The incumbent government of South Africa consisted of only whites, and through the ruling party, it enforced racial segregation policies under a legislation known as the apartheid. Apartheid was a socio-political system under white minority rule that lasted for 46 years from 1948-1994, which gave force to the already existing racial segregation that had been there for centuries. Hendricks Verwoerd, the National Party Prime Minister, sought to justify the system by arguing that racial discrimination will lead to fewer conflicts (documentariesfootage, 2012). Apartheid was a socio-political system that undermined the human rights of non-white South Africans because, it segregated them, made them lose their right to vote, access to education as well as human dignity.
Black South Africans were segregated and denied the freedom of movement from rural areas to urban areas. According to the South African Registration Act No. 30 of 1950, people were registered according to their races as White, Colored or Native. Blacks only had permission to move to cities after they got permits from the government and possessing such a document came with the condition that the holder must find a job within three days of his arrival to the cities (South African Registration Act No. 30 1950, 275-288). The Native Urban Areas Act No. 21 of 1923 even considered it an offense for people in the urban areas to provide accommodation to natives. Available jobs were only in unskilled labor found in factories and other low-skilled areas (Native Urban Areas Act No. 21 1923, 140-169).
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Through the Group Areas Act, people got separated from their families based on racial lines. This process affected groups of people who looked fairer than their identifying population. It including those colored individuals who looked lighter than colored, Indians that looked more colored than other Indians and Blacks who looked more colored than other Blacks. This quest to move people to their races led to the displacement of families with other people taken to families that they did not belong (documentariesfootage, 2012). Black South Africans were forced to migrate to ‘Black homelands’ based on the Homeland Act of 1951 which resulted in the loss of their jobs and livelihoods. They lived under fear with victimization from the police who were not providing the needed protection. Such can be seen from the way people killed as the case with Mr. Mayisa who was taken from his house, killed, and his house burnt (Truth and Reconciliation Commission Youth Hearings . Case JB2822, 1997)
Human injustices resulted to the breeding of a population which was bitter and driven by the desire to retaliate basing on racial hatred. The natives could even be detained for being in places where they were forbidden (90-Day Detention Act No 37 1963, 2-9). Laws were created which rather than protecting the Blacks, became a burden to them. As can be seen from a quote from Sindiwe Magona’s “To My Children’s Children”, THE LAW! The greatest hardship we labored under was not that we had no protection from the law (Magona 1998, 1)”. Segregation was the order of the day to ensure that Blacks do not interact in any way with Whites. These homelands were reservations created for each African Ethnic group in South Africa and were located far away from the cities where the Whites lived. These lands were the least productive and had scarce natural resources making it difficult to eke a living from, which increased the poverty level (documentariesfootage, 2012). The media did not help the situation much as it failed to report truthfully what was happening on the ground.
The natives lost their voting rights and could not participate in building their country since they were aliens. Their numbers were more than the whites, and if they were to vote for their preferred candidate who would obviously be a Black, the Whites would automatically lose their power. For this reason, the authority did everything to ensure that the Blacks would remain suppressed. Initially, Blacks were allowed the right to vote but in a manner whereby, the law allowed them to elect only White representatives. Later on, even this restricted right was taken away from them when they were denied citizenship and were no longer South Africans, becoming illegal aliens in their own country. Any resistance from them could amount to terrorism which was punishable by law (Terrorism Act No. 83 1967, 1236-1245). Laws were also formed to ensure that they did not meet to discuss any agendas concerning them. The black people were also forbidden from attending any gathering of any nature, class or kind (Sabotage Act No 76 1962, 57-65).
Blacks could not access education since they were not allowed not join white schools and universities which provided the best facilities. They thus received poor education quality with high school being their highest qualification. It thus meant that they could not have careers such as lawyers, doctors and the like. The only jobs available to them included being teachers in Black schools and manual workers for Whites, Colored, and Indians. One of the most severe effects on schools occurred when the law passed that Blacks should learn in Afrikaans, a language they did not understand, leading to massive failures in school. This system resulted in protests as seen when students marched to Orlando Stadium in Soweto that later culminated to their killings by the Apartheid police. The lack of access to basic quality education robbed the Blacks of the ability to exercise full control of their lives’ destiny, reduced to nothing more than slaves. They lost human dignity and got treated as second –class citizens, forced to carry their passports all the time for the authorities to identify them quickly.
The system undermined the dignity of the whole society by the intentional institutionalization of non-recognition of humanity for all. Those who objected to such inhuman practices received severe punishment such as incarceration of up to six months without hearing. Faced with such resistance; the government declared the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1953 which allowed the National Party to call a state of emergency that gave permission for torture and execution by the authorities on anyone who threatened peace. It took mass action, armed struggle, underground organization and international mobilization to end the Apartheid as demonstrated by documentaries chronicling the mobilization of global citizens to support the fight against the system in the movie: “Have You Heard from Johannesburg” by Connie Field.
