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Apartheid in South Africa
Events and Projects
Sharpeville Massacre · Soweto uprising Treason Trial Rivonia Trial · Church Street bombing CODESA · St James Church massacre
Organizations
ANC · IFP · AWB · Black Sash · CCB Conservative Party · PP · RP PFP · HNP · MK · PAC · SACP · UDF Broederbond · National Party · COSATU
People
P.W Botha · Oupa Gqozo · DF Malan Nelson Mandela · Desmond Tutu · F.W. de Klerk Walter Sisulu · Helen Suzman · Harry Schwarz Andries Treurnicht · HF Verwoerd · Oliver Tambo BJ Vorster · Kaiser Matanzima · Jimmy Kruger Steve Biko · Mahatma Gandhi · Trevor Huddleston
Places
Bantustan · District Six · Robben Island Sophiatown · South-West Africa Soweto · Vlakplaas
Other aspects
Apartheid laws · Freedom Charter Sullivan Principles · Kairos Document Disinvestment campaign South African Police
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History of South Africa
General periods
Ancient (before 1652) (1652 to 1815) (1815 to 1910) (1910 to 1948) Apartheid-era (1948 to 1994) Modern (1994 to present)
Specific themes
Economics · Military Social · Religious
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For the legal definition of apartheid, see the crime of apartheid. For other uses, see Allegations of apartheid.

Apartheid (meaning apartness in Afrikaans, cognate to English apart and -hood) was a system of legalized racial segregation enforced by the National Party (NP) South African government between 1948 and 1994. Its roots were in South Africa’s earlier policies of separation. It was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to 1993, culminating in elections in 1994, the first in South Africa with universal suffrage.

Apartheid legislation classified South Africa's inhabitants and visitors into racial groups (Black, White, Coloured and Indian).

Blacks were stripped of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten, theoretically sovereign, bantustans (homelands). The government created the homelands out of the territory of Black Reserves founded during the British Empire period. These reserves were akin to the US Indian Reservation, Canadian First Nations reserves, or Australian aboriginal reserves. Many Black South Africans, however, never resided in these "homelands." The homeland system disenfranchised black people residing in "white South Africa"^[1] by restricting their voting rights to the black homelands, the least economically-productive areas of the country. The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services with inferior standards for blacks. The black education system within "white South Africa", by design, prepared blacks for lives as a labouring class. There was a deliberate policy in "white South Africa" of making services for black people inferior to those of whites, to try to "encourage" black people to move into the black homelands, hence black people ended up with services inferior to those of whites, and, to a lesser extent, to those of Indians, and 'coloureds'.

Contents 1 Creation of apartheid 1.1 Racial segregation and colonialism prior to apartheid 1.2 Elections of 1948 and the Group Areas Act 1.3 Disenfranchisement of coloured voters 1.4 Apartheid legislation 1.5 Unity among white South Africans 1.6 Black South Africans 2 Apartheid system 2.1 Grand Apartheid, the "homeland" system 2.2 Forced removals 2.3 Petty Apartheid 2.4 Coloured classification 2.5 Women under apartheid 2.6 Other minorities 3 Internal resistance 3.1 ANC and the PAC 3.2 Sharpeville massacre 3.3 Resistance goes underground 3.4 Black Consciousness Movement 3.5 Student organisations 3.5.1 South African Students Movement 3.5.2 National Union of South African Students 3.5.3 South African Students Organisation 3.6 Trade-Union movement 3.7 Churches 3.8 MDM 3.9 Student organisations 3.10 White resistance 3.11 Role of women 4 International relations 4.1 Initial relations 4.2 South-West Africa 4.3 Sharpeville and the severing of British ties 4.4 Sanctions 4.5 Aid to apartheid casualties 4.6 Lusaka Manifesto 4.7 Morogoro Conference 4.8 Mogadishu Declaration 4.9 Outward-Looking Policy 4.10 Effect of the Soweto Uprising 4.11 Other African states 4.12 Western ties 4.12.1 Britain 4.12.2 USA 4.13 Isolation 4.14 Western influence 4.15 South African Border War 4.16 Total onslaught 4.17 Cross-border raids 5 Conservatism 6 State security 6.1 State of emergency 7 HIV/AIDS epidemic 8 Final years of apartheid 8.1 Negotiations 9 Legacies of apartheid 9.1 Economic inequality and Black Economic Empowerment 9.2 Land ownership inequality and land claims 10 Contrition 11 Establishment of the "crime of apartheid" by the International Criminal Court 12 See also 12.1 Movies referencing apartheid 12.2 Books referencing apartheid 12.3 Poems referencing apartheid 12.4 Popular music referencing apartheid 13 Footnotes 14 References 15 External links

For more information on the period of history leading up to apartheid, see History of South Africa.

The first recorded use of the word apartheid ([ə.ˈpɑː(ɹ).teɪt]) was in 1917 during a speech by Jan Christiaan Smuts, who became Prime Minister two years later. Although the creation of apartheid is usually attributed to the Afrikaaner-dominated government of 1948-1994, it is also partially a legacy of British colonialism which introduced a system of pass laws in the Cape Colony and Natal during the nineteenth century. This stemmed from the regulation of blacks' movement from the tribal regions to those occupied by whites and coloureds, ruled by the British. There were similar regulations in Australia and New Caledonia (the French Code de L'indigenat).

Laws were passed not only to restrict the movement of blacks into these areas but also to prohibit their movement from one district to another without a signed pass. Blacks were not allowed onto the streets of towns in the Cape Colony and Natal after dark and had to carry their passes at all times. Mahatma Gandhi, a young lawyer at the time, cut his political teeth by organizing non-violent protests against restrictions which hurt middle-class Indians. Smuts's United Party government began to move away from the rigid enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II. Amid fears integration would eventually lead the nation to racial assimilation, the legislature established the Sauer Commission to investigate the effects of the Unity Party's policies. The commission concluded integration would bring about a loss of personality for all racial groups.

The practice of apartheid retained many of the features of the above segregationist policies of earlier administrations. Examples include the 1913 Land Act and the various workplace "colour bars". However, Werner Eiselen, the man who designed apartheid, argued the government could not sustain segregation and white supremacy. He also proposed in 1948 that apartheid as a "political partition" policy instead of segregation in public facilities. Hence, the idea behind apartheid was more one of political separation, later known as "grand apartheid," than segregation, later known as "petty apartheid." Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd is considered the most influential politician in the growth of apartheid.^{[citation needed]} Natives were discriminated against in almost every facet of life. Racist legislation stated where and how they could live, travel, work, be educated, get married and mingle.

There are numerous distinct differences between segregation and apartheid:

• Segregation was a more elastic strategy which was not officially concurrent with religious ideas; apartheid was ostensibly based on a Christian National dogma of the 'calling' and 'mission' of Afrikanerdom.
• Segregation was employed at time when colonial policies were being followed by the British in Africa and by the Americans in their southern states; apartheid was implemented at a time when the world order was moving away from racism and from using race as an organising criterion.
• The Native Affairs Department was less ferocious than the Bantu Affairs Department that took over from it under the apartheid regime. It played a more direct political role and was characterised by its authoritarian rigidity and unremitting control over blacks' daily lives.
• Only a small amount of segregationist legislation was passed, most of it more moderate than that passed during the apartheid years. Apartheid was formalised systematically by many laws, which mandated racism.

