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South Africa: History

If the history of South Africa is in large part one of increasing racial divisiveness, today it can also be seen
as the story of – eventually – a journey through massive obstacles towards the creation, from tremendous
diversity, of a single nation whose dream of unity and common purpose is now capable of realization.

The earliest people

The earliest representatives of South Africa's diversity – at least the earliest we can name – were the San
and Khoekhoe peoples (otherwise known individually as the Bushmen and Hottentots or Khoikhoi;
collectively called the Khoisan). Both were resident in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of
years before its written history began with the arrival of European seafarers.

And before that, modern human beings had lived here for more than 100 000 years – indeed, the country
is an archaeological treasure chest. (See “The Cradle of Humankind”)

The hunter-gatherer San ranged widely over the area; the pastoral Khoekhoe lived in those comparatively
well-watered areas, chiefly along the southern and western coastal strips, where adequate grazing was to
be found. So it was with the latter that the early European settlers first came into contact – much to the
disadvantage of the Khoekhoe.

As a result of diseases such as smallpox imported by the Europeans, of some assimilation with the settlers
and especially with the slaves who were to arrive in later years, and of some straightforward
extermination, the Khoekhoe have effectively disappeared as an identifiable group.

Other long-term inhabitants of the area that was to become South Africa were the Bantu-speaking people
who had moved into the north-eastern and eastern regions from the north, starting at least many
hundreds of years before the arrival of the Europeans.

The Thulamela site in the northern Kruger National Park is estimated to have been first occupied in the
13th century. The ruins of Mapungubwe, where artefacts from as far away as China have been found, are
the remains of a large trading settlement thought to stretch back to the 12th century. Agro-pastoralists,
these people brought with them an Iron Age culture and sophisticated socio-political systems.

Settlers and slaves

Their existence was of little import to Jan van Riebeeck and the 90 men who landed with him in 1652 at
the Cape of Good Hope, under instructions by the Dutch East India Company to build a fort and develop a
vegetable garden for the benefit of ships on the Eastern trade route.

Their relationship with the Khoekhoe was initially one of bartering, but a mutual animosity developed over
issues such as cattle theft – and, no doubt, the growing suspicion on the part of the Khoekhoe that Van
Riebeeck's outpost was becoming a threat to them.
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Perhaps the first sign that the threat was to be realised came in 1657 when nine men, released from their
contracts, were given land to farm. In the same year the first slaves were imported. By the time Van
Riebeeck left in 1662, 250 white people lived in what was beginning to look like a developing colony.

Later governors of the Cape Colony encouraged immigration, and in the early 1700s independent farmers
called trekboers began to push north and east. Inevitably, the Khoisan started literally losing ground, in
addition to being pressed by difficult circumstances into service for the colonists.

The descendants of some of the Khoisan, slaves from elsewhere in Africa and the East, and white colonists
formed the basis of the mixed-race group now known as "coloured". It is noteworthy that the slaves from
the East brought a potent new ingredient to South Africa's racial and cultural mix, especially with their
religion of Islam.

The Cradle of Humankind

A handful of the world's great cities trace their heritage to early human settlements thousands of years
back. Johannesburg's earliest residents were in the neighbourhood 3-million years ago.

Forty kilometres west of the city, among nondescript koppies, scattered shrubs and trees, is a 47 000-
hectare valley known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Three million years of human activity have taken place in and around these caves, including people's
earliest-known mastery of fire, and 40% of all the world's human ancestor fossils have been found here.

The biggest and best-known of the caves is Sterkfontein, where over 500 hominid fossils and over 9 000
stone tools have been found. It was at Sterkfontein that two major finds were made, that have changed
modern paleontology:

 The Australopithecus africanus Mrs Ples (now believed to be a Mister Ples), dating back 2.5-million
years, and found by Robert Bloom in 1947.
 Little Foot, an almost complete ape-man skeleton that could be just over 4 million years old, the
first pieces - footbones - of which were found by Ronald Clarke and Phillip Tobias in 1995 (the
bones had lain in a box since the late 1970s, when they were excavated).

