1.
Apartheid
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Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa between 1948 and 1991, when it was abolished. The countrys first multiracial elections under a universal franchise were held three years later in 1994, Apartheid as a policy was embraced by the South African government shortly after the ascension of the National Party during the countrys 1948 general elections. Apartheid was also enforced in South West Africa until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990, with the rapid growth and industrialisation of the British Cape Colony in the nineteenth century, racial policies and laws became increasingly rigid. Cape legislation that discriminated specifically against black Africans began appearing shortly before 1900, the policies of the Boer republics were also racially exclusive, for instance, the Transvaal constitution barred nonwhite participation in church and state. Places of residence were determined by racial classification, from 1960 to 1983,3.5 million nonwhite South Africans were removed from their homes, and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the population to ten designated tribal homelands, also known as bantustans. 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 twentieth century. It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations, some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed in appeasing most activist groups. In 1990, prominent ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela were released from detention, Apartheid legislation was abolished in mid-1991, pending multiracial elections set for April 1994. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separateness, or the state of being apart and its first recorded use was in 1929. The governors and assemblies that governed the process in the various colonies of South Africa were launched on a different and independent legislative path from the rest of the British Empire. In the days of slavery, slaves required passes to travel away from their masters, in 1797 the Landdrost and Heemraden of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and ordained that all Khoikhoi moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes. Ordinance No.49 of 1828 decreed that prospective black immigrants were to be granted passes for the purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi, but not for other Africans, the United Kingdoms Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire and overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation. To comply with the act the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1 in 1835 and this was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa that was little different from slavery. The Glen Grey Act of 1894, instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes limited the amount of land Africans could hold, in 1905 the General Pass Regulations Act denied blacks the vote, limited them to fixed areas and inaugurated the infamous Pass System. The Asiatic Registration Act required all Indians to register and carry passes, one of the first pieces of segregating legislation enacted by Jan Smuts United Party government was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill, which banned land sales to Indians. The United Party government began to move away from the enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II
2.
South African general election, 1948
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The parliamentary election in South Africa on 26 May 1948 represented a turning point in the countrys history. During the election battle, both the UP and the NP formed coalitions with smaller parties, the UP was aligned with the left-leaning Labour Party, while the Afrikaner Party sought to advance Afrikaner rights by allying with the HNP. The HNP, realising that many White South Africans felt threatened by black political aspirations, the Nationalists labelled this new system of social organisation apartheid, the name by which it became universally known. The HNP also took advantage of white fear of crime. In contrast to the HNPs consistent, straightforward platform, the UP supported vague notions of slowly integrating the different racial groups within South Africa. Together, the HNP and the Afrikaner Party won 79 seats in the House of Assembly against a total of 74 won by the UP. By a quirk of the First Past the Post system the NP had won more seats, the Nationalist coalition subsequently formed a new government and ushered in the era of formal, legally binding apartheid. In 1951, the HNP and the Afrikaner Party merged, returning to the name National Party, one of the central issues facing the white electorate in the 1948 election was that of race. The United Party and the National Party presented voters with differing answers to questions relating to racial integration in SA, in contrast to this seemingly vague ideology, the NP advanced the notion of further strictly enforced segregation between races and the total dis-empowerment of black South Africans. Rural to urban movement by blacks was to be discouraged, the UP position was supported by the Fagan Commission while the Sauer Commission informed the NPs stance. The putative policy of apartheid proposed by the NP served the interests of certain groups of white South Africans. Many commercial and financial Afrikaner interests based on saw the value of apartheid in promoting growth in this sector. The UP failed to realise the economic benefits of apartheid to these large and influential groups. As regards election tactics, the NP was extremely adroit at exploiting white fears while campaigning in the 1948 election, NP propaganda linked black political power to Communism, an anathema to many white South Africans at the time. Slogans such as Swart Gevaar, Rooi Gevaar, Die kaffer op sy plek, much was made of the fact that Smuts had developed a good working relationship with Joseph Stalin during World War II, when South Africa and the USSR were allies in the fight against Nazi Germany. Smuts had once remarked that he doffs his cap to Stalin, the Smuts governments controversial immigration programme served to further inflame Afrikaner disquiet. Under this programme, numerous British immigrants had moved to South Africa and were perceived to have taken homes, in preparation for the 1948 election, the NP moderated its stance on republicanism. English speaking South Africans tended to favour a relationship with the UK
3.
Coloured vote constitutional crisis
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The crisis ended when the government enlarged the Senate and altered its method of election, allowing the amendment to be successfully enacted. Before the creation of the Union of South Africa, elections in the Cape Colony were conducted on the basis of the qualified franchise and this meant that the right to vote was limited to men meeting property and literacy qualifications, but not restricted on the basis of race. The South Africa Act, which was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, unified these four colonies to form the Union but preserved their franchise arrangements unchanged. Section 35 was entrenched by section 152, which provided that neither section 35 nor section 152 itself could be amended without a similar supermajority in joint session. Although this Act was passed by the required joint-session supermajority, its validity was challenged by a voter in the case of Ndlwana v Hofmeyr. In 1948, the National Party, campaigning on a platform of apartheid, the following year, Prime Minister D. F. The bill attracted much opposition both inside and outside Parliament, the United Party leader J. G. N. A group of Coloured activists formed the National Convention Co-ordinating Committee to oppose the bill within constitutional limits, the Franchise Action Council, a multi-racial organisation, led a campaign of rallies, strikes and civil disobedience. The Torch Commando was founded by white Second World War veterans in response to the bill, the Governor-General gave his assent on 15 June 1951 and the act was promulgated on 18 June. G. Harris, E. Franklin, W. D. Collins and this decision was immediately taken on appeal to the Appellate Division. The governments first contention was that the act did not disqualify voters on the basis of race, as all voters previously qualified were still able to vote, the court dismissed this argument as untenable. The governments claim regarding the Statute of Westminster was based on two principal theories, the first was based on the repeal of the application of the Colonial Laws Validity Act to South Africa. The Colonial Laws Validity Act provided that any act of a parliament would be valid within the colony unless it contradicted a British act applying to the colony. The second theory was that, by expanding the powers of the dominion parliaments. Section 2 of the Statute of Westminster gave a dominion parliament the power to repeal or amend any act of the British Parliament as it applied in the dominion. This did not affect the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, as Parliament was fully sovereign over South Africa, the court ruled that it was entitled to overrule its own previous decisions if they were clearly wrong. In Ndlwana there had been no discussion of the Statute of Westminster nor any argument for or against the conclusion drawn by the court, and the court therefore felt free to overrule it. The resulting order of the Appellate Division was that the Separate Representation of Voters Act was invalid, null and void and of no legal force, the ruling, authored by Chief Justice Albert van der Sandt Centlivres and handed down on 20 March 1952, was unanimous
4.
Sharpeville massacre
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The Sharpeville massacre was an event which occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in Transvaal. After a day of demonstrations against pass laws, a crowd of about 5,000 to 7,000 black protesters went to the police station, the South African Police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 people. In present-day South Africa,21 March is celebrated as a holiday in honour of human rights. South African governments since the century had enacted measures to restrict the flow of black South Africans into cities. Pass laws intended to control and direct their movement and employment were updated in the 1950s, under the countrys National Party government, black residents in urban districts were subject to influx control measures. From the 1960s, the laws were the primary instrument used by the state to detain. The African National Congress prepared to initiate a campaign of protests against pass laws. On March 21, a group of between 5,000 and 10,000 people converged on the police station in the township of Sharpeville. The Sharpeville police were not completely unprepared for the demonstration, as they had already forced to drive smaller groups of more militant activists away the previous night. By 10,00, a crowd had gathered. Fewer than 20 police officers were present in the station at the start of the protest. Later the crowd grew to about 20,000, and the mood was described as ugly, prompting about 130 police reinforcements, supported by four Saracen armoured personnel carriers, the police were armed with firearms, including Sten submachine guns and Lee–Enfield rifles. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than rocks, f-86 Sabre jets and Harvard Trainers approached to within a hundred feet of the ground, flying low over the crowd in an attempt to scatter it. The protesters responded by hurling stones and menacing the police barricades, tear gas proved ineffectual, and policemen elected to repel these advances with their batons. At about 13,00 the police tried to arrest a protestor, resulting in a scuffle, the official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and 180 injured, including 31 women and 19 children. Many were shot in the back as they turned to flee, Police reports in 1960 claimed that young and inexperienced police officers panicked and opened fire spontaneously, setting off a chain reaction that lasted about forty seconds. It is likely that the police were nervous as two months before the massacre nine constables had been assaulted and killed during a raid at Cato Manor, in addition, few of the policemen present had received public order training. Some of them had been on duty for over twenty-four hours without respite, for them to gather means violence
5.
