Main article: Bantustan The "homeland" system During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the government implemented a policy of 'resettlement', to force people to move to their designated 'group areas'. Some argue that over three and a half million people were forced to resettle during this period. These removals included:
The best-publicised forced removals of the 1950s occurred in
Johannesburg, when 60,000 people were moved to the new township of
Soweto (an acronym for South Western Townships).
Until 1955,
Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where blacks were allowed to own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. As industry in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It could also boast the only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg. It was, however, one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg and held an almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 blacks it contained, both in terms of its sheer vibrancy and its unique culture. Despite a vigorous ANC protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of Sophiatown began on
9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early hours, heavily armed police entered Sophiatown to force residents out of their homes and load their belongings onto government trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land, thirteen miles from the city centre, known as Meadowlands (that the government had purchased in 1953). Meadowlands became part of a new planned black city called Soweto. The Sophiatown slum was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new white suburb named Triomf (Triumph) was built in its place. This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself over the next few years, and was not limited to people of African descent. Forced removals from areas like Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in
Durban, and
District Six in
Cape Town, where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on the Cape Flats, were carried out under the
Group Areas Act of 1950. Ultimately, nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian and Chinese people were moved in terms of the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 white people were also forced to move because an area approximately the size of Maryland was transferred from "white South Africa" into the black homelands.
People re-located due to slum clearance programmes
Labour tenants on white-owned farms
The inhabitants of the so-called 'black spots', areas of black-owned land surrounded by white farms
The families of workers living in townships close to the homelands
'Surplus people' from urban areas, including thousands of people from the Western Cape (which was declared a 'Coloured Labour Preference Area') who were moved to the
Transkei and
Ciskei homelands.
Forced removals Main article: Coloured The population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Indian, and Coloured. (These terms are capitalised to denote their legal definitions in South African law). The Coloured group included people of mixed
Bantu,
Khoisan, and
European descent (with some
Malay ancestry, especially in the
Western Cape). The Apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria at the time that the Population Registration Act was implemented to determine who was Coloured. Minor officials would administer tests to determine if someone should be categorised either Coloured or Black, or if another person should be categorised either Coloured or White. Different members of the same family found themselves in different race groups. Further tests determined membership of the various sub-racial groups of the Coloureds. Many of those who formerly belonged to this racial group are opposed to the continuing use of the term "coloured" in the post-apartheid era, though the term no longer signifies any legal meaning. The expressions 'so-called Coloured' (
Afrikaans sogenaamde Kleurlinge) and 'brown people' (
bruin mense) acquired a wide usage in the 1980s.
Discriminated against by apartheid, Coloureds were as a matter of state policy forced to live in separate
townships — in some cases leaving homes their families had occupied for generations — and received an inferior education, though better than that provided to Black South Africans. They played an important role in the struggle against apartheid: for example the
African Political Organisation established in 1902 had an exclusively coloured membership.
From about 1950 to 1983, voting rights were denied to Coloureds in the same way that they were denied to blacks (see
Coloured). In 1983, the Constitution was reformed to allow the Coloured and Asian minorities participation in separate Houses in a
Tricameral Parliament. The theory was that the Coloured minority could be granted voting rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands. These separate arrangements continued until the abolition of apartheid. The Tricameral reforms led to the formation of the (anti-apartheid) UDF as a vehicle to try and prevent the co-option of coloureds and Indians into an alliance with white South Africans. The subsequent battles between the UDF and the NP government from 1983 to 1989 were to became the most intense period of struggle between left-wing and right-wing South Africans.
Colour classification Defining its East Asian population, which is a tiny minority in
South Africa but who do not physically appear to belong any of the four designated groups, was a constant dilemma for the apartheid government. Chinese South Africans who were descendants of migrant workers who came to work in the gold mines around Johannesburg in the late
19th century, were usually classified as 'Indian' and hence 'non-white', whereas immigrants from
Republic of China (Taiwan),
South Korea, and
Japan, with which
South Africa maintained diplomatic relations, were considered 'honorary white' and termed 'Worthy Oriental Gentlemen', and thus granted the same privileges as whites. It should be noted that "Non-Whites" were sometimes granted an 'honorary white' status as well, based on the government's belief that they were "civilised" and possessed Western values. This was frequently the case with African-Americans.
