The End of Apartheid in South Africa

Samantha Yeung HH

This article was originally written as a Shell history essay as part of the syllabus on how people campaigned for civil rights in the 20th century.

Apartheid, meaning ‘apartness’ in Afrikaans, was a set of laws introduced in South Africa in 1948 for the purposes of strict racial segregation of South African society and the dominance of the Afrikaans-speaking white minority.

It was upheld by an authoritarian political culture and police brutality against the black population. Internal factors, such as civil unrest, coupled with external factors, such as economic embargoes, the resolutions of the United Nations, sports and consumer boycotts heavily contributed the dismantling of Apartheid in 1991. Both the external and internal factors are almost equally important and they worked together to bring about an end to this.

One of the factors that led to the ending of Apartheid in South Africa was internal pressure involving civil unrest and increasing militancy.

Image: Violent response by police to the demonstration at Sharpeville.

Examples of this include the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), the Sharpeville Massacre, and the Soweto uprising and student protests. Launched by Steve Biko, the BCM was an influential student movement in the 1970s and was important because it became the voice and spirit of the anti-Apartheid movement at a time when both the ANC and PAC had been banned in the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre. Later on, the BCM was banned due to its suspected connections with the Soweto Student Uprisings.

Anti-Apartheid campaigner Steve Biko In 1976, the inspired students of Soweto revolted in an uprising, which quickly spread to other towns in response to the government’s announcement that half of the subjects that pupils studied in schools would be taught in Afrikaans. Police fired at the 15,000 students who held a demonstration in Soweto, killing two young students.

This set a precedent, and by the end of the year, nearly 1000 protesters had died. It was important because the Soweto Uprisings had a very negative impact on South Africa's image overseas. Dramatic television coverage of police action in the townships was screened around the world, shocking international opinion, destroying the government's attempts to end its isolation by establishing economic and diplomatic ties with other African countries.

The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, coordinated a national demonstration in 1960, for the abolition of South Africa’s pass laws. Later termed the ‘Sharpeville Massacre’, it was one of the first and most violent responses to the demonstrations protesting Apartheid in South Africa. Participants were instructed to surrender their passes and invite arrest, and around 20,000 black South Africans gathered near a police station at Sharpeville. According to police, after some protesters began stoning police officers and their armoured cars, they opened fire on them with submachine guns. As a result, around 69 protesters were killed and more than 180 were wounded, with around 50 women and children as casualties.

A state of emergency was declared in South Africa, making any protest illegal and more than 11,000 people were detained as a result of the massacre. The Sharpeville Massacre was important because it awakened the international community to the horrors of Apartheid

Image: Protesters voice their demands for freedom from apartheid oppression. and was the catalyst for the hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of whom suffered casualties. During the following five months, roughly 25,000 people were arrested, and the South African government subsequently passed the Unlawful Organisations Act of 1960 which banned anti-Apartheid groups such as the PAC and the ANC. Other major factors involved in the ending of Apartheid in South Africa were economic embargoes and external pressure. This was enforced through the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (CAAA), Resolution 418, Resolution 1761, sports boycotts, and international condemnation. The CAAA was the first United States anti-Apartheid legislation, and it stated five conditions that would effectively end Apartheid that South Africa had to fulfil for the sanctions to be lifted. It was important because the sanctions brought by the United States and other western nations helped to bring an end to Apartheid by threatening to cripple their already dwindling economy at every level.

A resolution resulting in significant impact was the United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 of 1977. It imposed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa and was done in order to prevent a further aggravation of a grave situation. It was important because of the extensive impact the embargo had on South Africa, which included the last-minute cancellation of the sale of D'Estienne d'Orves-class avisos and Agosta-class submarines by France, the cancellation of the purchase of Sa'ar 4 class missile boat from Israel, South Africa's inability to purchase modern fighter aircraft to counter Cuban MiG23s over the SAAF in the South African Border War and the end of shipments by the United States of enriched uranium fuel for South Africa's SAFARI-1 research nuclear reactor. Although it had produced minimal impact, resolution 1761 is also worth mentioning. In 1962, the United Nations adopted resolution 1761 condemning South Africa’s racist Apartheid policies and called on all its members to end economic and military relations with the country. It was important because it publicly faulted the South African government and encouraged Member States to do the same by cutting all ties with them. However, aside from media coverage, it was not effective as the main countries with strong trading links with South Africa did not uphold the resolution.

Furthermore, another example of external pressure was when international sporting organizations like the Olympics and the FIFA soccer federation began excluding South African teams from international competition in the 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1970s, workers at Polaroid in the United States became aware of the use of their company’s cameras and film in making the passbooks that all black South Africans were required to carry. They asked that Polaroid withdraw from South Africa and then organized a consumer boycott that ultimately led the company to pull out of the country in 1977. Alongside that, the Frontline States enforced a boycott on South Africa, limiting the market for South African goods that, coupled with consumer boycotts elsewhere and divestment by corporations, began to damage South Africa’s economy. Sports boycotts and international condemnation created an increasing sense of isolation on the part of the white minority government and its white citizens.

Ultimately, the internal and external factors were both crucial in the ending of Apartheid. But they would have had less of an impact if they had acted alone; both components worked towards the same goal. The external factors of economic embargoes, UN resolutions, and sports and consumer boycotts amongst other things gave the South African government that push, toppling over decades worth of racial segregation and discrimination that were ingrained into every echelon of South African society. The financial aspects of the external factors greatly crippled the economy of South Africa, and the mandatory arms embargo resulted in a significant detrimental impact on the South African military and arms industry. On the other hand, the internal factors involving the bravery and dedication of men like Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela is immeasurable in giving leadership and inspiration to the people of South Africa.

The Sharpeville Massacre set the precedent for hundreds of mass protests and marred the reputation of the South African government overseas, severing any attempts from the government to establish economic and diplomatic ties with other African countries.