Internal Resistance to Apartheid

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and alternatively took the form of social movements, passive resistance, or guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental factors in ending racial segregation and discrimination. Both black and white South African activists such as Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Harry Schwarz, and Joe Slovo were involved with various anti-apartheid causes. By the 1980s, there was continuous interplay between violent and non-violent action, and this interplay was a notable feature of resistance against apartheid from 1983 until South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.[6]

Passive resistance to apartheid was initiated by the African National Congress (ANC) with its Defiance Campaign in the early 1950s. Subsequent civil disobedience protests targeted curfews, pass laws, and "petty apartheid" segregation in public facilities. Some anti-apartheid demonstrations resulted in widespread rioting in Port Elizabeth and East London in 1952, but organised destruction of property was not deliberately employed until 1959.That year, anger over pass laws and environmental regulations perceived as unjust by black farmers resulted in a series of arsons targeting sugarcane plantations. Organisations such as the ANC, the South African Communist Party, and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) remained preoccupied with organising student strikes and work boycotts between 1959 and 1960.[7] The Sharpeville massacremarked a shift in the tactics of some anti-apartheid movements, including the ANC and PAC, from peaceful non-cooperation to the formation of armed resistance wings.[8]

Mass strikes and student demonstrations continued into the 1970s, charged by growing black unemployment, the unpopularity of the South African Border War, and a newly assertive Black Consciousness Movement.[9] The brutal suppression of the 1976Soweto uprising radicalised an entire generation of black activists and greatly bolstered the strength of the ANC's guerrilla force, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).[10] From 1976 to 1987 MK carried out a series of successful bombing attacks which targeted government facilities, transportation lines, power stations, and other civil infrastructure. South Africa's military often retaliated by raiding ANC safe houses in neighbouring states.

The National Party made several attempts to reform the apartheid system, beginning with the Constitutional Referendum of 1983. This introduced a Tricameral Parliament, which allowed for some parliamentary representation of Coloureds and Indians, but continue to deny political rights to black South Africans. The resulting controversy triggered a new wave of anti-apartheid social movements and community groups which articulated their interests through a national front in politics, the United Democratic Front (UDF).[1] Simultaneously, inter-factional rivalry between the ANC, the PAC, and the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO), a third militant force, escalated into sectarian violence as the three groups jockeyed for influence.[12]The government took the opportunity to declare a state of emergency in 1986 and detain thousands of its political opponents without trial.

Secret bilateral negotiations to end apartheid commenced in 1987 as the National Party reacted to increased external pressure and the atmosphere of political unrest. Leading ANC officials such as Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu were released from prison between 1987 and 1989, and in 1990 the ANC and PAC were formally delisted as banned organisations by President F. W. de Klerk. The same year, MK reached a formal ceasefire with the South African Defence Force.Apartheid laws were formally abolished on 17 June 1991, pending general elections set for April 1994.

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