Other minorities Internal resistance In 1949 the conservative leadership of the
African National Congress(ANC) was overthrown by the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). The ANCYL, led by Walter Sisulu,
Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo advocated a radical black nationalist programme which combined the Africanist ideas of Anton Lembede with Marxism. Once the ANCYL took control of the ANC, the organization advocated (for the first time) a policy of open defiance and resistance. This unleashed a 1950s resistance campaign that resulted in occasional violent clashes. In June 1955, at a congress held near
Kliptown, near
Johannesburg, a number of organizations, including the
Indian Congress and the ANC, adopted a
Freedom Charter. This Charter articulated a vision for South Africa radically different to apartheid's partition policy -- the Freedom Charter called for one-person-one-vote democracy within a single unified state, and for a socialist redistribution of wealth.
The Sharpeville Massacre Sharpeville signalled that the South African government was not going to yield to the mood of black nationalism then sweeping across Africa, and that white South Africans did not accept that they were "colonials" to be swept into the sea by "decolonization". Sharpeville thus foreshadowed the coming conflict between black nationalsts and Afrikaner nationalists over the next thirty years.
In the wake of the shooting, a massive
stay-away from work was organised and demonstrations continued. Prime Minister
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd declared a
state of emergency, giving security forces the right to detain people without
trial. Over 18,000 were
arrested, including much of the ANC and PAC leadership, and both organizations were banned. The ANC and PAC meanwhile ran campaigns of
sabotage and terrorism through their armed wings,
Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, MK) and Poqo ("Pure" or "Alone"). Nelson Mandela, who was the commander of the ANC's military wing (MK), had developed the "M Plan" (Mandela Plan) of launching a guerilla war modelled upon the FLN's guerilla struggle in Algeria. MK ran a far more successful guerrilla campaign than Poqo. In July 1963, members of the ANC
underground movement, including
Govan Mbeki,
Ahmed Kathrada and
Dennis Goldberg, were arrested.
Together with
Nelson Mandela, who had by then already been arrested and charged with terrorism, they were all tried for
treason at the widely publicised
Rivonia Trial. In June 1964, Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism.
Oliver Tambo, another member of the ANC leadership, managed to escape South Africa and was to lead the ANC in exile for another thirty years.
The trial was condemned by the
United Nations Security Council, and was a major force in the introduction of
international sanctions against the South African government. After Sharpeville the ANC, PAC and
South African Communist Party were banned, and leaders like Mandela were either in
jail or in
exile. The State of Emergency was de-proclaimed; the economy boomed; and the government began implementing apartheid by building the infrastructures of the ten separate
Homelands, and relocating blacks into these homelands. In 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed to death in parliament, but his policies continued under
B.J. Vorster and later
P.W. Botha.
Resistance goes underground During the 1970s, resistance again gained force, first channelled through
trade unions and strikes, and then spearheaded by the
South African Students' Organisation under the charismatic leadership of
Steve Biko. Biko, a medical student, was the main force behind the growth of South Africa's
Black Consciousness Movement, which stressed the need for psychological liberation,
black pride, and non-violent opposition to apartheid
The policy was deeply unpopular, since Afrikaans was regarded by some as the language of the oppressor. On
30 April 1976, students at
Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion spread to other schools in Soweto. The students organised a mass rally for
16 June, which turned violent — police responded with bullets to stones thrown by the students. The first student to be shot by the police was
Hastings Ndlovu, aged 15. The image of
Hector Pieterson who was killed at age 12 became an international icon of the uprising. The official death toll on the day was 23 dead, including the two children, but some placed it as high as 200. The incident triggered widespread violence throughout South Africa, which claimed further lives.
On 18 August 1977,
Steve Biko was arrested. Unidentified security police beat him until he lapsed into a
coma; he went without medical treatment for three days and finally died in Pretoria. At the subsequent inquest, the
magistrate ruled that no one was to blame, although the
South African Medical Association eventually took action against the doctors who had failed to treat Biko. Young blacks committed themselves to a struggle against apartheid under the catchphrase of "
Liberation before education," and the black communities were politicised.
Black Consciousness Movement While the majority of white South African voters supported the apartheid system, a substantial minority opposed it. In parliamentary elections during the 1970s and 1980s between 15% and 20% of white voters voted for the liberal
Progressive Party, whose MP
Helen Suzman provided for many years the only Parliamentary opposition to apartheid. Suzman's critics argue that she did not achieve any notable political successes, but helped to shore up claims by the Nationalists that internal, public criticism of apartheid was permitted. Suzman's supporters point to her use of her parliamentary privileges to help the poorest and most disempowered South Africans in any way she could.
