History Gr12 Crisis of Apartheid 1980s.pdf

Topic Unit X XX 31 The crisis of apartheid in the 1980s Key question: How did the apartheid government try to reform apartheid in order to maintain it? What types of internal and external resistance to apartheid helped lead to the end of apartheid? Government attempts to reform apartheid By the end...

Topic Unit X XX 31 The crisis of apartheid in the 1980s Key question: How did the apartheid government try to reform apartheid in order to maintain it? What types of internal and external resistance to apartheid helped lead to the end of apartheid? Government attempts to reform apartheid By the end of the 1970s, SA economy and society was in crisis. WHY? The contradictions of apartheid Apartheid had been designed to keep black people out of ‘white’ South Africa BUT By 1980 the shape of the economy had changed. rapid growth of the 1960s and early 1970s produced a modern industrial economy based on manufacturing and mechanised commercial farming. big business began to put pressure on government to reform the harshest aspects of apartheid. It started to relax the pass laws and in 1986 abandoned them completely. The result was massive black migration into the urban areas. Between 1960–1980 the urban African population more than doubled and the number of black Africans living in towns and cities increased from 32% to 49%. Changes in Afrikaner politics Apartheid had enabled Afrikaner businessmen to establish themselves alongside English-speaking and foreign companies at the top of the economy. PW Botha followed business-friendly policies that alienated Afrikaner workers and small farmers. In 1982, driven by fear of losing control and power, the white right wing Conservative Party split from the National Party because they opposed any reforms of apartheid. Black labour and community resistance The growth of black trade unions after the 1973 strikes and the broadening of the youth revolt to include parents and workers worried the government. The violent repression of the 1970s that killed thousands of protesting students on the streets sent shock waves around SA and the world. Anger and desperation drove many BC The police and military had leaders to form ANC underground structures and over 12 000 young people left the country – most to join MK. Resistance was becoming more organised and more revolutionary. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook crushed the uprisings of 1976–9, but it was clear that repression alone would never bring stability. 83 Unit 3 International developments By 1980, liberation movements had replaced colonial governments in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The ANC and MK were able to use these countries to infiltrate South Africa. The ANC enjoyed the support of the communist bloc, especially the Soviet Union, East Germany and Cuba. Fearing this communist influence, Western governments tended to support the white government in SA. However, under pressure from international anti-apartheid movements, the West began to consider economic sanctions as a way to pressure the SA government to reform. While most governments refused to act firmly against the SA government and its policies, some international citizen-led movements were successful, particularly the sports boycotts of the 1960s and 1970s. Under citizen pressure, most international sporting bodies expelled South Africa and would not recognise white-only teams. This began to have an effect on white South Africans for whom sport was an important part of their identity. Apartheid state’s response: Total strategy A policy designed by military generals who came to dominate Prime Minister PW Botha’s government. Its purpose was to make apartheid more acceptable for some sections of the black population, while ensuring that political and military power remained firmly in white hands. The plan was to weaken black resistance with a mixture of reform and repression. After 1979, under Botha, the government developed a new policy called ‘total strategy’ to counter what they saw as the ‘total onslaught’ of revolutionaries from inside and outside SA. This included: Reforming labour policies to suit the needs of the industrial economy and improving conditions in black urban communities. The 1982 Black Local Authorities Act The tri-cameral constitution of 1983 The 1982 Black Local Authorities Act 84 This act created elected Community Councils with administrative power over local community affairs and services. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook Unit 3 They hoped that offering black urban communities some control over local affairs would satisfy their political aspirations and they would not demand democratic rights at national level. To encourage confidence in these councils, the government also provided resources to upgrade townships for those legally living in the cities, including electrification and housing programmes. PLUS The tri-cameral constitution of 1983 In 1983 the government changed the constitution of SA. PW Botha took the position of President with increased executive power over government and the military. In an attempt to win coloured and Indian minorities away from a united movement against apartheid, the 1983 constitution created three separate parliamentary assemblies. = Tri-cameral parliament The ‘House of Assembly’ → elected by whites The ‘House of Delegates’ → elected by Indians The ‘House of Representatives’ → elected by coloureds. Each assembly had control of the ‘own affairs’ of that group such as education, housing and health services. BUT The white assembly retained power over everything else – the police, army, home and foreign affairs and the economy. The ‘tri-cameral’ constitution created the illusion of sharing power without giving up control. It convinced no one except the government itself and those whites who supported it. Growing power of Trade Union Movement Black workers rediscover their power In 1973, mainly in Durban, over 60 000 black workers took part in 160 strikes for better wages and working conditions. The Durban strikes were a spontaneous outburst of worker anger at low wages, the rising cost of living and the racism of employers. Some business leaders and government officials realised that they needed some kind of worker organisation that they could talk to. New laws were passed that allowed black workers to form trade unions as long as they registered with the government and focused only on workplace issues. The reforms were intended to control trade unions, but they also created space for workers to learn new skills of independent organisation. While black university campuses were mobilising around BC, some white democratic student organisations helped establish strong, independent and nonracial trade unions. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook 85 Unit 3 Most members of the independent unions were urban residents, but in 1982 the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was re-established and soon had over 100 000 members, many of them migrant workers living in the ‘homelands’. Political alliances with communities and liberation movements: Before 1984: Striking workers called on all unions and communities to boycott the products of the companies. Most of the new unions took care to focus mainly on negotiating improved wages and working conditions for their members, rather than political issues. At times of violent police repression in communities, workers also protested by staying away from work. The state acted ruthlessly against union leaders who they thought were too ‘political’ and many were detained or served with banning orders. 1984 onwards: Apartheid repression was at its height = bloody and ruthless. → Most unionists were feeling that the unions were strong enough and could not remain aloof from the political struggle going on in their communities. THIS LED TO 86 The introduction of COSATU In 1985 the Unions brought their power into the popular insurrection with the formation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). COSATU affiliated to the UDF and began to coordinate its activities with the mass democratic movement. Unions became one of the most effective forms of resistance organisation. COSATU actions COSATU mobilised the international trade union movement to call on companies to disinvest from South Africa. At home it supported UDF campaigns for the release of Mandela and political prisoners and the unbanning of the ANC and SA Communist Party. In May 1986 COSATU organised the largest strike in SA’s history when 1.5 million workers stayed away from work for 3 days demanding that the government recognise May Day, International Worker’s Day, as a public holiday. State of emergency Under the state of emergency, the government detained the COSATU President Elijah Barayi and Secretary-General Jay Naidoo and 200 other union officials. But COSATU continued to play a major role in the mass democratic struggle right up to 1990 and beyond. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook Unit 3 Response to PW Botha’s reforms: the UDF New forms of organisation In the repressive climate of the early 1980s, most forms of organisation that emerged were local community organisations with local leaders that were more difficult to suppress than national organisations, including: Youth and student organisations: In 1979, the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) was formed, which became affiliated to the UDF in 1984. COSAS was different from earlier student organisations in that it consciously formed links with trade unions and civic associations. Elected civic associations: Breakdowns in services led to communities forming alternative locally elected civic associations, which organised parents and township residents in campaigns around community issues like local government, rent, municipal services, evictions and removals. Special interest and service organisations: These groups were united by a commitment to a non-racial democratic society that promoted human rights, including women’s rights, education, children’s rights, repression monitoring, environmental sustainability, legal aid and anti-conscription groups. In this way the people of SA organised themselves into hundreds of democratic community-based bodies that the state could not destroy simply by arresting a few leaders. The United Democratic Front (1983) In August 1983 more than 600 youth, student, church, civic, women’s groups and trade unions came together in Mitchell’s Plein, Cape Town to launch the United Democratic Front (UDF). Aim: to unite all the existing community organisations into a broad movement for democracy. It wasn’t a political party, but a “front”, working to establish a non-racial democratic government in SA. Advantages: it was non-racial and could organise openly while the ANC was underground. New forms of protest action 1 Boycotts New UDF affiliates mushroomed all over the country focusing on local issues. Through the UDF these protests were linked into national political campaigns. These organisations’ main weapon was the boycott, i.e. Communities often called consumer boycotts of particular products in support of workers on strike in factories that made these products. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook 87 Unit 3 The outcome of the boycotts was two-fold: they caused a breakdown in local government, exposing the tri-cameral system as a sham, and also seriously disrupted black education, with youth organisations staging boycotts of schools in protest against the system of inferior black education. As they gained in confidence the member organisations of the UDF began to adopt ANC policy documents, slogans and symbols of struggle. The Freedom Charter was adopted by hundreds of organisations and came to be seen as the basis for a new South Africa. Black opposition to UDF Inkatha: A Zulu cultural movement led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. = Of all non-UDF organisations, it had the biggest genuine support base – mostly among the rural kwaZulu ‘homeland’. In the 1980s it was transformed into a political party, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), presenting itself as an alternative to the UDF and ANC. It used violence to take control of communities, leading to a civil war in KwaZulu. An important minority of black organisations: = While many BC leaders moved into the UDF, an important minority of black organisations like AZAPO remained narrowly committed to BC and a radical form of socialism. They formed the National Forum and criticised the UDF’s non-racialism and commitment to the Freedom Charter. The PAC aligned itself to this group. 