In 1997, Clarke, digging through more boxes of bones from Sterkfontein, found more footbones from the
same individual - one with a clean break suggesting that more of Little Foot's bones might still be inside
the cave. Clarke went after the rest of Little Foot's skeleton - and in 1998, amazingly, found it, or at least
a significant part of it.
A complete skull and fragments of arm, foot and leg bones have been uncovered so far; the rest of the
bones are still being painstakingly excavated from the rock.

Some believe that Little Foot is the most significant hominid find since Raymond Dart's discovery of the
skull of the Taung child, a juvenile Australopithecus africanus, discovered in 1924 near a town called
Taung in the far north of North West.
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According to Clarke, the Little Foot fossil has yielded the most complete australopithecine skull yet found,
found together with the most complete set of foot and leg bones known so far - with more extracted from
the rock since then. In addition, the preservation of the skeleton is extraordinary, with most of the bones
intact and joined in their natural position.

The Little Foot skeleton was originally thought to be between 3 and 3.5 million years old, but a more
recent study argues that it could be over 4 million years old, which would make it one of the oldest known
australopithecine fossils, and easily the oldest from South Africa.

According to Talk.origins: "If Clarke's expectations of further finds are borne out, Little Foot could become
the most spectacular and important hominid fossil ever discovered, rivalled only by the Turkana Boy Homo
erectus skeleton [discovered in 1984 near Lake Turkana in Kenya]."

The Sterkfontein valley consists of around 40 different fossil sites, 13 of which have been excavated.

It includes Bolt's Farm, where the remains of three sabre-tooth cats have been found in a pit that trapped
animals; Swartkrans, site of the earliest-known deliberate use of fire, around 1.3-million years ago;
Haasgat, where the fossils of early forest-dwelling monkeys, around 1.3-million years old, were found;
and Gondolin, where 90 000 fossil specimens have been found since 1979.

The area was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Although it is on privately owned land, any finds
belong to the world, and the area is strictly controlled and protected.

Electronic source: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/history.htm#ixzz25PbiUc8I

The discovery of diamonds

The Cape Colony was granted representative legislature in 1853 and self-government in 1872. Between
these two dates, a dramatic new element was introduced to the economic, and consequently political,
balance – the discovery of diamonds and subsequent establishment of Kimberley.

For the first time it became evident that there was wealth for the taking in the subcontinent. Rival claims
by the Orange Free State, the ZAR and Nicholas Waterboer, chief of the West Griquas – a community of
mixed race – were defeated and the area was incorporated into the Cape Colony in 1880.

As a British territory, it was a perfect proving ground for the young Cecil John Rhodes, one of the many
thousands to be attracted by the diggings, and one who made his fortune there.

The colony had taken tentative steps towards political equality among the races. The franchise was based
on economic qualifications, non-racial in theory but excluding the vast majority of African and coloured
people in practice. Among those who did qualify, many became politically active across colour lines. The
promise existed of progress towards full political inclusion of the population.
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Natal, and the Battle of Isandhlwana

The Colony of Natal, however, was developing along somewhat different lines, the size of the Zulu nation
assuming threatening proportions to the colonists. Reserves were created under traditional African law for
refugees from Zulu might; outside those reserves, British law held sway. As almost all blacks were
deemed to fall under the rule of the chiefs in the reserves, almost none had any chance of political rights
outside their borders.

Economically, Natal had the advantage of being ideal for the cultivation of sugar cane. The consequent
labour requirements led to the importation of indentured labourers from India, many of whom – in spite of
discrimination – remained in the country after their contracts had expired: the forebears of today's
significant and influential Indian population.

The late 19th century was an area of aggressive colonial expansion, and the Zulus were bound to come
under pressure. But they were not to prove easy pickings. Under King Cetshwayo, they delivered
resounding proof at Isandhlwana in 1879 that the British army was not invincible.

However, they were defeated in the following year, leading to Zululand eventually being incorporated into
Natal in 1897.

