Democracy
as a concept and as a practical form of government has been the subject
of critique throughout history. Some critics consider that democratic
regimes often fail to be true to the highest principles expected of them, while others reject the values promoted by constitutional democracy in whole or part.
Opposition to democracy goes as far back as Plato, who argued for a 'government of the best qualified'. More recently, James Madison extensively studied historic attempts at and arguments on democracy in his preparation for the Constitutional Convention, and Winston Churchill
remarked that, "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government
except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
Some critics of democracy have highlighted the concept's inconsistencies, paradoxes, and limits: drawing contrasts with other forms of government, such as epistocracy or lottocracy. Others have characterized most modern democracies as democratic polyarchies and democratic aristocracies. Yet others have identified fascist moments in modern democracies. They have termed the societies produced by modern democracies as neo-feudal and have contrasted democracy with fascism, anarcho-capitalism, theocracy, and absolute monarchy.
Historical criticism
Classical philosophy
Plato is considered one of the most important opponents of democratic rule in Ancient Greece.
Our understanding of classical theories of democracy depend heavily on the work of critics. For example, Robert Dahl has written, "Although the practices of modern democracy bear only a weak resemblance to the political institutions of classical Greece... Greek democratic ideas have been more influential...
[and] what we know of their ideas comes less from the writings and
speeches of democratic advocates, of which only fragments survive, than
from their critics." Amongst those critics, Aristotle, Plato and Thucydides are notable.
Aristotle
was a mild critic of democracy. The essence of his critique was that he
"disliked the power that he thought the expansion of democracy
necessarily gave to the poor." Plato was also skeptical of the broad scope of democracy: he advocated for "government by the best qualified." Early liberal democracy paid attention to these critiques. For example, James Madison "trained rigorously in... ancient learning" as a young man, and the ideas of ancient authors explain a "facet of Madison's recorded attitude on the nature of man." The influence of ancient critiques of democracy can be seen in the way Madison spent the months before the Constitutional Convention "studying many centuries of political philosophy and histories of past attempts at republican forms of government."
According to Dahl, Aristotle and Plato would agree with most
advocates of modern democracy that an aim of the society is "to produce
good citizens", and that "Virtue, justice, and happiness are companions... [in] developing citizens who seek the common good."
Thucydides, the famous Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War, witnessed the fall of Athenian democracy and applied scientific history in his critique of the democratic government. At the heart of his critique was an assertion that democracy failed "in the search for truth" and that leaders and citizens attempted "to impose their own speech-dependent meanings on reality." Thucydides blamed "public orators" and demagogues for a failure of epistemic knowledge, allowing most Athenians to "believe silly things about their past and the institutions of their opponents."
Post-classical era criticism
Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas favored "a mixed government combining elements of democracy, aristocracy and kingship... [which] is reminiscent of Aristotle's preference for mixed government over either democracy or oligarchy." Scholars also consider "the substantial medieval literature in support
of the Inquisitions" to be opposed to modern ideas of democracy.
Democracy existed in a few "city-states of medieval Italy... [which] were ultimately submerged in imperial or oligarchic rule." The idea of "representation was not invented by democrats but developed instead as a medieval institution of monarchical and aristocratic government," and had its beginnings in "assemblies summoned by the monarch, or sometimes the nobles themselves, to deal with important matters of state." The "state of military technology and organization" in medieval Europe was "highly unfavorable in its effects" on democracy.
Medieval Jewish political philosophy, being influenced by Plato, Muslim thought and Halakhic concepts, was "monarchist, and inherently anti-democratic."
Traditional Asian societies were regarded as anti-democratic, but Amartya Sen has pointed out that "It is not hard, of course, to find authoritarian
writings within the Asian traditions. But neither is it hard to find
them in Western classics: One has only to reflect on the writings of
Plato or Aquinas to see that devotion to discipline is not a special Asian taste."
Since the post-classical period, Islam has been an important pillar of society for much of the world, and some critics have defended this tradition from "the secular assumptions of the Enlightenment" and an "uncritical universalism" that "erodes historical continuity and the sense of community that sustains traditional societies." In many societies today, people of faith challenge the idea of "secularism as the only 'rational' way to deal with the challenges of life."
Early modern criticism
Thomas Hobbes, one of the first philosophers of the Enlightenment, published Leviathan in 1651 in defense of "absolute sovereignty" and in support of the royalist side in the English Civil War. Hobbes was a critic of democracy because "the sovereign in a democracy
(i.e. the people) can only exercise its power when it is actually
assembled together... Only in a monarchy is the capacity to govern always exercised." Hobbes also considered that democracy would undermine the social contract because it leads to instability, conflict, glory-seeking, and mistrust. Later Enlightenment thinkers, such as Madison, who shared Hobbesian concerns about "the strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses" of human nature, would use some of these critiques to improve modern democracy.
Lippincott argued that this group held three fundamental
doctrines: "the common man's inferiority, the title of the few to rule,
and authority." They found sources for these principles in Puritanism,
middle-class ideas of power, and the classical education that they had
received in their youth. The three doctrines were "most perfectly
represented in Plato's Republic,"
while classical history seemed to provide examples of "the common man's
inferiority" as in the cases of Athens and Rome, "which showed the
populace turning to disorder." The three doctrines had been developed
during the Reformation and the Enlightenment by writers like John Calvin, Edmund Burke and David Hume.
Plato's
view was that the ability of common men to vote was one of democracy's
key failings. This aspect of democracy means that the vote of an expert
has equal value to the vote of 'an incompetent'. Jason Brennan believes that low information voters
are a significant problem in America, and that this is the main
objection to democracies in general because the system does not
incentivize being or becoming better informed. He cites a study in which it was found that less than 30% of Americans could name two or more of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights. He believes an informed voter should have extensive knowledge of the
candidate's current and previous political beliefs/tendencies. He
concludes that an epistocracy, which would only give a vote to those with an elite political understanding, would be better than a broad democracy.
Charles Maurras, a supporter of the Vichy regime and principal philosopher of the right-wing Action Française
movement, believed in biological inequality and natural hierarchies. He
argued that the individual is naturally subordinate to collectivities
such as the family, society, and the state, and so those are doomed to
fail if they are founded on the "myth of equality" or "abstract
liberty". Maurras criticized democracy as being a "government by
numbers" in which quantity matters more than quality, and the worst is
favored over the best. Maurras denounced the principles of liberalism as described in The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen as based upon the false assumptions of liberty and equality. He claimed that the parliamentary system
subordinates the national interest, or common good, to private
interests of a parliament's representatives where only short-sighted
interests of individuals prevail. Other studies have found that attempts, such as those proposed by
Maurras, to replace democratic meritocracy with authoritarian meritocracy face challenges since power can override merit.
Plato, James Madison and other democratic theorists raise a concern
about situations in which a majority could become tyrannical, also
called the tyranny of the majority. Professors Richard Ellis of Willamette University and Michael Nelson of Rhodes College
have argued that much constitutional thought, from Madison to Lincoln
and beyond, has focused on "the problem of majority tyranny". They
conclude, "The principles of republican government embedded in the
Constitution represent an effort by the framers to ensure that the
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would
not be trampled by majorities." Thomas Jefferson warned that "an elective despotism is not the government we fought for." A constitution should limit what a simple majority can accomplish. Liberal democracy safeguards against the tyranny of majority through rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, political egalitarianism and equality before the law.
"The consciousness of power always produces vanity, an undue belief
in personal greatness. The desire to dominate, for good or for evil, is
universal. These are elementary facts. In the leader, the consciousness
of his personal worth, and of the need which the mass feels for
guidance, combine to induce in his mind a recognition of his own
superiority (real or supposed), and awake, in addition, that spirit of
command which exists in the germ in every man born of woman....He who
has acquired power will almost always endeavor to consolidate it and to
extend it, to multiply the ramparts which defend his position, and to
withdraw himself from the control of the masses."
Bernard Manin [fr] draws on James Harrington, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to suggest that the dominant form of government—representative rather than direct democracy—is effectively aristocratic. He says that modern representative governments exercise political power
through aristocratic elections which, in turn, countermands the "rule
of the people". Montesquieu argued that elections favor the "best"
citizens who, as Manin notes, tend to be wealthy and upper-class. For Rousseau, elections favor incumbent government officials or those citizens with the strongest personalities, which results in a form of hereditary aristocracy. Manin further evinces the aristocratic nature of representative governments by contrasting them with the ancient style of selection by lot. He notes that Montesquieu considered lotteries to prevent jealousy and distribute offices equally (among citizens from different ranks), while Rousseau
believed that lotteries chose indifferently, preventing self-interest
and partiality from tainting the citizen's choice (and thereby
preventing hereditary aristocracy).
Manin looks at the gap between the American and French revolutionaries'
claim of "equality of all citizens" in the 18th century and their
decision to use elections that often favored elites instead of lotteries
in their democratic systems. He explains this by noting that they valued some forms of equality more
than others. What mattered most to them was that government rested on
the consent of the governed, even if that meant an aristocratic
democracy. They cared less about giving every citizen an equal chance to
hold office. Elections gave citizens two kinds of consent: acceptance
of both the process and the outcome, even when elites were chosen.
Lotteries, on the other hand, only gave consent to the process, not to
the individuals selected. Seen this way, their preference for elections
over lotteries makes sense if they prioritized consent over equal
opportunity.
The 20th-century Italian thinkers Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca
(independently) argued that democracy was illusory, and served only to
mask the reality of elite rule. They suggested that elite oligarchy is
the unbendable law of human nature, due largely to the apathy
and division of the masses (as opposed to the drive, initiative and
unity of the elites), and that democratic institutions would do no more
than shift the exercise of power from oppression to manipulation.
In 1911, German-Italian political scientist Robert Michels formulated the iron law of oligarchy. He argued that oligarchy
is unavoidable in any organization due to the practical demands of
organizing. In democracy, he noted, organization inevitably produces the
dominance of leaders over followers and delegates over those they
represent. Michels concluded that democracy’s aim to end elite rule is impossible,
since democracy ultimately serves to legitimize the rule of a
particular elite, making oligarchy inevitable.
A 2014 study led by Princeton professor Martin Gilens of 1,779
U.S. government decisions concluded that "elites and organized groups
representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on
U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest
groups have little or no independent influence."
Socialist perspective
French revolutionary syndicalistHubert Lagardelle claimed that French revolutionary syndicalism came to being as the result of "the reaction of the proletariat against idiotic democracy," which he claimed was "the popular form of bourgeois
dominance". Lagardelle opposed democracy for its universalism, and
believed in the necessity of class separation of the proletariat from
the bourgeoisie, as democracy did not recognize the social differences
between them.
Political representatives may be persuaded to vote against the
interests of their constituency interests by special interest groups
with significant funding for lobbying. Some aspects of lobbying have been criticized for contributing to a democratic deficit.
Democracies are not immune to corruption. Whilst countries with high levels of democracy tend to have low levels
of different forms of corruption, it is also clear that countries with
moderate levels of democracy can have high levels of corruption.
Similarly, countries with no democracy may have very little corruption. Various features of democratic systems can reduce corruption, but only
the combination of sophisticated democratic institutions, such as open
and free elections coupled with judicial and legislative constraints,
might effectively reduce corruption.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
has argued that "democracy is being so emptied of content that it can
be instrumentally defended by those who use it in order to destroy it,"
and that individuals calling for increased democratization and
protection from fascism are labeled as leftists.
Various reasons can be found for eliminating or suppressing political opponents. Methods such as false flags, counterterrorism-laws, planting or creating compromising material, or perpetuation of public fear can be used to suppress dissent. After a failed coup d'état in Turkey,
over 110,000 people were removed from office and nearly 40,000 were
imprisoned (despite its status as a democratic nation) during the 2016 purges.Fake parties, phantom political rivals, and "scarecrow" opponents may be used to undermine the opposition.
The electoral process in democracies can be corrupted through the
giving and receiving of bribes, the threat or use of violence,
treatment, or impersonation.
Social bots and other forms of online propaganda, as well as algorithmically-driven search engine results, may be used to alter voters' perception of candidates and sway their opinions. In 2016 Andrés Sepúlveda
disclosed that he manipulated public opinion to rig elections in Latin
America. According to his account, using a budget of $600,000, he led a
team of hackers that stole campaign strategies, manipulated social media to create false waves of enthusiasm and derision, and installed spyware in opposition offices to help Enrique Peña Nieto, a right-of-center candidate, win the election.Televised debates and, according to George Bishop, inaccurate opinion polls can in some cases shift election outcomes.
Dan Slater and Lucan Ahmad Way have contended that misinformation—such as fake news—has become common in elections around the world. They criticized the FBI for announcing that the agency would examine
potentially incriminating evidence against Hillary Clinton's use of a
private email server just 11 days before the US election.
Inefficiency and instability
Majoritarian democracy has been criticized for not providing sufficient political stability. As governments of different political parties are frequently
alternated, there tend to be frequent changes in the policies of
democratic countries. Reason Wafawarova argued in 2008 that rigid approaches to democracy may
undermine the ability for a developing country to achieve long-term
stability and democracy.
Democracy tends to improve conflict resolution. However, spatially concentrated costs and diffuse benefits together
with regulatory transaction costs can result in ineffective conflict resolution such as NIMBYism.
The Coase theorem states that non-zero transaction costs will generally lead to inefficient conflict resolution. Daron Acemoglu argues that the Coase theorem
extends to politics, where the "rules of the game" in politics need to
be enforced to achieve low transaction costs. Groups with political
power can prefer inefficient policies and inefficient institutions and
oppose further democratization. Anthony Downs has argued that political markets work in much the same
way as the economic market and that the democratic process could be
responsible for creating equilibrium in the system. However, he also acknowledged that imperfect knowledge in politicians
and voters prevented the full realization of that equilibrium.
Income inequality and limited socioeconomic mobility can lead to social unrest and revolutions. The extension of the democratic franchise can be seen as a commitment
by the political elite in favor of economic redistribution and political
redistribution to prevent social unrest, explaining the Kuznets curve. There is no consensus as to the situations in which democracy actually does reduce economic inequality.