In the run up to the 1948 elections, the National Party (NP) campaigned on its policy of apartheid. The NP narrowly defeated Smuts' United Party and formed a coalition government with the Afrikaner Party (AP), then under the leadership of Protestant cleric Daniel Francois Malan. The coalition government immediately began implementing apartheid policies, passing legislation prohibiting miscegenation, classifying individuals by race, and creating a classification board to rule on race-based infractions. The Group Areas Act of 1950, designed to geographically separate racial groups, became the heart of the apartheid system. The Separate Amenities Act was passed in 1953. Under this Act, municipal grounds could be reserved for a particular race. It created, among other things, separate beaches, buses, hospitals, schools and universities. Signboards outlined things clearly with words like "whites only". These notices applied to entire buildings or parts if buildings such as government houses, hospitals, parks, restaurants, shops, beaches, post offices and all other public areas, including park benches.

Interracial contact in sport was frowned upon, but there were no segregatory sports laws. The government was able to keep sport segregated using other legislation, such as the Group Areas Act.

The government tightened existing pass laws, compelling all South Africans to carry identity documents. For the government, these identity documents became a barrier through which the migration of blacks to 'white' South Africa could be prevented. Blacks were prohibited from living in or visiting 'white' towns without a migration permit. For blacks, living in cities required employment. Families were excluded, thus separating wives from husbands and parents from children. Some authors, such as David Yudelman and Hermann Giliomee, argued the system of Apartheid can be traced to the labour movement in South Africa and British Empire#The Cape Colony policies as early as 1907.

J.G. Strijdom, Malan's successor as Prime Minister, moved to strip coloureds and blacks of their voting rights in the Cape Province. The previous government had first introduced the Separate Representation of Voters Bill in parliament in 1951. However, a group of four voters, G Harris, WD Franklin, WD Collins and Edgar Deane, challenged its validity in court with support from the United Party. The Cape Supreme Court upheld the act, but the Appeal Court upheld the appeal, finding the act invalid because a two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament was needed in order to change the entrenched clauses of the Constitution. The government then introduced the High Court of Parliament Bill, which gave parliament the power to overrule decisions of the court. The Cape Supreme Court and the Appeal Court declared this invalid too. In 1955 the Strijdom government increased the number of judges in the Appeal Court from five to eleven, and appointed pro-Nationalist judges to fill the new places. In the same year they introduced the Senate Act, which increased the senate from 49 seats to 89. Adjustments were made such that the NP controlled 77 of these seats. The parliament met in a joint sitting and passed the Separate Representation of Voters act in 1956, which removed coloureds from the common voters' roll in the Cape, and established a separate voters' roll for them.

Apartheid legislation in South Africa
Precursors Natives' Land (1913) Urban Areas (1923) Prohibition of Mixed Marriages (1949) Immorality Act† (1950) Population Registration (1950) Group Areas Act (1950) Suppression of Communism (1950) Bantu Building Workers (1951) Separate Representation of Voters (1951) Prevention of Illegal Squatting (1951) Bantu Authorities (1951) Natives Laws† (1952) Pass Laws (1952) Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) (1953) Bantu Education (1953) Reservation of Separate Amenities (1953) Natives Resettlement (1954) Group Areas Development (1955) Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) (1956) Bantu Investment Corporation (1959) Extension of University Education (1959) Promotion of Bantu Self-Government (1959) Coloured Persons Communal Reserves (1961) Preservation of Coloured Areas (1961) Urban Bantu Councils (1961) Terrorism Act (1967) Bantu Homelands Citizens (1970) † No new legislation introduced, rather the existing legislation named was amended.
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Main article: Apartheid legislation in South Africa

From the 1950s onwards, various repressive and racist laws were passed. The principal "apartheid laws" were as follows:^[2]

• An amendment to The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marital union between persons of different races.
• An amendment to The Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race a criminal offence.
• The Population Registration Act of 1950 introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of sixteen, stipulating their racial group on the card.
• The Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 banned the South African Communist Party as well as any other party that the government chose to label as 'communist'. It made membership in the SACP punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. The South African minister of justice, R.F. Swart, drafted the law.
• The Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956 prohibited disorderly gatherings.
• The Unlawful Organisations Act of 1960 outlawed certain organisation that were deemed threatening to the government.
• The Sabotage Act was passed 1962, the General Law Amendment Act in 1966, the Terrorism Act in 1967 and the Internal Security Act in 1976.
• The Group Areas Act, passed on 27 April 1950, partitioned the country into different areas, with different areas allocated to different racial groups. This law represented the very heart of apartheid because it was the basis upon which political and social separation was constructed.
• The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 created separate government structures for blacks. It was the first piece of legislation established to support the government's plan of separate development in the Bantustans. It made a provision for the institution of Tribal, Regional and Territorial Authorities in the "reserves". Tribal Authorities were set up and positions given to Chiefs and Headmen, who became accountable for the distribution of land, the well-being and annuity systems and the progress of the small money which trickled down to them. The traditional leadership of the African populace became effective representatives of the NP. Disobliging traditional leaders were faced with cruel penalties and were often unseated, as was the case with Chief Albert Lutuli when he was discharged from his position as Chief on declining to quit the African National Congress.
• The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 allowed the government to demolish black shackland slums.
• The Native Building Workers Act and Native Services Levy of 1951 forced white employers to pay for the construction of proper housing for black workers recognized as legal residents in 'white' cities.
• The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act of 1953 prohibited people of different races from using the same public amenities, such as restaurants, public swimming pools, and restrooms.
• The Bantu Education Act of 1953 crafted a separate didactic scheme for African students under the aegis of the Department of "Bantu" Education. According to Verwoerd, then Education Minister, the principle of Bantu Education was to ready Africans for a subordinate role under white rule. This was what he had to say about equality in 1953: "When I have control of native education, I will reform it so that the natives will be taught from childhood to realize that equality with Europeans is not for them."
  • It brought all black schooling under government control, ending mission-run schools. Apartheid placed great emphasis on separate education for different ethnic groups. Eventually there were 17 separate education systems. The education provided by the black system was of a lower standard to that provided in white, coloured or Indian schools.
• The Bantu Urban Areas Act of 1954 curtailed black migration to cities.
• The Mines and Work Act of 1956 formalised racial discrimination in employment.
• The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act of 1958 entrenched the NP's policy of separate development, outlining the political and geographic character of South Africa. It set up separate territorial governments in the "homelands", designated lands for black people where they could have a vote. The map of South Africa thus had a white centre with a cluster of black states along its borders. The aim of the Act was that these homelands or bantustans would eventually become independent of South Africa. The principle of ethnicity thus became established in law. The introduction to the Act read thus: "The Bantu people of the Union of South Africa do not constitute a homogeneous people but form separate national units on the basis of language and culture."
• Instead of the Native delegate system founded under the Natives Representative Act of 1936, a scheme for "self–governing Bantu units" was proposed. These national units were to have substantial administrative powers which would be decentralised to each "Bantu" unit and which would ultimately have autonomy and the hope of self-government. These national units were identified as North-Sotho, South-Sotho, Tswana, Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa, Tsonga and Venda. In later years, the Xhosa national unit was broken further down into the Transkei and Ciskei. The Ndebele national unit was also added later after its "discovery" by the apartheid government. The government justified its plans on the basis that South Africa was made up of different "nations", asserting that "(t)he government's policy is, therefore, not a policy of discrimination on the grounds of race or colour, but a policy of differentiation on the ground of nationhood, of different nations, granting to each self-determination within the borders of their homelands -- hence this policy of separate development." The South African government exercised strong influence over the homelands even after some of them became "independent".
• The Bantu Investment Corporation Act of 1959 set up a mechanism to transfer capital to the homelands in order to create employment in the black homelands.
• The Extension of University Education Act of 1959 created separate universities for Blacks, Coloureds and Indians. Under this Act, there were no longer "open universities", and existing universities were not permitted to enroll new black students. Fort Hare University in the Ciskei (now Eastern Cape) was to register only Xhosa-speaking students. Sotho, Tswana, Pedi and Venda speakers were placed at the newly-founded University College of the North at Turfloop, while the University College of Zululand was launched to serve Zulu scholars. Coloureds and Indians were to have their own establishments in the Cape and Natal respectively. Known as "tribal colleges" or "bush campuses" because of their localities, these establishments were part of the state's scheme of South Africa's division into "national units". Ironically, these institutions, set up by the government, became the breeding grounds for black intellectualism and student activism, which was to cause a stern challenge to the NP in later years.
• The Physical Planning and Utilisation of Resources Act of 1967 allowed the government to stop industrial development in 'white' cites and redirect such development to homeland border areas. The aim was to speed up the relocation of blacks to the homelands by relocating jobs to homeland areas. White-owned business was effectively forced to relocate away from 'white' cities. This resulted in the building of cities (housing millions of people) in the black homelands such as Babalegi, Temba, Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa, Mdantsane and Madadeni.
• The Black Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970 was a pivotal piece of legislation which marked a new phase in the government's Bantustan strategy. It changed the status of the inhabitants of the "homelands" so that they were no longer citizens of South Africa. All of them became citizens of one or other of the ten autonomous territories. The aim was to ensure whites became the demographic majority within South Africa by having all ten Bantustans choose "independence". The homelands would take accountability for millions of Africans, who would cease to be South African citizens. Not all the homelands chose to become self-governing, as they understood that, while they would have absolutely no place in South Africa, they would still be controlled by the apartheid government (in spite of their "independence"). Those who did choose autonomy were the Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and the Ciskei (1981).
• The Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 required the use of Afrikaans and English on a fifty-fifty basis in high schools outside the homelands.^[3]

