This note pack includes in-depth and detailed notes on Civil Resistance in South Africa covered in the Grade 12 IEB History syllabus. Everything you need for your exams or tests! These notes have been written by two History students who received A's from these study notes. These notes are SAGS comp...
Civil resistance in South
Africa
Unit 4. 1: the challenge of black consciousness to the apartheid
state
ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT (AAM):
1955:
- Bandung Conference in Indonesia
- Predicted that economic sanctions would change SA attitude
- All African People’s Conference called for same
1960s:
- Before Sharpeville, Anti-Apartheid rally held in Trafalgar Square, London.
- After Sharpeville, public media turned against SA
- UN Security Council demanded an end to Apartheid
- Pass Resolution 1761 which requested a boycott of SA goods
- Not all members supported economic sanctions
- SA banned from Olympic Games (Mexico) in 1964.
- Moses Kotane (SACP) visited USSR to gain support
- USSR provided funding, education and military training to the Liberation Movement -
- 1963 – Organisation of African Unity formed (OAU)
- OAU made it more difficult to trade by banning airplanes and boats from entering
- AAM officially formed by Kader Asmal
1970s:
- Frontline States formed by Tanzania, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia in support of
democratic SA
- Allowed ANC/PAC military bases in their country
- Sweden gave ANC financial support in 1970’s
- 1977 – UN mandatory ban on weapon sales to SA
- Gleneagles Agreement – no sporting events with SA
,The nature of the apartheid state in the 1970’s and the
1980’s:
1960s:
- Little protest in South Africa during the 1960’s as a result of state repression
- African National Congress (ANC) & the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) was banned after the Sharpeville
shootings in 1960
- Government also:
→ increased state control over the media
→ gave police power to detain people for indefinite periods without trial
→ placed critics under restriction orders or house arrest
- Government became increasingly militarised:
→ huge sums of money spent on armaments
→ all young white men had to do military service
- “Separate Development” Policy was implemented in order to control urbanisation
→ Africans were confined to the homelands (called Bantustans)
1970s:
IMPLEMENTATION OF BANTUSTANS SYSTEM/HOMELANDS:
- In 1970 all Africans had to become citizens of one of the homelands instead of being accepted as South
African citizens
- Government attempted to promote self- government under homelands chiefs
- 10 homelands created in SA:
E.g. Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Venda, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and
QwaQwa.
- Each ethnic group would have its own state with its own political system and economy, and each would
rely on its own labour force.
- Gov. declared 4 of the Bantustans “independent” → Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and the Ciskei
- However, still remained dependent on the Pretoria government
- The remaining Bantustans remained self-governing but had no independent rights.
- No foreign states recognised the independence of the homelands
- This was an attempt to counter demand for political rights within the rest of South Africa
- This denied black South Africans political rights in the rest of the country
- Bantustans became puppet states
- In the early 1970s people started to turn against the apartheid government
- 1973 world oil crisis (oil-producing countries in the Middle East raised the price of oil) caused the
economy to decline
- Bantu Education policy resulted in a lack of skilled labour in the economy
, STRIKES:
- 1973
- General dissatisfaction led to multiple strikes, mainly in Durban and East Rand
- Black trade unions were suppressed and without legal rights
- Workers strikes supported by black community & growing businesses (esp. ones with foreign investors)
- Put pressure on gov. to make changes
- In 1975 Angola and Mozambique gained independence
- Mozambique → The Frelimo Party (Mozambique Liberation Front) lead by Samora Machel came to power
- Angola → the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) gained control
- This allowed the ANC and PAC to establish bases closer to South Africa
- The liberation of the two former Portuguese colonies gave hope to many black South African that things
in South Africa could change too
- More outbreaks of protests in 1976 in Soweto and nationwide
UNBANNING OF TRADE UNIONS:
- Trade unions banned in 1956
→ No rights, no say
→ Can’t strike to get better conditions, so employer can keep employees
→ Politics controls economics
→ Workers rights interlinked with politics
→ Trade unions therefore interested in the political side – if more communism, capitalist therefore install
in economy
1979:
- Black trade unions officially recognised after Wiehahn commission
- Rapid growth of trade unions over the next year
- Alliances formed with communities and liberation movements
- Demanded an end to Apartheid
- Organised stay-aways and boycotts (300 days lost to strike activity between 1982 & 1984)
- Strikers won better wages and the first black trade unions were created
P.W. Botha:
- 1978 – 1984 → Prime Minister
- 1984 – 14 August 1989 → President
- Nicknamed “Die Groot Krokodil”
- PW Botha had been John Vorster’s defense minister
- In 1978 he succeeded Vorster as Prime Minister after the Information Scandal (Muldergate)
- The Muldergate scandal was a result of gov attempts to influence international and local public opinion
about the Apartheid government
- Once he was Prime Minister he kept the post of Minister of Defence
- He continued the process of strengthening the South African Army through forced conscription
- During this time military spending more than quadrupled
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