Rivonia Trial
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The Rivonia Trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964. The Rivonia Trial led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted on life sentences in the Palace of Justice, Pretoria. The Rivonia Trial was named after Rivonia, the suburb of Johannesburg where leaders had arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, privately owned by Arthur Goldreich. The farm had been used as a hideout for the African National Congress, among others, Nelson Mandela had moved onto the farm in October 1961 and evaded security police while masquerading as a gardener and cook called David Motsamayi. Most of the Rivonia defendants were to be convicted, and in turn sentenced to life imprisonment, the government took advantage of legal provisions allowing for accused persons to be held for 90 days without trial, and the defendants were held incommunicado. Withstanding beatings and torture, Goldreich and Wolpe escaped from jail on 11 August and their escape infuriated the prosecutors and police who considered Goldreich to be the arch-conspirator. The chief prosecutor was Dr. Percy Yutar, deputy attorney-general of the Transvaal, the presiding judge was Dr. Quartus de Wet, judge-president of the Transvaal. The first trial indictment document listed 11 names as the accused, the trial began in October 1963. Counsel for the accused successfully challenged the legal sufficiency of the document, the second indictment thus only listed 10 out of the original 11 names, referring to them as Accused 1 through 10. Hilda Bernstein approached Joffe, after being rebuffed by other lawyers who claimed to be too busy or afraid to act for her husband, Joffe was subsequently also approached by Albertina Sisulu, Annie Goldberg and Winnie Mandela. Joffe agreed to act as attorney for all of the accused except Kantor, who would require separate counsel, Joffe initially secured the services of advocates Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos, then persuaded Bram Fischer to act as lead counsel. Vernon Berrangé was also recruited to join the team of advocates. He thus arranged a separate defence team, while Harold Hanson primarily represented Kantor, he was also invited to deliver the plea for mitigation for the other 9 accused. The defence line-up for Kantor was John Coaker Harold Hanson George Lowen H. C, production requirements for munitions for a six-month period were sufficient, the prosecutor Percy Yutar said in his opening address, to blow up a city the size of Johannesburg. Kantor was discharged at the end of the prosecutions case, the trial was condemned by the United Nations Security Council and nations around the world, leading to international sanctions against the South African government in some cases. Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolpe escaped from The Fort prison in Johannesburg while on remand after bribing a prison guard. After hiding in safe houses for two months they escaped to Swaziland dressed as priests with the aid of Manni Brown who posed as a tour operator as a cover to deliver weapons to the ANC. From Swaziland, Vernon Berrangé was to charter a plane to take them on to Lobatse, wolpes escape saw his brother-in-law James Kantor, who had been serving as a member of the defence team, arrested and charged with the same crimes as Mandela and his co-accused
6.
Soweto uprising
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The Soweto uprising was a series of protests led by black school children in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools and it is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests. They were met with police brutality. The number of killed by police is usually given as 176. In remembrance of these events, the 16th of June is now a holiday in South Africa. The Regional Director of Bantu Education, J. G, indigenous languages would only be used for religious instruction, music, and physical culture. The association of Afrikaans with apartheid prompted black South Africans to prefer English, even the Bantustan regimes chose English and an indigenous African language as official languages. In addition, English was gaining prominence as the language most often used in commerce, the 1974 decree was intended to forcibly reverse the decline of Afrikaans among black Africans. The Afrikaner-dominated government used the clause of the 1909 Union of South Africa Act that recognised only English, while all schools had to provide instruction in both Afrikaans and English as languages, white South African students learned other subjects in their home language. Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education at the time, was quoted as saying and he may work for an employer who is either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking and the man who has to give him instructions may be either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking. Why should we now start quarrelling about the medium of instruction among the Black people as well, no, I have not consulted them and I am not going to consult them. Teacher organisations, such as the African Teachers Association of South Africa, a change in language of instruction forced the students to focus on understanding the language instead of the subject material. This made critical analysis of the content difficult and discouraged critical thinking, the resentment grew until 30 April 1976, when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion then spread to other schools in Soweto. Black South African students protested because they believed that they deserved to be treated, a student from Morris Isaacson High School, Teboho Tsietsi Mashinini, proposed a meeting on 13 June 1976 to discuss what should be done. Students formed an Action Committee, which organised a rally for 16 June. On the morning of 16 June 1976, between 10,000 and 20,000 black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to protest against having to learn through Afrikaans in school. Many students who participated in the protest arrived at school that morning without prior knowledge of the protest
7.
Alexander Sinton Secondary School
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Alexander Sinton Secondary School, also known as Alexander Sinton High School, is an English-medium school in Crawford, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The school is located in the Cape Flats, a designated as non-white under the Group Areas Act during apartheid. The school was involved in the student uprisings of the 1970s and 1980s. Staff and students at the school made headlines when they barricaded the police into their school in September 1985, the following month, three youths were killed near the school by police officers who opened fire on protesters in the Trojan Horse Incident. It was the first school to be visited by Nelson Mandela after his release from prison, as of 2014, the school has 1,100 pupils, half boys and half girls. The school employs 40 teachers and six non-teaching staff, the school was named for its benefactor Alexander Sinton, who bequeathed money to found the school in 1951. In 1976 Nabil Swart, a teacher at the school, was arrested after helping a student who had shot during the protests. Swart was released on bail after being detained for a weekend, internal resistance to apartheid intensified, and a state of emergency was declared in parts of the country in 1985. The Committee of 81, a student organisation representing coloured schools in the Western Cape which organised student boycotts and protests, held some meetings at the school in 1985. The school effectively stopped teaching from February and was closed on 6 September when the government ordered more than 400 schools to close as a result of civil unrest. Some teachers resigned their positions and others were confused as to their role, the Teachers League of South Africa, a professional association for coloured teachers, encouraged its members not to resign for the sake of the children. Teachers decided to teach, but not to co-operate with the authorities, the school defiantly re-opened on 17 September 1985 when the principal, Khalied Desai, led teachers, uniformed students and parents who sang protest songs. The police were aware of the plans, and arrived quickly. The students threw stones, built barricades and the police replied with armoured vehicles, tear gas, rubber bullets, Teachers and parents supported the students and their protests against injustice. The police had difficulty taking away the people they had arrested, the New York Times noted that the action taken by coloured teachers and students at the school was remarkably different to the boycotts taking place at black schools. Swart was again jailed for two weeks in 1985 for helping to re-open the school, the state of emergency was extended to include Cape Town on 25 October 1985, giving the police and army greater powers to deal with instability in the area. Swart was again jailed for eighteen months in 1986 for his involvement in the school unrest, on 15 October 1985 three male youths, aged 11,15 and 21, were killed by the police nearby in Belgravia Road in Athlone in what was called the Trojan Horse Incident. Students and activists had gathered where they regularly had battles with the police and were stoning vehicles, most of the people in the crowd were from the school
8.