2 88 Insurrection By 1984 a new language was being spoken among UDF affiliates, in that they would escalate all forms of resistance and make themselves ungovernable. In September 1984, one year after the UDF was formed, the police fired on a rent protest march in the Vaal triangle township of Sebokeng. The Vaal townships erupted. The government declared a state of emergency over all unrest-affected areas. Troops occupied the townships and South Africa was on fire again. In January 1985, in his New Year message, ANC president Oliver Tambo echoed the call to make South Africa ungovernable. In June 1986 the emergency was extended across the whole country to stop ‘Soweto Day’ celebrations that were planned everywhere. 25 000 activists were detained. In 1987 the UDF and many other organisations were banned. Under the emergency laws, the police and army had extraordinary powers to do virtually anything to deal with the perceived crisis, without any accountability. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook Unit 3 Expanding the Front – the Black Sash and the ECC UDF and affiliated organisations The UDF was committed to nonracialism and welcomed white organisations that committed themselves to democracy and human rights. One example was the Black Sash. It was a conscious policy of the UDF to ‘deprive the enemy of every support base and of every potential ally’. 3 The Black Sash Formed in 1955 by Sheena Duncan and other white women to protest against apartheid laws. Black Sash volunteers also set up legal advice offices all over the country, publicising acts of police violence and providing support to detainees, political prisoners and their families during the 1980s. The End Conscription Campaign (ECC) In 1983 a group of conscientious objectors launched the ECC to encourage young white men to refuse to fight in the SADF. It believed that the state was using the SADF to suppress opposition to apartheid. The ECC affiliated to the UDF and worked to build an anti-war culture among whites using wall murals, T-shirts, posters and musical concerts and festivals. 4 The Mass Democratic Movement After the UDF was banned people started referring to the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM). Jay Naidoo, the General Secretary of COSATU, described the MDM in these terms in 1989: The MDM is a movement, not an organisation, comprising mass-based organisations (such as youth, workers, students, women and civics). It is the strategic alliance between COSATU and the UDF. It is committed to non-racialism, democratic practices and grassroots accountability, the primacy of African leadership and leadership of the working class. It recognises the centrality of the ANC in reaching any solution in the country and is also united by a programme of mass action, aimed at smashing apartheid and rebuilding South Africa along the lines of the Freedom Charter. SA became ungovernable! © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook 89 Unit 3 The cost of ungovernability While progress was being made in terms of building a non-racial opposition to the state, there were negative outcomes too. All this was achieved at great cost to the black communities and to the country. The education boycotts left almost a whole generation of black youth with little or no education and little chance of finding meaningful employment. The rent boycotts led to a breakdown of local services that civics and street committees could not adequately maintain. Boycotts also created a culture of resistance to any kind of payment for social services such as electricity, water, refuse collection, etc. While conflict within communities intensified (with people perceived as collaborating with the state either attacked or killed), so did police violence as well as youth violence against collaborators. As the police started arming and supporting groups of migrant workers to attack youth groups and trade unionists, the conflict grew into a virtual civil war. Reform was only one side of total strategy. As its reforms were rejected, the state was forced more and more to rely on repression to suppress the democratic movement. Repression and destabilisation In 1985 after the Vaal uprising, the state declared the first of three states of emergency. All public meetings were banned, activists detained, troops occupied townships and many organisations such as COSAS were banned as well. The most used and most effective weapon in the state’s repressive arsenal was detention without trial, which was often the reaction to civil society protests. Some activists were detained for as long as 33 months without access to friends, family or even legal representatives – much of it in solitary confinement. A pattern was emerging that included a ‘systematic assassination of the middle level of leadership, not only of the United Democratic Front, but of other organisations as well’. The militarisation of society During the 1980s white society became militarised. All white men were conscripted for two years military service. This meant the government could mobilise up to 400 000 trained soldiers when it needed them. Inside SA the government and army set up joint management centres in almost every black community, which often took over the failed community councils to provide services and to try to win support by upgrading townships. But they also co-ordinated police and army activities , resulting in violence. More sinister were the state’s conscious efforts to exploit divisions within black communities, by setting up armed vigilante groups made up mostly of conservative migrant workers, who terrorised townships and rural areas with beatings, murders and destruction of communities they perceived as loyal to the UDF or ANC. 90 © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook Unit 3 International response – International anti-apartheid movements The struggle against apartheid was also an international struggle for justice and was greatly influenced