The democratic process can provide short-term incentives for
elected politicians, and this may lead to the prioritization of actions
or policies with short-term benefits, while longer-term risks such as debt crisis, pensions crisis, climate risk or financial crisis are ignored. Some election systems have been shown to reward financial prudence and debt brakes. Different voting systems lead to different levels of short-termism in politics.
James M. Buchanan and Richard E. Wagner have argued that the nontransparent nature of most tax systems causes a fiscal illusion which results in greater government spending than democratically expected.
In a theocracy, the supreme ruling authority is a deity, rather than the people. Theodemocracy combines authority by both deity and the people.
The practice of orthodox Islam in the form of Salafism can clash with a democratic system. The core precept of Islam, that of "tawheed"
(the "oneness of God"), can be interpreted by fundamentalist Salafis to
mean, among other things, that democracy as a political system is
incompatible with the purported notion that laws not handed down by God
should not be recognized.
Carl Schmitt contended that political representation in a liberal democracy was formulaic, and that the mystical nature and personalist ideal of the Catholic sovereign was essential.
Asian perspectives
Political leaders in Singapore and China, such as Lee Kuan Yew, have said that Confucianism provides a more "coherent ideological basis for a well-ordered Asian society than Western notions of individual liberty." Chinese Confucian Jiang Qing, who advocates for the political Confucianism of the Gyongyang School, contends that parliamentary democracy is constrained by legal formalism, vulgar populism, and moral relativism.
In his criticism of Western liberal democracy, academic Zhang Weiwei argues that liberal democracy is insufficiently meritocratic and fails to choose trustworthy leaders.
Chinese policymakers argue that policy under democratic systems
is largely restricted to ad hoc interventions and that this renders
social development vulnerable to market forces.
Chinese planners argue that such ad hoc interventions are incapable of
coping with fundamental challenges such as environmental degradation,
dysfunction in capital markets, and demographic change.
The Chinese Communist Party's political concept of whole-process people's democracy criticizes liberal democracy for relying excessively on procedural formalities or rule of law without, in the party's view, genuinely reflecting the interests of the people. According to Wang Zhongyuan of Fudan University,
this critique arises as part of a post-1990s trend in which various
countries have sought to redefine "democracy" in ways that differ from
Western multi-party democratic systems.
Under the framing of whole-process people's democracy, the most
important criteria for democracy is whether it can "solve the people's
real problems," while a system in which "the people are awakened only
for voting" is deemed not truly democratic. The concept can thus be used as a way of criticizing liberal democracy and to deflect criticism of the Chinese system.
Responses to criticism
Defenses of democracy
In his book Against Elections: The Case for Democracy,David Van Reybrouck argues that allocating power through sortition, such as in citizens' assemblies, can resolve many of the shortcomings of representative democracy. "Democracy is not government by the best in our society, because such a thing is called an aristocracy, elected or not...
Democracy, by contrast, flourishes precisely by allowing a diversity of
voices to be heard. It's all about having an equal say, an equal right
to determine what political action is taken."
To safeguard democracy from inappropriate use of the power to declare a state of emergency, it is sometimes proposed that such declarations should include sunset provisions together with a process of extension review. Sunset provisions are also thought to increase the long-term electoral accountability of some other types of law or regulation.
Those concerned by the way public opinion can be swayed by funded campaigns often argue for limitations on the ability of money to play a role in democracy.
Empirical evidence
Contemporary empirical evidence on the success of democracy is equivocal. On one hand, democracy is sometimes credited for bringing peace, individual freedoms and economic prosperity. On the other hand, certain studies, such as The Economist Democracy Index indicate that democracies are in decline globally.
In argumentation theory, an argumentum ad populum (Latin for 'appeal to the people') is a fallacious argument that asserts a claim is true, or good or correct because many people think so.
Alternative names
Other names for the fallacy include:
appeal to (common) belief
appeal to popularity
appeal to the majority
appeal to the masses
argument from consensus
authority of the many
bandwagon fallacy
common belief fallacy
democratic fallacy
mob appeal
truth by association
consensus gentium (Latin for 'agreement of the people')
Description
Argumentum ad populum is a type of informal fallacy, specifically a fallacy of relevance, and is similar to an argument from authority (argumentum ad verecundiam). It uses an appeal to the beliefs, tastes, or values of a group of people, stating that because a certain opinion or attitude is held by a majority, or even everyone, it is therefore correct.
Appeals to popularity are common in commercial advertising that
portrays products as desirable because they are used by many people or associated with popular sentiments instead of communicating the merits of the products themselves.
The inverse argument, that something that is unpopular must be flawed, is also a form of this fallacy.
The fallacy is similar in structure to certain other fallacies
that involve a confusion between the "justification" of a belief and its
"widespread acceptance" by a given group of people. When an argument
uses the appeal to the beliefs of a group of experts, it takes on the
form of an appeal to authority; if the appeal relates to the beliefs of a
group of respected elders or the members of one's community over a long
time, then it takes on the form of an appeal to tradition.
Scholarship
The philosopher Irving Copi defined argumentum ad populum differently from an appeal to popular opinion itself, as an attempt to rouse the "emotions and enthusiasms of the multitude".
Douglas N. Walton argues that appeals to popular opinion can be logically valid in some cases, such as in political dialogue within a democracy.
Reversals
In some circumstances, a person may argue that the fact that Y people believe X to be true implies that X is false. This line of thought is closely related to the appeal to spite
fallacy given that it invokes a person's contempt for the general
populace or something about the general populace to persuade them that
most are wrong about X. This ad populum reversal commits the same
logical flaw as the original fallacy given that the idea "X is true" is
inherently separate from the idea that "Y people believe X": "Y people
believe in X as true, purely because Y people believe in it, and not
because of any further considerations. Therefore X must be false." While
Y people can believe X to be true for fallacious reasons, X might still
be true. Their motivations for believing X do not affect whether X is
true or false.
Y = most people, a given quantity of people, people of a particular demographic.
X = a statement that can be true or false.
Examples:
"Are you going to be a mindless conformist drone drinking milk and water like everyone else, or will you wake up and drink my product?"
"Everyone likes The Beatles and that probably means that they didn't have nearly as much talent as <Y band>, which didn't sell out."
"The German people today consists of the Auschwitzgeneration, with every person in power being guilty in some way. How on earth can we buy the generally held propaganda that the Soviet Union is imperialistic and totalitarian? Clearly, it must not be."
"Everyone loves <A actor>. <A actor> must be nowhere near as talented as the devoted and serious method actors that aren't so popular like <B actor>."
In general, the reversal usually goes: "Most people believe A and B
are both true. B is false. Thus, A is false." The similar fallacy of chronological snobbery is not to be confused with the ad populum
reversal. Chronological snobbery is the claim that if belief in both X
and Y was popularly held in the past and if Y was recently proved to be
untrue then X must also be untrue. That line of argument is based on a
belief in historical progress and not—like the ad populum reversal is—on whether or not X and/or Y is currently popular.
Valid uses
Appeals
to public opinion are valid in situations where consensus is the
determining factor for the validity of a statement, such as linguistic
usage and definitions of words.
Language
Linguistic descriptivists
argue that correct grammar, spelling, and expressions are defined by
the language's speakers, especially in languages which do not have a
central governing body. According to this viewpoint, if an incorrect
expression is commonly used, it becomes correct. In contrast, linguistic prescriptivists believe that incorrect expressions are incorrect regardless of how many people use them.
Mathematics
Special functions are mathematical functions
that have well-established names and mathematical notations due to
their significance in mathematics and other scientific fields.
There is no formal definition of what makes a function a special function; instead, the term special function is defined by consensus. Functions generally considered to be special functions include logarithms, trigonometric functions, and the Bessel functions.
Astrovirology is an emerging subdiscipline of astrobiology which aims to understand the potential role viruses
played in the origin and evolution of life on Earth as well as other
planets. While most research on extraterrestrial life has focused on the
discovery of microbes, recent research has suggested that viral-like
beings should be the main focus. The term "astrovirology" was coined in 2013 by Dale Warren Griffin, who
highlighted the potential importance of viruses in space exploration.
Given their ability to infect nearly every form of life and adapt to a
range of environmental conditions, viruses may offer insight into
extraterrestrial life.
Viruses and early life on Earth
Viruses drive evolution
Viruses are a major driving force in evolution; the arms race between viruses and their host, or the Red Queen hypothesis, causes strong evolutionary pressures in both the host and viruses. The host evolves to evade and destroy viruses, while the virus evolves
mechanisms to continue infecting the host. Evolution is also influenced
by viral horizontal gene transfer. Viral genes can be inserted into the host genome (ex. Retroviruses)
and sometimes these genes are evolutionarily favorable. One common
example of beneficial horizontal gene transfer in humans is the gene for
syncytin, which came from ancient viruses and is important in placenta
development.
Viruses influence major evolutionary events
Though
unproven, some virologists posit that viruses may have played an
important role in major evolutionary events, including the emergence of a
DNA genome from an RNA world, divergence from LUCA to the three domains of life, archaea, bacteria, and eukarya, and development of multicellularity. Emergence of a DNA genome and divergence from LUCA may have been aided
by horizontal gene transfer of polymerases and other gene-editing
enzymes from viruses. Meanwhile, viral selection pressures could have
also aided divergence from LUCA to defend against different viruses,
while multicellularity provides greater cell population protection from
viruses.
Viruses and Earth's environment
Viruses influence biogeochemical cycles
Viruses cause nutrient cycling in the ocean via the viral shunt, and up to 25% of the available carbon in the upper ocean is attributed to virus-induced cell lysis.
Around 5% of Earth's oxygen is thought to be produced by cells
infected by viruses encoding photosynthetic genes otherwise absent from
the cell. For example, some viruses of cyanobacteria
contain genes for Photosystem II, which allows those cyanobacteria to
photosynthesize and live in a different part of the ocean as their
non-infected counterparts. Some viruses encode other metabolic genes
that allow new metabolic functions in their host, for example,
phosphate, carbon, and sulfur metabolism.
Extremophile viruses
Viruses
can withstand extreme conditions on Earth ranging from the deep-sea
hydrothermal vents to arctic permafrost. Viruses have been found in
extremely hot, cold, and acidic natural environments, up to 93 °C
(199 °F), down to −12 °C (10 °F), and down to pH 1.5. Space has seen to harbor harsher conditions, which includes extreme fluctuations in radiation, temperature, and pressure.
Viruses in space
Infectivity in space
Viruses including tobacco mosaic virus, poliovirus,
and bacteriophage T1 have maintained infectivity after being exposed to
space-like conditions including interstellar radiation, low
temperature, and low pressure. Further studies are needed to assess the risk of viral hitchhikers, but
any virus infecting an organism inside a habitable spacecraft can
survive as long as that organism survives.
Effect on astronauts
Latent
viruses such as herpes virus, prevalent in humans, can become reactive
during spaceflight due to spaceflight stressors. While astronauts
experienced few if any symptoms, the potential for other viruses to
become reactivated or more virulent is a substantial threat.
Furthermore, some bacteria (Serratia marcescens)
have been found to be more virulent in spaceflight conditions, leading
to a question of whether viruses could also become more virulent.
Forward contamination potential
Limiting forward contamination
is critical to be confident in the results of life detection efforts.
Bacteria pose a significant contamination challenge in spacecraft
assembly clean rooms despite decontamination procedures. However, viruses were found to be present at relatively low levels, based on a metagenomic analysis. Another metagenomic study detected viable human viruses, including herpesvirus and cycloviruses.
Back contamination potential
Life
(and viruses) on other planetary bodies have two important potential
origins: from Earth or from a second genesis (life originated on that
planet). Ancient viruses could have been transported from Earth to
another planetary body, perhaps following a massive meteorite impact or
volcanic eruption If this occurred, these viruses would likely be very biological similar to modern organisms. There may be minimal or no immunity among Earth life against the
ancient virus, and whatever organism it can infect may be crippled by
its re-introduction.
If extraterrestrial viruses are part of a second genesis, their
infectivity of Earth life depends on how they encode their genetic
information. While their encoding could be incompatible with Earth life,
it is also possible that RNA, DNA, or similar molecules could encode
for life in the second genesis. In this case, Earth life may be a
suitable host.
Viruses and Panspermia
A
long-standing hypothesis of the distribution of life, including
viruses, is panspermia, which can be traced all the way back to 5th
century Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras. Panspermia suggests that life may
have originated elsewhere in the universe and then spread to other
planets such as Earth via celestial bodies like meteors, asteroids, or
comets. Many geological activities including meteorite crashes and
volcanic eruptions could spread "seeds of life" which include dormant
viruses, DNA, and RNA. Several mechanisms within panspermia have been proposed for how viruses could possibly survive space's extreme conditions.
Mechanisms
The
most widely accepted form would be lithopanspermia, which focuses on
the expulsion of organic material from meteorites crashing onto
planetary surfaces. Lithopanspermia is supported by much evidence
provided from Martian meteorites, which have been seen to contain
organic compounds. Additionally, laboratory simulations have shown that these explosive
events could expel viruses and organic matter into space and possibly
seeding life there.
Similar to lithopanspermia, the cometary panspermia model
developed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe proposes that comets
are the primary form of transportation and serve as incubators. Comets are rich in materials like water and possess a greater diversity
of organic compounds. Research on cometary dust from the Stardust
Mission revealed the presence of fossilized microorganisms with genetic
similarity to terrestrial microbes.
Moving beyond celestial bodies, radiopanspermia, offers an
alternative pathway for interspace travel through radiation pressure
from stars. This theory was developed in 1903 by Svante Arrhenius and
proposes that microscopic particles, like bacteria or viruses, could be
constantly propelled by the photons emitted from stars. These photons act similarly to winds pushing a sail, transferring their
momentum to the particles and accelerating them throughout space.
Limitations
Despite the interesting potential for viruses to play a role in the origin of life, several limitations and challenges exist.