Chris Hani
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Chris Hani, born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was an opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated on 10 April 1993. Thembisile Hani was born on 28 June 1942 in the town of Cofimvaba. He was the fifth of six children and he attended Lovedale school in 1957, to finish his last two years. He twice finished two school grades in a single year, when Hani was 12 years old, after hearing his fathers explanations about apartheid and the African National Congress, he wished to join the ANC but was still too young to be accepted. In Lovedale school, Hani joined the ANC Youth League when he was 15 years old and he influenced other students to join the ANC. In 1959, at the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, Hani studied English, Latin and modern and he did not participate in any sport, saying I would rather fight apartheid than play sport. Hani, in an interview on the Wankie campaign, mentioned that he was a Rhodes University graduate, at age 15 he joined the ANC Youth League. As a student he was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act, following his graduation, he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Following his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act, he went into exile in Lesotho in 1963, because of Hanis involvement with Umkhonto we Sizwe he was forced into hiding by the South African government during which time he changed his first name to Chris. He received military training in the Soviet Union and served in campaigns in the Zimbabwean War of Liberation and they were joint operations between Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army in the late 1960s. The Luthuli Detachment operation consolidated Hanis reputation as a soldier in the army that took the field against apartheid. His role as a fighter from the earliest days of MKs exile was an important part in the fierce loyalty Hani enjoyed in some quarters later as MKs Deputy Commander. In 1969 he co-signed, with six others, the Hani Memorandum which was critical of the leadership of Joe Modise, Moses Kotane. In Lesotho he organised guerrilla operations of the MK in South Africa, by 1982, Hani had become prominent enough that he was the target of assassination attempts, and he eventually moved to the ANCs headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. He supported the suspension of the ANCs armed struggle in favour of negotiations, Chris Hani was assassinated on 10 April 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially mixed suburb of Boksburg. He was accosted by a Polish far-right anti-communist immigrant named Janusz Waluś, Waluś fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards after Hanis neighbour, a white Afrikaner woman, called the police. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party M. P. and Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs at the time, the Conservative Party of South Africa had broken away from the ruling National Party out of opposition to the reforms of P. W. Botha
9.
African National Congress
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The African National Congress is the Republic of South Africas governing social democratic political party. It has been the party of post-apartheid South Africa on the national level, beginning with the election of Nelson Mandela in the 1994 election. Today, the ANC remains the dominant political party in South Africa and its leader Jacob Zuma is the incumbent head of state, with Atul Gupta being the official head of government. On 8 April 1960, the administration of Charles Robberts Swart, banned the ANC, after the ban, the ANC formed the Umkhonto we Sizwe to fight against apartheid utilizing guerrilla warfare and sabotage. On 3 February 1990, State President F. W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, on 17 March 1992, the apartheid referendum was passed by the voters removing apartheid and allowing the ANC to run in the 1994 election. Since the 1994 election the ANC has performed better than 60% in all general elections, the founding of the SANNC was in direct response to injustice against black South Africans at the hands of the government then in power. It can be said that the SANNC had its origins in a pronouncement by Pixley ka Isaka Seme who said in 1911, Forget all the past differences among Africans, the SANNC was founded the following year on 8 January 1912. The government of the newly formed Union of South Africa began a systematic oppression of people in South Africa. The Land Act was promulgated in 1913 forcing many non-whites from their farms into the cities and towns to work, by 1919, the SANNC was leading a campaign against passes. However, it became dormant in the mid-1920s. During that time, black people were represented by the ICU. In 1923, the became the African National Congress. By 1927, J. T. Gumede proposed co-operation with the Communists in a bid to revitalise the organisation and this led to the ANC becoming largely ineffectual and inactive, until the mid-1940s when the ANC was remodelled as a mass movement. The ANC responded to attacks on the rights of black South Africans, as well as calling for strikes, boycotts and this led to a later Defiance Campaign in the 1950s, a mass movement of resistance to apartheid. The government tried to stop the ANC by banning party leaders and enacting new laws to stop the ANC, the government claimed that this was a communist document, and consequently leaders of the ANC and Congress were arrested. 1960 saw the Sharpeville massacre, in which 69 people were killed when police opened fire on anti-apartheid protesters, in 1961, partly in response to the Sharpeville massacre, Umkhonto we Sizwe was established as the military wing to launch bomb attacks. It was considered as terrorist group by South African government, later the United States government, MK commenced the military struggle against apartheid with acts of sabotage aimed at the installations of the state, and in the early stages was reluctant to target civilian targets. MK was responsible for the deaths of civilians and members of the military
10.
Azanian People's Liberation Army
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The Azanian Peoples Liberation Army, formerly known as Poqo, was the military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, an African nationalist movement in South Africa. After attacks on and the murder of white families the APLA was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African National government and the United States. APLA was disbanded and integrated into the South African National Defence Force in June 1994, in 1968 the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army replaced defunct Poqo as the armed wing of the PAC. Its name was derived from Azania, the ancient Greek name for Southern Africa, Azania is the name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa. In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the referred to a portion of the Southeast African coast extending from Kenya. Poqo was founded in 1961 following the massacre of PAC-led protestors at the hands of police outside the Sharpeville police station the previous year. Potlako Leballo, the chairman of the PAC at the time of the formation of its wing in the 1960s, modelled APLA on the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. Two white residents, Frans Richard and Rencia Vermeulen were killed and this attack was followed by the murder of a family camping at Bashee River in the Transkei on 4 February 1963. Norman and Elizabeth Grobbelaar, their teenage daughters Edna and Dawn, after the Soweto uprising in 1976, a number of students went into exile in APLA camps elsewhere on the African continent. Ntantalas original group of 70 APLA soldiers felt threatened by the influx of new recruits, leading Ntantala to attempt a coup against then commander and this was prevented by LLA soldiers, a move which exacerbated tensions within two PAC factions, the Diplomat-Reformist and Maoist-Revolutionary factions. Leballo himself relocated to Zimbabwe in late 1980 along with senior intelligence, pressure from Tanzania, however, resulted in his deportation in May–June 1981, as well as the deportation or imprisonment of the others. Make was replaced by John Nyathi Pokela, but his term of office was marred by further mutinies. Following Pokela’s death, Leballo made a comeback through support from Libya, North Korea, after his sudden death in January 1986, the DR faction, outmaneuvered by the ANC, fell into disarray leaving behind the legacy of a semi-national socialist political front. After 1986, APLA rejected the MR factions concept of the guerrilla as a reformer and instead adopted an ultimately disastrous rallying cry of One Settler. In the 1990–94 period, the became known for its attacks on civilians despite the progress in negotiations at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa. In 1993, the APLA’s chief commander, Sabelo Phama, declared that he would aim his guns at children - to hurt whites where it hurts most. Phama proclaimed 1993 as The Year of the Great Storm and sanctioned the attacks on civilians, King William’s Town Golf Club on 28 November 1992. Highgate Hotel in East London on 1 May 1993, killing five people, st James Church massacre in Kenilworth on 25 July 1993, killing 11 people during a church service
11.
Inkatha Freedom Party
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The Inkatha Freedom Party is a political party in South Africa. Since its founding, it has been led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, gatsha Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a former member of the ANC Youth League, founded the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement, which later became the IFP, on 21 March 1975. Buthelezi used a structure rooted in Inkatha, a 1920s cultural organisation for Zulus established by Zulu King Solomon kaDinuzulu. The party was established in what is now KwaZulu-Natal, after which branches of the party quickly sprang up in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and the Western Cape. Because of Buthelezis former position in the African National Congress, the two organisations were very close and each supported the other in the anti-apartheid struggle. As a Homeland leader, the power of Buthelezi depended on the South African state, with anti-apartheid leaders inside South Africa and abroad demanding sanctions, Buthelezi came to be regarded more and more as a government puppet, along with other Bantustan leaders. His tribal loyalties and focus on ethnic interests over national unity were also criticised as contributing to the programme of the IFP. This led to a civil war between Zulu loyalist supporters and ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal. During the phase of establishing a constitution for South Africa and prior to the first free elections in South African history, both the IFP and ANC attempted to campaign in each others KwaZulu-Natal strongholds, and were met with resistance, sometimes violent, by members of the opposing party. As a result, the IFP abstained from registering its party for the 1994 election, however, once it became obvious that its efforts were not going to stop the election, the party was registered at the eleventh hour. On election day, the IFP displayed its political strength by taking the majority of the votes for KwaZulu-Natal, after the dismantling of apartheid system in 1994, the IFP formed an uneasy coalition in KwaZulu-Natal with their traditional political rival, the ANC. This coalition was to last until 2004, when the IFP joined the Democratic Alliance, the ANC/IFP rivalry, characterised by sporadic acts of political violence, has been firm since 1993. In 2004, while campaigning in Vulindlela, an IFP bastion in the Pietermaritzburg Midlands region, previously the stronghold of Moses Mabhida, this area has long been the site of heated clashes between the parties. The IFP also states that Our proposals are designed to give control over their lives. We also have the political will to deal effectively with these problems, gavin Woods, one of the partys most respected MPs, drew up a highly critical 11 page internal discussion document at the request of the parliamentary caucus after a discussion in October 2004. Woods also warned the party that it must treat Buthelezi as the leader of a political party, Woods pinpointed 1987 as the year when the IFP started losing ground as a political force. Before 1987, Woods contends, the party had a strong, Woods criticized the IFPs inability to end the ANCs campaign of violence against it, and an impotent attitude towards the attacks conducted against it by the ANC. At the first caucus discussion, Woods read out the 11-page paper in full, IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi was absent from that meeting but raised it at a meeting of the partys national council, which Woods did not attend
12.
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
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The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging is a South African neo-nazi separatist political and paramilitary organisation, often described as a white supremacist group. Since its founding in 1973, it has dedicated to secessionist Afrikaner nationalism. In its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, when the nation was moving toward sharing political power with Black people, when the Afrikaners National Party gained control of the government in the elections of 1948, it began to introduce official apartheid. The AWB was formed in 1973 by Eugène TerreBlanche and six other far-right Afrikaners, terreblanche remained the leader until he was murdered on his farm in 2010. TerreBlanche was succeeded as leader by Steyn van Ronge, by the late 20th century, media reported that the AWB represented Afrikaners who were not able to make the leap from the isolated dirt farms even with the huge boost of apartheid. On 7 July 1973 Eugène TerreBlanche, a police officer, called a meeting of several men in Heidelberg, Gauteng. TerreBlanche also worried about what he characterized as communist influences in South African society and he decided to form a group with six other like-minded persons, which they named the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, to promote Afrikaner nationalism. His associates elected him as head of the group, a position he held until he was killed on his farm in April 2010 and their objective was to establish an independent Boerestaat for Boer-Afrikaner people only. It was to be independent of apartheid South Africa, which they considered too left wing, during the 1970s and 1980s, the AWB attracted several thousand white South Africans as members. They opposed the reform of laws during the 1980s, harassing liberal politicians. TerreBlanche used his flamboyant oratorial skills and forceful personality to win converts, during the State of Emergency, AWB violence and murders of unarmed non-whites were reported. The AWB especially opposed the then-banned African National Congress, which worked to achieve rights for the indigenous native South Saharan Africans. The ruling National Party considered the AWB to be more than a fringe group. The group operated relatively unhindered until 1986, when police officers took the unprecedented step of using tear gas against the AWB when they disrupted a National Party rally. In 1988, the organisation was estimated to have had support amongst 5 to 7 percent of the white South African population, in the Nick Broomfield documentary film, His Big White Self, he claimed the organisation reached a peak of half a million supporters in its heyday. In the mid-1980s, the AWB instituted a Voedingskema, later called the Volkshulpskema, the scheme delivered a meal every day to 14,000 poor Afrikaner children in Pretoria. Certain farmers also donated vegetables on an almost weekly basis, in the winter, bedding was donated as well. Sympathetic mine owners and farmers arranged jobs for unemployed Afrikaners on the farms, Afrikaans singer Bles Bridges held a concert on 3 March 1987 in Pretoria and gave the 10,000 rand raised to the project
13.
Democratic Party (South Africa)
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The Democratic Party was the name of the South African political party now called the Democratic Alliance. The Progressive Federal Party had formed the parliamentary opposition to the Apartheid regime in the whites only House of Assembly since 1977. This led to disillusionment amongst South Africas white liberal community. The new party had three co-leaders from each of the parties that had entered the merger, Zach de Beer, Denis Worrall, de Beer, from the dominant PFP-faction, eventually became the sole leader, however. It went on to win 34 seats in the 1989 election, in 1990, the NP shifted towards the center. This shift narrowed the political space available to the DP, in the 1994 election, the party won a disappointing 7 seats in the democratic parliament. Following the election, Tony Leon became the sole leader. Under Leons leadership, the DP would become the most active and influential opposition party in the National Assembly, in 1998, political columnist Howard Barrell wrote that Seven DP MPs make their National Party counterparts look like 80 feather dusters. The DP won its first local by-election against the NP in March 1997, in the Western Cape province, it achieved kingmaker status and became the junior partner in a governing coalition with the renamed New National Party. This electoral success came at a price, however, the partys new supporters largely came from the National Party and consisted overwhelmingly of ethnic minorities, mainly whites. Leon and other party leaders dismissed this, however, to unify national opposition against the ANC government, the DP and the NNP began to plan a merger of the two parties. Accordingly, the DP was renamed Democratic Alliance in June 2000, the merger agreement was short-lived, with the NNP leaving the alliance in 2001, but DA chose to retain its new name, adopting it at all levels of government from 2003 onwards. Contributions to liberal theory Liberal democracy Liberalism Liberalism in South Africa Liberalism worldwide List of liberal parties Democratic Alliance website
14.
End Conscription Campaign
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The End Conscription Campaign was an anti-apartheid organisation allied to the United Democratic Front and composed of conscientious objectors and their supporters in South Africa. It was formed in 1983 to oppose the conscription of all white South African men into service in the South African Defence Force. Valid reasons included conscientious objection based on beliefs, but these exceptions were tightened in 1974. Increasingly stringent laws were passed increasing periods of service, broadening the base of white men who could be called up. Conscripts comprised a significant part of South African Defence Force, the End Conscription Campaign was formed in 1983, in protest against compulsory military service. The ECC was founded in response to a passed by Black Sash at their annual conference. Conscientious objection was a choice as the consequences were severe. The reasons for conscientious objection included political, ethical and religious reasons, some religious organisations, parent groups and student organisations such as the National Union of South African Students also engaged in anti-conscription activities. At its peak, conscription in South Africa consisted of two years of military service, followed by camps at intervals. Under apartheid, the applied to all white men after completing their schooling or further studies. Objections to military service and the War in Angola were generally based on the role of the military, the military had also become increasingly active in suppressing a civil war in South Africas black townships. Many conscripts simply went Absent Without Leave, failed to arrive at BASICS or got lost in the system and it was announced in parliament that 7589 conscripts failed to report for National Service in January 1985, as opposed to only 1596 in the whole of 1984. As there were two intakes annually, in January and July, this would suggest an increase in non-reportees over the previous year. An estimated additional 7000 draft-dodgers were also said to be living in Europe in 1985, the motion was passed unanimously. He proposed the same motion at the Annual Conference of the PFP in Cape Town a few months later which passed with little opposition. 1452 people opted for the Alternative to Conscription between 1984 and the cancelling of Conscription in South Africa in 1993, January 1985 and July 1985 were the first so-called immigrant intakes after the involuntary nationalisation of white immigrant men of a predetermined age group in November 1984. Handlers objection was based upon the notion of an Unjust War as opposed to the Pacifist position held by many Christian students, the organisation was banned in August 1988 under emergency regulations. The same month, an issue of a newspaper, the Weekly Mail, was confiscated by security police, on the grounds that it had covered. News coverage included a cartoon, an advertisement from War Resisters International, as a result of the banning of the ECC and confiscation of the Weekly Mail, protests at the University of Cape Town and other campuses were held
15.