Harry Schwarz was leader of the opposition for the
United Party in 1958-61. Schwarz was one of the defence barristers in the
Rivonia Trial. He continually petitioned for the release of
Nelson Mandela. In 1975 Schwarz left the United Party and formed the
Reform Party which later joined the Progressive Party. in 1991 Harry Schwarz was made ambassador to the
United States. Non-violent resistance to apartheid came from the
Black Sash, an organisation of white women formed in 1955 to oppose the removal of Coloured (mixed-race) voters from the
Cape Province voters' roll. Covert resistance was expressed by banned organisations like the largely white
South African Communist Party, whose leader
Joe Slovo was also Chief of Staff of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Whites also played a significant role in opposing apartheid during the 1980s through the
United Democratic Front and
End Conscription Campaign. Cultural opposition to apartheid came from internationally known writers like
Breyten Breytenbach,
André Brink and
Alan Paton (who founded the
South African Liberal Party) and clerics like
Beyers Naudé.
Some of the first violent resistance to the system was organised by the Africa Resistance Movement (ARM) who were responsible for setting off bombs at power stations and notably the Park Station bomb. The membership of this group was virtually all drawn from the marginalized white intellectual scene.
White resistance Main article: Foreign relations of South Africa International relations Disinvestment ·
Academic boycott UN Resolution 1761 (1962)
Crime of Apartheid Convention (1973)
Gleneagles Agreement (1977)
Sullivan Principles (1977)
Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (1986)
Anti-Apartheid Movement UN Special Committee against Apartheid Artists United Against Apartheid Halt All Racist Tours 1964 Conference for Economic Sanctions 1978 World Conference against Racism Elimination of Racism Day Biko (song) ·
Activists On
6 November 1962, the
United Nations General Assembly passed
Resolution 1761, condemning South African apartheid policies. On
7 August 1963 the
United Nations Security Council established a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa. Following the Soweto uprising in 1976 and its brutal suppression by the apartheid regime, the arms embargo was made mandatory by the UN Security Council on
4 November 1977 and South Africa became increasingly isolated internationally. Numerous conferences were held and the United Nations passed resolutions condemning South Africa, including the
World Conference Against Racism in 1978 and 1983. A significant
divestment movement started, pressuring investors to refuse to invest in South African companies or companies that did business with South Africa. South African sports teams were barred from participation in international events, and South African culture and tourism were
boycotted.
After much debate, by the late 1980s the
United States, the
United Kingdom, and 23 other nations had passed laws placing various trade sanctions on South Africa. The analysis concluded that in many instances sanctions undermined effective reform forces, such as the changing economic and social order within South Africa. Furthermore, it was argued that forces encouraging economic growth and development resulted in a more international and liberal outlook amongst South Africans, and were far more powerful agents of reform than sanctions.
Sanctions While international opposition to apartheid grew, the Nordic countries in particular provided both moral and financial support for the ANC. On
21 February 1986 – a week before he was murdered –
Sweden's prime minister
Olof Palme made the keynote address to the
Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid held in
Stockholm. In addressing the hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathizers as well as leaders and officials from the ANC and the
Anti-Apartheid Movement such as
Oliver Tambo, Palme declared:
"Apartheid cannot be reformed; it has to be eliminated."
Other Western countries adopted a more ambivalent position. Until 1986, both the
Reagan and
Thatcher administrations in the US and UK followed a 'constructive engagement' policy with the apartheid government, vetoing the imposition of UN economic sanctions on South Africa, as they both fiercely believed in free trade, and seeing South Africa as a bastion against Marxist forces in Southern Africa. Thatcher declared the ANC a terrorist organisation,
Western influence Main article: South African Border War South African Border War By 1980, as international opinion turned decisively against the apartheid regime, the government and much of the white population increasingly looked upon the country as a
bastion besieged by
communism and radical black nationalists. Considerable effort was put into circumventing
sanctions, and the government even developed
nuclear weapons, allegedly with the help of
Israel.
A number of African countries contributed materially and morally to the ANC's guerilla-insurgency campaign within South Africa.