To oversee the apartheid legislation, the bureaucracy expanded, and, by 1977, there were more than half a million white state employees. The purpose of these laws was to keep the races apart and any resistance in check. The essential thinking behind apartheid was straightforward: although South Africa was a unitary country, the Nationalists argued that the people did not comprise a single nation but, rather, were made up of four distinct racial groups, namely white, black, Coloured and Indian. These races were split further into thirteen 'nations' or racial federations. White people encompassed the English and Afrikaans language groups; the black populace was divided into ten such groups. This had the result of making the white race the prevalent one. Whites were seen as the most sophisticated and, in nature, entitled to rule South Africa.

Before South Africa became a republic, white politics were typified by the division between the chiefly-Afrikaans pro-republicans and the largely English anti-republicans. Once republican status was attained, Verwoerd called for improved relations and greater accord between the English and Afrikaners. He claimed that the only difference now was between those who supported apartheid and those in opposition to it. The ethnic divide would no longer be between Afrikaans and English but rather white and black. Most Afrikaners supported the notion of white unanimity to ensure their safety. English whites were divided. Many had voted in opposition to a republic, especially in Natal, where most votes said "No". Later, however, some of them recognised the perceived need for white unity, convinced by the growing trend of decolonisation elsewhere in Africa, which left them apprehensive. Harold Macmillan's "Winds of Change" pronouncement left the English faction feeling that Britain had ditched them. The more conservative English-speakers gave support to Verwoerd; others were troubled by the severing of ties with Britain and remained loyal to the Crown. They were acutely displeased at the choice between British and South African nationality. Although Verwoerd tried to bond these different blocs, the subsequent ballot illustrated only a minor swell of support, proving that a great many English speakers remained apathetic and that Verwoerd had not succeeded in uniting the white populace.

The republic arrangement brought about greater harmony between English and Afrikaans white South Africans but intensified the split between those who supported and those who opposed apartheid. Black resistance adopted a more drastic approach, as blacks became conscious of the fact that they were damned by the apartheid republic.

Blacks had no say in the construction of a South African republic. They had gone up against it, realising that it would cut them off from international security. Under a republic, white South Africans had absolute autonomy and the power to entrench apartheid even more. Nevertheless, condemnation by the Commonwealth and United Nations Organisation (UNO) encouraged them with the knowledge that exterior support for the liberation effort was not lost. The NP regime had outlawed the ANC and PAC after anti-pass protests and the carnage in the Sharpeville and Langa townships. Resistance organisations went underground. In May 1961 an assembly representing the banned ANC called for negotiations between the members of the different ethnic groupings. They cautioned the Government that, if it disregarded their appeal, demonstrations would be held during the republic's inauguration. When the government overlooked them, the strikers carried out their threats. The government countered swiftly and clinically, giving police the authority to arrest people for up to twelve days. Many resistance directors were detained and numerous cases of police brutality were reported. Defeated, the protesters called off their strike. The ANC then chose to add armaments to the struggle and launched a martial wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which would perform acts of sabotage on tactical state structures. Its first sabotage plans were set to be carried out on 16 December 1961, the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River.

The apartheid system is often classified into "grand apartheid" and "petty apartheid". Grand apartheid involved an attempt to partition South Africa into separate states, while petty apartheid referred to the segregationist dimension. The National Party clung to grand apartheid until the 1990s, while they abandoned petty apartheid during the 1980s.

Main article: Bantustan

When the NP came into power in 1948, its primary endeavour was to attain a white supremacist Christian National State and implement racial segregation. The key building blocks to enforcement of racial segregation were

• the arrangement of the population into African, Coloured, Indian and white racial groups;
• strict racial segregation in the urban areas;
• restricted African urbanisation;
• a tightly-controlled and more restricted system of migrant labour;
• a stronger accent on tribalism and orthodoxy in African administration than in the past; and
• a drastic strengthening of security legislation and control.

These were to form the foundation on which the "Homelands" guidelines were developed. Territorial separation was not a new-fangled institution. There were, for example, the "reserves" created under the British government in the Nineteenth Century. Under HF Verwoerd's jurisdiction, however, this land was seen as a way to control the increasing movement of black people into the city. Black people would work in the cities but live in their own areas, where they would be housed, educated, and vote for their own internal governments. The ultimate plan was to create ten independent national states out of these homelands.

