Apartheid

Apartheid (Afrikaans: separateness), was a social and political policy of racial segregation and discrimination which was enforced by white minority governments in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.

Verwoerd and the Bantustans

Laws passed in 1950 forced a separation of non-whites from whites in South African society. The first, the Population Registration Act, which had people register with a racial classification board to determine "officially" if they belonged to one of four racial groups: white, African, colored, or Indian. The second, the Group Areas Act, was the enforced relocation of non-whites to the outskirts of various cities; to compell these people into the new "townships", which were in essence little more than shanty towns, the government ordered the bulldozing of once-vibrant mixed-race communities; to add insult to injury, the non-white inhabitants, especially the Africans, were ordered to carry passbooks to go from place to place. [1]

Dr. Hendrik F Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa from 1957 until 1966, designed a system that expanded the scope and impact of apartheid. Blacks were given a limited education which guaranteed them menial job opportunities as opposed to whites [2]. The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, passed in 1953, ordered the segregation of blacks at all public facilities, including post offices, public transportation, beaches, sports venues, parks, toilets, and even cemeteries. [3]

"There is no place for him [the African] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labor. Within his own community, however, all doors are open. For that reason it is to no avail for him to receive a training which has as its aim absorption in the European community, where he cannot be absorbed." Hendrik F. Verwoerd (1954) [4]

Verwoerd had also insisted, and succeeded in getting, limited self-administration in the black reservations (called "homelands") of the Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and KwaZulu, which meant they were semi-autonomous. This had also meant that the homelands were now responsible for their own societal and economic problems; it also had the benefit for the white-controlled South African government that a huge majority of blacks in the country were no longer citizens, and therefore ineligible to vote. [5]

1983 Whites-only referendum

In 1983 President PW Botha put the question of allowing Colored and Indian representation to the White electorate. 66% of whites voted to allow Coloreds and Indians their own houses of parliament (called the House of Representatives and the House of Delegates respectively).

Although many ultra-nationalistic and conservative whites attacked the move as it was power-sharing (which they feared would result in Black rule, and indeed it did some 11 years later).

The Troubles

The followers of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi (Zulu King) and his Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were staunchly pro-seperation and even entered into a short-lived non-aggression pact with the AWB in 1993.

However the African National Congress, who drew members from most other Black tribes, were pro-integration and, as such, Zulu workers who had migrated to White South Africa were frequently involved in clashes with ANC supporters in the townships (Black areas adjoining many White towns and cities).

Between 1986 and 1994 some 10,000 IFP members were murdered by ANC supporters, many in a brutal fashion, the practice of "necklacing" was very popular amongs ANC members. Necklacing entailed placing a petrol-filled tire around the neck of a victim and then setting it alight.

Sources

• Apartheid:A History by Brian Lapping
• Bang Bang Club:Snapshots from a Hidden War by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva