Thursday, October 15, 2020

Apartheid South Africa: Explained (HWB)

Hey guys, Baruch here. I'm gonna be starting a new series titled History with Baruch, which will mainly cover historic events and empires that don't get much attention in the history books, like the Balkan Wars, the Portuguese and Dutch Empires, Arab-Israeli wars, African and South American proxy wars, the Boer wars, and other wars fought for dumb reasons, such as my all-time favorites, the Emu War and the War of the Bucket. But anyways, let's begin this series by covering South Africa during the apartheid period.

Side note: I apologize if make any inconsistencies in this series, this post is my first ever topic in the series, so don't judge me if I get anything wrong or if I missed out anything important.

Overview

Apartheid was a racial segregation system that discriminated against the black majority in South Africa (South West Africa, too) in 1948 up until 1994. This was characterized by the fact that apartheid was based on the baaskaap rule in which it made it clear that most of South Africa must be dominated by the white minority, at the expense of the black majority. Even before 1948, there were precursors to apartheid which were implemented in the form of discrimatory laws. For example, in the South African Republic that lasted between 1852 until 1902 during the Second Boer War, the constitution promoted discrimination and segregation against the black majority because it treated European people differently from native Africans. Though its constitution condemned slavery and prosecuted slave owners, black people had very little rights than their Afrikaner counterparts. Black and Asian South Africans were not able to apply as citizens of the South African Republic as well, just like freed African-American slaves that struggled to become American citizens.

The National Party's pre-apartheid role

The National Party (Afrikaans: Nasionale Party; or NP) was founded in Bloemfontein in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists following the establishment of the Union of South Africa after the Second Boer War. The founding of the NP was caused by previous disagreements among prominent South African politicians, most notably Prime Minister Louis Botha and J.B.M. Hertzog, the Minister of Justice. When Hertzog was booted out of Botha's cabinet for speaking out against the latter's one-stream policy in 1912, he and his followers organized their own two-stream policy for both the English and Afrikaner communities by forming their own political party opposing the South African Party. With that, the National Party was born. 

The National Party was able to get into the political fold under a joint party coalition together with the Labour Party in 1924, with Hertzog becoming South Africa's first NP prime minister. Throughout the 1930s, the Hertzog government worked hard to disenfranchise Coloureds (read: South African people with mixed ancestry) by giving the vote to white women, which doubled their popularity. During World War 2, the National Party were strongly against declaring war against Nazi Germany, with the United Party led by pro-British prime minister Jan Smuts gaining the upper hand in the war declaration dispute.

1948 South African general elections

1948 was an important year for South Africa because it saw the victory of the National Party against the United Party. The UP's leader and incumbent prime minister, Jan Smuts, who himself was strongly against racial segregation (although he himself used to be pro-apartheid before the Fagan Commission) and a defender of Coloured and black voting rights, was formally defeated in a narrow victory by the Reunited National Party (Herenigde Nasionale Party; or HNP), which was led by a man called Daniel F. Malan, a cleric of the Dutch Reformed Church.

One reason why the HNP won was mainly because of race. The HNP had pledged to implement strict racial segregation to ensure that the Afrikaner minority would dominate all spheres of living, whatever the cost. There was also the fear of black-on-white crime and violence, and the HNP didn't want that to happen, so they promised whites safety from these fears if they had won the elections, which they did through electoral gerrymandering.

Following Malan's victory in the 1948 elections, this event would mark the beginning of nationalistic rule in South Africa, lasting for 46 years until 1994. Although it's more likely that apartheid and racial discrimination would've been avoided had Smuts won the elections.

South Africa under Daniel F. Malan and J.G. Strijdom (1948-1958)

After Malan won the 1948 general elections, the NP came to power and they became the first all-Afrikaner party since 1910. They had two priorities on their list that they needed to fulfill in order to appease the white minority; one, leading South Africa to become an independent state away from the Commonwealth, and two, answering the solution to the racial problem through segregation. Two years after the 1948 elections, Smuts came down with a case of the deads in September 1950.

During the 1950s, Malan worked so hard to ensure that more autonomy would be given to South Africa to pave the way for a republic, while laying down the foundations of apartheid at home. Even though Malan wasn't given permission to declare South Africa a republic, he had to do it for the sake of the Afrikaner minority. So, during his career, Malan did a lot of things to break ties with the UK. In the 1953 general elections, the National Party managed to defeat the UP opposition led by Koos Strauss again, by which the United Party began to suffer from several splits after Malan's victory in the 1953 elections.

By 1954, Malan was retired, and two NP politicians were selected to succeed him: J.G. Strijdom, the Minister of Lands and Irrigation, and Nicolas Havenga, the Minister of Finance. Malan supported the latter and encouraged Havenga to take the post as he and Strijdom were at odds with each other over the question of a republican South Africa either being inside or outside the Commonwealth.

Although he wasn't endorsed by Malan, Strijdom gained the support of Hendrik Verwoerd and Ben Schoeman (Minister of Transport) because he was a staunch supporter of apartheid and Afrikaner nationalism, while showing little tolerance for non-Afrikaners. His vocal support for nationalism and segregation gave him the nickname, The Lion of the North (sorry Gustavus Adolphus, I know you deserve better). In 1956 Strijdom was finally able to place the Coloureds on a separate voters' roll as he continued Malan's steps in breaking ties with the UK, especially when he made Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Call of South Africa) the official anthem of South Africa (it was given an English translation to appease white English speakers). 

This was pretty much what Strijdom did because he died in 1958 at the ripe old age of 65. Hendrik Verwoerd suceeded him and would play a huge role in the insitution of the apartheid system.

The Verwoerd Era and the declaration of South African independence (1958-1966)

Hendrik Verwoerd is often considered the architect of apartheid due to his large role of implementing strict racial policy during his term as native affairs minister and prime minister of South Africa. Although Malan and Strijdom have both laid the foundation of apartheid by placing blacks and Coloureds on separate voters' rolls, Verwoerd, however, was the man responsible for solidifying racial segregation before his assassination in 1966.

Verwoerd's early years in office was plagued by a few problems he needed to deal with. In 1960, Harold Macmillan, prime minister of the UK, made a speech titled "Winds of Change" in which he declared that independence for Black Africans is totally inevitable and shouldn't be glossed over. Another major problem Verwoerd had to deal with was the rise of the African National Congress (ANC), which was led by a certain Nelson Mandela. For the past few years, they have been calling for the overthrow of the National Party, as well as demanding boycotts and strikes.

1960 was also an important year for South Africa because it saw the infamous Sharpeville Massacre that took place in a peaceful protest in March 21. While blacks were protesting peacefully over the pass laws imposed by the government, they were shot at by South African police at blank-point, killing 69 protesters, the majority of whom were shot in the back trying to flee the police. Naturally, the protest caused widespread domestic and international outrage over the massacre, including white South Africans, who too were also horrified by the massacre. The United Nations passed resolution 134 condemning the South African government for the massacre and the brutality that took place at Sharpeville. It also resulted in the ANC shifting from nonviolence to armed resistance because of the massacres, especially when Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, was founded in the midst of the Sharpeville massacre. 

A month later on April 1960, Verwoerd was the target of an attempted assassination when a man called David Pratt shot him in the cheek during the jubilee ceremony of the Union of South Africa's founding. Verwoerd survived the assassination and would go on to return to public life on May 1960, while Pratt was soon convicted for trying to kill Verwoerd and was sent to a mental asylum.

1961 was a big year for South Africa as it was the year when South Africa was declared a republic. Before transitioning to republicanism, Verwoerd consulted the Commonwealth in a conference in London to discuss whether South Africa should become a republic inside or outside the Commonwealth in March 1961. There was slight tension when some Commonwealth affiliates attacked Verwoerd's racial policies, and even went as far as kicking South Africa out of the Commonwealth. Verwoerd disagreed with his cohorts, however, and he made it clear that the Commonwealth shouldn't meddle in South African political affairs. 

So after tense squabbling between Verwoerd and the Commonwealth, it was finally decided that South Africa would become a republic outside the Commonwealth. Thus on May 31, 1961, South Africa finally gained its independence and became a republic. May 31 was very important in the history of the Afrikaners because aside from being the date of South African independence, it also heralded anniversaries of certain events in Afrikaner history, such as the Treaty of Vereeniging of 1902 that ended the Second Boer War and the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910. 

Not all South Africans were supportive of the independence though. Blacks rejected the declaration of South Africa's independence away from the Commonwealth, in contrast to the whites who supported the republic, and back at home, Mandela was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the government in 1962. In the Rivonia Trial that followed, he made his famous "I Am Prepared to Die" speech before being imprisoned at Robben Island shortly after, of which he wouldn't be released until he was released in 1990. Verwoerd would become South Africa's first republican prime minister and would hold this post until he was assassinated by a man called Dimitri Tsafendas in 1966. 

Bantustans

One policy that shouldn't be glossed over in this topic are Bantustans. These were autonomous territories set up by the National Party for the black majority as part of its apartheid policy. The South African government set up ten Bantustans in both South Africa and South West Africa. In accordance with the 1970 Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, blacks were stripped off their South African
Map showing the Bantustans in South Africa
citizenship and were declared citizens of said homelands. These homelands were recognized by South Africa as independent states (but not the anti-apartheid activists or any international goverment) and remained independent until 1994.

