end of apartheid Flashcards
(18 cards)
de Klerk (initial)
1989 - de Klerk becomes president (replacing Botha), suprises everyone by setting new nationalist policies
- in part due to the suffering economic state of south africa, realised that he needed to change for it to stay afloat
- South Africa could no longer depend on their non-communist status to ally with the USA bc cold war was ending
- de Klerk knew he had to negotiate or else the country would go into civil war
- de Klerk wanted to please both parties (please everyone)
Changes in government policies (de klerk)
- february 1990 - legalises the ANC, PAC and SACP - allows them to have meetings / political discussions
- 1990 Repealed Seperate Amenities Act
- 1991 repealed population regristration act, group areas act
- october 1989 - released thousands of prisoners (Imprisoned due to political activism and the anti-apartheid movement)
- partially removed ‘State of Emergency’, no censorship of media and death penalty
Mandela’s release
10 february 1990 - Mandela was released from prison, later than the other prisoners because of his negotiation with de Klerk
- oringinally he only agreed to release Mandela if he never took part in political activism again
- the deal also did not include the release of other ANC prisoners, which he required in his ‘contract’
- Mandela basically became head of ANC after Oliver Tambo’s stroke
Mandela’s wants
Mandela made deals with de Klerk following his release, making sure that ANC members would not end up in exile
- (Mandela/ANC) - did not want to lessen its efforts to overthrow apartheid, despite their freeing from jail
- lead to the CODESA talks
Allan boesak
spokesperson against apartheid
- active member of the ANC, eventually dominated south african politics
- (1982) persuaded members of World Alliance of Reformed Churches to suspend membership of white south african churches
- was president of this alliance from 1982-1991
de Klerk (negatives)
- encouraged / condoned state sponsored political violence - encouraged violence between different black groups (inkatha and ANC, ‘Third Force’), tried to reinforce idea of why apartheid was needed
- april 1990 - clearly articulated his opposition towards the idea of ‘one man one vote’ that mandela has been proposing
- namibian elections - south african security force disrupting government elections in Namibia, to intimidate voters / political targets
impacts of de Klerk
- initial release of Mandela created hope and growth in the movement, although it angered many white nationalists and caused lots of confusion —> was not what people expected
- his negative actions involving violence led to mistrust between mandela and de klerk, meaning ideas were not discussed as effectively and tension between the two ‘heads’ of the movement
CODESA talks
1991-1992 - aimed to provide official talks between the ANC and 20 other political organisations to negotiate a new constitution and government for South Africa
- failures - clashes between de Klerk and Mandela’s wants (de Klerk obv wanted more power for nationalist party, mandela one man one vote)
- also tension between Inkatha and ANC (Buthelezi wanted to keep power)
Afrikaner Weerstandbewegin AWB
set up in 1973
- - Afrikaan white group who wanted to preserve the ideas of Apartheid and Afrikaner homelands
- Nazi-style (including logo), extremely violent against black
- this group was explicity not approved by de Klerk
CODESA talks 2
why they were restarted
1992 - After Mandela walked out of the first talks due to lack of cooperation between the powerrs
- De Klerk continued the talks because he was being accused of ‘selling out’ the whites
- he promised a national election (one man one vote) would happen no later than april 1994
- de Klerk wanted to reach a solution because he knew Afrikaners were doomed without one
Nobel Peace Prize
1993 - Mandela and de Klerk earn the nobel peace prize together
Boipatong Massacre
17 June 1992 - Inkatha members attacked residents of Boipatong township, and killed 46 people
- de Klerk refused to take accountability for this in the CODESA talks
- arguably caused the ANC to walk out of CODESA talks
- ANC stated that Inkatha party and police organised the raid
Bisho Massacre
17 september 1992 - 70k ANC supporters (MK organised) marched to Bisho , capital of Ciseki homeland to protest against the ruler. Ruler (Gqozo) however ordered his troops to open fire, killed 28 people, wounding over 200
- Mandela blamed de Klerk for continuing to support the idea of homelands and individual rulers
- Signal of the repressive structure of homelands, and how much power the rulers have
Joe Slovo
Showed compromise between Mandela and de Klerk
- In charge of the sunset clause - detailed the new government system and how a completely new government would be created
- Came up with power-sharing rules that de Klerk wanted
- Helped to regulate communciaziton and negotiation between both sides
Cyril Ramaphosa
Ramaphosa - Leader of ANC team in negotiation (for CODESA talks)
- great friendship with Roelf Meyer (National Party’s lead negotiator)
- their trust regarding each other meant that they were able to negotiate to a further level
- They showed that even the most politically opposite blacks and whites could be friends and aligned
- Meyer gave a birthday cake to ramaphosa (shows friendship.
Roelf Meyer
Leader of Nationalist Party negotiations
- significant friendship with ramaphosa
- Despite their opposing political groups, they trusted each other and were able to find unity.
- Trust meant that they were able to negotiate to a further level
- They showed that even the most politically opposite blacks and whites could be friends and aligned
- Meyer gave a birthday cake to ramaphosa (shows friendship
General Election
April 1994 - First free election of south africa
- 19 million people voted
- ANC won 62.5% of votes, became ruling party
- Mandela became president, south africa became fully democratic and non racial
- National party had 20.5% of vote, de Klerk was one of Mandela’s 2 deputies
Effects of general election
international
general election - april 1994
Significance: firt fully democratic election in the history of south africa
International reaction:
- Sanctions lifted, membership of the Commonwealth restored, South Africa allowed to retake its seat in the UN General Assembly.
- Countries reestablished diplomatic relationships with south africa
- Global praise for Mandela’s actions / leadership
