O Level Revision : History - The Struggle for Majority Rule and Democratisation in South Africa
The Dutch led by Jan van Riebeck landed at the Cape in 1652 and established a half way station to India that would supply passing ships with fresh water, vegetables and meat. It was meant to be a temporary settlement but ended up being permanent. African ethnic groups like the Khoisan, Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho and Pedi were later conquered, lost their sovereignty and incorporated into new political arrangements known as colonies such as Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State. The British conquered the Dutch in 1806 and took over the Cape. In 1910 the four colonies were joined together to form the Union of South Africa.
The Struggle for Majority Rule and Democratisation in South Africa
The introduction of apartheid legislation (laws) from 1910
- General Jan Smuts established a system of colonial rule called apartheid or separate development between the blacks and whites.
- Apartheid came into full force in 1948 when the Afrikaners came to power.
- Under apartheid a person’s race determined their political, economic and social status in the country.
The defining characteristics of apartheid
- Society was ordered on the basis of race and skin colour.
- The whites (about 18% of the population) were the rulers and privileged class.
- Coloureds and Indians (about 12%) were ranked second and the Africans (about 70%) were at the bottom of the racial ladder.
- Discrimination against the Africans, Coloureds and Indians in civil, political, and economic rights was experienced.
- Voting, freedom of movement and employment were restricted.
- Africans could not train as pilots or work in the navy.
- There was segregation in education, transport, residential areas in towns, swimming pools, shops and restaurants.
Afrikaner nationalism and the consolidation of apartheid: 1948-1960
- In the 1920s and 1930s discriminatory laws were passed.
- Hertzog’s Labour-National or Pact Government intensified racial discrimination by:
- Tribal control of Africans through the chiefs and headmen to limit their movement and political activity.
- Controlling rural-urban migration by Africans.
- Forcing industries and municipalities to replace black labour with poor whites.
- Poll tax of 1925 and restriction of Africans in reserves. This assured the mines of cheap labour.
- The extension of the Native Land Act to the Cape by the United Party Government of the 1930s. This reduced black voting rights.
- The extreme racist Nationalist Party opposed to the United Party broke away under D.F. Malan and formed the ‘Purified’ Nationalist Party with a fascist ideology.
Malan’s Nationalist Party
- During World War 2 South Africa supported the Allies but many Afrikaners supported Germany.
- Malan’s Nationalist Party wanted an alliance with Germany and a republic declared.
- During World War 2, segregation was relaxed, e.g. social services for blacks were extended, pass laws were relaxed and some institutions were made multiracial.
- These changes were made in order to recruit blacks for the war and to prevent unrest during the war.
- After the war, Prime Minister Smuts intensified restrictions on the Asians leading to the following developments:
- Asians resorted to passive resistance.
- India was about to gain independence and so it supported the Asians in South Africa.
- International isolation increased to force Afrikaners to reverse racist policies.
- Pressure to hand over Namibia back to theUnited Nations increased.
- Africans and Asians joined hands to fight white supremacy.
Milan’s Nationalist Party Government
- It strengthened the policy of apartheid, isolationism, pro-republicanism, racial segregation, racial exploitation and rejection of international interference.
- It intensified apartheid:
- Allowing each ethnic group to safeguard its own identity.
- Ethnic groups would develop their own self- governing units under their traditional chiefs.
- The self-governing units would be under white control.
- These units would become ‘independent homelands’.
- The ‘independent homelands’ would supply cheap labour to the European-controlled economy.
- This led to unequal development and the worst health records in Africa.
- It created separate Afrikaans and English speaking schools dominated by Christian nationalism. The Dutch Reformed Church and parents dismissed teachers who taught communism and anti- nationalism.
- It introduced Native Education that was based on the principles of trusteeship, non-equality and segregation.
- It increased Nationalist control, enfranchised white Namibians, disenfranchised recent immigrants and all non- whites and enfranchised the 18 to 21 year olds to win votes in elections.
- It Afrikaansised South Africa and dismissed, from the civil service, all who opposed the legal and religious basis of apartheid, e.g. Rev Beyers Naude, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, was harassed and dismissed for creating an inter- racial Christian Institute.
Laws passed to strengthen apartheid
- Prime Ministers Strydom (1954-58) and Verwoerd (1958-66) passed the following laws to strengthen apartheid:
- The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) made inter-racial marriages illegal.