The state passed two laws which paved the way for "grand apartheid", which was centred on separating races on a large scale, through spatial divisions; that is, compelling people to live in separate places defined by race. The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act 30 of 1950, which necessitated all citizens' being categorised according to race and this being recorded in their identity passes. Official team or Boards were established to come to an ultimate conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. This caused much difficulty, especially for Coloured people, separating their families as members were allocated different races.

The second pillar of grand apartheid was the Group Areas Act 21 of 1950. Until then, most settlements had people of different races living side by side. This Act put an end to diverse areas and determined where one lived, how one survived and how one earned a living by virtue of racial inequality. Each race was allotted its own area, establishing the base for forced removals in later years.

The policy of separate development came into being with the accession to power of Dr HF Verwoerd in 1958. He began implementing the homeland structure as a cornerstone of separate development. Verwoerd came to believe in the granting of "independence" to these homelands. Border industries and the Bantu Investment Corporation, were established to promote economic development and the provision of employment in the homelands (to draw black people away from "white" South Africa).

The Tomlinson Commission of 1954 decided that apartheid was justifiable, but stated additional land ought to be given to the homelands, favouring the development of border industries. In 1958 the Promotion of Black Self-Government Act was passed, and proponents of apartheid began to argue that, once apartheid had been implemented, blacks would no longer be citizens of South Africa; they would instead become citizens of the independent "homelands". In terms of this model, blacks became (foreign) "guest labourers" who merely worked in South Africa as the holders of temporary work permits.

The South African government attempted to divide South Africa into a number of separate states. Some thirteen per cent of the land was reserved for black homelands -- representing fifty per cent of South Africa's arable land (Davenport, 1977: p. 268). That thirteen per cent was divided into ten black "homelands" amongst eight ethnic units. Four of these were given independence, although this was never recognised by any other country. Each homeland was supposed to develop into a separate-nation state within which the eight black ethnic groups were to find and grow their separate national identity, culture and language; Transkei -- Xhosa (given "independence"), Ciskei -- Xhosa (given "independence" in 1981), Bophuthatswana -- Tswana (given "independence"), Venda -- Venda (given "independence"); KwaZulu -- Zulu, Lebowa -- Pedi, Kangwane -- Swazi, QwaQwa -- Sotho, Gazankulu -- Tsonga, and KwaNdebele -- Ndebele. Each homeland controlled its own education and health system.

Once a homeland was granted its "independence," its designated citizens had their South African citizenship revoked, replaced with citizenship in their homeland. These people were then issued passports instead of passbooks. Citizens of the supposedly "autonomous" homelands also had their South African citizenship circumscribed, and so became less than South African.^[4] The South African government attempted to draw an equivalence between their view of black "citizens" of the "homelands" and the problems which other countries faced through entry of illegal immigrants.

While other countries were dismantling their discriminatory legislation and becoming more liberal on racial issues, South Africa continued to construct a labyrinth of legislation promoting racial and ethnic separation. Many white South Africans supported apartheid because of demographics; that, is separation and partition were seen as a means of avoiding a one-person-one-vote democracy within a single unified South African state, which would render whites a politically-powerless minority. In addition, leaders of the above homelands became important defenders of apartheid, such as Kaiser Matanzima, Bantu Holomisa, Oupa Gqozo, Lucas Mangope and Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Apartheid placed great emphasis on "self-determination" and "cultural autonomy" for different ethnic groups. For this reason, "mother-tongue" education was strongly emphasised. Thus, in addition to pouring resources into developing Afrikaans educational material, resources were also poured into developing school textbooks in black languages like Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and Pedi. As a result, one of the consequences of apartheid was a South African population literate in black-African languages (a rare thing in Africa where schooling is normally carried out in colonial languages like English and French).

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the government implemented a policy of 'resettlement', to force people to move to their designated "group areas". Some argue that over three and a half million people were forced to resettle during this period. These removals included people re-located due to slum clearance programmes, labour tenants on white-owned farms, the inhabitants of the so-called 'black spots', areas of black-owned land surrounded by white farms, the families of workers living in townships close to the homelands, and 'surplus people' from urban areas, including thousands of people from the Western Cape (which was declared a 'Coloured Labour Preference Area') who were moved to the Transkei and Ciskei homelands. The best-publicised forced removals of the 1950s occurred in Johannesburg, when 60,000 people were moved to the new township of Soweto, an acronym for South Western Townships.

Until 1955 Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where blacks were allowed to own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. As industry in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It could also boast the only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg.^[5] However, one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg and held an almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 blacks it contained, both in terms of its sheer vibrancy and its unique culture. Despite a vigorous ANC protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early hours, heavily armed police entered Sophiatown to force residents out of their homes and load their belongings onto government trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land, thirteen miles from the city centre, known as Meadowlands (that the government had purchased in 1953). Meadowlands became part of a new planned black city called Soweto. The Sophiatown slum was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new white suburb named Triomf (Triumph) was built in its place. This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself over the next few years, and was not limited to people of African descent. Forced removals from areas like Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban, and District Six in Cape Town, where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on the Cape Flats, were carried out under the Group Areas Act of 1950. Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian and Chinese people were moved in terms of the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 white people were also forced to move when land was transferred from "white South Africa" into the black homelands. Forced removals continue in post-apartheid South Africa and are being vigorously contested by, amongst others, the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

The National Party passed a string of paltry (but nevertheless very painful) legislation which became known as petty apartheid. The first of these was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of 1949, prohibiting matrimony between white people and people of other races. The Immorality Amendment Act 21 of 1950 (as amended in 1957 by Act 23) marched into the most personal liberties of individual expression and forbade "unlawful racial intercourse" and "any immoral or indecent act" between a white person and an African, Indian or Coloured person.

Blacks were not allowed to run businesses or professional practices in those areas designated as "white South Africa" without a permit. They were supposed to move to the black "homelands" and set up businesses and practices there. Transport and civil facilities were segregated. Black buses stopped at black bus stops and white buses at white ones. Trains were segregated. Hospitals and ambulances were segregated. Because of the smaller numbers of white patients and the fact that white doctors preferred to work in "white" hospitals, conditions in white hospitals were much better than those in often overcrowded black hospitals.^[6] Blacks were excluded from living or working in white areas, unless they had a pass — nicknamed the dompas ("dumb pass" in Afrikaans). Only blacks with "Section 10" rights (those who had migrated to the cities before World War II) were excluded from this provision. A pass was issued only to a black person with approved work. Spouses and children had to be left behind in black homelands. Many white households employed blacks as domestic workers, who lived on the premises — often in small rooms external to the family home. A pass was issued for one magisterial district (usually one town) confining the holder to that area only. Being without a valid pass made a person subject to arrest and trial for being an illegal migrant. This was often followed by deportation to the person's homeland and prosecution of the employer (for employing an illegal migrant). Police vans patrolled the "white" areas to round up "illegal" blacks found there without passes. Black people were not allowed to employ white people in "white South Africa".

