O Level Revision : History - The  Struggle for Majority  Rule and Democratisation in 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.