Apartheid - End Flashcards
UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT – GOVT RESPONSE
- What it was
- Incident
Impact
- Success
The government held UDF responsible for the township protests (1984-85)
Govt began to arrest and detain UDF leaders. Two significant incidents in 1985:
- Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial
- Delmas Treason Trial
- Umbrella organisation representing a vast number of people and organisations with different ideologies and engaged with a range of approaches
BUT – they were all united in their goal to dismantle the racist apartheid system
UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT - Growth
- Membership
- Significant members
1983: 565 member organisations. Membership numbers grew close to a 1000 affiliated groups
UDF also had high-profile members such as church leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and activist such as Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Mandela
Relationship between UDF and ANC (against the military wing/armed struggle) and Inkatha (very pro Zulu, seen as divisive) was still strained
Township revolt
- Boycotts
- Response to parliament
- Funeral
- Crowd
School boycotts continued even after Soweto - “Liberation before Education”
September 1984: in response to the Tricameral Parliament, protests started in Vaal Triangle taking the form of marches, stayaways and school boycotts.
Funerals were scheduled to be held on Thursday 21st March (the police found out later that this day was the 25th anniversary of Sharpeville Massacre) and attempted to get the funeral banned.
A crowd began to form around the Langa Township on 21st March and later, marches towards a white residential area. Police ordered them to disperse – police opened fire wounding 27, killing 35
Township protests
- Who
- Example of massacre
- Deaths
Students and activists threw stones, set tyres alight
15th October 1985 – Trojan Horse Massacre
- A stone was thrown at it.
- Armed police men jumped out of the truck and fired at students – killing three youths and injuring several others
STATE OF EMERGENCY
- Restriction
- Organisation ban
- Number of people detained
- Detention without Trial
- Media
July 1985 – Botha declares State of Emergency
- Political funerals were restricted, curfews were imposed, certain indoor gatherings were banned and news crews with television cameras were banned from filming in areas where there was political unrest.
- A number of organisations were banned or listed (restricted),individuals were placed on house arrests
- First 6 months 600 people were killed in police violence
2436 people were detained under the Internal Security Amendment Act
March 1986 – Botha lifts the SoE
STATE OF EMERGENCY
- Detained people
- UDF represented…
- Example of march and death
1988, 30,000 people had been detained
- Media was censored, thousands were arrested and many were tortured during interrogations
By 1985, the UDF representing more than 700 organisations and over 2 million members was a powerful force in demanding the immediate end to aparthied
August 1985, Allan Boesak organised a March to Pollsmoor Prison
- Non-violent resistance to state repression
- Police retaliated with force, killing 28 people
International response: ECONOMIC SITUATION BY MID-1980S
Gold prices declined, whilst oil prices were skyrocketing
Behavior and decisions of international bankers, investors and the impact of sanctions proved to be most devasting
By 1985, SA was facing inflation, unemployment, exchange rate
BOTHA’S FAILURE – FROM BAD TO WORSE
- Speech
- Debt
- Neighbouring countries
- Expenditure
Rubicon Speech on 15 August 1985 in Durban
- Live audience of over 200 million
- Botha stated he was NOT willing to change his position
By mid-1989, the external debt hand reached over $21 billion
SA also had to reconsider their relationships with their neighbours because the regional economy had become much more important (due to severe economic sanctions) – desperate times
By 1988, 14% of government expenditure was spent servicing debt repayments
End of 1989
Cold war significance
Free Mandela Campaign
Sporting sanctions
Severe international criticism
Military and technical equipment embargos
The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and USSR’s collapse in 1991 removed the communist threat that Western powers were concerned about
Namibia
- Context
- UN
- Apartheid intent
- End result
South Africa took former German South West Africa as a mandate after WW1 and effectively governed it as a colony
In 1967, the UN formally ended the mandate and in 1973, declared continuing South African occupancy illegal
- Ignored the UN
South Africa’s motivation to keep control was largely for Namibia to act as a buffer zone between in and Angola, to counter what it saw as the Communist threat from Angola
South Africa was accused of atrocities in Namibia, notably the attack on Kissing refugee campo in May 1978
Impact of economic sanctions
- Why sanctions increased
- Companies that withdrew
- Example of banks
During the 1980s the fear of the USSR and communism diminished
50 in 1986 and 40 in the following year
US banks such as Chase Manhattan began to refuse to renew loans, for example, $10 million of short-term loans maturing in 1987