One of the biggest challenge for astrovirology lies within
detecting viruses within other planets. Due to their submicroscopic
size, much of the modern microscopy may not provide the necessary
resolution or have the facilities to identify these viral particles.
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides a high resolution
power, which makes it a commonly used method for studying the
morphology and structure of viruses. The high resolving power allows studies to delve into the nanometer
scale. However its use in space is affected by the fluctuations of
temperature and pressure, which constrains sample preparation. A
surrounding membrane must also be identified for extraterrestrial life
detection.
Fluorescence microscopy has shown promise to detect life
signatures on Mars by using specific dyes that can bind to certain
components of the microorganisms such as cellular membranes or genetic
material. However, a major disadvantages of fluorescence microscopy
involves false positives, as many mineral samples can naturally
fluoresce under different wavelengths. Furthermore, fluorescence
microscopy can not obtain detail such as molecular weight, which would
limit the depth of analysis for complex compounds.
Potential biosignatures/detection methods
While viruses may or may not be "alive", detection of virions on another planet would be powerful indirect evidence for life. The following methods could offer biosignatures with varying levels of usefulness:
Scanning electron microscopy: SEM has potential to be integrated onto a spacecraft, but currently lacks the resolution to detect virion structure.
Transmission electron microscopy: TEM can visualize virion structure, but the imaging procedure is more difficult than SEM, and so integration onto an automated spacecraft seems unlikely.
Lipid detection in rock: Enveloped viruses may be identifiable via this method.
Virus-mediated event: Large-scale lysis of a given host cell can
cause easily detectable effects. For example, the chalk deposits in the white cliffs of Dover are caused by large-scale lysis of algae, which could have been virus-induced.
Proposed and current life detection missions
Astrovirologists have called for proposed missions to sample the water plumes of Enceladus and/or Europa for viruses. Others have called for virus detection as part of Mars rover missions like the Rosalind Franklin rover. However, given the lack of validated biosignatures to detect viruses in situ, sample return to Earth has been recommended, which would allow use of TEM and other detection methods requiring complex sample preparation and/or large equipment. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has equipment to drill regolith samples and store them for sample return on a future Mars mission.
Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid, which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, and grand apartheid, which strictly separated housing and employment opportunities by race. The first apartheid law was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, followed closely by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, which made it illegal for most South African citizens to marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines. The Population Registration Act, 1950
classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on
appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural
lifestyle: "Black", "White", "Coloured", and "Indian", the last two of
which included several sub-classifications. Places of residence were determined by racial classification. Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million black Africans were removed from
their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods as a result of
apartheid legislation, in some of the largest mass evictions in modern
history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the black
population to ten designated "tribal homelands", also known as bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states. The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South
African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans.
Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic
opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social
movements of the 20th century. It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations and brought about extensive international sanctions, including arms embargoes and economic sanctions on South Africa. During the 1970s and 1980s, internal resistance to apartheid became increasingly militant, prompting brutal crackdowns by the National Party ruling government and protracted sectarian violence that left thousands dead or in detention. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
found that there were 21,000 deaths from political violence, with 7,000
deaths between 1948 and 1989, and 14,000 deaths and 22,000 injuries in
the transition period between 1990 and 1994. Some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and Coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed to appease most activist groups.
Between 1987 and 1993, the National Party entered into bilateral negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC), the leading anti-apartheid political movement, for ending segregation and introducing majority rule. In 1990, prominent ANC figures, such as Nelson Mandela, were released from prison. Apartheid legislation was repealed on 17 June 1991, leading to non-racial elections in April 1994. Since the end of apartheid, elections have been open and competitive.
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally "apart-ness" or apart-hood" (from the Afrikaans suffix -heid). Its first recorded use was in 1929.
Racial discrimination against Black people in South Africa dates
to the beginning of large-scale European colonisation of South Africa
with the Dutch East India Company's establishment of a trading post in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, which eventually expanded into the Dutch Cape Colony. The company began the Khoikhoi–Dutch Wars in which it displaced the local Khoikhoi people, replaced them with farms worked by White settlers, and imported Black slaves from across the Dutch Empire. In the days of slavery, slaves required passes to travel away from their owners.
In 1797, the Landdrost and Heemraden, local officials, of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and decreed that all Khoikhoi (designated as Hottentots) moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes. This was confirmed by the British Colonial government in 1809 by the Hottentot Proclamation, which decreed that if a Khoikhoi were to move they would need a pass from their owner or a local official. Ordinance No. 49 of 1828 decreed that prospective Black immigrants were
to be granted passes for the sole purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi but not for
other Africans, who were nonetheless forced to carry passes.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire captured and annexed the Dutch Cape Colony. Under the 1806 Cape Articles of Capitulation the new British colonial rulers were required to respect previous legislation enacted under Roman-Dutch law, and this led to a separation of the law in South Africa from English Common Law
and a high degree of legislative autonomy. The governors and assemblies
that governed the legal process in the various colonies of South Africa
launched on an independent legislative path different from the rest of
the British Empire.
The United Kingdom's Slavery Abolition Act 1833
provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the
British Empire. The trade of slaves was made illegal throughout the
British Empire by 1837, with Nigeria and Bahrain being the last British
territories to abolish slavery. The act overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation. To comply with the
act, the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1
in 1835, which effectively changed the status of slaves to indentured labourers. This was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa that was little different from slavery.
The various South African colonies passed legislation throughout
the rest of the 19th century to limit the freedom of unskilled workers,
to increase the restrictions on indentured workers and to regulate the
relations between the races. The discoveries of diamonds and gold in
South Africa also raised racial inequality between White people and
Black people. Some scholars have argued that Apartheid's ideology can be reflected in Afrikaner Calvinism, with its parallel traditions of racialism; for example, as early as 1933; the executive council of the Broederbond formulated a recommendation for mass segregation.
In the Cape Colony, which previously had a liberal and multi-racial constitution and a system of Cape Qualified Franchise open to men of all races, the Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892 raised the property franchise qualification and added an educational element, disenfranchising a disproportionate number of the Cape's non-White voters, and the Glen Grey Act of 1894 instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes limited the amount of land Africans could hold. Similarly, in Natal, the Natal Legislative Assembly Bill of 1894 deprived Indians of the right to vote. In 1896 the South African Republic brought in two pass laws requiring Africans to carry a badge. Only those employed by a master were permitted to remain on the Rand, and those entering a "labour district" needed a special pass. During the Second Boer War, the British Empire cited racial exploitation of Blacks as a cause for its war against the Boer republics. However, the peace negotiations for the Treaty of Vereeniging
demanded "the just predominance of the white race" in South Africa as a
precondition for the Boer republics unifying with the British Empire.
In 1905 the General Pass Regulations Act denied Black people the vote and limited them to fixed areas, and in 1906 the Asiatic Registration Act of the Transvaal Colony required all Indians to register and carry passes. Beginning in 1906 the South African Native Affairs Commission under Godfrey Lagden began implementing a more openly segregationist policy towards non-Whites. The latter was repealed by the British government but re-enacted in 1908. In 1910, the Union of South Africa was created as a self-governing dominion, which continued the legislative program: the South Africa Act
(1910) enfranchised White people, giving them complete political
control over all other racial groups while removing the right of Black
people to sit in parliament; the Native Land Act (1913) prevented Black people, except those in the Cape, from buying land outside "reserves"; the Natives in Urban Areas Bill (1918) was designed to force Black people into "locations"; the Urban Areas Act (1923) introduced residential segregation and
provided cheap labour for industry led by White people; the Colour Bar
Act (1926) prevented Black mine workers from practising skilled trades;
the Native Administration Act (1927) made the British Crown rather than paramount chiefs the supreme head over all African affairs;the Native Land and Trust Act (1936) complemented the 1913 Native Land Act and, in the same year, the Representation of Natives Act removed previous Black voters from the Cape voters' roll and allowed them to elect three Whites to Parliament.
The United Party government of Jan Smuts began to move away from the rigid enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II, but faced growing opposition from Afrikaner nationalists who wanted stricter segregation. Post-war, one of the first pieces of segregating legislation enacted by Smuts' government was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill (1946), which banned land sales to Indians and Indian descendent South Africans. The same year, the government established the Fagan Commission. Amid fears that integration would eventually lead to racial assimilation, the Opposition Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) established the Sauer Commission
to investigate the effects of the United Party's policies. The
commission concluded that integration would bring about a "loss of
personality" for all racial groups. The HNP incorporated the
commission's findings into its campaign platform for the 1948 South African general election, which it won.
Institution and development
Apartheid developed from the racism of colonial factions and due to South Africa's "unique industrialisation". The policies of industrialisation led to the segregation and classing of people, which was "specifically developed to nurture early industry such as mining". Cheap labour was the basis of the economy and this was taken from what the state classed as peasant groups and the migrants. To a large extent, the political ideology of apartheid had emerged from
the colonisation of Africa by European powers which institutionalised
racial discrimination and exercised a paternal philosophy of "civilising inferior natives".
D. F. Malan, the first apartheid-era prime minister (1948–1954)
South Africa had allowed social custom and law to govern the
consideration of multiracial affairs and of the allocation, in racial
terms, of access to economic, social, and political status. Nevertheless, by 1948 it remained apparent that there were gaps in the
social structure, whether legislated or otherwise, concerning the rights
and opportunities of non-whites. The rapid economic development of World War II
attracted black migrant workers in large numbers to chief industrial
centres, where they compensated for the wartime shortage of white
labour. However, this escalated rate of black urbanisation went
unrecognised by the South African government, which failed to
accommodate the influx with parallel expansion in housing or social
services. Overcrowding, increasing crime rates, and disillusionment resulted;
urban blacks came to support a new generation of leaders influenced by
the principles of self-determination and popular freedoms enshrined in such statements as the Atlantic Charter. Black political organisations and leaders such as Alfred Xuma, James Mpanza, the African National Congress, and the Council of Non-European Trade Unions began demanding political rights, land reform, and the right to unionise.
Whites reacted negatively to the changes, allowing the Herenigde Nasionale Party (or simply the National Party) to convince a large segment of the voting bloc
that the impotence of the United Party in curtailing the evolving
position of nonwhites indicated that the organisation had fallen under
the influence of Western liberals. Many Afrikaners
resented what they perceived as disempowerment by an underpaid black
workforce and the superior economic power and prosperity of white
English speakers. Smuts, as a strong advocate of the United Nations, lost domestic support when South Africa was criticised for its colour bar and the continued mandate of South West Africa by other UN member states.
Afrikaner nationalists proclaimed that they offered the voters a new policy to ensure continued white domination. This policy was initially expounded from a theory drafted by Hendrik Verwoerd and was presented to the National Party by the Sauer Commission. It called for a systematic effort to organise the relations, rights,
and privileges of the races as officially defined through a series of
parliamentary acts and administrative decrees. Segregation had thus far
been pursued only in major matters, such as separate schools, and local
society rather than law had been depended upon to enforce most
separation; it should now be extended to everything. The commission's goal was to completely remove blacks from areas
designated for whites, including cities, with the exception of temporary
migrant labour. Blacks would then be encouraged to create their own
political units in land reserved for them. The party gave this policy a name – apartheid. Apartheid was to be the basic ideological and practical foundation of Afrikaner politics for the next quarter of a century.
The National Party's election platform stressed that apartheid
would preserve a market for white employment in which non-whites could
not compete. On the issues of black urbanisation, the regulation of
non-white labour, "influx control," social security, farm tariffs and
non-white taxation, the United Party's policy remained contradictory and
confused. Its traditional bases of support not only took mutually exclusive
positions, but found themselves increasingly at odds with each other.
Smuts' reluctance to consider South African foreign policy against the mounting tensions of the Cold War also stirred up discontent, while the nationalists promised to purge the state and public service of communist sympathisers.
First to desert the United Party were Afrikaner farmers, who
wished to see a change in influx control due to problems with squatters,
as well as higher prices for their maize and other produce in the face
of the mineowners' demand for cheap food policies. Always identified
with the affluent and capitalist, the party also failed to appeal to its
working class constituents.
Populist rhetoric allowed the National Party to sweep eight constituencies in the mining and industrial centres of the Witwatersrand and five more in Pretoria. Barring the predominantly English-speaking landowner electorate of the Natal, the United Party was defeated in almost every rural district. Its urban losses in the nation's most populous province, the Transvaal, proved equally devastating. As the voting system was disproportionately weighted
in favour of rural constituencies and the Transvaal in particular, the
1948 election catapulted the Herenigde Nasionale Party from a small
minority party to a commanding position with an eight-vote parliamentary
lead. Daniel François Malan
became the first nationalist prime minister, with the aim of
implementing the apartheid philosophy and silencing liberal opposition.
When the National Party came to power in 1948, there were
factional differences in the party about the implementation of systemic
racial segregation. The "baasskap"
(white domination or supremacist) faction, which was the dominant
faction in the NP and state institutions, favoured systematic
segregation, but also favoured the participation of black Africans in
the economy, with black labour controlled to advance the economic gains
of Afrikaners. A second faction were the "purists", who believed in
"vertical segregation", in which blacks and whites would be entirely
separated, with blacks living in native reserves, with separate
political and economic structures, which, they believed, would entail
severe short-term pain, but would also lead to independence of white
South Africa from black labour in the long term. A third faction, which
included Hendrik Verwoerd,
sympathised with the purists, but allowed for the use of black labour,
while implementing the purist goal of vertical separation. Verwoerd would refer to this policy as a policy of "good neighbourliness" as a means of justifying such segregation.
NP leaders argued that South Africa did not comprise a single nation,
but was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, Coloured
and Indian. Such groups were split into 13 nations or racial
federations. White people encompassed the English and Afrikaans language groups; the black populace was divided into ten such groups.
The state passed laws that paved the way for "grand apartheid",
which was centred on separating races on a large scale, by compelling
people to live in separate places defined by race. This strategy was in
part adopted from "left-over" British rule that separated different
racial groups after they took control of the Boer republics in the Anglo-Boer war. This created the black-only "townships" or "locations", where blacks were relocated to their own towns. As the NP government's minister of native affairs
from 1950, Hendrik Verwoerd had a significant role in crafting such
laws, which led to him being regarded as the 'Architect of Apartheid'. In addition, "petty apartheid" laws were passed.