Although trade unions for black and "coloured" (mixed race) workers had existed since the early 20th century, it was not until the 1980s reforms that a mass black trade union movement developed. In the 1970s each black child's education within the Bantu Education system (the black education system within "white South Africa") cost the state only a tenth of each white child's. Higher education was provided in separate universities and colleges after 1959. Eight black universities were created in the homelands; an Indian university built in Durban and a coloured university built in Cape Town. In addition, each black homeland controlled its own separate education, health and police system. Blacks were not allowed to buy hard liquor. They were able only to buy an African home brewed beer. (although this was relaxed later). Public beaches were racially segregated. Public swimming pools, some pedestrian bridges, drive-in cinema parking spaces, graveyards, parks, public toilets were segregated. Cinemas and theatres in "white areas" were not allowed to admit blacks. There were practically no cinemas in black areas. Most restaurants and hotels in white areas were not allowed to admit blacks except as staff. Black Africans were prohibited from attending "white" churches under the Churches Native Laws Amendment Act of 1957. This was, however, never rigidly enforced, and churches were one of the few places races could mix without the interference of the law. Blacks earning 360 rand a year, 30 rand a month, or more had to pay taxes while the white threshold was more than twice as high, at 750 rand a year, 62.5 rand per month. On the other hand, the taxation rate for whites was considerably higher than that for blacks.

Blacks could never acquire land in white areas. In the homelands, much of the land belonged to a 'tribe', where the local chieftain would decide how the land had to be utilized. This resulted in white people owning almost all the industrial and agricultural lands and much of the prized residential land. Most blacks were stripped of their South African citizenship when the "homelands" became "independent". Thus, they were no longer able to apply for South African passports. Eligibility requirements for a passport had been difficult for blacks to meet, the government contending that a passport was a privilege, not a right. As such, the government did not grant many passports to blacks. Apartheid pervaded South African culture, as well as the law. This was reinforced in many media, and the lack of opportunities for the races to mix in a social setting entrenched social distance between people.

Main article: Coloured

The population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Indian, and Coloured. (These terms are capitalized to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria at the time that the Population Registration Act was implemented to determine who was Coloured. Minor officials would administer tests to determine if someone should be categorised either Coloured or Black, or if another person should be categorised either Coloured or White. Different members of the same family found themselves in different race groups. Further tests determined membership of the various sub-racial groups of the Coloureds. Many of those who formerly belonged to this racial group are opposed to the continuing use of the term "coloured" in the post-apartheid era, though the term no longer signifies any legal meaning. The expressions 'so-called Coloured' (Afrikaans sogenaamde Kleurlinge) and 'brown people' (bruin mense) acquired a wide usage in the 1980s.

Discriminated against by apartheid, Coloureds were as a matter of state policy forced to live in separate townships — in some cases leaving homes their families had occupied for generations — and received an inferior education, though better than that provided to Black South Africans. They played an important role in the struggle against apartheid: for example the African Political Organisation established in 1902 had an exclusively coloured membership.

Voting rights were denied to Coloureds in the same way that they were denied to blacks from 1950 to 1983. However, in 1977 the NP caucus approved proposals to bring coloured and Indians into central government. In 1982, final constitutional proposals produced a referendum among white voters, and the Tricameral Parliament was approved. The Constitution was reformed the following year to allow the Coloured and Asian minorities participation in separate Houses in a Tricameral Parliament, and Botha became the first Executive State President. The theory was that the Coloured minority could be granted voting rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands. These separate arrangements continued until the abolition of apartheid. The Tricameral reforms led to the formation of the (anti-apartheid) UDF as a vehicle to try and prevent the co-option of coloureds and Indians into an alliance with white South Africans. The subsequent battles between the UDF and the NP government from 1983 to 1989 were to became the most intense period of struggle between left-wing and right-wing South Africans.

Colonialism and apartheid had a major impact on women since they suffered both racial and gender discrimination. Oppression against African women was different from discrimination against men. Indeed, they had very little or no legal rights, no access to education and no right to own property.^[7] Jobs were often hard to find but many African women worked as agricultural or domestic workers though wages were extremely low^[8] if not non-existent. Children suffered from diseases caused by malnutrition and sanitary problems, and mortality rates were therefore high. The controlled movement of African workers within the country through the Natives Urban Areas Act of 1923 and the pass-laws, separated family members from one another as men usually worked in urban centers, while women were forced to stay in rural areas. Marriage law and births^[9] were also controlled by the government and the pro-apartheid Dutch Reformed Church, who tried to restrict African birth rates.

Defining its East Asian population, which is a minority in South Africa but who do not physically appear to belong any of the four designated groups, was a constant dilemma for the apartheid government. Chinese South Africans who were descendants of migrant workers who came to work in the gold mines around Johannesburg in the late 19th century, were classified as "Indian" and hence "non-white", whereas immigrants from Republic of China (Taiwan), South Korea and Japan, with which South Africa maintained diplomatic relations, were considered "honorary whites" and termed "Worthy Oriental Gentlemen", thus granted the same privileges as normal whites. It should be noted that "Non-Whites" were sometimes granted an 'honorary white' status as well, based on the government's belief that they were "civilised" and possessed Western values. This was frequently the case with African-Americans.

In 1947, the "Three Doctors Pact" was signed doctors Naicker, Dadoo and Xuma, committing the African National Congress (ANC), Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) and Natal Indian Congress (NIC) to co-operation. Earlier, in 1943, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) had been established, becoming a significant component of the ANC. In 1949, the conservative leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) was overthrown by its Youth League (ANCYL). Led by Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, elected to the ANC's National Executive that year, the ANCYL advocated a radical black nationalist programme which combined the Africanist ideas of Anton Lembede with those of Marxism. They brought the notion that white authority could only be overthrown through mass campaigns.

Once the ANCYL had taken control of the ANC, the organization advocated a policy of open defiance and resistance for the first time. This unleashed the 1950s Programme of Action, instituted in 1949, which laid emphasis on the right of the African people to freedom under the flag of African Nationalism. It laid out plans for strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience, resulting in occasionally violent clashes, with mass protests, stay-aways, boycotts and strikes predominating. The 1950 May Day stay-away was a strong, successful expression of black grievances.

In 1952 the Joint Planning Council, made up of members from the ANC, the South African Indian Congress as well as the Coloured People's Congress, agreed on a plan for the defiance of unfair laws. They wrote to the Prime Minister, DF Malan and demanded that he repeal the Pass Laws, the Group Areas Act, the Bantu Administration Act and other legislation, warning that refusal to do so would be met with a campaign of defiance. The Prime Minister was haughty in his rejoinder, referring the Council to the Native Affairs Department and threatening to treat insolence callously.

The Programme of Action was launched with the Defiance Campaign in June 1952. By defying the laws, the organisation hoped for mass arrests with which the government would be unable to cope. Nelson Mandela led a crowd of fifty men down the streets of a white area in Johannesburg after the 11 pm curfew that forbade black peoples' presence. The group was apprehended, but the rest of the country followed its example. Defiance spread throughout the country and black people disregarded racial laws by, for example, walking through "whites only" entries. At the campaign's zenith, in September 1952, more than 2,500 people from 24 different towns had been arrested for defying various laws.

