The Conflict in South Africa

The origins of the conflict in South Africa reach back to the arrival of the first European settlers in
The gradual expansion of colonial territory brought the colonial powers and local settlers

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conflict with numerous African communities over the next two centuries. White rule was formalized
through the sale and expropriation of land and the establishment of the Cape and Natal colonies and

,the Boer Republics in the 1800s.

Ongoing tensions over political exclusion, land expropriation

.taxes and other oppressive policies resulted in numerous military confrontations and protests
Protest actions during the first half of the twentieth century were largely nonviolent, and it was only
with the banning of the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and
other liberation groups in 1961 that the liberation forces engaged in a military struggle. The conflict
in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s mainly involved guerrilla attacks on military personnel and
government facilities. The government security forces, particularly the South African Defence Force

,SADF), and the South African Police (SAP), were directly involved in battling the liberation forces(
as well as repressing public protests against the government. The conflict was also marked by

.violence between various groups of the liberation movement

During the 1980s, the tensions between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) escalated
and took on an increasingly violent form. Especially after the beginning of the peace negotiations in
these conflicts escalated into open warfare and the arming of Self-Defence Units (SDUs) and

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Self-Protection Units (SPUs) within ANC and IFP areas, respectively. These units were armed and
received basic combat training, but were subject to very little formal control. While the conflict was
ostensibly between the ANC and IFP, the state security forces were directly implicated in supplying

.arms and other support to the IFP

The main armed sectors of the primary liberation groups were the Spear of the Nation [Umkhonto

.we Sizwe] (MK) under the ANC and the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA) under the PAC
These groups had training camps in other southern African countries and many young South

.Africans left the country in order to receive training

Because of this, the conflict in South Africa was not restricted to its own territory. The SADF was
involved in wars of destabilization in neighboring countries to undermine support for the ANC and
its military campaign. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) stated in its
final report that it believes that the number of people killed inside the borders of the country in the

.course of the liberation struggle was considerably lower than those who died outside

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