The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act
of 1950, which formalised racial classification and introduced an
identity card for all persons over the age of 18, specifying their
racial group. Official teams or boards were established to come to a conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. This caused difficulty, especially for Coloured people, separating families when members were assigned to different races.
The second pillar of grand apartheid was the Group Areas Act of 1950. Until then, most settlements had people of different races living side
by side. This Act put an end to diverse areas and determined where one
lived according to race. Each race was allotted its own area, which was
used in later years as a basis of forced removal. The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 allowed the government to demolish black shanty town
slums and forced white employers to pay for the construction of housing
for those black workers who were permitted to reside in cities
otherwise reserved for whites. The Native Laws Amendment Act, 1952 centralised and tightened pass laws so that blacks could not stay in urban areas for longer than 72 hours without a permit.
Under the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
of 1953, municipal grounds could be reserved for a particular race,
creating, among other things, separate beaches, buses, hospitals,
schools and universities. Signboards such as "whites only" applied to
public areas, even including park benches. Black South Africans were provided with services greatly inferior to
those of whites, and, to a lesser extent, to those of Indian and
Coloured people.
Further laws had the aim of suppressing resistance, especially armed resistance, to apartheid. The Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 banned the Communist Party of South Africa and any party subscribing to Communism.
The act defined Communism and its aims so sweepingly that anyone who
opposed government policy risked being labelled as a Communist. Since
the law specifically stated that Communism aimed to disrupt racial
harmony, it was frequently used to gag opposition to apartheid.
Disorderly gatherings were banned, as were certain organisations that
were deemed threatening to the government. It also empowered the
Ministry of Justice to impose banning orders.
After the Defiance Campaign, the government used the act for the mass arrests and banning of leaders of dissident groups such as the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). After the release of the Freedom Charter, 156 leaders of these groups were charged in the 1956 Treason Trial. It established censorship
of film, literature, and the media under the Customs and Excise Act
1955 and the Official Secrets Act 1956. The same year, the Native
Administration Act 1956 allowed the government to banish blacks.
The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951
created separate government structures for blacks and whites and was
the first piece of legislation to support the government's plan of
separate development in the bantustans. The Bantu Education Act, 1953 established a separate education system for blacks emphasizing African culture and vocational training under the Ministry of Native Affairs and defunded most mission schools. The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act
of 1959 entrenched the NP policy of nominally independent "homelands"
for blacks. So-called "self–governing Bantu units" were proposed, which
would have devolved administrative powers, with the promise later of autonomy
and self-government. It also abolished the seats of white
representatives of black South Africans and removed from the rolls the
few blacks still qualified to vote. The Bantu Investment Corporation Act
of 1959 set up a mechanism to transfer capital to the homelands to
create employment there. Legislation of 1967 allowed the government to
stop industrial development in "white" cities and redirect such
development to the "homelands". The Black Homeland Citizenship Act
of 1970 marked a new phase in the Bantustan strategy. It changed the
status of blacks to citizens of one of the ten autonomous territories.
The aim was to ensure a demographic majority of white people within
South Africa by having all ten Bantustans achieve full independence.
Inter-racial contact in sport was frowned upon, but there were no segregatory sports laws.
The government tightened pass laws compelling blacks to carry
identity documents, to prevent the immigration of blacks from other
countries. To reside in a city, blacks had to be in employment there.
Until 1956 women were for the most part excluded from these pass requirements, as attempts to introduce pass laws for women were met with fierce resistance.
Cape Coloured children in BonteheuwelAnnual per capita personal income by race group in South Africa relative to white levels
In 1950, D. F. Malan announced the NP's intention to create a Coloured Affairs Department. J.G. Strijdom,
Malan's successor as prime minister, moved to strip voting rights from
black and Coloured residents of the Cape Province. The previous
government had introduced the Separate Representation of Voters Bill
into Parliament in 1951, turning it into an Act
on 18 June 1951; however, four voters, G Harris, W D Franklin, W D
Collins and Edgar Deane, challenged its validity in court with support
from the United Party. The Cape Supreme Court upheld the act, but was reversed by the Appeal
Court, finding the act invalid because a two-thirds majority in a joint
sitting of both Houses of Parliament was needed to change the entrenched clauses of the Constitution. The government then introduced the High Court of Parliament Bill
(1952), which gave Parliament the power to overrule decisions of the
court. The Cape Supreme Court and the Appeal Court declared this invalid too.
In 1955 the Strijdom government increased the number of judges in
the Appeal Court from five to 11, 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. The parliament met in a joint sitting and passed the Separate Representation of Voters Act in 1956, which transferred Coloured voters from the common voters' roll in the Cape to a new Coloured voters' roll. Immediately after the vote, the Senate was restored to its original
size. The Senate Act was contested in the Supreme Court, but the
recently enlarged Appeal Court, packed with government-supporting
judges, upheld the act, and also the Act to remove Coloured voters.
The 1956 law allowed Coloureds to elect four people to
Parliament, but a 1969 law abolished those seats and stripped Coloureds
of their right to vote. Since Indians had never been allowed to vote,
this resulted in whites being the sole enfranchised group.
A 2016 study in The Journal of Politics
suggests that disenfranchisement in South Africa had a significant
negative effect on basic service delivery to the disenfranchised.
Division among whites
Before
South Africa became a republic in 1961, politics among white South
Africans was typified by the division between the mainly Afrikaner pro-republic conservative and the largely English anti-republican liberal sentiments, with the legacy of the Boer War still a factor for some people. Once South Africa became a republic, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd called for improved relations and greater accord between people of British descent and the Afrikaners. He claimed that the only difference was between those in favour of
apartheid and those against it. The ethnic division would no longer be
between Afrikaans and English speakers, but between blacks and whites.
Most Afrikaners supported the notion of unanimity of white people
to ensure their safety. White voters of British descent were divided.
Many had opposed a republic, leading to a majority "no" vote in Natal. Later, some of them recognised the perceived need for white unity,
convinced by the growing trend of decolonisation elsewhere in Africa,
which concerned them. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's "Wind of Change" speech left the British faction feeling that the United Kingdom had abandoned them. The more conservative English speakers supported Verwoerd; others were troubled by the severing of ties with the UK and remained loyal to the Crown. They were displeased by having to choose between British and South
African nationalities. Although Verwoerd tried to bond these different
blocs, the subsequent voting illustrated only a minor swell of support, indicating that a great many English speakers remained apathetic and
that Verwoerd had not succeeded in uniting the white population.
Map of the 20 bantustans in South Africa and South West Africa
Under the homeland system, the government attempted to divide South
Africa and South West Africa into a number of separate states, each of
which was supposed to develop into a separate nation-state for a
different ethnic group.
Territorial separation was hardly a new institution. There were,
for example, the "reserves" created under the British government in the
nineteenth century. Under apartheid, 13 percent of the land was reserved
for black homelands, a small amount relative to its total population,
and generally in economically unproductive areas of the country. The Tomlinson Commission
of 1954 justified apartheid and the homeland system, but stated that
additional land ought to be given to the homelands, a recommendation
that was not carried out.
When Verwoerd became prime minister in 1958, the policy of
"separate development" came into being, with the homeland structure as
one of its cornerstones. Verwoerd came to believe in the granting of
independence to these homelands. The government justified its plans on
the ostensible basis that the "government's policy is, therefore, not a
policy of discrimination on the grounds of race or colour, but a policy
of differentiation on the ground of nationhood, of different nations,
granting to each self-determination within the borders of their
homelands – hence this policy of separate development". Under the homelands system, blacks would no longer be citizens of South
Africa, becoming citizens of the independent homelands who worked in
South Africa as foreign migrant labourers on temporary work permits. In
1958 the Promotion of Black Self-Government Act was passed, and border
industries and the Bantu Investment Corporation
were established to promote economic development and the provision of
employment in or near the homelands. Many black South Africans who had
never resided in their identified homeland were forcibly removed from
the cities to the homelands.
The vision of a South Africa divided into multiple ethnostates
appealed to the reform-minded Afrikaner intelligentsia, and it provided
a more coherent philosophical and moral framework for the National
Party's policies, while also providing a veneer of intellectual
respectability to the controversial policy of so-called baasskap.
Rural area in Ciskei, one of the four nominally independent homelands
In total, 20 homelands were allocated to ethnic groups, ten in South
Africa proper and ten in South West Africa. Of these 20 homelands, 19
were classified as black, while one, Basterland, was set aside for a sub-group of Coloureds known as Basters, who are closely related to Afrikaners. Four of the homelands were declared independent by the South African government: Transkei in 1976, Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei
in 1981 (known as the TBVC states). Once a homeland was granted its
nominal independence, its designated citizens had their South African
citizenship revoked and replaced with citizenship in their homeland.
These people were then issued passports instead of passbooks. Citizens
of the nominally autonomous homelands also had their South African
citizenship circumscribed, meaning they were no longer legally
considered South African. The South African government
attempted to draw an equivalence between their view of black citizens
of the homelands and the problems which other countries faced through
entry of illegal immigrants.
International recognition of the Bantustans
Bantustans
within the borders of South Africa and South West Africa were
classified by degree of nominal self-rule: 6 were "non-self-governing",
10 were "self-governing", and 4 were "independent". In theory,
self-governing Bantustans had control over many aspects of their
internal functioning but were not yet sovereign nations. Independent
Bantustans (Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda and Ciskei; also known as the
TBVC states) were intended to be fully sovereign. In reality, they had
no significant economic infrastructure and with few exceptions
encompassed swaths of disconnected territory. This meant all the
Bantustans were little more than puppet states controlled by South
Africa.
Throughout the existence of the independent Bantustans, South
Africa remained the only country to recognise their independence.
Nevertheless, internal organisations of many countries, as well as the
South African government, lobbied for their recognition. For example,
upon the foundation of Transkei, the Swiss-South African Association
encouraged the Swiss government to recognise the new state. In 1976,
leading up to a United States House of Representatives resolution urging
the President to not recognise Transkei, the South African government
intensely lobbied lawmakers to oppose the bill. Each TBVC state extended recognition to the other independent
Bantustans while South Africa showed its commitment to the notion of
TBVC sovereignty by building embassies in the TBVC capitals.
Forced removals
Man subject to forced removal in Mogopa, Western Transvaal, February 1984
During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the government implemented a
policy of "resettlement", to force people to move to their designated
"group areas". Millions of people were forced to relocate. These
removals included people relocated due to slum clearance
programmes, labour tenants on white-owned farms, the inhabitants of the
so-called "black spots" (black-owned land surrounded by white farms),
the families of workers living in townships close to the homelands, and
"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 abbreviation for South Western Townships).
Until 1955, Sophiatown
had been one of the few urban areas where black people were allowed to
own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. As industry
in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding
black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It had the
only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg. As one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg, it held an
almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 black people it contained.
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 forced
residents out of their homes and loaded their belongings onto government
trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land 19 kilometres
(12 mi) from the city centre, known as Meadowlands, which the government had purchased in 1953. Meadowlands became part of a new planned black city called Soweto. 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 black South Africans alone. 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. Nearly 600,000 Coloured, Indian and Chinese people
were moved under the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 whites were also
forced to move when land was transferred from "white South Africa" into
the black homelands. In South-West Africa, the apartheid plan that instituted Bantustans was
as a result of the so-called Odendaal Plan, a set of proposals from the
Odendaal Commission of 1962–1964.
The NP passed a string of legislation that became known as petty apartheid. The first of these was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of 1949,
prohibiting marriage between whites and people of other races. The
Immorality Amendment Act 21 of 1950 (as amended in 1957 by Act 23)
forbade "unlawful racial intercourse" and "any immoral or indecent act"
between a white and a black, Indian or Coloured person.
Black people were not allowed to run businesses or professional
practices in areas designated as "white South Africa" unless they had a
permit – such being granted only exceptionally. Without a permit, they
were required to move to the black "homelands" and set up businesses and
practices there. Trains, hospitals and ambulances were segregated. Because of the smaller numbers of white patients and the fact that
white doctors preferred to work in white hospitals, conditions in white
hospitals were much better than those in often overcrowded and
understaffed, significantly underfunded black hospitals. Residential areas were segregated and blacks were allowed to live in
white areas only if employed as a servant and even then only in
servants' quarters. Black people were excluded from working in white
areas, unless they had a pass, nicknamed the dompas, also spelt dompass or dom pass. The most likely origin of this name is from the Afrikaans "verdomde pas" (meaning accursed pass). Only black people with "Section 10" rights (those who had migrated to
the cities before World War II) were excluded from this provision. A
pass was issued only to a black person with approved work. Spouses and
children had to be left behind in black homelands. 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
arrest and trial for being an illegal migrant. This was often followed
by deportation to the person's homeland
and prosecution of the employer for employing an illegal migrant.
Police vans patrolled white areas to round up blacks without passes.
Black people were not allowed to employ whites in white South Africa.
This legally enforced segregation was reinforced through
deliberate town planning measures, such as introducing natural,
industrial and infrastructural buffer zones. The legacy of this town planning element still hinders economic
integration of urban economies in the twenty-first century, physically
separating semi-formal township economies from industrial and corporate
clusters in cities.
Although trade unions for black and Coloured workers had existed
since the early 20th century, it was not until the 1980s reforms that a
mass black trade union movement developed. Trade unions
under apartheid were racially segregated, with 54 unions being white
only, 38 for Indian and Coloured and 19 for black people. The Industrial
Conciliation Act (1956) legislated against the creation of multi-racial
trade unions and attempted to split existing multi-racial unions into
separate branches or organisations along racial lines.
Each black homeland controlled its own education, health and police systems. Blacks were not allowed to buy hard liquor.