By the end of the campaign, the government arrested 8,000 people, but was forced to temporarily relax its apartheid legislation. In addition, as a direct result of the campaign, membership of the ANC increased and attention was drawn to apartheid's injustices. Once things had calmed down, however, the government responded with an iron fist, taking several supreme measures -- among which were the Unlawful Organisations Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Procedures Act. Thus, in the longer term, this spelt defeat for the resistance movement. In December 1952, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and eighteen others were tried under the Suppression of Communism Act for leading the Defiance Campaign. They received nine months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act stated that "[a]ny person who in any way whatsoever advises, encourages, incites, commands, aids or procures any other person [...] or uses language calculated to cause any other person to commit an offence by way of protest against a law [...] shall be guilty of an offence".

The government also constricted the regulation on separate amenities. Protesters had argued to the courts that different amenities for different races ought to be of an equal standard. The Separate Amenities Act removed the façade of mere separation; it gave the owners of public amenities the right to bar people on the basis of colour or race and made it lawful for different races to be treated inequitably. Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli and other famous ANC, Indian Congress and trade union chiefs were all vetoed under the Suppression of Communism Act. The proscription meant that the headship was now restricted to its homes and adjacent areas and they were banned from attending public gatherings.

Though cruelly limited, the movement was still able to struggle against the oppressive instruments of the state. More importantly, collaboration between the ANC and NIC had increased and strengthened through the Defiance Campaign. Support for the ANC and its endeavours increased. In August of 1953, the ANC Cape conference suggested an Assembly of the people.

Meanwhile, on the global stage, India demanded that apartheid be challenged by the United Nations. It led to the establishment of a UN commission on apartheid. This first encouraged black South Africans in their campaign, but, after five months, the African and Indian Congresses opted to call it off because of the increasing number of riots, strikes and heavier sentences on those who took part. During the campaign, almost 8,000 black and Indian people had been detained. At the same time, however, ANC membership grew from 7,000 to 100,000, and the number of subdivisions went from fourteen at the start of the campaign to 87 at its end. There was also a change in headship. Shortly before the campaign's end, Albert Luthuli was elected as the new ANC president.

A National Convention of all South Africans was proposed by Professor ZK Matthews at the Cape ANC conference on 15 August 1953. The intention was to chew over the national problems on an all-inclusive basis and outline a manifesto of amity. In March 1954, the ANC, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), the Coloured People’s Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats (SACOD) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) met and founded the National Action Council for the Congress of the People. Delegates were drawn from each of these establishments and a nationwide organiser was assigned. A campaign was publicised for the drafting of a Freedom Charter, and a call was made for 10,000 unpaid assistants to help with the conscription of views from across the country and the organisation of the Congress of the People. Demands were documented and sent to the local board of the National Action Council in preparation for drafting the Charter.

The Congress of the People was held from 26 to 27 of June 1955 in Kliptown, just south of Johannesburg. Under the attentive gaze of the constabulary, 3,000 delegates gathered to revise and accept the Freedom Charter that had been endorsed by the ANC’s National Executive on the eve of the Congress. Among the organisations present were the Indian Congress and the ANC. The Freedom Charter, which articulated a vision for South Africa radically different to the partition policy of apartheid, emphasising that South Africa should be a just and non-racial society. It called for a one-person-one-vote democracy within a single unified state and stated that all people should be treated equally before the law, that land should be "shared among those who work it" and that the people should "share in the country's wealth" -- a statement which has often been interpreted as a call for socialist nationalisation. The congress delegates had consented to almost all the sections of the charter when the police announced that they suspected treason and recorded the names and addresses of all those present.

In 1956 the Federation of South African Women was founded and led by Lilian Ngoyi and the more famous Helen Joseph. On 9 August that year, the women marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria, protesting against the pass laws. On the morning of December 5, 1956, however, the police detained 156 Congress Alliance leaders. 104 African, 23 white, 21 Indian and eight Coloured people were charged with high treason and plotting a violent overthrow of the state, to be replaced by a communist government. The charge was based on statements and speeches made during both the Defiance Campaign and the Congress of the People. The Freedom Charter was used as proof of the Alliance’s communist intent and their conspiracy to oust the government. The State relied greatly on the evidence of Professor Arthur Murray, an ostensible authority on Marxism and Communism. His evidence was that the ANC papers were full of such communist terms as "comrade" and "proletariat", often found in the writings of Lenin and Stalin. Halfway through the drawn-out trial, charges against 61 of the accused were withdrawn, and, five years after their arrest, the remaining thirty were acquitted after the court held that the state had failed to prove its case.

Main article: Sharpeville massacre

In 1959 a group of disenchanted ANC members broke away from the ANC and formed the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), saying the ANC was too strongly influenced by white communists. First on the PAC's agenda was a series of nationwide demonstrations against the pass laws. The PAC called for blacks to demonstrate against pass books on 21 March 1960. One of the mass demonstrations organized by the PAC took place at Sharpeville, a township near Vereeniging. Estimates of the size of the crowd vary from 3,000 to 20,000.^[10][11] The crowd converged on the Sharpeville police station, singing and offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books. A group of about 300 police panicked and opened fire on the demonstrators after the crowd trampled down the fence surrounding the police station. They killed 69 people and injured 186. All the victims were black, and most of them had been shot in the back. Many witnesses stated that the crowd was not violent, but Colonel J. Pienaar, the senior police officer in charge on the day, said, "Hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way". The event became known as the Sharpeville massacre. In its aftermath the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

The Sharpeville Massacre helped shape ANC policy. Before Sharpeville those advocating the use of organized violence, such as Nelson Mandela, had been marginalized as too radical by the ANC's leadership. After Sharpeville Mandela was allowed to launch his guerilla struggle (called the "M" Plan). Hence, from 1961 the ANC adopted militant attacks^[12] tactics, such as intimidation, bombing, murder and sabotage. Although their units detonated bombs in restaurants, shopping centres, cinemas and in front of government buildings over the following years, the military wings of the ANC and PAC were never a military threat to the state.

Sharpeville signalled that the South African government was not going to yield to the mood of black nationalism then sweeping across Africa, and that white South Africans did not accept that they were "colonials" to be swept into the sea by "decolonization". Sharpeville thus foreshadowed the coming conflict between black nationalists and Afrikaner nationalists over the next thirty years.

In the wake of the shooting, a massive stay-away from work was organised and demonstrations continued. Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd declared a state of emergency, giving security forces the right to detain people without trial. Over 18,000 were arrested, including much of the ANC and PAC leadership, and both organizations were banned. The National Party government felt that outlawing the ANC and PAC would discontinue their operations. This was not the case. Some leaders went into exile abroad, while others stayed in South Africa and pursued the fight domestically. They went underground and initiated secret armed opposition groups.

