesia, Mozambique, Angola and Lesotho which had a relation with South Africa regime
Tanzania and Zambia were sympathetic and provided moral and material support to ANC and use these countries for diplomatic missions in the west and east.
In 1969, ANC organized a conference in Morogoro. Both political and military wing compromised to collaborate with Communist party
ANC became more radicalized after adopting socialist stands.
In 1974 Portuguese’s Salazar regime collapsed paving the way in 1975 for Angola and Mozambique to regain independence
This gave ANC to operate from these countries
Other support also came from international for a like OAU, UNO, communist bloc and Frontline States.
In 1961 South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations rather than yield to pressure over its racial policies
This was heightened by the wake of African nationalism
International communities and well wishers nations imposed economic sanctions and cut diplomatic relations with the South Africa regime
Though US had trade relations with South Africa they also put some pressure to the regime especially after Sharpeville massacre.
Internal Opposition
During 1960s and 1970s there were other significant developments fuelling the spirit of resistance to apartheid
These include movements in:
Arts (theatres) and newspapers e.g. the Drum
Books published in exile novels, drama or poetry
Women opposition. E.g. Black Sash (dresses) white women devised a method of embarrassing Nationalist politicians and attracting media attraction. They bowed in places where politicians passes with covering their head with black sash
Opposition from churches except Dutch Reformed church. E.g. 1968 South African Council of churches labeled apartheid a pseudo gospel in conflict with Christian principles
The United Democratic Front (UDF, launched in 1983) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) calling for a multiracial democracy led by the ANC. One of the UDF’s most prominent leaders was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and it gained considerable support in the white community including from the South African Council of Churches .
Internal insurgencies
The English medium universities, especially university of Cape Town and Witwatersrand
Increased semiskilled black workers leading to massive class consciousness. E.g. 1968, Steve Biko launched exclusive black south Africa students organization (SASO) later transformed to Black People Convention in 1972
The movement had the following goals:
The movement redefined the term black to include all non-whites deprived because of their colour
Rejected an cooperation with whites
Encouragement of black self awareness and psychological self liberation
Self-reliance through economic schemes for blacks and community groups
The ideology of black consciousness penetrated the urban schools
On June 1976, thousand of black schoolchildren in Soweto demonstrated against government insistence of the use of Afrikaans as medium of instruction for half of subjects and this as a language of oppressor.
Police in response, shot and killed a 13 year old student.
By February, 1977 at least 575 people had been killed and many wounded
SASO was banned and its leaders jailed including Biko who eventually died under police custody
After those events thousands of young black fled the country and received military training in camps in Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Guinea, Algeria and Eastern bloc
These events focused worldwide attention on South Africa.
The UN General Assembly had denounced apartheid in 1973; four years later the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose a mandatory embargo on the export of arms to South Africa.
The illusion that apartheid would bring peace to South Africa had shattered by 1978. Most of the homelands proved to be economic and political disasters
The national economy entered a period of recession, coupled with high inflation, and many skilled whites emigrated.
South Africa, increasingly isolated as the last bastion of white racial domination on the continent, became the focus of global denunciation.
Therefore, the most forceful pressures, both internal and external, eroding the barriers of apartheid were economic.
International sanctions severely affected the South African economy, raising the cost of necessities, cutting investment, even forcing many American corporations to disinvest, for example under the Sullivan Rules, to employ without discrimination.
In addition, the severe shortage of skilled labor led to lifting limits on African wages, and granting Africans the right to strike and organize unions.
Unions, churches, and students organized protests throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Moreover, political, economic, and military pressures were exerted by the independent countries of sub Saharan Africa.
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