Total onslaught South Africa had a policy to attack terrorist bases in neighbouring countries. These attacks were mainly aimed at ANC, PAC and SWAPO guerrilla-bases and safe houses in retaliation for acts of terror - like bomb explosions and massacres(such as the Cape town church massacre) and guerrilla actions (like sabotage) by ANC, PAC and Swapo guerrillas in South Africa and Namibia. The country also aided organisations in surrounding countries who were actively combatting the spread of communism in Southern Africa. The results of these policies included:
In 1984 Mozambican president
Samora Machel signed the
Nkomati Accord with South Africa's president
P.W. Botha, in an attempt to rebuild Mozambique's economy. South Africa agreed to cease supporting anti-government forces. In 1986 President Machel himself was killed in
an air crash in mountainous terrain near the South African border after returning from a meeting in Zambia. South Africa was accused of continuing its aid to RENAMO and of having caused the crash using a new advanced electronic beacon capable of luring aircraft into crashing. This was never proved and is still a subject of controversy. The
South African Margo Commission found that the crash was an accident while a Soviet delegation issued a
minority report implicating South Africa.
Support for anti-government guerrilla groups such as
UNITA in
Angola and
RENAMO in
Mozambique South African Defence Force (SADF; now the
South African National Defence Force; SANDF) hit-squad raids into front-line states. Bombing raids were also conducted into neighbouring states.
A full-scale invasion of Angola: this was partly in support of UNITA, but was also an attempt to strike at
SWAPO bases.
Targeting of exiled ANC leaders abroad: Joe Slovo's wife
Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb in Maputo, and 'death squads' of the
Civil Co-operation Bureau and the Directorate of Military Intelligence attempted to carry out assassinations on ANC targets in
Brussels,
Paris and Stockholm, as well as burglaries and bombings in
London.
Cross Border Raids The National Party government implemented, alongside apartheid, a program of social
conservatism. Pornographic movies, gambling and other vices were banned. At the same time, it instituted the
International Freedom Foundation. Printed or filmed pornography (of even the mildest variety) was banned and its possession was punishable by incarceration.
Television
was not introduced until 1975 because it was viewed as dangerous by right-wingers. Television was also run on apartheid lines -- TV1 broadcast in Afrikaans and English (and was geared to a white audience); TV2 in Zulu and Xhosa (and geared to a black audience); TV3 in Sotho, Tswana and Pedi (and geared to a black audience); and TV4 showed mostly African-American programmes (for an urban-black audience). All TV channels were government-owned and acted as propaganda agents for apartheid.
Sunday was considered holy. Cinemas, bottle stores and most other businesses were forbidden from operating on Sundays.
Abortion and
sex education were also restricted; abortion was legal only in cases of rape or if the mother's life was threatened.
Conservatism During the 1980s the government, led by P.W. Botha, became increasingly preoccupied with security. On the advice of American political scientist, Samuel Huntington, Botha's government set up a powerful state security apparatus to 'protect' the state against an anticipated upsurge in political violence that the reforms were expected to trigger . The 1980s became a period a considerable political unrest, wiith the government becoming increasingly dominated by Botha's circle of generals and police chiefs (called securocrats). These securocrats managed the States of Emergencies.
Botha's years in power were also marked by numerous military interventions in the states bordering South Africa and by an extensive military and political campaign to eliminate SWAPO in
Namibia. Within South Africa, vigorous police action and strict enforcement of security legislation resulted in hundreds of arrests and bannings and an effective end to the ANC's sabotage campaign.
State security During the last years of
apartheid rule in
South Africa, the country was more or less in a constant
state of emergency.
Increasing civil unrest and township violence led to the government declaring a state of emergency on
20 July 1985. Then president
P.W. Botha declared a state of emergency in 36 magisterial districts. Areas affected were the
Eastern Cape, and the
PWV region ("
Pretoria,
Witwatersrand,
Vereeniging"). Three months later the
Western Cape was included as well. During this state of emergency about 2,436 people were detained under the
Internal Security Act. This act gave police and the military sweeping powers. The government could implement curfews controlling the movement of people. The president could rule by decree without referring to the constitution or to parliament.
Four days before the 10-year commemoration of the
Soweto uprising, another state of emergency was declared on
12 June 1986 to cover the whole country. The government amended the
Public Security Act, expanding its powers to include the right to declare certain places "
unrest areas". This allowed the state to employ extraordinary measures to crush protests in these areas. Television cameras were banned from entering "unrest areas". The state broadcaster, the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (
SABC) provided propaganda in support of the government. This version of reality was challenged by a range of pro-ANC alternative publications.
The state of emergency continued until
1990, when
F.W. de Klerk became the
State President, and lifted the 30-year ban on leading
anti-apartheid group the
African National Congress, the smaller
Pan Africanist Congress and the
South African Communist Party. He also made his first public commitment to release jailed ANC leader
Nelson Mandela, returned to
press freedom and suspend the
death penalty.