Here are all the Bantustans that were created by the South African government, shown below.
  • Transkei (1956; gained independence in 1976)
  • Bophuthatswana (1961; gained independence in 1977)
  • Ciskei (1961; gained independence in 1981)
  • Venda (1962; gained independence in 1979)
  • Lebowa (1962)
  • Gazankulu (1962)
  • QwaQwa (1969)
  • KwaZulu (1970)
  • KaNgwane (1976)
  • KwaNdebele (1977)
An estimated 3.8 million blacks were forcibly resettled in the homelands between the 1960s and 1980s. Despite the government wanting to remove all blacks from South Africa, their goals were not achieved. Only a small minority were relocated to the homelands with the rest of the black population remaining in South Africa proper, most of whom lived in unincorporated run-down districts like Soweto.

Nuclear program

Aside from focusing on racial policy, South Africa also concentrated on their nuclear weapons program too. Because South Africa had some abundant uranium deposits, they mostly used their uranium to develop their own atomic weapons in order to become another nuclear power. With the help of the United States, South Africa commissioned its first nuclear reactor, SAFARI-1, in 1965. Another nuclear reactor was commissioned a couple of years later, this time called SAFARI-2. In 1969 it was abandoned by the South African government because the reactor contained outdated resources from the uranium enrichment program that happened in 1967, of which they had drained.

South Africa had produced six nuclear weapons since the beginning of the nuclear program 1967. They were all dismantled by President F.W. de Klerk in 1989, making South Africa the first country to give up all of its nuclear arms it had developed.

South Africa under John Vorster (1966-1978)

After Verwoerd's assassination, John Vorster would take up his post as prime minister in 1966. During his rule, a rift among the NP and Afrikaner community was formed over the apartheid question, which led to the formations of the verkramptes and verligtes factions. The verkramptes were Afrikaners who strongly opposed any changes towards liberal trends in South African politics, as well as in racial matters. The verligtes, in contrast, were liberal whites who supported any change in policy, including apartheid. These factions would go on to form their own conflicting parties, with the verkramptes forming the Herstige Nasionale Party led by Albert Hertzog (son of J.B.M. Hertzog) and the verligtes forming the Democratic Party with Theo Gerdener, the former interior minister of South Africa, as its leading voice.

While this rift continued to emerge, Vorster continued Verwoerd's apartheid legislation policy. By 1968, he was able to abolish the last four seats reserved for white representatives of Coloured voters. Vorster wanted South Africa to take part in the 1968 Summer Olympics that took place in Mexico, so he repealed a proposed legislation that prohibited interracial sports teams to take part in certain games. Nevertheless, due to the protests of some other African nations, South Africa was denied entry to compete in the Olympics. 

In contrast to his predecessor, Verwoerd, Vorster was described as "flesh and blood" by Helen Suzman, in which he's well-known for being quite playful and eccentric by the public. Although Vorster supported racial segregation and discrimination, he allowed Maori players and spectators in when New Zealand's national rugby team visited South Africa in 1970, which certainly angered the hardline faction of the National Party.

In terms of foreign policy, Vorster wanted to improve relations with other African states, especially when he allowed black African diplomats to stay in areas reserved for whites in South Africa. He was also quite supportive of Rhodesia too, as both governments have rwo things in common (one, they were ruled by a white minority, and two, they both promoted racial segregation), but he refused to recognize the country. Other than Rhodesia, Portugal was also a close friend of South Africa, but after the Portuguese withdrew from Angola and Mozambique in 1975, both South Africa and Rhodesia became the last two surviving white-run countries in Africa, though Vorster had no qualms in making concessions to the black and Coloured communities.

Soweto Uprising

Things changed in 1976, however, when black-majority schools in Soweto were required to use Afrikaans, and not their native languages, as language of instruction. Many black children did not like this, and in June of 1976, thousands of black children protested this law in Soweto. In the violence that ensued, police were dispatched to suppress the uprising, one thing leads to another, and in the 18th of June, the uprising was suppressed, resulting in the deaths of 176 children (estimates are much higher than this).

The massacre that happened at Soweto enraged many black South Africans (including the international community) that the UN Security council passed resolution 392 which strongly condemned the massacre of several hundred children. Even white South Africans were furious with the government's actions in Soweto; a day after the uprising was suppressed, white students from Witswatersrand University took to the streets of Johannesburg to protest the killings, with some blacks taking part in the protests as well. In retaliation for attempting to overthrow the government many black anti-apartheid activists were detained after the Soweto uprising, the most famous of which was that of Steve Biko, who was beaten to death by police officers in 1977 while in custody.


