South Africa
MOVEMENT TO END APARTHEID
African National Congress
 Founded in 1912.
 Worked with-in the law to resist
Apartheid
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Strikes, boycotts.
 The ANC was outlawed in 1960
 In 1961 became militant
 Previously non violent
 Faced imprisonment and
organization was banned.
Sharpeville Massacre: March 1960
 Demonstration against Pass Laws (internal passport system )
PEACEFUL march to Police station and to turn in Passports
 20,000 person crowd
 Police Opened fire on unarmed demonstrators; 69 blacks killed &
180 wounded
 The South African Gov’t’s report : the demonstrators shot first &
the police were forced to fire in self-defense
 “State of Emergency” in South Africa Declared
 Political meetings banned
 Crackdown on Civil Rights

General Law Amendment Act (1962)
 Further Crackdown on resistance
 Minimum Five Year Prison Term to maximum of
death for Sabotage (Protest)
 Can remain in prison up to 90 days before
questioning process
 Indefinite Imprisonment without a trial
ANC Major Leader
 Nelson Mandela
 Born in 1918 / joined ANC in 1944
 Launched Economic sabotage campaign after Sharpeville.
 Arrested and convicted for attempting overthrow government
Nelson Mandela (cont.)
 Used the Sharpeville court case as a platform to
express his views on democracy
"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and
free society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities,"
"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which
I am prepared to die."
 Sentenced to Life: 1964-1990 (18 of the 27 years
were on Robben Island)
Nelson Mandela (cont.)
 Robben Island has been used as a prison for 300 years. Seven, shark-
infested miles of water separate it from the mainland
Nelson Mandela (cont.)
 Robben Island --- Prisoners doing HARD LABOR: crushing rocks
Nelson Mandela (cont.)
Soweto Riots (June 1976)
 Students could no longer accommodate inequality.
 Under the Bantu Education Act Black schools had been
designed to reinforce the social and economic class structure of
apartheid
 Taught how to be subservient
 Forced to learn Afrikaans the language of their oppressors
 How they resisted
 Protests, Boycotts, Demonstrations
 Daily Rioting – 600 students dead
 Spread throughout South Africa
Soweto Riots (June 1976)
Stephen Biko
 (1977) – Popular protestor (student leader) beaten to
death by police while in custody in Pretoria.
 His funeral, which was conducted by the Reverend
Desmond Tutu, was attended by more than 15,000
mourners.
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Thousands were barred from attending the services by security
forces.
Twelve Western countries sent representatives
 Biko's contribution to the black fight for freedom
from apartheid is often placed as second only to that
of former President Nelson Mandela
Stephen Biko
Movement becomes more Radical
 South Africans enraged by a new constitution
 ANC – dozens of terrorist attacks. (June 1985)
 South African Response
 Government attacked ANC bases in South Africa, Angola,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana
 State of Emergency declared in 1985
 April 1986 – Repeal of the Pass Laws
International Pressure
UNIT 7: AFRICA
Bishop Desmond Tutu
 First black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975 &
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elected Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986
While Nelson Mandela was in Prison Archbishop
Tutu often spoke out against the regime.
Led economic fight against Apartheid
Nonviolence
Called for trade restrictions by other countries
Bishop Desmond Tutu (cont.)
 1988 - declared “we refuse to be treated as the
doormat for the government to wipe its jackboots
on”
 Risked jail by calling for a boycott of municipal
elections.
Divestment
Sanctions
 1985: United States, France, Canada, European Union:
limited sanctions on South Africa
 What had US citizens experienced during the 1950’s 60’s
and 70’s ??
 Civil Rights Movement
 1986: United States imposed stricter sanctions
 Purpose: to isolate and starve the white-monopolized South
African economy to the point of collapse.
Economic Pressure
 Apartheid Became The Moral Issue Of the 1980s On College
Campuses Across the United States. Students Urged Their Schools and
U.S Businesses To Economically Divest From South Africa To
Pressure the South African Government To End Its Racist Rule
Economic Pressure
 United States Corporations announced they were leaving
South Africa
 Examples: Coca Cola, General Motors, IBM
 70 Companies withdrew
 Desmond Tutu - Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his
efforts
 Due to the sheer size of the campaign the US government
was forced to act as well.
US Involvement with Apartheid
End of Apartheid
UNIT 7: AFRICA
President F.W. de Klerk
 Became President September 1989
 Mass Democratic Movement (MDM):
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1989: MDM led a 2 day General Strike: 3 million Africans
participated
28 demonstrators killed by police
 February 1990 – legalized ANC
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ANC leaders engaged in negotiations with white leaders which led to
the 1994 democratic elections.
Nelson Mandela released from prison in February 1990 (Jailed 19621990)
The ANC is the dominant political party in South Africa, having won
more than two-thirds of the vote in the 2004 national elections.
End of Apartheid!
 Meetings between Mandela and de Klerk
 Four Year “State of Emergency” Ended
 Apartheid Repealed
 Separate Amenities Act repealed (1990)
More Laws Reversed
 Land Acts repealed (June 1991)
 March 1992: Referendum (vote by the people) –
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dealing with apartheid.
Many people wanted to end apartheid (68.6%)
Multiracial government
1993 de Klerk & Mandela were awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for their efforts at reform in South Africa
April 1994: Universal elections

New Constitution – blacks still did not gain power in
government
Election of 1994:
 Election of 1994: Mandela vs. de Klerk
 Nelson Mandela elected President (with de Klerk as
V.P.)
 1994: Population of South Africa
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Whites 16%
Blacks 70%
Mixed races 11%
Asian 3%
 1994: 80% of land owned by whites
New Constitution:
 1996: More democratic Constitution was created
 Equal rights
 Bill of Rights
 De Klerk stepped down in 1999