State of emergency In 1982, the first recorded death from
AIDS occurred in the country. Within a decade, the number of recorded AIDS cases (overwhelmingly in the black population) had risen to over 1,000, and by the mid-1990s, it had reached 10,000.
In the late 1980s, the
South African Chamber of Mines began an education campaign to try to stem the rise of cases. But without a change in the underlying conditions of mine workers, a major factor contributing to the epidemic, success could hardly be expected. Long periods away from home under bleak conditions and a few days leave a month were the apartheid-induced realities of the life thousands of miners and other labourers worked. Compounding the problem was the fact that as of the mid-1990s, many health officials still focused more on the incidence of
tuberculosis than HIV.
HIV/AIDS epidemic See also: Wind of Change (speech) Serious political violence was a feature of South Africa from 1985 to 1995. There was virtually a civil war between left-wing and right-wing South Africans. From 1985-1988 the P.W. Botha government tried to crush left-wing organizations. For three years police and soldiers patrolled South African towns. Thousands of people were detained. Deaths mounted on both sides. Many of those detained by the government were interrogated and tortured; while anti-government activists used the "necklace method" (burning people alive) to kill black people suspected of supporting apartheid. The government banned television cameras from filming "unrest zones".
The ANC and the PAC exploded bombs in restaurants, shopping centres and in front of government buildings such as magistrates courts, killing and maiming civilians and government officials in the process. It was the ANC's goal to make black townships ungovernable by forcing residents to stop paying for services. This was done by attacking black town councillors & black policemen and their families with petrol bombs and using "necklaces" (burning alive those black people who were believe to be collaborating with the apartheid-government).
Residents who resisted such tactics were murdered by placing a burning tire around their necks, a process known as
necklacing. During ANC-enforced consumer boycotts residents were forced to eat soap powder and drink kerosene if they were alleged to have bought from white-owned shops. During this period an average of more than 100 people died as a result of black-on-black violence in the black townships every month with the figure increasing to as high as 259 per month between 1990 and 1993.
In the early 1980s, PW Botha's National Party government recognized the need to reform apartheid. These reforms were driven by a combination of internal violence, international condemnation, changes within the National Party's constituency, and changing demographics — whites constituted only 16% of the total population and dropping, in comparison to 20% fifty years earlier. P.W. Botha told white South Africans to "adapt or die". In 1984 the so-called Tricameral reforms were introduced which, in fact, triggered the political violence of the 1980s. Between 1986-1988 all petty apartheid laws were repealed. In 1984 a new constitution was introduced, which gave Parliamentary representation to coloureds and Indians (but not to blacks who were expected to remain citizens of the homelands). Botha's government stopped short of reform that included releasing ANC, PAC and SA Communist Party political prisoners, and Botha often reiterating that he would only negotiate with groups who rejected political violence. The 1983 Tricameral reforms led to both a right-wing and a left-wing backlash, such that unrest and political violence dramatically increased, as South Africa became increasingly polarised and fragmented. The right-wing backlash gave rise to a
neo-Nazi paramilitary group, the
Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), led by
Eugène Terre'Blanche. A left-wing
United Democratic Front (UDF) was also formed at this time. The UDF was cleverly crafted as a broad-based coalition of affiliated organizations, and as the 1980s progressed more and more anti-apartheid organizations were formed and affiliated themselves to the UDF. The UDF, which was led by the
Reverend Allan Boesak and Albertina Sisulu, called for the government to abandon its reforms, and instead to abolish apartheid and eliminate the homelands.
International pressures also increased as economic sanctions began to impact and the value of the rand collapsed. In 1985, the government declared a state of emergency that was to stay in effect for the next five years. Television cameras were banned from "unrest areas". By 1988, 30,000 people had been detained. Media opposition to the system increased. This included the growth of a pro-ANC alternative press inside South Africa.
In 1986, President Botha announced to parliament that South Africa had "outgrown" apartheid. The NP government began a series of minor reforms in the direction of racial equality, while maintaining an iron grip on the media and all anti-apartheid demonstrations. The police entered the
townships and Homelands in this time to clamp down strongly on any protests, killing many people in the process which caused even larger protests. As the security situation in South Africa continued to deteriorate, many white South Africans left the country as migrants.
