Modern History
Home > Modern History > National Studies > H South Africa 1960-1994 > South Africa 1960 - 1994
South Africa 1960 – 1994
Troy Neale
Eagle Vale High School
3. Repression and control by South African government forces
a) The nature, impact and significance of tactics of repression and oppression
South Africa in the 1970s began to change dramatically. The economic boom of the 1960s began to slow and unemployment began to rise. The black population was growing at a much faster rate than the white population. Resistance from black organisations intensified and international pressure against apartheid increased1. The complex set of laws and enforcing bodies which were part of the apartheid apparatus became very expensive1. South Africa’s neighbours were throwing off their white masters and setting up independent black governments. All this caused great anxiety for the minority white government. The new leader of the National Party and South Africa P.W. Botha declared that, South Africa was facing a ‘total onslaught’ in every aspect of its national life’3. P.W Botha was determined to keep South Africa under white minority rule4. Botha perceived a world conspiracy against South Africa, lead by Communists, who were helping liberate Mozambique and Angola. To counter this threat, P.W Botha declared a policy of ‘total strategy’ where every aspect of white South Africa would fight to resist the ‘total onslaught’ of its enemies, both internal and external.
‘Total strategy’ aimed to counter ‘total onslaught’.
The government intended to gradually introduce a number of reforms in the hope of winning black support.
Reforms of Total Strategy
- This included the changes to petty apartheid laws such as separate amenities and therefore less ‘public apartheid’
- recognising African Trade Unions
- Ending laws against interracial sex and marriage
- Ending some segregation in business and employment
- The government granted limited independence to four Homelands. These included the previous Bantustans of the Transkei in 1976 - Bophuthatswana and Venda in 1977 and the Ciskei in 1981. These homelands were still economically dependent on the South African economy.5
- The government planned to reorganise black urban townships by allowing the development of new townships and by providing them with adequate facilities, housing, water, electricity. This was done to reduce the frequency of riots in the townships which were growing steadily.6
- The government attempted to build a black ‘middle class’. Wealthier blacks formed a class that poor blacks referred to as the ‘ooexcuse me class’.This was an attempt to get blacks to ‘appreciate’ the white government but not demand the end of apartheid.7
- In 1983 the SA Constitution was changed allowing a TRICAMERAL Parliament, which gave parliamentary representation to coloured and Indians. Blacks were still denied the right to vote in their own country. All black Africans were still excluded from parliamentary representation at every level.8
Tactics of repression and oppression
At the same time, the white government intensified its repression to crush all opposition. Tactics included more banning orders, strengthening of the army and increasing the civil defence forces. Fighting wars in border nations to prevent liberation, and deliberately destabilizing any black government not subordinate to South Africa became part of government policy. Strategies for increasing white male conscription, attempting to purchase a nuclear bomb from Israel and trying to persuade the world to accept apartheid, and South Africa’s so called status as a besieged nation were also implemented.9
Implementation included:
- Additional security measures and legislation were created in parliament
- Internal Security Act Amendment Act 70 of 1976 granted the police powers to deal with Individuals who were seen as a threat to the security of state.10
- A large number of activists were detained without trial and many died from ‘suicide or hunger strikes’ while in police custody ( including Steve Biko)
- In 1977 seventeen black organisations and the Newspaper The World were banned.11
- The South African Broad Casting Commission (SABC), news print and radio complied with censorship laws set down by the government (TV in South Africa did not arrive until 1976 making government control of the media somewhat easier than in other western countries.) Media was used to transmit biased reporting of anti-apartheid protest and police action. All anti-apartheid news papers could be closed down. All news dealing with ‘security matters’ was censored. Any organisation or individual breaking censorship laws would be fined or jailed.12
- Gun ownership by white South Africans was higher than any population in the world. Whites privately owned over 2 million guns.13
- To enforce the tactics of repression, the military was vastly increased and modern equipment such as jets, tanks, and military technology was purchased from around the world. Total military personnel increased from one hundred and six thousand in 1961 to five hundred and ninety two thousand in 198114
- Total military spending in 1961 increased from seventy two million Rand to three thousand million Rand by 1981.15
The impact of government tactics: A State of Emergency
Black Resistance to apartheid intensified in the 1980s with numerous violent township riots. The leader of the ANC in exile, President-General Oliver Tambo used the radio station, ‘Freedom’ to call on all those people fighting apartheid to ‘render South Africa ungovernable’16 By 1985 continued protest in many townships left the police unable to restore order. In 1986 the South African Defence Force (SADF) was used to stop the riots and a national state of emergency was declared.17
As the white government desperately tried to end the township violence a general state of emergency was declared for all of South Africa. This included strict curfews and saw military patrols in cities and streets. Townships were sealed off by the army.