by: Anti-apartheid movements in Western countries who put pressure on their governments and private corporations to, in turn, put pressure on the SA government to negotiate an end to apartheid. Sport boycotts Sanctions Disinvestment. The people and governments in the frontline states neighbouring SA, who provided support and protection for liberation movements, and some of whom paid an extremely heavy price for giving this support. The Organisation of African Unity recognised ANC and PAC as the legitimate representatives of SA people. Independent states like Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia allowed ANC to open offices in their countries. MK was able to establish military bases closer to home, while their incursions into SA increased steadily during the 1980s, although never posing a serious military threat. Result PW Botha tried to create a ‘constellation of Southern African States’ that would be friendly to SA, including a few homeland leaders and conservative African leaders. The majority of frontline states refused to join the apartheid alliance. The SA government embarked on a policy of destabilisation – especially in Angola and Mozambique. This included: direct military raids and assassinations of ANC members in frontline states setting up and providing training, resources and support for anti-government movements. After 1982, SA launched military raids, sabotage, assassinations, kidnappings, bombings and espionage in several frontline states, including: Mozambique, Angola, Botswana and Lesotho. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook 91 Unit 3 The beginning of the end A number of factors led to the end of apartheid 1 Military defeat at Cuito Cuanavale, Angola In 1988 the SA army was fighting deep in Angola in support of UNITA and to weaken SWAPO. But a combined force of Angolan and Cuban forces supported by the Cuban Air Force inflicted a major military defeat at the town of Cuito Cuanavale. The SA military command was shaken and hurriedly withdrew from Angola. South Africans realised they were not as invincible as they thought and the war so far from its borders was costing millions every day. Independence negotiations with SWAPO followed quickly and in 1989 SWAPO won Namibia’s first democratic election. The defeat at Cuito Cuanavale strengthened those members of the SA government who were beginning to look at negotiation as a possible solution in South Africa itself. South African economy in trouble By 1989 the economy was in deep trouble: disinvestment and inflation were slowly growing; increasing unemployment led to greater hardship and unrest. The state could only cover the cost of apartheid and repression by borrowing massively. Reckless government spending, mismanagement, corruption, costly military campaigns, strikes and other disruptions in the economy were all leading SA towards an economic disaster. Internal mass resistance A nationwide Defiance Campaign called on people everywhere to defy apartheid segregation of living areas, services, beaches, buses and trains. In spite of the bannings, in 1989 the MDM organised a hunger strike of detainees in prisons across SA that led to many being released. Banned individuals and organisations simply ignored their bans and openly organised again. When FW de Klerk Mass non-racial demonstrations moved out of the replaced PW Botha as townships and into the white cities. President in August 1989, the troops and police were more By the end of the year, there was a sense that things were tolerant of the protest changing. FW de Klerk recognised that the homeland actions. system was outdated and accepted the principle of powersharing with blacks in SA. 2 3 1 92 The Harare Declaration In December 1989 The Harare Declaration was adopted by a conference of 4 600 MDM affiliates in Johannesburg called the Conference for a Democratic Future. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook Unit 3 Summarised principles: SA will become a united, non-racial, democratic state where everyone, regardless of race, colour, sex or creed, enjoys equal citizenship and universally recognised human rights. This laid the foundation for the climate for negotiations. RESULTS 2 The Declaration instructed that the apartheid state: Release all political prisoners and refrain from imposing any restrictions on them. Lift all bans and restrictions on all restricted organisations and persons. Remove all troops from the townships. End the State of Emergency and repeal all legislation designed to circumscribe political activity. Cease all political trials and political executions. The Declaration also indicated the way forward in the process of negotiation: Discussions to take place between the liberation movement and the SA regime to achieve the suspension of hostilities on both sides by agreeing to a mutually binding cease-fire. Next would be the formation of an interim government to supervise the process of the drawing up and adoption of the new Constitution, which would include the principles outlined in the Harare Declaration. All armed hostilities will be deemed to have formally terminated. Finally, the international community would lift all sanctions imposed on the state. Discussions between De Klerk and Mandela: FW de Klerk’s decision to release certain prisoners from Robben Island encouraged Mandela, and the two eventually met to discuss the way forward in December 1989. On 2 February 1990, De Klerk announced in a speech to the SA Parliament that the ANC, PAC and SACP would be unbanned and that Mandela would be released. This happened on 11 February 1990 when Mandela walked out of prison in Paarl, after which he made a momentous speech to supporters on the steps of the Cape Town City Hall. Subsequently, Mandela and his wife Winnie toured overseas to reconnect with leaders in exile, supporters and benefactors and to set up structures for the change that was to come. The release of Mandela from prison and the collapse of apartheid brought victory for South Africans who had been part of the struggle for democracy in the country – it is important to recognise the supreme price that was paid by so many to achieve this. © Via Afrika Publishers » History 12 Study Guide eBook 93