They were able to buy only state-produced poor quality beer (although
this law was relaxed later). Public beaches, swimming pools, some
pedestrian bridges, drive-in cinema parking spaces, graveyards, parks,
and public toilets were segregated. Cinemas and theatres in white areas
were not allowed to admit blacks. There were practically no cinemas in
black areas. Most restaurants and hotels in white areas were not allowed
to admit blacks except as staff. Blacks were prohibited from attending
white churches under the Churches Native Laws Amendment Act of 1957, but
this was never rigidly enforced, and churches were one of the few
places where races could mix without the interference of the law. Blacks
earning 360 rand
a year or more had to pay taxes while the white threshold was more than
twice as high, at 750 rand a year. On the other hand, the taxation rate
for whites was considerably higher than that for blacks.
Blacks could not acquire land in white areas. In the homelands,
much of the land belonged to a "tribe", where the local chieftain would
decide how the land had to be used. This resulted in whites owning
almost all the industrial and agricultural lands and much of the prized
residential land. Most blacks were stripped of their South African
citizenship when the "homelands" became "independent", and 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, and the government did not grant many passports to blacks.
Apartheid pervaded culture as well as the law, and was entrenched by
most of the mainstream media.
The population was classified into four groups: African, White,
Indian, and Coloured (capitalised to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The Coloured group included people regarded as being of mixed descent, including of Bantu, Khoisan, European and Malay ancestry. Many were descended from slaves, or indentured workers, who had been brought to South Africa from India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and China.
The Population Registration Act, (Act 30 of 1950), defined South
Africans as belonging to one of three races: White, Black or Coloured.
People of Indian ancestry were considered Coloured under this act.
Appearance, social acceptance and descent were used to determine the
qualification of an individual into one of the three categories. A white
person was described by the act as one whose parents were both white
and possessed the "habits, speech, education, deportment and demeanour"
of a white person. Blacks were defined by the act as belonging to an
African race or tribe. Lastly, Coloureds were those who could not be
classified as black or white.
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 White, or if another person should be categorised either
Coloured or Black. The tests included the pencil test,
in which a pencil was shoved into the subjects' curly hair and the
subjects made to shake their head. If the pencil stuck they were deemed
to be Black; if dislodged they were pronounced Coloured. Other tests
involved examining the shapes of jaw lines and buttocks and pinching
people to see what language they would say "Ouch" in. As a result of these tests, 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.
Discriminated against by apartheid, Coloureds were as a matter of state policy forced to live in separate townships, as defined in the Group Areas Act (1950), in some cases leaving homes their families had occupied for
generations, and received an inferior education, though better than that
provided to Africans. They played an important role in the anti-apartheid movement: for example the African Political Organization established in 1902 had an exclusively Coloured membership.
Voting rights were denied to Coloureds in the same way that they
were denied to Blacks from 1950 to 1983. However, in 1977 the NP caucus
approved proposals to bring Coloureds and Indians into central
government. In 1982, final constitutional proposals produced a
referendum among Whites, and the Tricameral Parliament
was approved. The Constitution was reformed the following year to allow
the Coloured and Indian minorities participation in separate Houses in a
Tricameral Parliament, and Botha became the first Executive State
President. The idea 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.
The Tricameral reforms led to the formation of the (anti-apartheid) United Democratic Front
as a vehicle to try to prevent the co-option of Coloureds and Indians
into an alliance with Whites. The battles between the UDF and the NP
government from 1983 to 1989 were to become the most intense period of
struggle between left-wing and right-wing South Africans.
Education
Education was segregated by the 1953 Bantu Education Act,
which crafted a separate system of education for black South African
students and was designed to prepare black people for lives as a
labouring class. In 1959 separate universities were created for black, Coloured and
Indian people. Existing universities were not permitted to enroll new
black students. The Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 required the use of Afrikaans and English on an equal basis in high schools outside the homelands.
In the 1970s, the state spent ten times more per child on the education of white children than on black children within the Bantu Education system
(the education system in black schools within white South Africa).
Higher education was provided in separate universities and colleges
after 1959. Eight black universities were created in the homelands. Fort Hare University in the Ciskei (now Eastern Cape) was to register only Xhosa-speaking students. Sotho, Tswana, Pedi and Venda speakers were placed at the newly founded University College of the North at Turfloop, while the University College of Zululand was launched to serve Zulu students. Coloureds and Indians were to have their own establishments in the Cape and Natal respectively.
Each black homeland controlled its own education, health and police systems.
By 1948, before formal Apartheid, 10 universities existed in
South Africa: four were Afrikaans, four for English, one for Blacks and a
Correspondence University open to all ethnic groups. By 1981, under
apartheid government, 11 new universities were built: seven for Blacks,
one for Coloureds, one for Indians, one for Afrikaans and one
dual-language medium Afrikaans and English.
Women under apartheid
Black women demonstrate against pass laws, 1956.
Apartheid had a major effect on Black and Coloured women, who
suffered due to both racial and gender discrimination while being
politically pushed to the margins. Scholar Judith Nolde has argued that, in general, the discriminatory
system set up a "triple yoke of oppression: gender, race, and class"
such that South African women became "deprive[d]" of their fundamental
"human rights as individuals." Jobs were often hard to find. Many Black and Coloured women worked as agricultural employees or as domestic workers, but wages were extremely low, if existent at all.
In terms of mothers and their families, many South African children developed diseases caused by malnutrition and sanitation problems given the oppressive public policies, and mortality rates
were therefore high. The controlled movement of black and Coloured
workers within the country caused by the Natives Urban Areas Act of 1923
and restrictive 'pass laws' separated family members from one another.
This occurred because the apartheid system perceived that men could
prove their employment in urban centres while most women were merely dependents; consequently, they risked being deported to rural areas. Even in rural areas, there were legal hurdles for women to own land, and jobs outside cities were even more scarce.
By the 1930s, association football was divided into numerous institutions based on race: the (White) South African Football Association,
the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South
African African Football Association (SAAFA) and its rival the South
African Bantu Football Association, and the South African Coloured
Football Association (SACFA). Lack of funds to provide proper equipment
would be noticeable in regards to black amateur football matches,
reflecting economic inequality in society at large. Apartheid's social engineering made it more difficult to compete across
racial lines. Thus, in an effort to centralise finances, the
federations merged in 1951, creating the South African Soccer Federation
(SASF), which brought Black, Indian, and Coloured national associations
into one body that opposed apartheid. This was generally opposed more
and more by the growing apartheid government, and – with urban
segregation being reinforced with ongoing racist policies – it was
harder to play football along these racial lines. In 1956, the Pretoria
regime – the administrative capital of South Africa – passed the first
apartheid sports policy; by doing so, it emphasised the White-led
government's opposition to inter-racialism.
While football was plagued by racism, it also played a role in
protesting apartheid and its policies. With the international bans from FIFA
and other major sporting events, South Africa would be in the spotlight
internationally. In a 1977 survey, white South Africans ranked the lack
of international sport as one of the three most damaging consequences
of apartheid. By the mid-1950s, Black South Africans would also use media to
challenge the "racialisation" of sports in South Africa; anti-apartheid
forces had begun to pinpoint sport as the "weakness" of white national
morale. Black journalists for the Johannesburg Drum magazine were
the first to give the issue public exposure, with an intrepid special
issue in 1955 that asked, "Why shouldn't our blacks be allowed in the SA
team?" As time progressed, South Africa's international standing would
continue to be strained. In the 1980s, as the oppressive system was
slowly collapsing and the ANC and National Party started negotiations on
the end of apartheid, football associations also discussed the
formation of a single, non-racial controlling body. This unity process
accelerated in the late 1980s and led to the creation, in December 1991,
of an incorporated South African Football Association. On 3 July 1992,
FIFA finally welcomed South Africa back into international football.
Sport has long been an important part of life in South Africa,
and the boycotting of games by international teams had a profound effect
on the white population, perhaps more than the trade embargoes did.
After the re-acceptance of South Africa's sports teams by the
international community, sport played a major unifying role between the
country's diverse ethnic groups. Mandela's support of the predominantly
white rugby fraternity during the 1995 Rugby World Cup was considered instrumental in bringing together South African sports fans of all races.
Activities in the sport of professional boxing were also
affected, as there were 44 recorded professional boxing fights for
national titles deemed "for Whites only" between 1955 and 1979, and 397 fights as deemed "for non-Whites" between 1901 and 1978.
Defining its Asian population, a minority that did not appear to
belong to any of the initial three designated non-white groups, was a
constant dilemma for the apartheid government.
The classification of "honorary white" (a term which would be ambiguously used throughout apartheid) was granted to immigrants from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – countries with which South Africa maintained diplomatic and economic relations – and to their descendants.
Indian South Africans during apartheid were assigned to many ranges of categories from "Asian" to "black"to "Coloured"and even the mono-ethnic category of "Indian", but never as white,
having been considered "nonwhite" throughout South Africa's history. The
group faced severe discrimination during the apartheid regime and were
subject to numerous racialist policies.
In 2005, a retrospective study was done by Josephine C. Naidoo
and Devi Moodley Rajab, where they interviewed a series of Indian South
Africans about their experience living through apartheid; their study
highlighted education, the workplace, and general day to day living. One
participant who was a doctor said that it was considered the norm for
Non-White and White doctors to mingle while working at the hospital but
when there was any down time or breaks, they were to go back to their
segregated quarters. Indians were paid three to four times less than
their white counterparts. Another finding of this study was the
psychological harm suffered by Indians living in South Africa during
apartheid. There was a strong degree of alienation that left a strong
feeling of inferiority.
Chinese South Africans – descendend from migrant workers who came to work in the gold mines
around Johannesburg in the late 19th century – were initially either
classified as "Coloured" or "Other Asian" and were subject to numerous
forms of discrimination and restriction. It was not until 1984 that South African Chinese, then numbering about 10,000, were given the same official rights as the Japanese,
to be treated as whites in terms of the Group Areas Act, although they
still faced discrimination and did not receive all the benefits of their
newly obtained honorary white status, such as voting.
Indonesians arrived at the Cape of Good Hope as slaves until the abolishment of slavery during the 19th century. They were predominantly Muslim, were allowed religious freedom and formed their own ethnic community known as Cape Malays. They were classified as part of the Coloured racial group. This was the same for South Africans of Malaysian descent. South Africans of Filipino
descent were classified as "black" due to the historical outlook on
Filipinos by White South Africans, and many of them lived in Bantustans.
The Lebanese population
were somewhat of an anomaly during the apartheid era. Lebanese
immigration to South Africa was chiefly Christian, and the group was
originally classified as non-white; however, a court case in 1913 ruled
that because Lebanese and Syrians originated from the Canaan region (the birthplace of Christianity and Judaism),
they could not be discriminated against by race laws which targeted
non-believers, and thus, were classified as white. The Lebanese
community maintained their white status after the Population Registration Act came into effect; however, further immigration from the Middle East was restricted.
Conservatism and social policies
Alongside apartheid, the National Party implemented a programme of social conservatism. Pornography, gambling and works from Marx, Lenin and other socialist thinkers were banned. Cinemas, shops selling alcohol and most other businesses were forbidden from opening on Sundays. Abortion, homosexuality and sex education were also restricted; abortion was legal only in cases of rape or if the mother's life was threatened.
Television was not introduced until 1976 because the government viewed English programming as a threat to the Afrikaans language. Television was run on apartheid lines – TV1 broadcast in Afrikaans and
English (geared to a White audience), TV2 in Zulu and Xhosa, TV3 in
Sotho, Tswana and Pedi (both geared to a Black audience), and TV4 mostly showed programmes for an urban Black audience.
Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance. The government responded to a series of popular uprisings and protests
with police brutality, which in turn increased local support for the
armed resistance struggle. Internal resistance to the apartheid system in South Africa came from
several sectors of society and saw the creation of organisations
dedicated variously to peaceful protests, passive resistance and armed
insurrection.
In 1949, the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC) took control of the organisation and started advocating a radical African nationalist
programme. The new young leaders proposed that white authority could
only be overthrown through mass campaigns. In 1950 that philosophy saw
the launch of the Programme of Action, a series of strikes, boycotts and
civil disobedience actions that led to occasional violent clashes with
the authorities.
In 1959, a group of disenchanted ANC members formed the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), which organised a demonstration against pass books on 21 March 1960. One of those protests was held in the township of Sharpeville, where 69 people were killed by police in the Sharpeville massacre.
In the wake of Sharpeville, the government declared a state of
emergency. More than 18,000 people were arrested, including leaders of
the ANC and PAC, and both organisations were banned. The resistance went
underground, with some leaders in exile abroad and others engaged in
campaigns of domestic sabotage and terrorism.
In May 1961, before the declaration of South Africa as a
Republic, an assembly representing the banned ANC called for
negotiations between the members of the different ethnic groupings,
threatening demonstrations and strikes during the inauguration of the
Republic if their calls were ignored.
When the government overlooked them, the strikers (among the main organisers was a 42-year-old, Thembu-origin Nelson Mandela)
carried out their threats. The government countered swiftly by giving
police the authority to arrest people for up to twelve days and
detaining many strike leaders amid numerous cases of police brutality. Defeated, the protesters called off their strike. The ANC then chose to
launch an armed struggle through a newly formed military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe
(MK), which would perform acts of sabotage on tactical state
structures. Its first sabotage plans were carried out on 16 December
1961, the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River.
In the 1970s, the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was created by tertiary students influenced by the Black Power
movement in the US. BCM endorsed black pride and African customs and
did much to alter the feelings of inadequacy instilled among black
people by the apartheid system. The leader of the movement, Steve Biko, was taken into custody on 18 August 1977 and was beaten to death in detention.
In 1976, secondary students in Soweto took to the streets in the Soweto uprising
to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as the only language of
instruction. On 16 June, police opened fire on students protesting
peacefully. According to official reports 23 people were killed, but the
number of people who died is usually given as 176, with estimates of up
to 700. In the following years several student organisations were formed to
protest against apartheid, and these organisations were central to urban
school boycotts in 1980 and 1983 and rural boycotts in 1985 and 1986.