Questions to consider:
- Why did Botha introduce the policy of ‘total strategy’?
- What measures did the government take to ensure the crushing of all opposition?
b) The role of South African security forces
The South African security forces became a combination of the police and army; demarcations between soldiers and police were gone. Given the task of preventing riots and maintaining law and order in a South Africa that was exploding, the security forces were finding new way of keeping control.
Many tactics had been used for some time, but the torture of accused ‘terrorists’ and ‘disappearances’ of others was becoming common place. The South African Security Forces were also using vigilantes ‘Kitskonstabels’ (instant constables). These men were unemployed blacks who they deputised and then let loose on their own people with no restraint.18 The SASF also set up counterintelligence operations spying on all South Africans to prevent criticism of the government. One of the main goals of the Security Forces was to protect ‘key points’ and important government installation such as SASOL oil refinery which was constantly being targeted by the MK.
A large proportion of the South African national budget was dedicated to making South Africa a military state19. People were spied on banned, banished, tortured, jailed in secret, made to disappear, vanished, forced to turn states evidence, committed suicide, had an accident or were killed. It seemed that the government and its agencies would stop at nothing to enforce apartheid and white minority rule.
Question to consider:
- What methods were used to by the security forces to maintain control?
c) Relations with neighbouring African countries
The second phase of total strategy was to protect the borders of South Africa from the neighbouring African countries who were advancing the process of decolonisation, gaining independence and instituting black governments. South Africa had always maintained the border countries of Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Botswana as a ‘buffer zone’. These countries were being supported by Marxist governments including the Soviet Union and Cuba who were determined to aid the ANC and other black freedom fighter organisations such as SWAPO in Namibia in their attempt to rid Africa of apartheid.20
The South African Defence Force carried out a policy of forward defence by carrying out undercover cross-border operations against every one of its neighbours. SADF crossed any border where it believed ANC bases were. The South African Defence Force also illegally occupied Namibia. SADF assisted the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a military opposition force in Angola which was supplied with arms by the United States, and raged civil war against the newly independent government of Angola.21
The SADF also supplied arms and financial aid to the Mozambique National Resistance MNR who were an opposition military force in Mozambique and were causing civil war in the country. The main goal of the SADF and the South Africa government was to destabilize those countries by supporting the opposing revolutionary forces and causing devastating civil wars. The former Portuguese territories survived repeated incursions from South Africa with the help of the Cuban Army. South Africa, which was waiting on support from the United States in defeating the Angolans and the Cubans, were forced back when it did not eventuate. 22
In Mozambique in 1984, after failing to destabilize the newly formed government, the Nkmoati Accords were signed. South Africa would not interfere in Mozambique’s affairs and Mozambique would not assist the ANC. However, South Africa continued to attempt destabilization of its neighbouring countries. To continue the secret war in Angola, South Africa was forced to use conscripts. The war in Angola became a war of high patriotisms. The ‘Boys on the Border’ were protecting white South Africa from the black Communist hordes to the north23. Many mercenaries from Australia and the former Rhodesia were also employed by the SADF to fight the Angolans and Cubans. A number of atrocities were committed by the SADF and attested to by ex-mercenaries24
As her neighbours gained freedom and were determined not to support the apartheid regime, South Africa attempted to seal her borders and create a ‘ring of steel’. The SADF built wire fencing along the border with Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia) and stationed Farmer Commando Units to monitor movement on the border.
Question to consider:
- Explain why the South African government attempted to undermine the stability of neighbouring countries.
d) The role and significance of Bantustans and independent black states
During the 1970s the government wanted to make a number of the Bantustan’s fully independent black states. The concept was to preserve ‘white’ South Africa and appease the rest of the world. In 1959 the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act had been passed. This legislation was designed to create homelands or Bantustans as separate areas for black South Africans to live according to their racial group. While he was the Minister for Native Affairs, Hendrick Verwoerd was determined to push the message of ‘separate development’ for all black South Africans. The theory was to ‘retribalise’ Africans25. The economic, political and social administration of the Bantustans would eventually come under the control of black civil administrators not the Republic of South Africa, and all blacks would be prescribed to one of the ten Bantustans as a homeland.
