THE POLICY OF APARTHEID

Towards the end of the 19th century non-white population groups in South Africa were resticted to certain living areas. The situation gradually worsened. In 1911 Botha formed the South African Party (SAP). In response to this, the African National Congress (ANC) was established in 1912, and a riot broke out among white mineworkers. The large numbers of Indian immigrants, on the other hand, offered passive resistance under Mahatma Ghandi. There were signs of great dissatisfaction among all population groups and in 1914 General Hertzog formed the National Party, a splinter group of the SAP.

Botha's support of Britain in World War One gave rise to a new wave of anti-British sentiment. The idea of an independent republic once again beckoned: South Africa, independent of Great Britain. When South West Africa was captured, some of the generals started a rebellion. The rebellion failed, which strengthened the National Party.

In 1924 a new coalition government was formed by the National Party and the Labour Party. This marked the start of official racial segregation. Hertzog wanted to increase South Africa's independence from Britain and introduced measures which severely restricted the freedom of non-whites. Afrikaans replaced Dutch as the country's second official language.

At a conference held in London in 1926, Hertzog succeeded in pushing through the famous formula for a Commonwealth of Nations. Within the British Empire, Great Britain and all her overseas territories were united voluntarily under the sovereignty of the British Crown.

The political unrest continued and in 1933 D F Malan formed the "Purified" National Party, with the Broederbond a prominent role player. In 1939 World War Two started, and despite strong opposition in parliament, South Africa once again sided with the Allied forces, rendering an important military contribution on various fronts.

Issues concerning the position of non-whites became an increasingly important factor in the country's politics. Parliamentarians crossed the floor on a regular basis and when Malan's National Party won the 1948 election, the policy of apartheid was firmly entrenched.

In 1961, following a referendum among white voters, South Africa became a republic. All ties with Britain and the British Commonwealth of Nations were severed, and the country entered a long period of international isolation because of its official policy of apartheid first introduced by Dr Malan in 1948 and reinforced by his successors, Hendrik Verwoerd (of Dutch birth) and Balthazar Vorster.

The idea underlying the apartheid system was to separate people into their various racial groups. As each racial group is unique, this would enable them to develop and perform to the best of their ability in their own environment. The result, however, was white dominance in all spheres of life - cultural, economic and political - and severe restrictions on the freedom of other racial groups. The result was "petty apartheid", not only in education and health services, but also socially, in theatres, on trains and in parks ("whites only"). From 1958 onwards the policy of "separate development" was taken even further by the minority white government with the introduction of the "homeland" system. The ultimate idea was that each black tribe should develop into an independent nation living within its own territory and governed by its own people. The problem was that only 13% of South African soil was made available for the vast majority of the population to live in and to earn a living. To aggravate matters, large areas of these homelands were not very fertile, with very few mineral and industrial resources and no ports. To enforce the policy of separate development, more than 3,5 million people were removed from the places where they lived to these homelands between 1960 and 1983.

Four independent homelands evolved:
Transkei in 1976
Bophuthatswana in 1977
Venda in 1979
Ciskei in 1981

These independent homelands were never recognised as such by the international community.

Six others became self-governing homelands:
Gazankulu, Lebowa, QuaQua, KaNgwane, KwaZulu and KwaNdebele.

The new political set-up was extremely problematic. Unemployment was a major problem in the newly independent and self-governing states, and the South African government had to carry the financial burden. Alcoholism and crime were rife. (The political situation has changed completely since 1990, when apartheid was abolished. Majortiy rule became a reality, and today everyone is free to live and work anywhere in the country.)

Locally and internationally the apartheid system met with severe opposition. Various black groups staged protest meetings and in 1960 the Pan Africanist Congress organised demonstrations against the pass laws. These laws required every black person entering a white area to carry proof of identity and a work permit. The protest action lead to the Sharpeville bloodbath, in which 69 blacks were killed. This was followed by the banning or imprisonment of black leaders such as Nelson Mandela, who was sent to Robben Island off the Cape coast. Both the ANC and the PAC were banned. These organisations went underground, where an armed struggle was planned to overthrow the white government. To all outward appearances, however, the internal situation was calm, and after the 1965 all-white elections, the National Party was firmly in control.

In the early 1970s resistance once again flared up and various opposition groups emerged, including AZAPO (Azanian People's Orgnanisation), Inkatha - under Gatsha Buthelezi leader of the KwaZulu homeland, and the Black People's Convention with Steve Biko as its leader. The latter was banned in 1977; Biko died at the hands of the police while in detention. In 1976 riots broke out in Soweto when pupils rebelled against the policy of Afrikaans as a compulsory subject in black schools, and 176 were killed. This caused a wave of international protest and resulted in an arms and petroleum boycott against South Africa, but for economic and strategic reasons the enforcement of these boycott actions by some Western countries remained limited.

Despite opposition by large sections of the white population, P W Botha made several small adjustments to the apartheid policy. The doors of restaurants and theatres were thrown open to all population groups, education was made more accessible to blacks due to a shortage of trained teachers, and the pass laws were abolished. In terms of the new constitution adopted in 1984, Indians and Coloureds would each have a separate chamber in Parliament, while blacks would have a say at local government level, but still no parliamentary representation.

The new constitution caused great turmoil and in 1985 an emergency was declared. Strikes and demonstrations became the order of the day in the townships and were dealt with harshly by the country's defence force and police. Press freedom was restricted and people were arrested and held without being charged. In protest against these actions, the international community withdrew almost all its investments in this country. Meanwhile Angola and Mozambique had won their independence, and South Africa's isolation intensified. In an attempt at undermining the new governments of these countries, South Africa supported the opposition parties - UNITA in Angola and RENAMO in Mozambique. However, sanctions by other front-line sates remained limited due to their economic dependence on South Africa.