Land and labour

Land and labour are two very important elements of the economic development of a society, and the way
they are used will influence how the society develops. In South African history there has always been the
fight for ownership of land and the need for cheap labour. Government policies over the years have tried
to solve this problem in different ways.

Land

At the start of the twentieth century, in 1910, the whole of South Africa was united under one
government. Until this time, the Cape and Natal had been colonies controlled by the British, and the
Transvaal and Free State were areas under Boer control. The South Africa War was fought at the end of
the 19th century, leaving all the land in the hands of the British. The rights of the black population were
generally not taken into account, although they did still live scattered across South Africa. Some black
tribes had been forced off their land over the years and had resettled.

After the Union of South Africa, 1910, land in South Africa was divided. In 1913 the government passed
the Land Act. This Act decided how the land in South Africa was going to be divided between black and
white people. At this time there was no apartheid policy in place, but the government did want to prevent
black and white people from mixing together. The policy is known as the policy of segregation, and would
later be replaced with the policy of apartheid in 1948.

The 1913 Land Act set aside 7.5% of the land in South Africa for black people. The Act also said that black
people could not get more land outside of their tribal areas. The Act caused a problem for black people
who worked on white land but had their own piece of ground. These people, known as share-croppers, had
to decide between working for the white farm owners or moving to areas set aside for black people. The
situation with the 1913 Land Act became only very slightly better in 1936 when the Native Trust and Land
Act increased the amount of land to just over 10% of South Africa.

Labour

During the same period the government saw the need for cheap labour to work on the mines and on
farms. The government needed to make sure that people did come to the towns, and for this reason they
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introduced taxes that needed to be paid. This meant that young men left their families for a while to come
to the cities to earn some money. This money was then given over to the chief to pay taxes. This became
known as the system of migrant labour - people moved across the country, often far from home, to work
for a short while and then return to their families. There were few job opportunities in the black areas, so
they had to go to the cities to get cash to pay the government taxes.

The system of migrant labour led to some problems developing in black society:

 young men sometimes could not marry until they had done a certain amount of labour for the chief

 families were disrupted

 farms were left in the hands of women and young children

 men in the cities became used to the western way of life, and did not want to settle on the farms
again

 the tribal and traditional society was broken up

The government also introduced laws to protect white labour - reserving certain jobs for white people
only, and other jobs were kept for black people only. The jobs that white people did were normally better
paid, although there were also some poor whites.

During Apartheid

The situation with regard to labour and land remained more or less the same during the apartheid period.
With regard to labour, the policy of protected labour remained in place, strengthened by the Bantu
Education Policy. The system of migrant labour continued, although more black people started settling in
white areas, leading to the establishment of townships. Many men continued to come to the city without
their wives, which led to the deterioration of the family system and unfaithfulness in marriages. Workers
in the mines had to stay on the mine premises where their wives could not stay. They stayed in rooms
with many other men. Women increasingly came to the towns to get work as domestic workers, leaving
their children behind to be looked after by other family members.

The land laws were made stricter in the apartheid period, although the amount of land allocated to the
black people did increase slightly. Black people were not allowed to live in white areas, and could not own
land in these areas. This meant that those staying in townships could not own their land. The apartheid
government also removed black people from some areas and declared these areas white. The apartheid
government had a policy called the homeland policy. According to this policy, black people would all
become citizens of independent black homelands. The government said that black people should settle in
their own homeland, own land there and have political freedom there. Many black people were born in
these urban areas and had never been to the countryside that was suddenly declared their 'homeland' by
the white government. These homelands were usually not on the most fertile soil or in the best area,
making economic success impossible, especially with the overcrowding and poor facilities. It was planned
that all black people would eventually live in the 'homelands', and some would commute to work in the
white areas. Essentially the 'homelands' were desolate, depressed labour pools for white business to
obtain cheap workers. The apartheid state invented the idea of separate homelands that emphasized
division and difference between the different tribes in South Africa' Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Pedi, etc.
This was a 'divide and rule' strategy which made up myths about how the government thought black
people were completely separate from each other. The reason for this was that it made apartheid seem
more logical (no mixing between races) and also ensured that the different groups could not all join
together against the government. The truth was somewhat different: e.g. some tribes had been
intermarrying for years and separation caused great sadness and social turmoil (e.g. the Shangaan and
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Venda). Some homelands that were created were Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Lebowa to name
a few.