Federation of South African Trade Unions
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The Federation of South African Trade Unions was a trade union federation formed at a congress over the weekend of 14–15 April 1979 in Hammanskraal and officially launched five days later on 20 April. Its roots lay in the unions which had emerged from the spontaneous 1973 strike wave by black workers in Durban, fOSATUs constitution enshrined the principles of workers control of their trade unions, non-racialism, worker independence from party politics, international worker solidarity and trade union unity. It strove to build a national federation to work towards an industrial workers bloc firmly based in strong grassroots organisation on the factory floor. It became the first truly national non-racial trade union federation in South African history, building unity, as part of its commitment to trade union unity, FOSATU was prepared to disband its structures if wider unity could be attained. Industrial and Commercial Workers Union Internal resistance to South African apartheid Trade unions in South Africa
16.
Progressive Party (South Africa)
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The Progressive Party was a liberal party in South Africa that opposed the ruling National Partys policies of apartheid, and championed the Rule of Law. For 13 years its only member of parliament was Helen Suzman and it was later renamed the Progressive Reform Party in 1975, and then Progressive Federal Party in 1977. The modern Democratic Alliance name the party as its earliest predecessor, the Progressive Party was formed by members who had left the United Party following the United Party Union Congress held in Bloemfontein starting on 11 August 1959. The delegates at the Party Congress passed policy resolutions about the rights the party wished to give to Natives. The Progressives found these resolutions unacceptable, a Progressive Group of MPs led by Dr Bernard Friedman, began to organize a new party. The first meeting of the Group took place at the home of Helen Suzman and this meeting took place on 23–24 August 1959. The Progressive Party began its founding Congress on 13 November 1959, jan Steytler, a former Cape leader of the United Party, was elected the first leader of the new Party. At the session of Parliament in 1960, the Progressive Party had twelve MPs, eleven had been first elected for the United Party and one defected from the Liberal Party of South Africa. At the General Election, held on 18 October 1961, Helen Suzman was the only Progressive Party candidate to be elected and it would be thirteen years before she again had party colleagues in Parliament. In that time Mrs Suzman was re-elected in 1966 and 1970, jan Steytler continued as party leader until December 1970, but being outside Parliament he was far less visible than the member for Houghton. Harry Lawrence, a former Minister and the most senior of the MPs who had left the United Party in 1959, in February 1971 Colin Eglin from Cape Town was elected party leader. At the next General Election, on 24 April 1974, the Progressive Party made a major advance, in addition to Mrs Suzman, re-elected for Houghton, five other members won seats including Colin Eglin. A seventh member of the caucus was elected at a by-election soon after, a group of reformists broke away from the left wing of the United Party in February 1975. Four MPs led by Harry Schwarz, formed the Reform Party, the Reform Party merged with the Progressive Party to form the Progressive Reform Party, following Congresses held in Johannesburg on 25 and 26 July 1975. Subsequently the PRP merged with another group from the United Party
17.
Reform Party (South Africa)
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The Reform Party was an anti-apartheid political party that existed for just five months in 1975 and is one of the predecessor parties to the Democratic Alliance. Schwarz and others were opposed to apartheid and called for a much more rigorous opposition to the National Party. They said that no longer felt the UP was the vehicle in which we can travel the path of verligtheid. The party had four MPs, two senators, ten members of the Transvaal Provincial Council,14 out of the 36 Johannesburg City Councillors and this made it the official opposition in the Transvaal Provincial Council. There was much division in the United party, between liberals and conservatives in the 1960s and early 1970s. Divisions came to a head in 1972 when Harry Schwarz, leader of the liberal Young Turks within the party and his victory was a visible sign of strength from the liberals within the party. At the Reform Partys first meeting it mapped out the partys objectives, among the main ones were,1. The Reform Party believes in equality of opportunity and must create the conditions in which equality of opportunity can be exercised, the Reform Party stands for the removal of discrimination based on colour. It must get together with the people of other races to evolve a way in which discrimination will be removed, although closer to the Progressives agenda, the new Reform Party made no immediate move to merge the two parties. Eventually the party merged with the Progressive Party on 25 July 1975 to form the Progressive Reform Party with Colin Eglin as the new leader and this proved to realign the opposition in South Africa, as the PRP became the official opposition party following the demise of the UP. In 1977 another group of United Party members left the Party to form the Committee for a United Opposition, which then joined the Progressive Reform Party to form the Progressive Federal Party
18.
Progressive Federal Party
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The Progressive Federal Party was a South African political party formed in 1977. It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a constitution, in place of apartheid. The party was preceded by the Progressive Party as the opposition to the National Party. While the main opposition United Party contained liberal factions, the PP had for years been the only purely liberal party represented in parliament. A realignment began when members of the UP left to found the Reform Party in 1975. The PFP would become the opposition in the 1977 election, winning 17 seats. Another well known parliamentarian and prominent member of the party was Harry Schwarz who had led the Reform Party and he was the chairman of the Federal Executive, finance spokesman and defence spokesman. He was regarded as the PFPs greatest parliamentary performer and was amongst the most prominent and it was ousted as the official opposition by the far-right Conservative Party in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on May 6,1987. This electoral blow led many of the PFPs leaders to question the value of participating in the whites-only parliament, in 1989, the PFP and NDM merged with another small white reformist party, the Independent Party, to form the Democratic Party, predecessor to the modern Democratic Alliance. Leaders of the Progressive Federal Party, Federalism Liberalism Contributions to liberal theory Liberalism worldwide List of liberal parties Liberal democracy Liberalism in South Africa
19.
Umkhonto we Sizwe
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UMkhonto we Sizwe was the armed wing of the African National Congress, co-founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its founding represented the conviction in the face of the massacre that the ANC could no longer limit itself to nonviolent protest and it was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African government and the United States, and banned. For a time it was headquartered in the affluent suburb of Rivonia, on 11 July 1963,19 ANC and MK leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Arthur Goldreich and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia. This was followed by the Rivonia Trial, in which ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 militant acts designed to foment violent revolution, wilton Mkwayi, chief of MK at the time, escaped during trial. MK was integrated into the South African National Defence Force by 1994, according to Nelson Mandela, all of the founding members of the MK, including himself, were also members of the ANC. This conclusion was not easily arrived at and we did so not because we desired such a course, but solely because the government had left us with no other choice. In the Manifesto of Umkhonto published on 16 December 1961, which is exhibit AD, we said and that time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom. Secondly, we felt that without violence there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy and we chose to defy the law. The manifesto referred to by Mandela, adduced by the prosecution at his trial as Exhibit AD, included the statements and we are fighting for democracy—majority rule—the right of the Africans to rule Africa. We are fighting for a South Africa in which there will be peace and harmony and we are not racialists, as the white oppressors are. The African National Congress has a message of freedom for all who live in our country, MK fighters were also allied with the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union, with the Mozambique Liberation Front, and with the South West Africa Peoples Organization in Namibia. Beginning on 16 December 1961, the campaign by Umkhonto we Sizwe with Mandela as its leader, was launched, with attacks on government targets. The first target of the campaign was an electricity sub-station, Umkhonto we Sizwe undertook other acts of sabotage in the next eighteen months. The government alleged more acts of sabotage had been carried out, the sabotage included attacks on government posts, machines and power facilities, and crop burning. In 1962 Mandela went to Algeria, Egypt and Ghana to get backing for the group. After returning to South Africa, Joe Slovo said of Mandela that he was sent off to Africa a Communist, following the suppression of MK inside South Africa in the late 1960s, the organisations cadres undertook military actions against the Rhodesian Army. In 1965 MK formally allied itself with the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army, the early 1970s were a low point for the ANC in many ways, including in the military sphere
20.