The ANC and PAC ran campaigns of sabotage and terrorism through their armed wings, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, MK) and Poqo ("Pure" or "Alone"). The ANC leader, Chief Albert Luthuli, did not support an armed struggle, but there was growing backing for a violent struggle as people became more and more aggravated by the government's aversion to hearing them out. In June 1961 the ANC executive concurred on the formation of an armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), meaning "Spear of the Nation".

Nelson Mandela, who was the commander of the ANC's military wing (MK), had developed the "M Plan" (Mandela Plan), a programme of controlled sabotage, launching a guerilla war modelled upon the FLN's struggle in Algeria. Its policy involved the targeting of state buildings for sabotage without resorting to murder. On 16 December 1961 MK carried out its first acts of sabotage by assaulting post offices and other structures in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban. Many other acts of sabotage would take place over the next few years. In its first eighteen months, MK carried out about 200 acts of sabotage, but, despite its policy, some deaths did occur. The headquarters were at the farm Lilliesleaf in Rivonia, just outside Johannesburg.

Mandela began planning for MK members to be given military tuition outside South Africa and managed to slip past authorities as he himself moved in and out of the country, earning him the moniker "The Black Pimpernel". Mandela initially resisted arrest within South Africa, but, in August 1962, after receiving some inside information, the police put up a roadblock and captured him. MK's success declined after this, and the police infiltrated the organisation.

A crusade was launched against the dissident establishments. Many people were outlawed or placed under house arrest. In this way, the ANC net was shattered by the mid-1960s. Some people were held in detention, where they were often tormented or executed. In 1963, through a leak from stool pigeon Gerard Ludi, the police found the location of the MK headquarters at Lilliesleaf. In July, they raided the farm and arrested many major leaders of the ANC and MK, including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Ahmed Kathrada. They were detained and indicted with sabotage and attempting to bring down the government. At the same time, police collected proof to be used in the trial, which enabled them to arrest other such people, like Denis Goldberg. Especially harmful was the information on Operation Mayibuye (Operation Comeback), a plan for bringing exiles back into the country. It also revealed that MK was planning to use guerrilla tactics.

Some ANC members, including Oliver Tambo, resisted capture and escaped South Africa to pursue the ANC's interests from beyond the country's boundaries. Tambo was to lead the ANC in exile for another thirty years. Many supporters also left South Africa for martial training under MK.

The PAC's secretive martial arm was called Poqo, meaning "go it alone" or "pure" in the Xhosa tongue. Poqo was prepared to take lives in the quest for liberation. It murdered whites, police informants and black people who supported the government. It arranged a national revolution in order to conquer the white government, but poor organisation and in-house nuisances crippled the PAC and Poqo.

The PAC did not have adequate direction. When Robert Sobukwe (jailed following the Sharpeville massacre) was discharged from Robben Island in 1969, he was placed under house arrest in Kimberley until he died in 1978. Police repeatedly lengthened his incarceration through the "Sobukwe clause", which permitted the state to detain people even after they had served their sentences. Many other PAC principals were taken into custody on 21 March 1960, and those released were hampered by bans.

The PAC's management difficulties also existed in exile. When they were outlawed, PAC leaders set up headquarters, in among places, Dar es Salaam, London and the United States. In 1963, Potlako Leballo left the country for Maseru, Lesotho, and became the PAC's acting president. When Leballo bragged misguidedly about a radical conflict that the PAC was about to get under way, the police confiscated correspondence being carried across the border and discovered lists with names of other PAC members. A wave arrests followed, and 3,246 PAC and Poqo members went to jail. This led to the crumpling of the PAC within South Africa.

Leballo also annoyed PAC leaders with his apparently frail management. In 1968, they tried to drive him out of the organisation, and the PAC was eventually expelled from Maseru and Lusaka. All in all, MK ran a far more successful guerilla campaign than Poqo.

The widely-publicised Rivonia Trial began in October 1963. Ten men stood accused of treason, trying to depose the government and sabotage. Nelson Mandela was tried, along with those arrested at Lilliesleaf and another 24 co-conspirators. Many of these people, however, had already fled the country, Tambo being but one.

The ANC used the lawsuit to draw international interest to its cause. During the trial, Mandela gave his legendary "I am prepared to die" diatribe. In June 1964, eight were found guilty of terrorism, sabotage, planning and executing guerilla warfare, and working towards an armed invasion of the country. The treason charge was dropped. All eight were sentenced to life imprisonment. They did not get the death penalty, as this hazarded too much international criticism. Goldberg was sent to the Pretoria jail, and the other seven were all banished to the prison on Robben Island. Bram Fischer, the defence trial attorney, was himself arrested and tried shortly thereafter.

The trial was condemned by the United Nations Security Council, and was a major force in the introduction of international sanctions against the South African government. After Sharpeville the ANC, PAC and South African Communist Party were banned, and leaders like Mandela were either in jail or in exile.

By incarcerating leaders of MK and the ANC, the government was able to break the potency of the ANC within South Africa's borders, and greatly affect its efficiency outside of them. The ANC faced many problems in the aftermath of the Rivonia Trial, its inner administration cruelly afflicted. Exiled leaders understood that conveying skilled guerrillas into South Africa would be complicated, as bordering states were unfriendly towards the ANC. Mozambique was still a Portuguese colony, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Bechuanaland (now Botswana) were still in colonial hands, and South West Africa (now Namibia) was controlled by the South African government. Thus, by 1964, the government had essentially broken the activist movements.

At the same time, international criticism of apartheid increased. The United Nations denounced the trial and commenced steps for the introduction of sanctions. The PAC and Poqo persisted in their activities through the late 1960s and 1970s, but, because of their use of violence, members were under continuous police surveillance, and there were few acts of damaging sabotage. The ANC looked into ways of infiltrating South Africa in spite of its dearth of internal structure.

Although the ANC attempted to reconstruct itself, there would be no real action until the 1970s, when striking militancy began to reappear. At the end of the 1960s, new organisations and ideas would form to confront apartheid. The next key act of opposition would come only in 1976, however, with the Soweto Uprising.

The government's effort at defeating all opposition had been effective. The State of Emergency was de-proclaimed; the economy boomed; and the government began implementing apartheid by building the infrastructures of the ten separate Homelands, and relocating blacks into these homelands. In 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed to death in parliament, but his policies continued under B.J. Vorster and later P.W. Botha.

Prior to the 1960s, the NP government had been most effective in crushing anti-apartheid opposition within South Africa. This it did by outlawing freedom movements like the ANC and (PAC), and driving their leaders into exile or captivity. This planted the germs for the struggle, particularly at such tertiary-education organisations as the University of the North and Zululand University. These institutions were fashioned out of the Extension of University Education Act of 1959, which guaranteed that black and white students would be taught individually and inequitably.

After the banning of the ANC and PAC, and the Rivonia Trial, the struggle within South Africa had been dealt a stern blow. The age bracket that had seen the Sharpeville Massacre had become apathetic in its gloom and despair. This changed in the late 1960s and most notably from the mid-1970s, when new devotion came from the latest, more radical generation. During this epoch, new anti-apartheid ideas and establishments were created, and they gathered support from across South Africa.