- The Suppression of Communism Act (1950) ended legal opposition to apartheid.
- The Immorality Act (1950) made extra-marital sexual conduct between whites and blacks punishable by up to seven years imprisonment.
- The Population Registration Act (1950) grouped people according to their racial classification as whites, coloured or natives.
- The GroupAreasActs (1950 and 1957) ensured that only whites lived and owned property and used entertainment facilities in most areas.
- The Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act (1952) forced Africans over
16 years to carry ‘books of life’ including the employer’s name and signature and tax receipts or risk being arrested.
- Bantu Education Act (1953) placed African Education under the Native Affairs Department. The school buildings were poor. The exams were inferior. Vernacular language was used. All this was done to stop Africans from competing with whites for jobs.
- The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) provided for separate public amenities for the different races.
- The Natives Resettlement Act (1954) allowed the destruction of African townships near city centres.
- The Native Laws Amendment Act (1954) controlled the movement of Africans into towns.
- The Native (Urban Areas) Amendment Act (1956) allowed local authorities to move Africans away if a white person bought the area. A 1964 amendment to the Act forbade African women and children from joining their working husbands in urban areas.
- The Bantu Self-government Act (1959) allowed black people limited political rights in their tribal homelands.
- The Extension of University Education Act (1959) closed white universities to blacks.
Results of the apartheid system
- The police terrorised Africans. About half a million Africans were arrested and imprisoned annually for minor offences like having no pass book, reference book and breaking the Group Areas Act.
- Africans rejected the government.
- There was a total breakdown of law and order and a deteriorating security situation.
- Economic leaders like Gavin Reilly (Head of Anglo-American in the 1980s) said apartheid was economically inefficient. They complained that:
- Restricting skills for black labour meant shortages of essential labour.
- Forcing Whites to employ expensive white labour raised production costs. A free market in labour was preferred.
- Restrictive laws created instability in the work force.
- Separating families promoted alcoholism and hence absenteeism.
- Growth of internal market was undermined by unpaid labour and low wages for the blacks who made 75% of the workforce.
- Potential skills were lost as skilled blacks and whites opposed to the system left the country.
- Lengthy military service for all white males reduced production.
- The policy of apartheid earned South Africa economic sanctions in the 1980s which undermined industrial growth.
- International economic sanctions forbade South African sports teams, singers, actors and film makers from participating elsewhere. Many white sportspersons hated this.
- South Africa began to attack its black neighbours in order:
- To stop the spread of communism.
- To stop the spread of ideas of racial equality.
- To stop the ANC and PAC guerrillas from reaching South Africa via them.
- South Africa spent billions of rands supporting Rhodesia, UNITA (Angola), RENAMO (Mozambique) and fighting SWAPO guerrillas in Namibia.
- Millions of rands were diverted from education, health, housing and business development to finance expensive state-owned military industries such as Amrscor.
Resistance to capitalism and apartheid
- African resistance developed slowly because:
- They did not share a common language and history.
- Some benefitted from the capitalist system as runners, suppliers of food and wood, carriers and soldiers.
The formation of the African National Congress (ANC)
- The Africans had to work together to end segregation, discrimination, marginalisation, exploitation and to gain political power.
- Educated Africans were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian Congress Movement (ICM) based in Natal.
- In March 1912 Pixley Ka Isaka Seme and Rev L. Dube called for an all-party conference. Religious groups also attended.
- At this conference, the South African Native Congress (SANC) was formed.
- In 1923 the name was changed to African National Congress (ANC). Rev Dube became the first President General; Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, the Treasurer; and Solomon T. Plaatje, the Secretary General.
- Due to ICM influence, the ANC was pacifist in its approach.
- Its methods were persuasion and civil disobedience.
- It operated at national and international levels.
- It pressurised other governments to support it to achieve justice in South Africa.
- It organised civil disobedience campaigns against carrying passes.
- It worked with black trade unions like Clemence Kadalie’s Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) in the 1920s.
Government response
- It used the police, army and white civilians to break the protests.
- The protesters were beaten up and arrested.
- Kadalie successfully organised the 1919 dock strike and the 1920 miners’ strike that involved 70000 miners. The dockers and miners got limited pay rises and improved conditions.
Lessons learnt by Africans
- If they worked together, they would achieve more.
- ANC, ICU and the Communist Party (CP) formed in 1921, worked together to organise and support strikers, anti-pass protests, anti-tax protests, etc.