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
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The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania is a South African Black Nationalist movement, and is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, the PAC was formally launched on 6 April 1959 at Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto. A number of African National Congress members broke away because they objected to the substitution of the 1949 Programme of Action with the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955, further they objected to the inclusion of other national groups such as the Communist Party of South Africa. Robert Sobukwe was elected as the first president, and Potlako Leballo as the Secretary General, on 21 March 1960, the PAC organised a campaign against pass laws. People gathered in the townships of Sharpeville and Langa where Sobukwe and other top leaders were arrested, Sobukwe was sentenced to three years and Potlako Leballo to two years in prison. Sobukwe died in Kimberley, Cape Province,1978 of lung cancer, immediately after the Sharpeville massacre the National Party Government banned both the ANC and PAC on 8 April 1960. The PAC responded by founding its armed wing, the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army and it is Pan Africanism with three principles of African nationalism, socialism, and continental unity. Its body of ideas drew largely from the teachings of Anton Lembede, George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Martin Delany, Kwame Nkrumah, the PAC has been beset by infighting and has had numerous changes of leadership since its transition to a political party. In 1996, Clarence Makwetu, who led the party in the 1994 elections, was removed on the basis of bringing the party into disrepute, a faction of the PAC continued to regard Mphahlele as leader. The matter was resolved in the courts, with Mpheti eventually being confirmed as party leader for the 2014 election, Mpheti has since been charged with murder for the death of a Swazi national, Mthunzi Mavundla. Luthando Mbinda was elected president at the 2014 congress in Botshabelo, Mbinda claimed that Mphahleles election was not valid, as he was not a valid member, while Mphahlele is challenging his expulsion in court
21.
United Democratic Front (South Africa)
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The United Democratic Front was a major anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students, workers and other organisations was formed in 1983, the UDFs goal was to establish a non-racial, united South Africa in which segregation is abolished and in which society is freed from institutional and systematic racism. Its slogan was UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides, involvement in trade unions, beginning in Durban in 1973, helped create a strong, democratic political culture for black people in South Africa. Mass urban protest could also be traced to the student upsurge in Soweto in 1976,1982 brought the effects of a world economic crisis to South Africa, and the price of gold fell in 1985. The result of these things and other problems caused mass unemployment. The apartheid state wrote a new constitution in 1983 in an attempt to allay criticism against apartheid, the new form of government created a Tricameral Parliament which allowed Coloured and Asian South Africans nominal representation. Black people were not allowed to participate in the government. During a demonstration in Langa in 1984, police shot the participants which led to further insurrection and this led to a black youth uprising by 1985 in South Africa. The plans for a new organisation were introduced by Rev. Allan Boesak at a conference of the Transvaal Anti-South African Indian Council Committee on 23 January 1983. The part of his calling for a united front of churches, civic associations, trade unions, student organizations, and sports bodies was unplanned. He also called for people to have full participation in the government. The UDF then formed regional committees, which established relationships with local organizations, the Natal UDF was launched first, in May, and then the Transvaal region and the Cape Province. Representatives of the formed the Interim National Committee, which also included outside activists. At the end of July, the committee held a meeting where they discussed a national launch date. UDF sent out over 400,000 letters, flyers and brochures to advertise the launch of the group, the UDFs symbols — logo and slogan — were also selected at the meeting. Both the logo and slogan portray the widespread support the UDF hoped to achieve by incorporating a range of South Africans of all races. Some member organisations adapted the UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides slogan, for example, on 20 August 1983 the UDF was launched in the Rocklands community hall, Mitchells Plain, near Cape Town. After a conference of delegates from 575 organisations, a rally was held
22.
National Party (South Africa)
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The National Party was a political party in South Africa founded in 1915 and first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was in opposition during the World War II years but returned to power and was again in government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994, at this time, it began implementing its policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats, the policies of the party included apartheid, the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture. During the 1980s, large fractions of the support base left for the Conservative Party. After 1990, the NP opened up its membership to all groups and rebranded itself as a non-racial. It participated in the Government of National Unity between 1994 and 1996, in an attempt to better distance itself from its past, the party was renamed the New National Party in 1997. The attempt was unsuccessful and the new party was disbanded in 2005. The National Party was founded in Bloemfontein in 1915 by Afrikaner nationalists soon after the establishment of the Union of South Africa. Its founding was rooted in disagreements among South African Party politicians, particularly Prime Minister Louis Botha and his first Minister of Justice, after Hertzog began speaking out publicly against the Botha governments one-stream policy in 1912, Botha removed him from the cabinet. Afrikaner nationalists in the Transvaal and Cape provinces soon followed suit, the NP first came to power in coalition with the Labour Party in 1924, with Hertzog as Prime Minister. In 1930, the Hertzog government worked to undermine the vote of Coloureds by granting the right to vote to white women, in 1934, Hertzog agreed to merge his National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts to form the United Party. A hardline faction of Afrikaner nationalists, led by Daniel François Malan, refused to accept the merger, the Purified National Party used opposition to South African participation in World War II to stir up anti-British feelings amongst Afrikaners. In 1951, the two amalgamated to once again known simply as the National Party. In 1959, the Bantu Self-Government Act established so-called Homelands for ten different black tribes. The ultimate goal of the NP was to move all Black South Africans into one of these homelands, leaving what was left of South Africa with what would then be a White majority, at least on paper. Accordingly, the three parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives of black South Africans in Cape Province were scrapped. The other three provinces – Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal – had never allowed any black representation, Coloureds were removed from the Common Roll of Cape Province in 1953. Instead of voting for the representatives as white South Africans
23.
Congress of South African Trade Unions
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions, altogether organising 1.8 million workers. On 30 Nov 1985,33 unions met at the University of Natal for talks on forming a federation of trade unions. This followed four years of unity talks between competing unions and federations that were opposed to apartheid and were committed to a non-racial, non-sexist, COSATU was officially established on 1 December 1985. Among the founding unions was the Federation of South African Trade Unions, elijah Barayi was the organisation’s first president and Jay Naidoo the first general secretary. Several resolutions were passed at this first meeting that defined the aim of the federation and how the federation operates, namely, to focus on the exploitation of women workers. To call for the lifting of the state of emergency, withdrawal of troops from the townships, to continue the call for international pressure, including disinvestment. To demand for the right to strike and picket, to determine a national minimum wage. To extend the struggle for trade rights in the homelands. On 5–6 May 1987 a strike as part of COSATUs Living Wage Campaign was held coinciding with 1987 General Election, more than 2.5 million workers took part in the stay-away. On 7 May 1987, in the hours of the morning two bombs exploded near the support columns in the basement of the federation headquarters, COSATU House. The resulting damage caused the building to be declared unsafe, irvin Jim described the expulsion as a dark day for workers. COSATU is part of an alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, cOSATU’s role in the alliance has been the subject of debate, since the organisation has been critical of some of the ANC governments policies. While some affiliates have argued for greater independence from the political party. COSATUs former secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, has described Jacob Zumas government as a predator society. South Africa has one of the largest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world, the trade union movement has taken a role in combating this pandemic. In 1998, COSATU passed a resolution to campaign for treatment, “It was clear to the labour movement at that time that its lowest paid members were dying because they couldn’t afford medicines, ” says Theodora Steel, Campaigns Coordinator at COSATU. “We saw TAC as an ally in a campaign for treatment
24.