International pressure on Botha's government continued to grow, with the US and UK now actively promoting the solution of a negotiated settlement with the black majority. Early in 1989 Botha suffered a stroke, resigned on
13 February 1989 and was succeeded later that year by
FW de Klerk. In his opening address to parliament in February 1990, in what has come to be known as the 'unbanning speech', President De Klerk announced that he would repeal discriminatory laws and lift the ban on the ANC, the UDF, the PAC, and the
Communist Party. Media restrictions were lifted, and De Klerk released political prisoners not guilty of
common-law crimes. On
11 February 1990, 27 years after he had first been incarcerated,
Nelson Mandela walked out of the grounds of
Victor Verster Prison as a free man.
Having been forced by the
UN Security Council to end its long-standing military occupation in
Namibia, South Africa had to relinquish control of the disputed territory, and it officially became an independent state on
21 March 1990.
Winds of change Main article: Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa Negotiations Legacies of apartheid Many of the inequalities created and maintained by apartheid still remain in South Africa. The country has one of the most unequal income distribution patterns in the world: approximately 60% of the population earns less than R42,000 per annum (about US$7,000), whereas 2.2% of the population has an income exceeding R360,000 per annum (about US$50,000).
Poverty in South Africa is still largely defined by skin colour, with
black people constituting the poorest layer. Despite the ANC government having implemented a policy of
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), blacks make up over 90% of the country's poor but only 79.5% of the population. This caused some controversy and some employees refused to classify themselves saying it was a return to the race classification system of the Apartheid era. In such cases employers were forced in terms of the Employment Equity Act to do a classification based on the general appearance of those employees who refused to classify themselves.
Economic inequality and Black Economic Empowerment Eighty percent of farming land still remains in the hands of white farmers;
Land ownership inequality and land claims The following individuals, who had previously supported apartheid, made public apologies:
FW de Klerk[1] - "I apologise in my capacity as leader of the NP to the millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination."
Marthinus van Schalkwyk[2] Adriaan Vlok[3] - who washed the feet of apartheid victim
Frank Chikane Leon Wessels[4] - who said "I am now more convinced than ever that apartheid was a terrible mistake that blighted our land. South Africans did not listen to the laughing and the crying of each other. I am sorry that I had been so hard of hearing for so long".
Contrition Main article: Crime of apartheid Establishment of the "crime of apartheid" by the International Criminal Court Africa Hinterland (Arms smuggling operation)
Allegations of apartheid Discrimination Necklacing Nuremberg Laws Second-class citizen Settler colonialism Social apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission Urban apartheid White supremacy When Smuts Goes Sandra Laing See also Lethal Weapon 2, regarding corrupt South African government officials in 1989.
Stander, about the South African police officer-turned-bank-robber,
Andre Stander, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Cry Freedom, a true story about the activist
Steven Biko and journalist
Donald Woods The Power of One, based on the novel by
Bryce Courtenay Sarafina!, a musical depicting the
Soweto Riots.
Cry, the Beloved Country, based on the novel by
Alan Paton.
A Dry White Season based on the novel by
André Brink A World Apart The Color of Friendship' In My Country, based on the book
[[Country of My Skull] by
Antjie Krog Catch a Fire, based on the story of
Patrick Chamusso, an apolitical man who becomes a terrorist against the South African state.
Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, (Australia, 2002)
Red Dust (2004) starring
Hilary Swank based on the book
Red Dust by
Gillian Slovo, about the Truth & Reconciliation Commission trials which gave amnesty to those who told the whole truth about atrocities committed during apartheid.
Blood Diamond (2006), an Academy Award-nominated film. Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Jennifer Connelly and
Djimon Hounsou.
Blood Diamonds are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts in
Africa. The film was nominated for five
Academy Awards including Best Actor (
Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (
Djimon Hounsou).
Movies referencing Apartheid 117 Days by
Ruth First The Power of One by
Bryce Courtenay The Covenant by
James A. Michener Cry, the beloved country by
Alan Paton Down Second Avenue by
Es'kia Mphahlele A Dry White Season by
André Brink Disgrace by
J.M. Coetzee Fools and Other Stories by
Njabulo Ndebele July's People by
Nadine Gordimer Kaffir Boy by
Mark Mathabane Maru by
Bessie Head "Master Harold" ... and the boys by
Athol Fugard Miriam's Song by
Miriam Mathabane My Traitor's Heart by
Riaan Malan The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist by
Breyten Breytenbach Tsotsi by
Athol Fugard Poems referencing Apartheid