- ANC, ICU and CP supported the 1928 urban women’s protest against the government’s plan to control the liquor trade (the urban women’s only economic activity.) They organised boycotts of beer halls and non-payment of taxes.
Problems faced by the ANC
- At first the ANC had no clear ideology.
- The leaders preferred moderation and patience in the fight for democratisation.
- The people demanded mass civil disobedience.
- The missionary-educated leaders rejected methods that would lead to violence. So, the ANC lost support.
- People were not happy with the 1927 Native Administration Act which allowed authorities to ban meetings in tribal areas and dismiss chiefs involved in radical politics.
- The ANC failed to create a unified opposition against falling wages, dismissal of black workers and Hertzog’s Segregation Bills which undermined Africans’ voting and land rights.
- The 1936 All- Africa Convention brought together ANC, Indian, Coloured and African organisations and voted for representation in Parliament.
The ANC dilemma during World War 2
- If the ANC opposed Jan Smuts Government’s use of unarmed black labour in the war, then it would undermine the government’s fight against fascism and align itself with the pro-Germany racist Afrikaner groups.
- It encouraged blacks to enlist in the army.
Reasons for the ANC becoming more radical in the 1940s
- The new ANC President, Dr Alfred Bathini Xuma, was radical and implemented a more democratic constitution.
- Membership of trade unions rose to 150 000 during war years.
- Black soldiers had witnessed racial equality on the battlefield and expected improvements on their return.
- New ANC members were well educated, professionally trained, more militant, more radical and politically conscious, e.g. Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.
- They formed the ANC Youth League.
- In 1949 Youth League candidates, Dr Moroka and Sisulu won senior positions and the Youth league dominated ANC.
- The Ghetto Act restricted the rights of the Indians; and the blacks joined them to fight it.
- The ANC and Indians agreed in 1947 to work together to achieve majority rule.
- This cooperation led to theANC’s Freedom Charter.
- Radical political activism was a reaction to the Nationalist Party’s victory in 1948.
- There were now regular riots against pass laws, liquor raids, police actions and lack of housing and amenities in townships from 1949-1950.
Government response
- Passed the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950.
- Attacked nationalist and communist organisations and excluded white Native Representative MPs from parliament.
Nationalists’ reaction
- Suspended non-violent methods and adopted more active resistance.
- Joint political action against all discriminatory legislation.
- The ANC and the Indian Congress Party elected a Franchise Action Committee in 1951.
- In 1952 the ANC wrote to the Prime Minister threatening mass civil disobedience if six unjust laws were not repealed. The six Acts were:
- The Pass Laws
- The Group Areas Act
- The Separate Representation of Voters Act
- The Suppression of Communism Act
- The Bantu Authorities Act
- The Stock Limitation Regulations
The Freedom Charter
- The ANC, Indian Congress, Coloured People’s Congress, Congress of Democrats and an alliance of Trade Unions called for a meeting on 25-26 June, 1955.
- It was attended by 3 000 delegates who met at an open veld outside Kliptown near Johannesburg.
- The police tried to disrupt it but failed.
- The Freedom Charter was drafted and adopted.
- Contents of the Freedom Charter:
- South Africa is for all – black and white; the people should govern.
- No government can claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.
- All national groups shall have equal rights.
- The people shall share the country’s wealth.
- The land shall be shared among those who work it.
- All shall be equal before the law.
- All shall enjoy human rights.
- There shall be work and security.
- The doors of learning and culture shall be opened.
- There shall be houses, security and comfort.
- There shall be peace and friendship.
Militant resistance
- Continued when Chief Albert Luthuli became President of ANC.
- Some ANC members demanded for an African ideology and active resistance.
- The militant members broke away in 1959 and formed The Pan African Congress (PAC) under Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.
- Sobukwe was against the multi-racial nature of the Freedom Charter – he advocated for “Africa for Africans”.
- PAC was for gaining black power through exclusively black organisations and violence.
- There were mass protests by women against carrying passes.
- Black women broke Pass Laws in order to feed, clothe and house families.
- Police brutality, arrests and banning of Albert Luthuli and other ANC leaders silenced the ANC.
Events of the 1960s that brought hope to the nationalists
- ANC started economic campaigns:
- Mobilising international boycotts of South African products.
- Boycotting racist businesses.
- Many African states gained independence and began to support ANC and PAC through the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
- Harold MacMillan, British Prime Minister, visited South Africa talking about the ‘winds of change’ and saying apartheid was unacceptable.