The Muldergate scandal and Vorster's resignation

Vorster's reputation hit rock bottom for his role in Soweto and in the death of Steve Biko. Fortunately though, he wouldn't be in office for so long because he was forced to resign in 1978 after he financed the Department of Information through a secret defense account, which resulted in the Muldergate scandal. He would be succeeded by P.W. Botha, who made steps in making concessions towards the black majority.

P.W. Botha, F.W De Klerk, and the downfall of the National Party and apartheid

Under the leadership of P.W. Botha who took office in 1978, he was aware that continuing racial segregation could result in potential civil war among all races. To avoid this threat the National Party began a series of social reforms to appease the black and Coloured community. In these series of reforms, Botha allowed blacks to take part in labor unions, repealed the ban on multi-racial political parties, and also put to an end to the ban on interracial marriage. The hated pass laws were also repealed by Botha as well; with these pass laws repealed blacks were finally able to gain entry to certain areas reserved for whites. 

Despite these reforms, the constitution still denied blacks the right to vote and they only gave Asians and Coloureds some limited political power, but not for blacks. The Bantustan policy continued for the rest of Botha's rule.

These reforms enacted by the NP was met with mixed reaction, especially when another rift was formed among reformists and hardliners. Hardliners were furious over what Botha was doing, so in 1982, the Conservative Party was formed by said hardliners in order to reverse Botha's policies. Meanwhile, reformist NP politicians would go on to form the Independent Party, which would become merged with the Democratic Party formed in the 1970s. By 1987, the Conservative Party became the largest opposition party in South Africa.

While all of this was happening, blacks began protesting against apartheid throughout the 1980s, especially when South Africa entered into a period of economic instability. To make matters worse, Rhodesia, South Africa's closest ally, became independent in 1980 as Zimbabwe under majority rule, which made South Africa even more isolated in foreign affairs. In the violence and turmoil that followed, 2,000 protestors died between 1984 and 1986, and thousands of anti-government activists were imprisoned without trial.

With all of these problems happening at the same time, Botha was forced to resign as NP leader and State President in 1989 following a stroke, and F.W. de Klerk stepped in as South Africa's new State President. Unlike his predecessors, however, De Klerk was a liberal and he was aware of a potential civil war that would occur sometime if apartheid wasn't ended yet. So for the first time, De Klerk finally made a monumental decision: in 1990 he legalized parties that had been banned by his predecessors, most notably the ANC and the South African Communisty Party. 

But what is more important about De Klerk's attempts in putting an end to apartheid was when he released Mandela from prison after 27 years of being imprisoned at Robben Island. Several other black anti-apartheid activists such as Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma (both of which became future presidents of post-apartheid South Africa), and Walter Sisulu were released from prison and/or exile under De Klerk's political reforms. The release of Mandela and other ANC members offered many black South Africans any hope that apartheid would be ended soon, though whites were quite skeptical about this as they feared being the target of reprisal by the black majority now that Mandela was freed from prison. 

Meanwhile, several more segregation laws like the 1913 Native Land Act and the Population Registration act were repealed by De Klerk, and for the first time, non-whites were finally allowed to become members of the National Party. With that, apartheid finally came to an end, and De Klerk lifted the ongoing state of emergency that had been imposed by Botha previously. 

For the first time, in 1994, the first multi-racial elections in South Africa were held, with the ANC gaining the majority of the votes with Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first post-apartheid president. He would go on to promote reconciliation among South Africa's racial groups and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed to investigate and acknowledge human rights abuses committed by the apartheid government. 

The remains of the National Party would go on to take part in future elections, though they fared poorly in these elections before finally dissolving in 2005, marking it the end of the 91-year old National Party.

Conclusion 

So, in conclusion, South Africa ruled under a party that promoted racial segregation has brought in several ramifications with it. From denying blacks and Coloureds the right to vote in general elections and imprisoning several anti-apartheid activists for the sake of restoring order and status quo, the National Party had brought about immense oppression and hardship among blacks and Coloureds alike, and their actions resulted in them being isolated from the international community. With that in mind, it's no surprise that South Africa's non-white communities had certainly undergoed 46 insufferable years of racial segregation, discrimination, and oppression. 

While the National Party reduced blacks and Coloureds as second-class citizens during its rule, it was able to make South Africa an economic powerhouse and a clean country throughout its history. The latter is easily distinguishable as many streets in apartheid South Africa were clean and orderly in contrast to the already dirty and littered streets currently seen in modern-day South Africa, particularly Johannesburg.

The consequences of apartheid are still being examined by the TRC because it was quite frankly a terrible excuse for not giving non-whites any human rights and suffrage, and the legacy of apartheid continues to haunt modern-day South Africa to this very day.

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