Many black leaders opposed the homelands, but eventually came to adopt government policies. Most people living in the Bantustans however saw the black tribal Chiefs, and leaders who were appointed by the white government as mere ‘lackeys’ of the apartheid state. The reality was that Bantustans were overcrowded and impoverished and heavily reliant on South African infrastructure and economic aide. Bantustans such as Bophuthatswana relied heavily on subsidies from the white government.26
The creation of the Bantustans was the jewel in the crown of the social engineering polices of the apartheid government. The government hoped this would solve the ‘black problem’ forever because ‘ethnic’ loyalty in the Bantustans would replace broader African nationalism and split the power base of anti-apartheid groups such as the ANC and PAC. By the 1970s the Bantustans were a failure, yet the government was determined to make them independent as a demonstration of liberalisation and modernisation, and a way of quelling domestic and international protest. Bantustans only housed one third of the black African population and they never received international recognition as independent nations.27
Question to consider:
- What did the government hope to achieve by creating Bantustans and encouraging the development of independent black states?
e) International responses to South African polices
After the Soweto uprising in 1976 and the constant township riots of the 1980s, South Africa began to face fierce international condemnation. Economic sanctions were applied by many western countries. Never before had South Africa been so politically isolated as in the years of international sanctions leading up the end of apartheid.
The apartheid regime was coming under increasing attack not just from traditional opposition such as the UN, but from the World Council of Churches, international business and international anti-apartheid movements. Important political figures such as US Vice President Walter Mondale, President Jimmy Carter and others, began to speak out against the apartheid regime and demand rights for blacks and tougher sanctions on South Africa.28
Sporting Sanctions
Since the 1960s, South Africa could not compete in either the Commonwealth or Olympic Games29. Britain, Australia and New Zealand banned both test cricket and rugby matches with South Africa. Games that were played by rebel teams faced pitch invasion and large demonstrations, such as the Springbok tour of Australia in 1976. The sports mad nation of South Africa was deeply offended by the rejection of nations it believed had similar racial polices to its own, namely Australia and New Zealand. Many white South Africans who watched the first televised demonstration against their beloved Springboks in 1976 were forced to recognise the world’s disgust with apartheid.
Economic Sanctions
As the world watched the military state crush the opposition of the black people it oppressed, international pressure increased and action was demanded. In England the Free Mandela Campaign grew stronger and many students led anti- apartheid movements and marched on banks such as Barclays in England and Chase Manhattan in New York, to demand dis- investment in South Africa. In 1986 the European Common Market banned the purchase of South African iron and steel. By 1987 more than 250 international companies withdrew from South Africa; including IBM, General Electric, General Motor, Ford and Coca-Cola.30
The corporate dis-investment in South Africa saw the Rand fall by 35 per cent in value and this caused an immediate financial crisis in South Africa31. Economic sanctions were probably the most effective method to prove to the whites that the world considered apartheid morally reprehensible. South Africa once had the ability to ‘go it alone’ because its economy boomed on the back of mining. By the late 1980s South Africa was economically vulnerable and dependent on the world economy for survival. Some historians have argued that these sanctions broke the back of apartheid, while others have argued that sanctions were not effective in bringing about reform, but only hurt poor blacks.’
To avoid these international sanctions, “sanction busting” policies were undertaken. The Committee for Unconventional Trade was set up to trade with countries in Latin American, Asia and Israel which would not uphold the international sanctions32. For many blacks the economic recession brought about by international sanctions caused high unemployment and great suffering.33
Questions to consider:
- To what extent were international responses to apartheid a reaction to the South African government’s tactics of repression?
3. Audio recording- Speech by P.W Botha- National State of Emergency Address.
5. Understanding Apartheid, op cit, 77.
6. Understanding Apartheid, op cit, 80
10. JP.Brits, Modern South Africa: From Soweto to Democracy, op cit, p 3.
12. G.Cawthra, Brutal Force: The Apartheid War Machine ( London, International Defence & Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1986), p 48.
14. Understanding Apartheid, op cit, 77.
16. Understanding Apartheid, op cit, 85.
18. M.Roberts, op cit , p 100.
19. G.Cawthra, op cit, p 81.
20. JP.Brtis, Modern South Africa: From Soweto to Democracy, p 10.
24. G.Cawthra, op cit, p 76-77.
25. J Butler, Ri Rotberg & J Adam, The black homelands of South Africa; the political and economic development of Bophuthatswana and KwaZulu: in, JP Brits, Modern South Africa: Afrikaner power, the politics of race, and resistance, 1902 to the 1970’s (Pretoria, University of South Africa Press, 2005), p 43.
31. M Roberts , op cit, p 104.
|