- 67 civilians were killed and 180 were wounded at Sharpeville during a peaceful PAC organised anti-Pass Law campaign. PAC and ANC called for a day of mourning leading to more marches and riots. This became known as The 1960 Sharpeville Massacre:
- It aroused international sympathy for Africans.
- Led to calls for an end to human rights violations.
- Some multinational companies pulled out of South Africa.
- South Africa was expelled from the Commonwealth.
- South Africa was banned from international sports
- The United Nations recommended economic and diplomatic sanctions on South Africa.
Government reaction
- Declared a state of emergency.
- Banned PAC and ANC under the Suppression of Communism Act.
- Detained thousands of activists including Sobukwe.
The treason trials of March 1961
- 28 PAC and ANC leaders were accused of treason but were acquitted.
- Nationalists called for an ‘All-in-Africa Conference’ in Pietmaritzburg in March 1961.
- PAC boycotted it because it was moderate and multiracial.
- The ‘All-in-Africa Conference’ opposed Verwoerd’s move to turn South Africa into an independent republic.
- It called for a free South Africa and world economic sanctions against South Africa.
The Nationalist Action Council (NAC)
- Was created by Nelson Mandela.
- It organised a ‘stay at home’ strike in May 1961.
- Government passed the General Laws Amendment Act that gave the police power to detain people for 12 days without charging them.
- Government disseminated propaganda information against NAC.
- ANC and PAC then turned to sabotage and armed struggle.
The armed struggle
- TheANC and PAC created their armies – Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) for ANC and Poqo for PAC in the
1960s.
- MandelaledMKandaimedtosabotageinstallations.
- Poqo organised people in cells to commit violence and punish informers.
- Blacks left the country for military training and returned to sabotage the economy and destabilise the country.
Government response
- Instituted strict censorship, strict security laws.
- Used the death sentence and torture by the police.
- There were many political assassinations.
- Adopted a system of house arrest, detention without charge for up to 180 days and re-detention at the end of political sentences.
- Mandela and the ANC High Command were arrested in July 1962 to stop internal opposition.
- The international community protested against execution. So Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.
Problems faced by South African liberation movements
- They had no outside bases before the independence of Angola and Mozambique in 1975.
- Fighters had to pass through white states of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Rhodesia and risk being captured.
- The border areas of South Africa are flat and thinly forested making them unsuitable for guerilla warfare.
- Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe (hot pursuit) were attacked for helping the ANC and PAC.
- Later, South Africa signed agreements with its neighbours to stop them from assisting the ANC and PAC, e.g. the Nkomati Accord of 1984 with Mozambique.
- South Africa’s security system under Vorster (1960- 1978) used many black informers, and under Botha (1978-1989) South Africa was heavily militarised.
- South Africa’s ‘divide and rule’ policy undermined black solidarity, e.g. creation of ‘Bantu Homelands’ called Bantustans in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Africans became ‘citizens’ of non-existent states of Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and KwaZulu.
- Township youth organisations and trade union activities intensified leading to the 1976 Soweto and 1984-87 uprisings.
- The explosions in Durban and killing of a police man by MK and Poqo were ignored.
- MK and Poqo were marginalised.
The advantages of the ANC
- International moral, economic and political support shown by the imposition of UN sanctions on South Africa in the 1980s leading to high inflation, disinvestment by foreign companies and an outflow of foreign capital.
- The imprisonment of Mandela and death of Steve Biko boosted its image.
- Massive black support that protected MK fighters and supplied recruits e.g.:
- In 1976 students revolted against the use of Afrikaans language in schools.
- The youths made townships (Soweto) ungovernable.
- They set up power structures at schools, local and township levels.
- Government used troops, guns, torture and detention to suppress revolts.
- Many student leaders fled to join the ANC and PAC in Angola, Tanzania and Zambia for military training, or to continue with education abroad.
- The ANC and PAC were thus strengthened.
The end of apartheid
- F.W. de Klerk replaced Botha as President and head of the Nationalist Party in 1989.
- Botha was a military-political leader and ran the country through security organisations.
- De Klerk was a party man.
- From 1989 South Africa began to repeal Apartheid laws like Mixed Marriages Act, Suppression of
Communism Act, Emergency Laws and Group Areas Act.