South African Defence Force
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The South African Defence Force comprised the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, the SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994. The military was composed of white South Africans, who alone were subject to conscription. However, Asians and Coloured citizens with mixed ancestry were eligible to serve as volunteers, units such as the 32 Battalion incorporated many black volunteers. Conscription was opposed by such as the End Conscription Campaign. During apartheid, armed SADF troops were used in quelling opposition to minority rule, SADF personnel were also deployed during the related South African Border and Namibian independence conflicts. Before 1957, the Union of South Africa had relied on small standing cadres for defence, during the Second World War the Union Defence Force initially fielded only 3,353 full-time soldiers, with another 14,631 active in reserve roles. These troops were not prepared to fight in Europe proper, as they had hitherto been trained only in light infantry tactics. However, Jan Christiaan Smuts proved remarkably resourceful in raising 345,049 men for operations, South African soldiers went on to distinguish themselves as far abroad as Italy. After 1957, the new South African Defence Force was faced with an upsurge in African nationalism. In 1963 its total strength stood at around 25,000 men, by 1977, the United Nations was imposing arms sanctions on the republic due to its controversial policy of racial apartheid. SADF units fought in the Angolan Civil War during Operation Savannah and were active alongside Rhodesian Security Forces during the Rhodesian Bush War. Further enlargement and modernisation of the armed forces continued under former defence minister Pieter Willem Botha and this was partially justified as a new structure intended to turn back a total onslaught on the republic from abroad. In 1984, at least 6,000 such insurgents were being trained and armed by Tanzania, Ethiopia, the Soviet Union, in general the struggle went badly for South Africas opponents. Mozambique provided support and shelter to ANC operatives, in retaliation South African units launched massive counterstrikes which the security forces were in no position to block. Military aircraft and special forces deployed across Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho. 30,000 South African military personnel were posted on the Namibian border by late 1985, sWAPOs MPLA allies, with the backing of the Cuban army, were often unable to protect them. These raids reflected the SADFs talent for combating rural insurgency, major guerrilla camps were always chief targets, whether on foreign or domestic soil
25.
South African Police
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After South Africas transition to democracy in 1994, the SAP was reorganised into the South African Police Service. The South African Police was the successor to the forces of the Cape Colony, the Natal Colony, the Orange River Colony. Proclamation 18 formed the South African Police on 1 April 1913 with the amalgamation of the forces of the four old colonies after the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The first Commissioner of Police was Colonel Theo G Truter with 5882 men under his command, the SAP originally policed cities and urban areas, while the South African Mounted Riflemen, a branch of the Union Defence Force, enforced the states writ in rural areas. During World War I, the SAP took over the Riflemens jurisdiction, by 1926, the South African Mounted Riflemen were disbanded and their duties taken over by the South African Police. In 1939, the SAP took over the South West African Police and became responsible for policing South West Africa, Police officials often called on the army for support in emergencies. In turn, one SAP brigade served with the 2nd Infantry Division of the South African Army in North Africa during World War II, after the war, the South African Police joined INTERPOL on 1 January 1948. The police were armed after that, especially when facing unruly or hostile crowds. This search-and-seize zone was extended to eight miles of any border in 1979. Among the SAPs spies during the era were the infamous Craig Williamson. The SAP relinquished its responsibility for South West Africa in 1981 and it took over the South African Railways Police Force in 1986. There were a number of units within the police. They were formed either to carry out a task or to deal with a particular area of crime. During emergencies they were assisted by the military, from 1961 to 1990, a total of 67 people died in South African Police detention from hanging and torture as well as natural causes. Evidence given to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1998 suggested a degree of deliberation in the decision to fire by the police. In 1983, the SAP formed C1, a unit commanded by police colonel. C1 was run out of a farmhouse called Vlakplaas until 1992. It functioned as a hit squad, capturing political opponents of the National Party government
26.
South African Communist Party
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The South African Communist Party is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921, was declared illegal in 1950 and it is a partner of the Tripartite Alliance with the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions and through this influences the South African government. The Communist Party of South Africa was founded in 1921 by the joining together of the International Socialist League and it first came to prominence during the armed Rand Rebellion by white mineworkers in 1922. The Party thus reoriented itself at its 1924 Party Congress towards organising black workers, by 1928,1,600 of the partys 1,750 members were Black. Despite this, in 1929 the party adopted a line which held that. By 1948 the Party had officially abandoned the Native Republic policy, in 1946, the CPSA along with the African National Congress took part in the general strike that was started by the African Mine Workers Strike in 1946. Many party members, such as Bram Fischer were arrested, aware that the National party, elected to government in 1948, was about to ban the party, the CPSA decided by a majority to dissolve itself. After its voluntary dissolution, the CPSA was declared illegal in 1950, in 1953, a group of former CPSA members launched the South African Communist Party that remained — as had been the CPSA — aligned with the Soviet Union. The ban on the party was lifted in 1990 when the ANC and other organisations and individuals were also unbanned. The CPSA/SACP was a target of the National Party government. The Suppression of Communism Act was used against all those dedicated to ending apartheid, the Congress Alliance committed itself to a democratic non-racial South Africa where the people shall govern through the Freedom Charter. SACP played a role in the development of the liberation movement in South Africa. The PAC founder, Robert Magaliso Sobukwe, also supported a concept of non-racialism as opposed to multi-racialism, the PACs policy of Africanism and acceptance of Maoism informed the black student uprisings of the 1970s which were led by the Black Consciousness Movement and Steve Biko. A new generation of leaders, led by Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu recognised that the Nationalists were certain to ban the ANC and so make peaceful protest all and they allied themselves with the Communists to form Umkhonto we Sizwe which began a campaign of economic bombing or armed propaganda. However the leaders of Umkhonto were soon arrested and jailed and the movement was left weak. Communist Joe Slovo was Chief of Staff of Umkhonto, his wife, the ANC itself, though, remained broadly social democratic in outlook. In exile, communist states provided the ANC with funds and arms, with victory a number of Communists occupied prominent positions on the ANC benches in parliament. Most prominently, Nelson Mandela appointed Joe Slovo as Minister for Housing, however, the Freedom Charter had been considered only as a blueprint for a future democratic and free South Africa
27.
P. W. Botha
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First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned the leadership of the ruling National Party in February 1989 after suffering a stroke, in F. W. de Klerks 1992 referendum Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerks administration as irresponsible by opening the door to black majority rule. For his refusal, he was fined and given a jail sentence for crimes against human rights. Shortly before his death in late 2006, he renewed his opposition towards egalitarian democracy in favour of a system based upon the principles of separate development. Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province and his father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr. fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha, was interned in a British concentration camp during the war, Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College in Bloemfontein to study law and he began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, however, with Allied victory looming in Europe, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism instead. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw, the couple had two sons and three daughters. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd and he was appointed Minister for Defense by Verwoerds successor B. J. Vorster, upon Verwoerds murder, in 1966. In the final ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandals namesake. Though generally considered a conservative, Botha was also seen as far more pragmatic than his predecessor, upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly, We must adapt or die. On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the portfolio until October 1980. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued a military policy designed to increase South Africas military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States –, in 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africas administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Forces strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion
28.