List of attacks attributed to MK and compiled by the Committee for South African War Resistance (COSAWR) between 1980 and 1983
In parallel with student protests, labour unions started protest
action in 1973 and 1974. After 1976 unions and workers are considered to
have played an important role in the struggle against apartheid,
filling the gap left by the banning of political parties. In 1979 black
trade unions were legalised and could engage in collective bargaining,
although strikes were still illegal. Economist Thomas Sowell
wrote that basic supply and demand led to violations of Apartheid "on a
massive scale" throughout the nation, simply because there were not
enough white South African business owners to meet the demand for
various goods and services. Large portions of the garment industry and
construction of new homes, for example, were effectively owned and
operated by blacks, who either worked surreptitiously or who
circumvented the law with a white person as a nominal, figurehead
manager.
In 1983, anti-apartheid leaders determined to resist the tricameral parliament assembled to form the United Democratic Front (UDF) in order to coordinate anti-apartheid activism inside South Africa. The first presidents of the UDF were Archie Gumede, Oscar Mpetha and Albertina Sisulu; patrons were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Allan Boesak, Helen Joseph, and Nelson Mandela.
Basing its platform on abolishing apartheid and creating a nonracial
democratic South Africa, the UDF provided a legal way for domestic human
rights groups and individuals of all races to organise demonstrations
and campaign against apartheid inside the country. Churches and church
groups also emerged as pivotal points of resistance. Church leaders were
not immune to prosecution, and certain faith-based organisations were
banned, but the clergy generally had more freedom to criticise the
government than militant groups did. The UDF, coupled with the
protection of the church, accordingly permitted a major role for
Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
who served both as a prominent domestic voice and international
spokesperson denouncing apartheid and urging the creation of a shared
nonracial state.
Although the majority of whites supported apartheid, some 20 percent did not. Parliamentary opposition was galvanised by Helen Suzman, Colin Eglin and Harry Schwarz, who formed the Progressive Federal Party. Extra-parliamentary resistance was largely centred in the South African Communist Party and women's organisation the Black Sash.
Women were also notable in their involvement in trade union
organisations and banned political parties. Public intellectuals like
the author Nadine Gordimer also played a role in the anti-apartheid movement.
South Africa's policies were subject to international scrutiny in 1960, when British Prime MinisterHarold 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 afterwards, Prime MinisterHendrik Verwoerd announced a referendum
on whether the country should become a republic. The referendum on 5
October that year asked Whites; "Are you in favour of a Republic for the
Union?", and 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. India had become a republic within the Commonwealth
in 1950, but it became clear that African and South and Southeast Asian
member states would oppose South Africa due to its apartheid policies.
As a result, South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth on 31 May 1961,
the day that the Republic came into existence.
During the 1980s, the Commonwealth advocated for economic
sanctions to accelerate the dismantling of apartheid, and in 1986 during
a mini-summit which involved seven different countries, including the
United Kingdom, a tough programme of sanctions was agreed.
United Nations and other sanctions
The apartheid system as an issue was first formally brought to United Nations
attention in order to advocate for the Indians residing in South
Africa. On 22 June 1946, the Indian government requested that the
discriminatory treatment of Indians living in South Africa be included
on the agenda of the first General Assembly session. In 1952, apartheid was again discussed in the aftermath of the Defiance
Campaign, and the UN set up a task team to keep watch on the progress
of apartheid and the racial state of affairs in South Africa. Although
South Africa's racial policies were a cause for concern, most countries
in the UN agreed that this was a domestic affair, which fell outside the
UN's jurisdiction.
In April 1960, the UN's conservative stance on apartheid changed following the Sharpeville massacre, and the Security Council for the first time agreed on concerted action against the apartheid regime. Resolution 134
called upon the nation of South Africa to abandon its policies
implementing racial discrimination. The newly founded United Nations
Special Committee Against Apartheid scripted and passed Resolution 181
on 7 August 1963, calling upon all states to cease the sale and
shipment of all ammunition and military vehicles to South Africa. From
1964 onwards, the US and the UK discontinued their arms trade with South Africa. The Security Council also condemned the Soweto massacre in Resolution 392. In 1977, the voluntary UN arms embargo became mandatory with the passing of Resolution 418.
In addition to isolating South Africa militarily, the United Nations
General Assembly encouraged the boycotting of oil sales to South Africa. Other actions taken by the United Nations General Assembly included the
request for all nations and organisations "to suspend cultural,
educational, sporting and other exchanges with the racist regime and
with organisations or institutions in South Africa which practise
apartheid".
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. A disinvestment from South Africa
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.
The Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) was created in 1963. Its primary objectives were to eradicate
colonialism and improve social, political and economic conditions in
Africa. It censured apartheid and demanded sanctions against South
Africa. African states agreed to aid the liberation movements in their
fight against apartheid. In 1969, 14 nations from Central and East Africa gathered in Lusaka, Zambia, and formulated the Lusaka Manifesto, which was signed on 13 April by all of the countries in attendance except Malawi. This manifesto was later taken on by both the OAU and the United Nations.
The Lusaka Manifesto
summarised the political situations of self-governing African
countries, condemning racism and inequity, and calling for Black
majority rule in all African nations. Regarding South Africa, the manifesto said that the countries supported
peaceful change "if it were possible", and made clear that they would
support guerrilla liberation movements if necessary.
South Africa's negative response to the Lusaka Manifesto and
rejection of a change to its policies brought about another OAU
announcement in October 1971. The Mogadishu Declaration stated
that South Africa's rebuffing of negotiations meant that its Black
people could only be freed through military means, and that no African
state should converse with the apartheid government.
Outward-looking policy
In 1966, B. J. Vorster
became prime minister. He was not prepared to dismantle apartheid, but
he did try to redress South Africa's isolation and to revitalise the
country's global reputation, even with other African states. This he
called his "Outward-Looking" policy.
Vorster's willingness to talk to African leaders stood in
contrast to Verwoerd's refusal to engage with them. In 1966, he met the
heads of the neighbouring states of Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana.
In 1967, he offered technological and financial aid to any African
state prepared to receive it, asserting that no political strings were
attached, aware that many African states needed financial aid despite
their opposition to South Africa's racial policies. Many were also tied
to South Africa economically because of their migrant labour population
working down the South African mines. Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland
remained outspoken critics of apartheid, but were dependent on South
African economic assistance.
Malawi
was the first non-neighbouring country to accept South African aid. In
1967, the two states set out their political and economic relations. In
1969, Malawi was the only country at the assembly which did not sign the
Lusaka Manifesto condemning South Africa's apartheid policy. In 1970,
Malawian president Hastings Banda made his first official stopover in South Africa.
Associations with Mozambique followed suit and were sustained
after that country won its sovereignty in 1975. Angola was also granted
South African loans. Other countries which formed relationships with
South Africa included Liberia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Gabon, Zaire (now DR Congo) and the Central African Republic.
Although these states condemned apartheid (more than ever after South
Africa's denunciation of the Lusaka Manifesto), South Africa's economic
and military dominance meant that they remained dependent on South
Africa to varying degrees.
South
Africa's isolation in sport began in the mid-1950s and increased
throughout the 1960s. Apartheid forbade multiracial sport, which meant
that overseas teams, by virtue of them having players of different
races, could not play in South Africa. In 1956, the International Table Tennis Federation
severed its ties with the all-White South African Table Tennis Union,
preferring the non-racial South African Table Tennis Board. The
apartheid government responded by confiscating the passports of the
Board's players so that they were unable to attend international games.
Isolation
Verwoerd years
In
1959, the non-racial South African Sports Association (SASA) was formed
to secure the rights of all players on the global field. After meeting
with no success in its endeavours to attain credit by collaborating with
White establishments, SASA approached the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) in 1962, calling for South Africa's expulsion from the Olympic
Games. The IOC sent South Africa a caution to the effect that, if there
were no changes, they would be barred from competing at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The changes were initiated, and in January 1963, the South African
Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) was set up. The Anti-Apartheid
Movement persisted in its campaign for South Africa's exclusion, and the
IOC acceded in barring the country from the 1964 Olympic Games. South
Africa selected a multi-racial team for the next Olympic Games, and the
IOC opted for incorporation in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. Because of protests from AAMs and African nations, however, the IOC was forced to retract the invitation.
Protests against the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand
Foreign complaints about South Africa's bigoted sports brought more
isolation. Racially selected New Zealand sports teams toured South
Africa until the 1970 All Blacks rugby tour, when Maori were allowed to enter the country under the status of "honorary Whites". Huge and widespread protests occurred in New Zealand in 1981 against the Springbok
tour – the government spent $8,000,000 protecting games using the army
and police force. A planned All Black tour to South Africa in 1985
remobilised the New Zealand protesters and it was cancelled. A "rebel
tour" – not government sanctioned – went ahead in 1986, but after that
sporting ties were cut, and New Zealand made a decision not to convey an
authorised rugby team to South Africa until the end of apartheid.
Vorster years
On 6 September 1966, Verwoerd was fatally stabbed at Parliament House by parliamentary messenger Dimitri Tsafendas. John Vorster
took office shortly after, and announced that South Africa would no
longer dictate to the international community what their teams should
look like. Although this reopened the gate for international sporting
meets, it did not signal the end of South Africa's racist sporting
policies. In 1968, Vorster went against his policy by refusing to permit
Basil D'Oliveira,
a Coloured South African-born cricketer, to join the English cricket
team on its tour to South Africa. Vorster said that the side had been
chosen only to prove a point, and not on merit. D'Oliveira was
eventually included in the team as the first substitute, but the tour
was cancelled. Protests against certain tours brought about the
cancellation of a number of other visits, including that of an England
rugby team touring South Africa in 1969–70.
The first of the "White Bans" occurred in 1971 when the Chairman of the Australian Cricketing Association – Sir Don Bradman – flew
to South Africa to meet Vorster. Vorster had expected Bradman to allow
the tour of the Australian cricket team to go ahead, but things became
heated after Bradman asked why Black sportsmen were not allowed to play
cricket. Vorster stated that Blacks were intellectually inferior and had
no finesse for the game. Bradman, thinking this ignorant and repugnant,
asked Vorster if he had heard of a man named Garry Sobers. On his return to Australia, Bradman released a short statement: "We will not play them until they choose a team on a non-racist basis."
In South Africa, Vorster vented his anger publicly against
Bradman, while the African National Congress rejoiced. This was the
first time a predominantly White nation had taken the side of
multiracial sport, producing an unsettling resonance that more "White"
boycotts were coming.
In 1971, Vorster altered his policies even further by
distinguishing multiracial from multinational sport. Multiracial sport,
between teams with players of different races, remained outlawed;
multinational sport, however, was now acceptable: international sides
would not be subject to South Africa's racial stipulations.
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 UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
ambivalent attitude towards sporting links with South Africa,
significantly affecting the quality and profitability of the Games and
thus thrusting apartheid into the international spotlight.
Cultural boycott
In
the 1960s, the Anti-Apartheid Movements began to campaign for cultural
boycotts of apartheid South Africa. Artists were requested not to
present or let their works be hosted in South Africa. In 1963, 45
British writers put their signatures to an affirmation approving of the
boycott, and, in 1964, American actor Marlon Brando called for a similar affirmation for films. In 1965, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain
called for a proscription on the sending of films to South Africa. Over
sixty American artists signed a statement against apartheid and against
professional links with the state. The presentation of some South
African plays in the United Kingdom and the United States was also
vetoed. After the arrival of television in South Africa in 1975, the British Actors Union, Equity, boycotted the service, and no British programme concerning its associates could be sold to South Africa. Similarly, when home video grew popular in the 1980s, the Australian arm of CBS/Fox Video (now 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) placed stickers on their VHS and Betamax cassettes which labelled exporting such cassettes to South Africa as "an infringement of copyright". Sporting and cultural boycotts did not have the same effect as economic
sanctions, but they did much to lift consciousness amongst normal South
Africans of the global condemnation of apartheid.
London bus in 1989 carrying the "Boycott Apartheid" message
While international opposition to apartheid grew, the Nordic countries – and Sweden in particular – provided both moral and financial support for the ANC. On 21 February 1986 – a week before he was assassinated – 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 sympathisers 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. In Switzerland, the Swiss-South African Association lobbied on behalf of the South African government. The Nixon administration implemented a policy known as the Tar Baby Option, pursuant to which the US maintained close relations with the Apartheid South African government. The Reagan administration
evaded international sanctions and provided diplomatic support in
international forums for the South African government. The United States
also increased trade with the Apartheid regime, while describing the
ANC as "a terrorist organisation." Like the Reagan administration, the government of Margaret Thatcher pursued a policy of "constructive engagement"
with the apartheid government, vetoing the imposition of UN economic
sanctions. Public U.S. government justifications for supporting the
Apartheid regime included a belief in "free trade" and the perception of the anti-communist South African government as a bastion against Marxist forces in Southern Africa, for example, by the military intervention of South Africa in the Angolan Civil War
in support of right-wing insurgents fighting to topple the government.
The U.K. government also declared the ANC a terrorist organisation.
By the late-1980s, with no sign of a political resolution in
South Africa, Western patience began to run out. By 1989, a bipartisan Republican/Democratic initiative in the US favoured economic sanctions (realised as the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act
of 1986), 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.
The UK's significant economic involvement in South Africa may have provided some leverage
with the South African government, with both the UK and the US applying
pressure and pushing for negotiations. However, neither the UK nor the
US was willing to apply economic pressure upon their multinational
interests in South Africa, such as the mining company Anglo American. Although a high-profile compensation claim against these companies was thrown out of court in 2004, the US Supreme Court
in May 2008 upheld an appeals court ruling allowing another lawsuit
that sought damages of more than US$400 billion from major international
companies accused of aiding South Africa's apartheid system.
Effect of the Cold War
"Total Onslaught"
Apartheid-era
propaganda leaflet issued to South African military personnel in the
1980s. The pamphlet decries "Russian colonialism and oppression" in
English, Afrikaans and Portuguese.