Factors leading to the repealing of the Acts: The Revolt
- The United Democratic Front (UDF), an umbrella organisation for all pro-ANC parties, was formed in 1983.
- In 1984 militant young fighters and adults took over control of the townships.
- The revolt lasted three years.
- The revolt used strategies like school boycotts, consumer boycotts, avoiding white-owned shops, rent boycotts, strikes, work stay-aways, protest demonstrations, street confrontations, assassination of collaborators, public and private negotiations and creation of liberated zones.
- Townships were run by street and area committees dominated by comrades.
- An alternative justice system, the people’s courts, was set up. For example, one township had 12 people’s courts and an appeals court.
- The revolt was spontaneous; caught ANC, PAC and government by surprise.
- Was organised by UDF and was kept disciplined.
- The UDF was strong in Port Elizabeth townships.
- The UDF supplied safe passage for buses and food supplies which the police were unable to do.
- The blacks used their township bases to boycott white businesses in 1985 to prove that white businesses depended on black consumers.
- The intended effect of boycotts was to force white businessmen to force government to effect reforms, e.g. end state of emergency and repeal apartheid laws.
- Government refused to negotiate and the revolt escalated.
- Street battles were fought with the army and police.
- The people used petrol bombs, tank traps and guns.
- People who bought items from white shops were forced to eat all their purchases under guard, drink Omo, drink alcohol or had their perm shaved as punishment.
- It spread to Bantustans. In Bophuthatswana a police officer was killed.
Results of the revolt
- A pro-ANC anti-Bantustan revolt prevented the creation of KwaNdebele Bantustan.
- Police in military gear and armed with guns patrolled the townships resulting in clashes with comrades.
- The security forces retook control of the townships in 1986.
- International pressure and economic hardships caused by sanctions forced Botha to make some changes in August 1985. But the changes were limited.
- The West was unhappy and withdrew its funding to South Africa.
- The rand crashed by 35% resulting in shortage of capital, lowering of white living standards and lack of foreign currency.
- Shortage of foreign currency led to restrictions, high inflation and high interest rates which made industrial growth impossible.
- The Commonwealth sent to South Africa the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) in 1986.
- The EPG comprised of Malcolm Fraser (former Australian Prime Minister) and General Olusegun Obasanjo (former Nigerian President) to examine conditions in the country.
- Before the ANC and government came to a compromise the army began to bomb ANC bases in Harare, Gaborone and Lusaka and crushed the revolt in the townships.
- Sanctions were intensified on South Africa.
- The government adopted the Total Strategy, used by America in Vietnam, to gain support from some blacks who would be government agents in the townships.
- Total Strategy involved hitting the revolts hard, killing the activists, destroying their organisations quickly and introducing campaigns to win people’s support.
- The June 1986 emergency laws involved:
- Restricting press reporting.
- Detaining people.
- Banning organisations and meetings.
- Training unemployed youths to be policemen in six weeks and sending them to their townships as ‘kits constables’ (instant police).
Vigilante groups
- Inkatha was armed to attack people, kill UDF activists and burn down their houses and anti- aparthied groups like the Council of Churches.
- These attacks confused people and made people fight among themselves, e.g. AZAPO against ANC; ANC against PAC; and everyone against Inkatha (i.e. black-on-black violence).
- The Total Strategy approach was successful.
- The security forces targeted individual townships, drove out the activists, created vigilante groups and left them there to stop UDF groups from re- establishing themselves.
- In squatter camps, the vigilantes (called Witdoeke in Crossroads and Rooidoeke in Natal due to the colour of their doekes) destroyed people’s shelter and forced people to move to areas that they controlled.
- In 200 townships, sewers, housing and roads were improved through 1 800 urban projects.
- By 1987 the revolt had been crushed but the government failed to win the people’s support.
- People engaged in work stoppages and boycotts called for by the UDF and the two trade unions, COSATU and NACTU.
- The blacks and external pressure groups demanded for the release of all political prisoners, the return of all exiles, legalising of all banned parties – ANC and PAC, ending of the state of emergency, removal of all troops from the townships and repealing of all apartheid laws.
The emergence of a non-racial South Africa
- Economic and political pressure forced South Africa to make political changes.
- P.W. Botha, a hard core racist, was replaced by F.W.de Klerk.
- The people’s uprising could not be crushed by force.
- The government made limited reforms such as:
- Important political detainees like Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela (in February 1990) were released.
- ANC, PAC and the Communist Party were unbanned.
