The South African History starts with the formation of the Union of South Africa as an independent dominion in 1910 after the end of the Boer War in 1902 through the Vereeniging treaty. The dominion named Pretoria as its capital for administrative functions while Cape Town was named the capital for legislative functions, and thus hosted the parliament of South Africa. The new nation comprised of the black Africans as the majority numbering up to four million people, with the white citizens of South Africa numbering about 1.3 million. Of the white European population, the majority were the Afrikaners of Dutch descent while the minority comprised of the British origin. In the formation of this dominion, there were several defined racial groups. 1 Racial distinctions began when the Union was obsessed with categorizing and segregating the racial groups. While the white population disagreed on several factors including the level of rights to grant to the indigenous people, they shared the same thought that they existed to supply cheap manual labor. The government placed restrictions on the black Africans and other racial groups who did not have the same status as the whites. Asians also faced particular discriminations in Natal, a region where they outnumbered the whites, such as getting a special tax among other humiliating measures.
In 1914, the National Party was founded with J.B.M. Hertzog being its leader following a climate of unrest at the Afrikaner nationalist party. The party gained fast popularity and won the 1924 elections ousting the incumbent regime. After getting in power, Hertzog began a process of protecting the white supremacy in South Africa through legislative processes. This legislation involved passing laws that ensured the black Africans and Asians do not take up the skilled jobs but rather work for the whites providing the cheap manual labor. He also enforced several segregations such as limiting them from accessing towns among other segregation enforcement.
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However, Hertzog’s regime was threatened by the economic upheaval in the mid-1930s, which forced him into forming a coalition with Smuts under the United Party. 2 They worked together in strengthening the racial segregation policy and ensuring the white supremacy, but the differed opinions regarding the second world war brought a rift between them. As a result, Herzog resigned after the parliament voted in support of Smut and the alignment to British during the world war. At the same time, Daniel Malan founded the Purified National Party whose attitudes prefigured apartheid. The party won several seats in the 1943 elections that returned Smut to power. Five years later, Daniel Malan’s party won a majority of seats in the house of assembly, bringing in the era of strict apartheid.
The apartheid was devised and imposed by the governments of the National Party after the Second World War where the party ruled the nation. Under the regime, there were numerous cases of racial classification and segregation in South Africa. Inter-racial marriages between the whites and the nonwhites were considered a criminal offense and the black Africans were not allowed to own property or farms 3 . Additionally, Africans required passes to travel to white areas to work, and Universities were reserved for the white students with the Africans attending the colleges of their own without mixing. This segregation took place on virtually every point, including the post office, buses, and trains, libraries as well as the theaters.
In 1961, South Africa withdrew from the British Commonwealth to become a republic after the policy of apartheid brought widespread international opprobrium. The UN General Assembly, for example, condemned the apartheid and called for economic sanctions against South Africa. The U.S and other United Nations affiliated countries imposed trade and financial restrictions against South Africa, as well as isolation of the country in fields such as sports and culture. There were other internal oppositions to apartheid including the non-violent protests in the tradition of Gandhi that led to the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd, who was the prime minister at that time.
As the white regime became more repressive, violence escalated with African National Congress party spearheading the campaign. The party under the leadership of radical younger members including Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo advocated for the extending of voting rights to the Africans, especially in the Cape province. The two young radical leaders organized for industrial strikes, matches, and boycotts to match against the discriminatory laws imposed by the government 4 . The nonviolent resistant movement was internationally recognized, leading to the president of ANC by then Albert Luthuli to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1960. While this continued, the government declared both ANC and Pan African Congress illegal and arrested several people associated with it. With these arrests, the ANC under the leadership of Nelson Mandela formed a guerrilla force to sabotage the threats by the government 5 . As a result, He was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. Oliver Tambo, on the other hand, escaped to Zambia in 1960 and served the party as a president while in exile.
Following the imprisonment and escape of ANC and PAC leaders, there emerged another new generation of African leaders who demanded a change in the apartheid policy. A group of University Students led by Steve Biko founded the Black Consciousness movement with the aim of encouraging the culture of Africans in the country. This group led to African people standing up and fighting for their rights, for example when a group of schoolchildren staged protests in Soweto protesting the government directive for African schools to teach in Afrikaans. The protests become ugly and police fires at the crowd, killing about 100 black Africans. The ensuing government crackdown led to the deaths of more people, including Steve Biko, who succumbed to injuries due to head wounds sustained in police custody.
Such events led to the end of apartheid by P.W Botha who succeeded Voster as prime minister in 1978. He reduced many of the defining characteristics of the apartheid including rescinding the ban on interracial sexual relations, restrictions to African movement and pass laws. For Example, the government allowed the formation and registration of African Trade Unions. However, Botha maintained some of the white supremacies including increasing the military strength of the nation to destroy ANC support and destabilize the neighboring counties that were hostile to South Africa. 6 He commissioned excessive use of police force when dealing with the rival parties to intimidate them.
But some brave witnesses spoke out and fought the apartheid. One of the activists was Desmond Tutu who was awarded the second Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. A further decline in the economy in the second half of the 1980s due to the strike action by black workers persuaded Both to step down, and his position taken by De Klerk of the National Party. After his election, De Klerk gave a speech in parliament that proposed to dismantle apartheid and free the political prisoners, among them Nelson Mandela. He also proposed to lift the ban on ANC and PAC movements which saw Oliver Tambo return from exile. 7
Mandela succeeded Oliver Tambo as the official leader of ANC and together with De Klerk embarked on a journey to enable a feasible transition of power. Mandela’s shining generosity of spirit was significant in personifying the spirit of reconciliation and accepted to work with the white oppressors. The first democratic elections in April 1994 saw Nelson Mandela, and the ANC party elected winners over the National Party. Nelson Mandela was hailed as a true statesman and helped in house building and job creation, as well as reinstituting the Land Rights Act in 1994 that restored ownership of land to those disposed of by the previous regime. He also oversees the enactment of a permanent constitution that ended he compulsory power-sharing between parties. Mandela retired from Active politics in 1999 and succeeded by Thabo Mbeki. 8
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