During the 1950s, South African military strategy was decisively shaped by fears of communist espionage and a conventional Soviet threat to the strategic Cape trade route between the south Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The apartheid government supported the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as its policy of regional containment against Soviet-backed regimes and insurgencies worldwide. By the late-1960s, the rise of Soviet client states
on the African continent, as well as Soviet aid for militant
anti-apartheid movements, was considered one of the primary external
threats to the apartheid system. South African officials frequently accused domestic opposition groups of being communist proxies. For its part, the Soviet Union viewed South Africa as a bastion of neocolonialism and a regional Western ally, which helped fuel its support for various anti-apartheid causes.
From 1973 onwards, much of South Africa's white population increasingly looked upon their country as a bastion of the free world besieged militarily, politically, and culturally by Communism and radical black nationalism. The apartheid government perceived itself as being locked in a proxy struggle with the Warsaw Pact and by implication, armed wings of black nationalist forces such as Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), which often received arms and training in Warsaw Pact member states. This was described as "Total Onslaught".
Militarization of society
Soviet
support for militant anti-apartheid movements worked in the
government's favour, as its claim to be reacting in opposition to
aggressive communist expansion gained greater plausibility, and helped
it justify its own domestic militarisation methods, known as "Total
Strategy". Total Strategy involved building up a formidable conventional military and counter-intelligence capability. It was formulated on counter-revolutionary tactics as espoused by noted French tactician André Beaufre. Considerable effort was devoted towards circumventing international arms sanctions, and the government even went so far as to develop nuclear weapons, allegedly with covert assistance from Israel.
As a result of "Total Strategy", South African society became
increasingly militarised. Many domestic civil organisations were
modelled upon military structures, and military virtues such as
discipline, patriotism and loyalty were highly regarded. In 1968, national service for White South African men lasted nine
months at minimum, and they could be called up for reserve duty into
their late-middle age if necessary. The length of national service was gradually extended to 12 months in 1972 and 24 months in 1978. At state schools, white male students were organised into paramilitary
formations and drilled as cadets or as participants in a civil defence
or "Youth Preparedness" curriculum. Compulsory military education and in some cases, paramilitary training
was introduced for all older white male students at state schools in
three South African provinces. These programmes presided over the construction of bomb shelters at
schools and drills aimed at simulating mock insurgent raids.
From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, defence budgets in South Africa were raised exponentially. In 1975, Israeli defence ministerShimon Peres signed a security pact with South African defence minister P.W. Botha that led to $200 million in arms deals. In 1988, Israeli arm sales to South Africa totalled over $1.4 billion. Covert operations focused on espionage and domestic counter-subversion became common, the number of special forces units swelled, and the South African Defence Force (SADF) had amassed enough sophisticated conventional weaponry to pose a serious threat to the "front-line states", a regional alliance of neighbouring countries opposed to apartheid.
South African paratroops on a raid in Angola, 1980s
Total Strategy was advanced in the context of MK, PLAN, and Azanian People's Liberation Army
(APLA) guerrilla raids into South Africa or against South African
targets in South West Africa; frequent South African reprisal attacks on
these movements' external bases in Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, often involving collateral damage
to foreign infrastructure and civilian populations; and periodic
complaints brought before the international community about South
African violations of its neighbours' sovereignty.
The apartheid government made judicious use of extraterritorial operations
to eliminate its military and political opponents, arguing that
neighbouring states, including their civilian populations, which hosted,
tolerated on their soil, or otherwise sheltered anti-apartheid
insurgent groups could not evade responsibility for provoking
retaliatory strikes. While it did focus on militarising the borders and sealing up its
domestic territory against insurgent raids, it also relied heavily on an
aggressive preemptive and counter-strike strategy, which fulfilled a preventive and deterrent purpose. The reprisals which occurred beyond South Africa's borders involved not
only hostile states, but neutral and sympathetic governments as well,
often forcing them to react against their will and interests.
External South African military operations were aimed at eliminating the training facilities, safehouses, infrastructure, equipment, and manpower of the insurgents. However, their secondary objective was to dissuade neighbouring states
from offering sanctuary to MK, PLAN, APLA, and similar organisations. This was accomplished by deterring the supportive foreign population
from cooperating with infiltration and thus undermining the insurgents'
external sanctuary areas. It would also send a clear message to the host government that
collaborating with insurgent forces involved potentially high costs.
The scale and intensity of foreign operations varied, and ranged
from small special forces units carrying out raids on locations across
the border which served as bases for insurgent infiltration to major
conventional offensives involving armour, artillery, and aircraft. Actions such as Operation Protea in 1981 and Operation Askari in 1983 involved both full scale conventional warfare and a counter-insurgency reprisal operation.The insurgent bases were usually situated near military installations
of the host government, so that SADF retaliatory strikes hit those
facilities as well and attracted international attention and
condemnation of what was perceived as aggression against the armed
forces of another sovereign state. This would inevitably result in major engagements, in which the SADF's expeditionary units would have to contend with the firepower of the host government's forces. Intensive conventional warfare of this nature carried the risk of
severe casualties among white soldiers, which had to be kept to a
minimum for political reasons. There were also high economic and diplomatic costs associated with
openly deploying large numbers of South African troops into another
country. Furthermore, military involvement on that scale had the potential to
evolve into wider conflict situations, in which South Africa became
entangled.[197]
For example, South Africa's activities in Angola, initially limited to
containing PLAN, later escalated to direct involvement in the Angolan Civil War.
As it became clearer that full-scale conventional operations
could not effectively fulfil the requirements of a regional
counter-insurgency effort, South Africa turned to a number of
alternative methods. Retributive artillery bombardments were the least
sophisticated means of reprisal against insurgent attacks. Between 1978
and 1979 the SADF directed artillery fire against locations in Angola
and Zambia from which insurgent rockets were suspected to have been
launched. This precipitated several artillery duels with the Zambian Army. Special forces raids were launched to harass PLAN and MK by killing
prominent members of those movements, destroying their offices and
safehouses, and seizing valuable records stored at these sites. One example was the Gaborone Raid,
carried out in 1985, during which a South African special forces team
crossed the border into Botswana and demolished four suspected MK safe
houses, severely damaging another four. The SADF also sabotaged infrastructure being used for the insurgents'
war effort; for example, port facilities in southern Angola's Moçâmedes District,
where Soviet arms were frequently offloaded for PLAN, as well as the
railway line which facilitated their transport to PLAN headquarters in Lubango, were common targets. Sabotage was also used as a pressure tactic when South Africa was
negotiating with a host government to cease providing sanctuary to
insurgent forces, as in the case of Operation Argon. Successful sabotage actions of high-profile economic targets undermined
a country's ability to negotiate from a position of strength, and made
it likelier to accede to South African demands rather than risk the
expense of further destruction and war.
Also noteworthy were South African transnational espionage
efforts, which included covert assassinations, kidnappings, and attempts
to disrupt the overseas influence of anti-apartheid organisations.
South African military intelligence agents were known to have abducted
and killed anti-apartheid activists and others suspected of having ties
to MK in London and Brussels.
During the 1980s the government, led by P.W. Botha, became increasingly preoccupied with security. It set up a powerful state security apparatus to "protect" the state against an anticipated upsurge in political violence
that the reforms were expected to trigger. The 1980s became a period of
considerable political unrest, with the government becoming
increasingly dominated by Botha's circle of generals and police chiefs
(known as securocrats), who managed the various States of Emergencies.
Botha's years in power were marked also by numerous military
interventions in the states bordering South Africa, as well as an
extensive military and political campaign to eliminate SWAPO
in Namibia. Within South Africa, meanwhile, vigorous police action and
strict enforcement of security legislation resulted in hundreds of
arrests and bans, and an effective end to the African National Congress'
sabotage campaign.
The government punished political offenders brutally. 40,000 people annually were subjected to whipping as a form of punishment. The vast majority had committed political offences and were lashed ten times for their crime. If convicted of treason, a person could be hanged, and the government executed numerous political offenders in this way.
As the 1980s progressed, more and more anti-apartheid organisations were formed and affiliated with the UDF. Led by the ReverendAllan Boesak and Albertina Sisulu,
the UDF called for the government to abandon its reforms and instead
abolish the apartheid system and eliminate the homelands completely.
Serious political violence was a prominent feature from 1985 to 1989,
as Black townships became the focus of the struggle between
anti-apartheid organisations and the Botha government. Throughout the
1980s, township people resisted apartheid by acting against the local
issues that faced their particular communities. The focus of much of
this resistance was against the local authorities and their leaders, who
were seen to be supporting the government. By 1985, it had become the
ANC's aim to make Black townships "ungovernable" (a term later replaced
by "people's power") by means of rent boycotts and other militant
action. Numerous township councils were overthrown or collapsed, to be
replaced by unofficial popular organisations, often led by militant
youth. People's courts were set up, and residents accused of being
government agents were dealt extreme and occasionally lethal
punishments. Black town councillors and policemen, and sometimes their
families, were attacked with petrol bombs, beaten, and murdered by necklacing,
where a burning tyre was placed around the victim's neck, after they
were restrained by wrapping their wrists with barbed wire.
On 20 July 1985, 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. An increasing number of organisations were banned or
listed (restricted in some way); many individuals had restrictions such
as house arrest imposed on them. 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. It became a
criminal offence to threaten someone verbally or possess documents that
the government perceived to be threatening, to advise anyone to stay
away from work or to oppose the government, and to disclose the name of
anyone arrested under the State of Emergency until the government
released that name, with up to ten years' imprisonment for these
offences. Detention without trial became a common feature of the government's reaction to growing civil unrest and by 1988, 30,000 people had been detained. The media was censored, thousands were arrested and many were interrogated and tortured.
On 12 June 1986, four days before the tenth anniversary of the
Soweto uprising, the state of emergency was extended to cover the whole
country. The government amended the Public Security Act, including the
right to declare "unrest" areas, allowing extraordinary measures to
crush protests in these areas. Severe censorship of the press became a
dominant tactic in the government's strategy and television cameras were banned from entering such areas. The state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC), provided propaganda in support of the government. Media
opposition to the system increased, supported by the growth of a pro-ANC
underground press within South Africa.
In 1987, the State of Emergency was extended for another two years. Meanwhile, about 200,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers
commenced the longest strike (three weeks) in South African history.
The year 1988 saw the banning of the activities of the UDF and other
anti-apartheid organisations.
Much of the violence in the late-1980s and early-1990s was
directed at the government, but a substantial amount was between the
residents themselves. Many died in violence between members of Inkatha
and the UDF-ANC faction. It was later proven that the government
manipulated the situation by supporting one side or the other whenever
it suited them. Government agents assassinated opponents within South
Africa and abroad; they undertook cross-border army and air-force
attacks on suspected ANC and PAC bases. The ANC and the PAC in return
detonated bombs at restaurants, shopping centres and government
buildings such as magistrates courts. Between 1960 and 1994, according to statistics from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Inkatha Freedom Party
was responsible for 4,500 deaths, South African security forces were
responsible for 2,700 deaths and the ANC was responsible for 1,300
deaths.
The state of emergency continued until 1990 when it was lifted by State President F. W. de Klerk.
Philip Bonner
highlights the "contradictory economic effects" of South Africa's
industrialisation as the economy did not have a manufacturing sector,
therefore promoting short term profitability but limiting labour
productivity and the size of local markets. This also led to its
collapse, as Clarkes "emphasises the economy could not provide and
compete with foreign rivals as they failed to master cheap labour and
complex chemistry". The contradictions in the traditionally capitalist economy of the
apartheid state led to considerable debate about racial policy, and
division and conflicts in the central state.
In 1974, resistance to apartheid was encouraged by Portuguese withdrawal from Mozambique and Angola, after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. South African troops withdrew from Angola early in 1976, failing to prevent the MPLA from gaining power there, causing celebrations among Black students in South Africa.
The Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Harry Schwarz in 1974, enshrined the principles of peaceful transition of power
and equality for all. Its purpose was to provide a blueprint for South
Africa by consent and racial peace in a multi-racial society, stressing
opportunity for all, consultation, the federal concept, and a Bill of Rights. It caused a split in the United Party that ultimately realigned oppositional politics in South Africa with the formation of the Progressive Federal Party
in 1977. The Declaration was the first of several such joint agreements
by acknowledged Black and White political leaders in South Africa.
In 1978, the National Party Defence Minister, Pieter Willem Botha,
became prime minister. His white minority regime worried about Soviet
aid to revolutionaries in South Africa at the same time that South
African economic growth had slowed. The South African Government noted
that it was spending too much money to maintain segregated homelands
created for Blacks, and the homelands were proving to be uneconomical. Nor was maintaining Blacks as third-class citizens working well. Black
labour remained vital to the economy, and illegal Black labour unions
were flourishing. Many Blacks remained too poor to contribute
significantly to the economy through their purchasing power – although
they composed more than 70% of the population. Botha's regime feared
that an antidote was needed to prevent the Blacks being attracted to
communism.
In the early-1980s, Botha's National Party government started to
recognise the inevitability of the need to reform the apartheid system. Early reforms were driven by a combination of internal violence,
international condemnation, changes within the National Party's
constituency, and changing demographics – whites constituted only 16% of
the total population, in comparison to 20% fifty years earlier.
In 1983, a new constitution was passed implementing what was
called the Tricameral Parliament, giving Coloureds and Indians voting
rights and parliamentary representation in separate houses – the House
of Assembly (178 members) for Whites, the House of Representatives (85
members) for Coloureds and the House of Delegates (45 members) for
Indians. Each House handled laws pertaining to its racial group's "own affairs", including health, education and other community issues. All laws relating to "general affairs" (matters such as defence,
industry, taxation and Black affairs) were handled by a Cabinet made up
of representatives from all three houses. However, the White chamber had
a large majority on this Cabinet, ensuring that effective control of
the country remained in the hands of the White minority. Blacks, although making up the majority of the population, were
excluded from representation; they remained nominal citizens of their
homelands. The first Tricameral elections were largely boycotted by Coloured and Indian voters, amid widespread rioting.
Reforms and contact with the ANC under Botha
Concerned over the popularity of Mandela, Botha denounced him as an arch-Marxist committed to violent revolution, but to appease Black opinion and nurture Mandela as a benevolent leader of Blacks, the government transferred him from the maximum security Robben Island to the lower security Pollsmoor Prison just outside Cape Town,
where prison life was more comfortable for him. The government allowed
Mandela more visitors, including visits and interviews by foreigners, to
let the world know that he was being treated well.