The surfacing of the South African Black Consciousness Movement was influenced by its American equivalent, the American Black Power Movement, and directors such as Malcolm X. African heads like Kenneth Kaunda also stirred ideas of autonomy and Black Pride by means of their anti-colonialist writings. Scholars grew in assurance and became far more candid about the NP's bigoted policies and the repression of the black people.

During the 1970s, resistance gained force, first channelled through trade unions and strikes, and then spearheaded by the South African Students' Organisation, under the charismatic leadership of Steve Biko. A medical student, Biko was the main force behind the growth of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement, which stressed the need for psychological liberation, black pride, and non-violent opposition to apartheid.^[13]

The BC faction was the most important movement of the late 'sixties and 'seventies. Founded by Biko, it materialised out of the ideas of the Civil Rights and black Power movements in the USA. The motto of the movement was "Black is Beautiful", first made popular by boxer Mohammed Ali. BC endorsed black pride and African customs, and did much to alter feelings of inadequacy, while also raising awareness of the fallacy of blacks being seen as inferior. It defied practices and merchandise that were meant to make black people "whiter", such as hair straighteners and skin lighteners. Western culture was toured as destructive and alien to Africa. Black people became conscious of their own distinctive identity and self-worth, and grew more outspoken about their right to freedom.

The National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) was the first student representative, but it had a principally white membership, and black students saw this as an impediment. White students had concerns more scholastic than political, and, although the administration was multi-racial, it was not tackling many of the issues of the mounting number of black students since 1960. This resulted in the 1967 creation of the University Christian Movement (UCM), an organisation rooted in African-American philosophy.

In July 1967, the annual NUSAS symposium took place at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. White students were permitted to dwell on university grounds, but black students were relegated to an abode further away in a church vestibule. This brought about the construction of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), under Steve Biko, in 1969.

Black Consciousness grew very fashionable among the millions of blacks around the globe who had known and experienced intolerance. Churches did much to swell its popularity, and a number of establishments were formed to support and spread the idea -- especially among the students and workers. One of these administrations, and one in which Steve Biko played a pivotal role, was the South African Student's Organisation (SASO).

Since 1959, black people had been forced to attend universities separate to those of white students. Although the active student organisation, the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), remained a radical, multi-racial unification opposed to apartheid, white students played the most dynamic and active role. With the growth of Black Consciousness, however, black students began to understand the need for their own organisation. In 1968, many of them broke away from NUSAS and helped to form SASO. They wanted to give more prominence to the troubles of black students and black society.

The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was an umbrella organisation for groups such as SASO. It was created in 1967, and among its members were the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO), SASO, the black Community Programme (which directed welfare schemes for blacks), the Black People's Convention (which, at first, attempted to unite charitable associations like that for the Education and Cultural Advancement of African People of South Africa) and the South African Students Movement (SASM), which represented high-school learners. The BPC finally expanded into a political administration, with Steve Biko as its honorary president.

When the BCM's principles were illuminated, a number of fresh organisations, staunch in their endorsement of black liberation, came into being. AZAPO was only launched in 1978, a long time after the birth of the BCM, as a medium for its message.

The BCM drew most of its backing from high schools and tertiary institutions. Black Consciousness ethics were crucial in lifting consciousness amongst black people of their value and right to a better existence, along with the need to insist on these. The BCM's non-violent approach subsided in favour of a more radical element as its resolve to attain liberty was met with state hostility.

After the carnage in Soweto, Nelson Mandela, head of the ANC, grudgingly concurred that bloodshed was the only means left to convince the NP to accede to commands for an end to its apartheid policy. A subversive plan of terror was mapped out, with Steve Biko and the BCM to the fore. The BCM and other opinionated elements were prohibited during the 1970s because the government saw them as dangerous. Black Consciousness in South Africa adopted a drastic theory, much like socialism, as the liberation movement progressed to challenging class divisions and shifting from an ethnic stress to focusing more on non-racialism. The BCM became more worried about the destiny of the black people as workers, believing that "economic and political exploitation has reduced the black people into a class".

With Black Consciousness increasing throughout black communities, quite a few other organisations were formed to combat apartheid. In 1972, the Black People's Convention was founded, and the black Allied Worker's Union, formed in 1973, focused on black labour matters. The black Community Programmes gave attention to the more global issues of black communities. School learners began to confront the policy Bantu education, a policy designed to ready them for an second-rate role in society. They created the South African Student's Movement (SASM). It was particularly popular in Soweto, where the 1976 insurrection against Bantu Education would prove to be a crossroads in the fight against apartheid.

The chief reason for the Soweto Uprisings was the adjustment to black schooling brought in by the National Party government following the 1948 elections. The Bantu Education Act was finally instituted in 1953 after the Eiselen Commission’s 1949 enquiry into the edification of non-whites. The commission advocated drastic measures in the form of restructuring the "Bantu" school arrangement. Before the Bantu Education Act, the vast majority of black children went to mission schools that obtained economic propping from the state. This changed with the conception of the Bantu Education Department. Mission schools lost government aid and had to close. Funding for the black schools now came from the taxes paid by the black people, most of whom were impoverished. The upshot was a very uneven distribution of teaching reserves between black and white scholars.

Learners and teachers alike were against the introduction of Bantu Education, which they saw as substandard. This discontent effected the creation of a number of lobby groups and movements which regarded the new organism as a governmental plan for the grooming of blacks for unskilled or semi-skilled toil. For a while, alternative culture guilds were employed as unofficial instruction facilities, but these ultimately shut down in 1960.

1959 brought the severance of black and white tertiary schooling via the Extension of University Act. Only the Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand, with their considerable amount of non-white learners, were significantly impinged on. Special tertiary institutions, such as Vista, Fort Hare, Venda and Western Cape, were started up to look after the educational needs of black students. These, referred to as "Tribal colleges" or "bush universities", ignited further remonstration. As the requirement remained for a semi-skilled black workforce, more state finances were supplied in the late-'sixties for Bantu Education. The standard was far below that of white institutions, but an increasing number of black brood went to school. Teachers and amenities were scarce, with many teachers hardly more learned than their learners.

The Coloured Person's Education Act of 1963 made "coloured" education the responsibility of the Department of Coloured Affairs. These institutions had to enrol with the government and were obligatory for all coloured kids, who were no longer permitted to go to white schools. The NP regime moved forward in its endeavour to divide all racial clusters, and, in 1965, the Indian Education Act consigned Indian education to the Department of Indian Affairs.

New-fangled schools in the "homelands" made certain that no fresh schools were constructed for non-white scholars in municipal regions from 1962 to '71. The majority were employed in and around major cities, and commerce in these regions strained the state until, in 1972, it committed itself to generating better-qualified labourers by perking up the education system. This culminated in the building of forty new schools in Soweto, and, from '72 to '76, the learning populace multiplied threefold. Still, though, only one in every five Soweto children attended school.

The teaching structure was not the only root of the Soweto Uprising; there was also, of course, growing irritation with apartheid. The mechanism which most directly set the uprising in motion was the Southern Transvaal Bantu Education D