- Many exiles were allowed to return home.
- Formal negotiations began, starting with the Conference for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA).
- A declaration for a democratic, non-racial government was made in mid-1990.
- Most apartheid laws were removed.
The 1994 transition
- All apartheid laws were repealed by 1992.
- The Government, ANC, PAC and Inkatha began constitutional talks for a non-racial South Africa in 1993 (talks for a transitional government).
- The Conservative Party and hard core racists did not join the talks because they wanted political power, monopoly and a separate Boer state.
- Talks nearly collapsed when Chris Hani, CP leader was assassinated in April 1993 by an Afrikaner Resistance Movement gunman.
- Non-racial elections were held in 1994 and Africans voted for the first time.
- The ANC won and Mandela became the first President of a non-racial democratic South Africa in 1994.
Post-apartheid South Africa
- The ANC government came to power in 1994.
- Economic and political challenges faced by the ANC government:
- Massive black unemployment.
- Severe poverty.
- The ANC government adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) put forward by COSATU. COSATU supported the ANC during the struggle and elections.
- RDP aimed at reordering politics, economics and society to redress the injustices and inequalities of the past.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)
- It involved reducing unemployment by creating 2.5 million new jobs in 10 years.
- Reducing homelessness and overcrowding by building one million low-cost houses by 2000.
- Providing electricity to 2.5 million homes by 2000.
- Providing running water and sewage system to one million households.
- Providing 10 years of compulsory, free education.
- Establishing adult basic education and training programmes.
- Redistributing 30% of good farming land to small scale black farmers within five years.
- Establishing equality in health services and a shift from curative services to primary health care with free medical care for children less than six years and pregnant women at all state facilities.
- Restructuring state institutions to reflect the racial, class and gender composition of the South African society.
Achievements of the RDP
- The Housing Department built 40 000 houses by 1996 and 192 000 by 1997.
- Established a feeding scheme at 12 300 schools to fight malnutrition among children.
- Put in place a free medical care system for pregnant women and children of under six years.
- 1.3 million homes were provided with electricity.
- One million new water connections were completed.
Challenges experienced during RDP
- Abuse and misuse of funds meant for building low- cost houses.
- RDP failed to attract financial support from the business community, the World Bank and the Development Bank of South Africa.
- RDP was accused of emphasising social programmes that are non-productive instead of productive projects.
- The ANC abandoned the interests of workers in favour of capitalist employers and strained its relationship with COSATU and the CP.
- RDP was abandoned in June 1996 under pressure from the capitalists and government adopted the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Programme (GEAR).
- The land reform was less successful:
- Only 15 00 land reclaims were resettled by The conservative whites resisted it.
- There were coordination, planning and logistical problems too.
Growth, Employment and Redistribution Programme
- Annual economic growth rate was to be 4.2%.
- GEAR was expected to create 1.35 million jobs by 2000.
- In the first quarter of 1997 economic growth rate fell by 0.8%.
- Figures from the Central Statistics Services showed that unemployment fell by 1.3% in 1996 which is a net loss of 71 000 jobs.
- Unemployment and poverty worsened.
- Government tried to establish equality by abolishing discrimination based on race, gender and religion.
- GEAR failed to meet its targets.
- Government appointed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Was headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu.
- Blacks and whites came to testify about their roles during the apartheid era.
- White government officials including F.W. de Klerk, soldiers, policemen, white companies and organisations like the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) apologised publicly for oppressing the blacks.
- The TRC was the best way of making people deal with their bad past and ushering in reconciliation between the blacks and whites.
Has discrimination disappeared from South Africa?
Although apartheid is dead in South Africa:
- The country is still divided into racially-based economic groups.
- Most working class Africans are still poor.
- The whites still enjoy high quality life.
- Skilled Africans still do not get jobs in white-owned firms.
- Graduate unemployment amongst blacks is very high.
- The whites gave up political power but kept economic power.
- There is political democracy but not economic democracy.
- Race relations between black and white are still bad.
- Racial contact between white and black has remained at a minimal level.
- Thabo Mbeki, Mandela’s successor as President, said South Africa has remained a country of two nations: black and white.
- The blacks are excluded from white dominated sporting activities like rugby and cricket.
- The whites, coloureds and Indians continue to vote for whites, support white interests and white parties like the Nationalist Party and the Democratic Party while the blacks vote for parties that represent African interests like the ANC.