Steve Biko
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Stephen Bantu Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s, a Xhosa, Biko grew up in Ginsberg, Eastern Cape. In 1966, he began studying medicine at the University of Natal, here he was increasingly politicised and rose to a senior position in the National Union of South African Students. He developed the view that to white domination, black people had to organise independently. To this end he was a figure in the creation of the South African Students Organisation in 1968. Through SASO, Biko developed his Black Consciousness ideas, which were influenced by those of Frantz Fanon. The movement campaigned for an end to apartheid and the transition of South Africa toward universal suffrage, in 1972 Biko was involved in founding the Black Peoples Convention to promote BC ideas among the wider population. The government was concerned by his activities, and in 1973 they placed him under a banning order and he remained politically active and helped to organise Black Consciousness programs in the Ginsberg area, including the establishment of a healthcare centre. He received anonymous threats and was detained by security services on four occasions. Following his arrest in August 1977, Biko was tortured by state security officers and he sustained fatal head injuries, and died shortly after. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral, many of his writings were posthumously published for a wider audience, and his life was the subject of a book by his friend Donald Woods and later the 1987 film Cry Freedom. The National Party regime that ruled South Africa during Bikos lifetime claimed that he hated whites, more widely, Biko has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. Bantu Stephen Biko was born on 18 December 1946, the third child of Mzingayi Mathew Biko and Alice Mamcete Biko, he was born at his grandmothers house in Tarkastad, Eastern Cape. Mzingayi and Alice had married in Whittlesea, where the former worked as a policeman, Mzingayi was then transferred to Queenstown, Port Elizabeth, Fort Cox, and finally King Williams Town, where he and Alice settled in Ginsberg township. This was a settlement of around 800 families, with four families sharing a water supply. The township housed both Bantu African and Coloured individuals, and Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English were all spoken, there, Mzingaye worked at a clerk in the King Williams Town Native Affairs Office, while studying for a law degree by correspondence from the University of South Africa. Alice was employed in work, first for local white households. The name Bantu literally means people, although Biko interpreted this in terms of the saying Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, among the nicknames that he acquired as a child were Goofy and Xwaku-Xwaku, the latter a reference to his unkempt appearance
29.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi
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Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a South African politician and Zulu tribal leader who founded the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1975 and was Chief Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan until 1994. He was Minister of Home Affairs of South Africa from 1994 to 2004, throughout much of the apartheid area, Buthelezi was considered one of the foremost black leaders. He played a key role in creating a framework for a solution to South Africas racial conflict. During the CODESA negotiations of the early 1990s, he represented the IFP, following the introduction of the universal franchise in the 1994 general election, Buthelezi led the IFP to join the government of national unity, led by Nelson Mandela. Buthelezi served as Minister of Home Affairs until 2004 and he continues to serve as both leader of the IFP and an MP, retaining his seat in the 2014 general election. In 1964 he played King Cetshwayo kaMpande in the film Zulu, Mangosuthu was born on 27 August 1928, in Mahlabathini, KwaZulu, to Chief Mathole Buthelezi and Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, the sister of King Solomon kaDinuzulu. He was educated at Impumalanga Primary School, Mahashini, Nongoma from 1933 to 1943, then at Adams College, Amanzimtoti from 1944 to 1947. Mangosuthu studied at the University of Fort Hare from 1948 to 1950 and he was expelled from the university after student boycotts. He later completed his degree at the University of Natal, Buthelezi inherited the chieftainship of the large Buthelezi tribe in 1953, a position he still holds today. In 1970, Buthelezi was appointed leader of the KwaZulu territorial Authority, the emerging Black Consciousness Movement of the 1970s branded him an Apartheid regime collaborator, because of his strong anti-Communist belief. However, he consistently declined homeland independence and political deals until Nelson Mandela was released from prison, in 1975 Buthelezi started the IFP with the blessing of the African National Congress, but broke away from the ANC in 1979 and his relationship with the ANC sharply deteriorated. He was encouraged by Oliver Tambo, the President of the ANC mission in exile, in the mid 1970s it was clear that many in the Black Consciousness Movement were at odds with Buthelezis politics. For instance, during the funeral of Robert Sobukwe he was barred from attending the service since they argued that he was a collaborator of the Nationalist Government. The meeting that was held in London between the two organisations did not succeed in ironing out differences, in 1982 Buthelezi opposed the apartheid governments plan to cede the Ingwavuma region in northern Natal to the Swaziland government. The courts decided in his favour on the grounds that the government had not followed its own black constitution act of 1972 and he was also instrumental in setting up the teacher training and nursing colleges throughout the late 1970s and the early 1980s. He requested Harry Oppenheimer, his friend and ally, to establish Mangosuthu Technikon in Umlazi. In 1993 he broke the record for the worlds longest-ever speech in an address he gave to the Natal legislature, on 4 January 1974, Transvaal leader of the United Party Harry Schwarz met with Mangosuthu Buthelezi and signed the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith. They agreed on a five-point plan for peace in South Africa
30.
F. W. de Klerk
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Frederik Willem de Klerk is a South African politician who served as the countrys State President from August 1989 to May 1994. He was the seventh and last head of state of South Africa under the apartheid era, De Klerk was also leader of the National Party from February 1989 to September 1997. He won the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela for his role in the ending of apartheid. He was one of the deputy presidents of South Africa during the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996, in 1997 he retired from active politics. He continues to remain active as a lecturer internationally, after the deaths of P. W. Botha in 2006 and Marais Viljoen in 2007, de Klerk is the last surviving State President of South Africa. The name de Klerk is derived from Le Clerc, Le Clercq, De Klerk noted that he is also of Dutch descent, with an Indian ancestor from the late 1600s or early 1700s. He is also said to be descended from the Khoi interpreter known as Krotoa or Eva, De Klerk graduated from Monument High School in Krugersdorp. De Klerk graduated in 1958 from the Potchefstroom University with BA, following graduation, de Klerk practised law in Vereeniging in the Transvaal. In 1959 he married Marike Willemse, with whom he had two sons and a daughter and he came from a family environment in which the conservatism of traditional white South African politics was deeply ingrained. His paternal great-grandfather was Senator Johannes Cornelis Jan van Rooy and his aunt was married to NP Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom. In 1948, the year when the NP swept to power in elections on an apartheid platform. His brother Willem is a liberal newspaperman and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. F. W. pronounced eff-veer, as he became known, was first elected to the House of Assembly in 1969 as the member for Vereeniging. De Klerk had been offered a professorship of law at Potchefstroom in 1972. In 1978, he was appointed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and Social Welfare, under Prime Minister and later State President P. W. He became Transvaal provincial National Party leader in 1982 and chairman of the Ministers Council in the House of Assembly in 1985, for most of his career, de Klerk had a very conservative reputation. The NPs Transvaal branch was historically the most staunchly conservative wing of the party and it thus came as a surprise when in 1989 he placed himself at the head of verligte forces within the governing party which had come to believe that apartheid could not be maintained forever. This wing favoured beginning negotiations while there was time to get reasonable terms
31.
Ruth First
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Ruth First was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was killed by a parcel bomb addressed specifically to her in Mozambique, Ruth First was born in 1925 and brought up in Johannesburg. She too joined the Communist Party, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the South African government, First attended Jeppe High School for Girls and then became the first person in her family to attend university. She received her Bachelors degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946, while she was at university she found that on a South African campus, the student issues that matter are national issues. After graduating, Ruth First worked as an assistant for the Social Welfare Division of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1946, her position in the Communist Party was boosted significantly after a series of strikes during which leading members of the Party were arrested. First then became the editor-in-chief of the radical newspaper The Guardian, in 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a South African anti-apartheid activist and Communist, with whom she had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn. In addition to her work with The Guardian and its successors and she was active in the anti-apartheid movement not only through her journalism, but also through political action. First and her husband Slovo were members of the African National Congress as well as the Communist Party, Ruth First was one of the defendants in the Treason Trial of 1956-1961, alongside 156 other leading anti-apartheid activists who were key figures in the Congress Alliance. After the state of emergency that followed the Sharpesville massacre in 1960 she was listed and banned and she could not attend meetings or publish, and she could not be quoted. In 1963, during another government crackdown, she was imprisoned and she was the first white woman to be detained under this law. In March 1964 First went into exile in London, where she became active in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and she was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972, and between 1973 and 1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham. She also spent periods on secondment at universities in Dar es Salaam, in November 1978 First took up the post of director of research at the Centre of African Studies, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique. She was assassinated by order of Craig Williamson, a major in the South African Police, on 17 August 1982, bridget OLaughlin, an anthropologist working with First, was in Firsts office when she was murdered, and testified to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Firsts book 117 Days is her account of her arrest, imprisonment and it was first published in 1965. The memoir provides an account of how she endured isolation. Her daughter, the writer Gillian Slovo, published her own memoir, Every Secret Thing, My Family, My Country and it is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her activist parents. Barbara Hershey plays the character based on Ruth First, in 2005 the South African Ministry of the Environment launched an environmental patrol vessel named the Ruth First
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