Black homelands were declared nation-states and pass laws
were abolished. Black labour unions were legitimised, the government
recognised the right of Blacks to live in urban areas permanently and
gave Blacks property rights
there. Interest was expressed in rescinding the law against interracial
marriage and also rescinding the law against sexual relations between
different races, which was under ridicule abroad. The spending for Black
schools increased, to one-seventh of what was spent per white child, up
from one-sixteenth in 1968. At the same time, attention was given to
strengthening the effectiveness of the police apparatus.
In January 1985, Botha addressed the government's House of
Assembly and stated that the government was willing to release Mandela
on condition that he pledge opposition to acts of violence to further
political objectives. Mandela's reply was read in public by his daughter
Zinzi – his first words distributed publicly since his sentence to
prison 21 years earlier. Mandela described violence as the
responsibility of the apartheid regime and said that with democracy
there would be no need for violence. The crowd listening to the reading
of his speech erupted in cheers and chants. This response helped to
further elevate Mandela's status in the eyes of those, both
internationally and domestically, who opposed apartheid.
Between 1986 and 1988, some petty apartheid laws were repealed, along with the pass laws. Botha told White South Africans to "adapt or die" and twice he wavered on the eve of what were billed as "rubicon"
announcements of substantial reforms, although on both occasions he
backed away from substantial changes. Ironically, these reforms served
only to trigger intensified political violence through the remainder of
the 1980s as more communities and political groups across the country
joined the resistance movement. Botha's government stopped short of
substantial reforms, such as lifting the ban on the ANC, PAC and SACP
and other liberation organisations, releasing political prisoners, or
repealing the foundation laws of grand apartheid. The government's
stance was that they would not contemplate negotiating until those
organisations "renounced violence".
By 1987, South Africa's economy was growing at one of the lowest
rates in the world, and the ban on South African participation in
international sporting events was frustrating many whites in South
Africa. Examples of African states with Black leaders and White
minorities existed in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Whispers of South Africa one day having a Black President sent more
hardline whites into supporting right-wing political parties. Mandela
was moved to a four-bedroom house of his own, with a swimming pool and
shaded by fir trees, on a prison farm just outside of Cape Town. He had
an unpublicised meeting with Botha. Botha impressed Mandela by walking
forward, extending his hand and pouring Mandela's tea. The two had a
friendly discussion, with Mandela comparing the African National
Congress' rebellion with that of the Afrikaner rebellion and talking about everyone being brothers.
A number of clandestine meetings were held between the
ANC-in-exile and various sectors of the internal struggle, such as women
and educationalists. More overtly, a group of White intellectuals met
the ANC in Senegal for talks known as the Dakar Conference.
Early in 1989, Botha had a stroke; he was prevailed upon to resign in February 1989. He was succeeded as president later that year by F. W. de Klerk.
Despite his initial reputation as a conservative, de Klerk moved
decisively towards negotiations to end the political stalemate in the
country. Prior to his term in office, F. W. de Klerk had already
experienced political success as a result of the power base he had built
in the Transvaal. During this time, F. W. de Klerk served as chairman
to the provincial National Party, which was in favour of the Apartheid
regime. The transition of de Klerk's ideology regarding apartheid is
seen clearly in his opening address to parliament on 2 February 1990. F.
W. de Klerk announced that he would repeal discriminatory laws and lift
the 30-year ban on leading anti-apartheid groups such as the African
National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the United Democratic Front.
The Land Act was brought to an end. F. W. de Klerk also made his first
public commitment to release Nelson Mandela, to return to press freedom and to suspend the death penalty. Media restrictions were lifted and political prisoners not guilty of common law crimes were released.
On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison after more than 27 years behind bars.
Having been instructed by the UN Security Council to end its long-standing involvement in South West Africa/Namibia,
and in the face of military stalemate in Southern Angola, and an
escalation in the size and cost of the combat with the Cubans, the
Angolans, and SWAPO forces and the growing cost of the border war, South
Africa negotiated a change of control; Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990.
Apartheid was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to
1991, culminating in a transitional period which resulted in the
country's 1994 general election, the first in South Africa held with universal suffrage.
In 1990, negotiations were earnestly begun, with two meetings
between the government and the ANC. The purpose of the negotiations was
to pave the way for talks towards a peaceful transition towards majority
rule. These meetings were successful in laying down the preconditions
for negotiations, despite the considerable tensions still abounding
within the country. Apartheid legislation was abolished in 1991.
At the first meeting, the NP and ANC discussed the conditions for negotiations to begin. The meeting was held at Groote Schuur,
the President's official residence. They released the Groote Schuur
Minute, which said that before negotiations commenced political
prisoners would be freed and all exiles allowed to return.
There were fears that the change of power would be violent. To
avoid this, it was essential that a peaceful resolution between all
parties be reached. 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. CODESA
adopted a Declaration of Intent and committed itself to an "undivided
South Africa".
Reforms and negotiations to end apartheid led to a backlash among the right-wing White opposition, leading to the Conservative Party winning a number of by-elections against NP candidates. De Klerk responded by calling a Whites-only referendum
in March 1992 to decide whether negotiations should continue. 69% voted
in favour, and the victory instilled in de Klerk and the government a
lot more confidence, giving the NP a stronger position in negotiations.
When negotiations resumed in May 1992, under the tag of CODESA
II, stronger demands were made. The ANC and the government could not
reach a compromise on how power should be shared during the transition
to democracy. The NP wanted to retain a strong position in a
transitional government, and the power to change decisions made by
parliament.
Persistent violence added to the tension during the negotiations. This was due mostly to the intense rivalry between the Inkatha Freedom Party
(IFP) and the ANC and the eruption of some traditional tribal and local
rivalries between the Zulu and Xhosa historical tribal affinities,
especially in the Southern Natal provinces. Although Mandela and
Buthelezi met to settle their differences, they could not stem the
violence. One of the worst cases of ANC-IFP violence was the Boipatong massacre of 17 June 1992, when 200 IFP militants attacked the Gauteng township of Boipatong,
killing 45. Witnesses said that the men had arrived in police vehicles,
supporting claims that elements within the police and army contributed
to the ongoing violence. Subsequent judicial inquiries found the
evidence of the witnesses to be unreliable or discredited, and that
there was no evidence of National Party or police involvement in the
massacre. When de Klerk visited the scene of the incident he was
initially warmly welcomed, but he was suddenly confronted by a crowd of
protesters brandishing stones and placards. The motorcade sped from the
scene as police tried to hold back the crowd. Shots were fired by the
police, and the PAC stated that three of its supporters had been gunned
down. Nonetheless, the Boipatong massacre offered the ANC a pretext to engage
in brinkmanship. Mandela argued that de Klerk, as head of state, was
responsible for bringing an end to the bloodshed. He also accused the
South African police of inciting the ANC-IFP violence. This formed the
basis for ANC's withdrawal from the negotiations, and the CODESA forum
broke down completely at this stage.
The Bisho massacre on 7 September 1992 brought matters to a head. The Ciskei Defence Force killed 29 people and injured 200 when they opened fire on ANC marchers demanding the reincorporation of the Ciskei
homeland into South Africa. In the aftermath, Mandela and de Klerk
agreed to meet to find ways to end the spiralling violence. This led to a
resumption of negotiations.
Right-wing violence also added to the hostilities of this period. The assassination of Chris Hani
on 10 April 1993 threatened to plunge the country into chaos. Hani, the
popular General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP),
was assassinated in 1993 in Dawn Park in Johannesburg by Janusz Waluś, an anti-CommunistPolish refugee who had close links to the White nationalist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
(AWB). Hani enjoyed widespread support beyond his constituency in the
SACP and ANC and had been recognised as a potential successor to
Mandela; his death brought forth protests throughout the country and
across the international community, but ultimately proved a turning point, after which the main parties pushed for a settlement with increased determination. On 25 June 1993, the AWB used an armoured vehicle to crash through the doors of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre where talks were still going ahead under the Negotiating Council, though this did not derail the process.
In addition to the continuing "black-on-black" violence, there
were a number of attacks on white civilians by the PAC's military wing,
the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA). The PAC was hoping to strengthen their standing by attracting the support of the angry, impatient youth. In the St James Church massacre
on 25 July 1993, members of the APLA opened fire in a church in Cape
Town, killing 11 members of the congregation and wounding 58.
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".
Violence persisted right up to the 1994 general election. Lucas Mangope,
leader of the Bophuthatswana homeland, declared that it would not take
part in the elections. It had been decided that, once the temporary
constitution had come into effect, the homelands would be incorporated
into South Africa, but Mangope did not want this to happen. There were
strong protests against his decision, leading to a coup d'état in Bophuthatswana
carried out by the SDF on 10 March that deposed Mangope. AWB militants
attempted to intervene in hopes of maintaining Mangope in power.
Fighting alongside black paramilitaries loyal to Mangope they were
unsuccessful, with 3 AWB militants being killed during this
intervention, and harrowing images of the bloodshed shown on national
television and in newspapers across the world.
Two days before the election, a car bomb exploded in Johannesburg, killing nine people. The day before the elections, another one went off, injuring 13. At midnight on 26–27 April 1994 the previous "orange white blue" flag adopted in 1928 was lowered, and the old (now co-official) national anthem Die Stem ("The Call") was sung, followed by the raising of the new Y shaped flag and singing of the other co-official anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("God Bless Africa").
1994 election
The new multicoloured flag of South Africa adopted in 1994 to mark the end of Apartheid
The election was held on 27 April 1994 and went off peacefully
throughout the country as 20 million South Africans cast their votes.
There was some difficulty in organising the voting in rural areas, but
people waited patiently for many hours to vote amidst a palpable feeling
of goodwill. An extra day was added to give everyone the chance.
International observers agreed that the elections were free and fair. The European Union's report on the election compiled at the end of May 1994, published two years after the election, criticised the Independent Electoral Commission's
lack of preparedness for the polls, the shortages of voting materials
at many voting stations, and the absence of effective safeguards against
fraud
in the counting process. In particular, it expressed disquiet that "no
international observers had been allowed to be present at the crucial
stage of the count when party representatives negotiated over disputed
ballots." This meant that both the electorate and the world were "simply
left to guess at the way the final result was achieved."
The ANC won 62.65% of the vote,less than the 66.7 percent that would have allowed it to rewrite the
constitution. 252 of the 400 seats went to members of the African
National Congress. The NP captured most of the White and Coloured votes
and became the official opposition party. As well as deciding the national government, the election decided the provincial governments, and the ANC won in seven of the nine provinces, with the NP winning in the Western Cape and the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal. On 10 May 1994, Mandela was sworn in as the new President of South Africa. The Government of National Unity was established, its cabinet made up of 12 ANC representatives, six from the NP, and three from the IFP. Thabo Mbeki and de Klerk were made deputy presidents.
Post-apartheid South Africa has struggled to correct the social inequalities created by decades of apartheid. White nepotism remains a considerable obstacle to economic gain and political influence for Black South Africans. Despite a growing gross domestic product, indices for poverty, unemployment, income inequality, life expectancy and land ownership, have declined. No industry in the economy has over 50% ownership by Black individuals
in terms of their share even though 81.4% of the South African
population is Black. The end of the apartheid system in South Africa has largely not changed the socioeconomic stratification by race. While a small subset of the Black population have been able to create a
Black middle class that did not exist during apartheid, the large
majority of Black people in South Africa have yet to experience a
difference in economic class since apartheid was abolished. According to the World Bank, South Africa is the most economically unequal country in the world.
Contrition
Since 2019, publicly displaying the 1928–1994 flag in South Africa is banned and it is classified as hate speech. The following individuals, who had previously supported apartheid, have made public apologies:
F. W. de Klerk
in 1997 stated: "I apologise in my capacity as leader of the NP to the
millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who
suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the
decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial
discrimination." In a video released after his death in 2021, he apologised one last
time for apartheid, both on a personal level and in his capacity as
former president.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk:
"The National Party brought development to a section of South Africa,
but also brought suffering through a system grounded on injustice", in a
statement shortly after the National Party voted to disband in 2005.
Leon Wessels:
"I am now more convinced than ever that apartheid was a terrible
mistake that blighted our land. South Africans did not listen to the
laughing and the crying of each other. I am sorry that I had been so
hard of hearing for so long".
The term apartheid has been adopted by Palestinian rights advocates and by leading Israeli and other human rights organizations, referring to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, legal treatment of illegal settlements and the West Bank barrier. Within the pre-1967 Israeli borders, Palestinian rights advocates have
raised concern over discriminatory housing planning against Palestinian
citizens of Israel, likening it to racial segregation. Others argue that the Israeli treatment of Palestinians does not fit
the definition of apartheid as it is motivated by security
considerations and has nothing to do with race.
Social apartheid is segregation on the basis of class or economic status. For example, social apartheid in Brazil
refers to the various aspects of economic inequality in Brazil. Social
apartheid may fall into various categories. Economic and social
discrimination because of gender is sometimes referred to as gender apartheid.
Separation of people according to their religion, whether pursuant to
official laws or pursuant to social expectations, is sometimes referred
to as religious apartheid.
Communities in northern Ireland for example, are often housed based on
religion in a situation which has been described as "self-imposed
apartheid".
The concept in occupational therapy
that individuals, groups and communities can be deprived of meaningful
and purposeful activity through segregation due to social, political,
economic factors and for social status reasons, such as race,
disability, age, gender, sexuality, religious preference, political
preference, or creed, or due to war conditions, is sometimes known as occupational apartheid.
The disproportionate management and control of the world's economy and resources by countries and companies of the Global North has been referred to as global apartheid. A related phenomenon is technological apartheid, a term used to describe the denial of modern technologies to Third World or developing
nations. The last two examples use the term "apartheid" less literally
since they are centred on relations between countries, not on disparate
treatment of social populations within a country or political
jurisdiction.