Electronic source: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/land-labour-and-apartheid

The gathering storm

The 1950s were to bring increasingly repressive laws against black South Africans and its obvious
corollary – increasing resistance.

The Group Areas Act, rigidifying the racial division of land, and the Population Registration Act, which
classified all citizens by race, were passed in 1950. The pass laws, restricting black movement, came in
1952.

The Separate Amenities Act of 1953 introduced "petty apartheid" segregation, for example, on buses and
in post offices. In that year Malan retired and JG Strijdom became Prime Minister.

The Defiance Campaign

In reaction to all this came the mass mobilisation of the Defiance Campaign, starting in 1952. Based on
non-violent resistance, it nevertheless led to the jailing of thousands of participants.

The result was to increase unity among resistance groups with the forming of the Congress Alliance, which
included black, coloured, Indian and white resistance organisations as well as the South African Congress
of Trade Unions.

In 1954 a campaign against the deliberately inferior Bantu Education System was launched.

The Freedom Charter

The following year saw two of the most significant events of the decade.

One established how far the government was willing to go to pursue its aims. Unable to gain the two-
thirds majority required by the 1910 constitution to remove coloureds from the common voters' roll, the
government changed the composition of the Senate by increasing its size (and consequently Nationalist
majority) to give it the required majority in a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Assembly.

The second watershed moment came when, after an ANC campaign to gather mass input on freedom
demands, the Freedom Charter – based on the principles of human rights and non-racialism – was signed
on June 26 1955 at the Congress of the People in Soweto.

Reaction was swift: the following year 156 leaders of the ANC and its allies were charged with high
treason. The longest trial in South African history was to lead to the acquittal of all accused in 1961.

Strijdom died in 1958, to be succeeded by HF Verwoerd. The following year representatives of black
Africans were removed from both houses of parliament and the Cape provincial council.

On the other side of the political fence, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), founded by Robert Sobukwe,
broke away from the Congress Alliance.

The stage was set for the even more polarised 1960s.
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Three decades of crisis

The 1950s had still offered many opportunities to resolve South Africa's racial injustices peacefully. This,
however, was contrary to official ideology. Instead, apartheid transmuted itself into the policy of "separate
development": the division of the black population into ethnic "nations", each of which was to have its own
"homeland" and eventual "independence".

The Sharpeville Massacre

A turning point came at Sharpeville on March 21 1960 when a PAC-organised passive anti-pass campaign
came to a bloody conclusion with police killing 69 unarmed protesters. A State of Emergency was
declared: detention without trial was introduced and the ANC, PAC and other organisations were declared
illegal. The resistance groups went underground.

South Africa's isolation increased in 1961 when, following a white referendum, South Africa became a
republic and Verwoerd took it out of the Commonwealth. A general strike was called to coincide with the
May 31 institution of the republic.

At the end of that year, Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation), emerged with acts of sabotage
against government installations. Originally formed by a group of individuals within the ANC, including
Mandela, it was to become that organisation's armed wing.

A new stage of international pressure began when the UN General Assembly called on its members to
institute economic sanctions against South Africa. Mandela, in the meanwhile, had travelled through Africa
making contact with numerous leaders. Going underground on his return, he was arrested in Natal in
August 1962 and received a three-year sentence for incitement.

The Rivonia Trial

In July 1963 a police raid on the Rivonia farm Lilliesleaf led to the arrest of several of Mandela's senior
ANC colleagues, including Walter Sisulu. They were charged with sabotage, Mandela being brought from
prison to stand trial with them. All were sentenced in 1964 to life imprisonment and taken to Robben
Island.

In September 1966 BJ Vorster became Prime Minister after the assassination in parliament of Verwoerd.
Segregation became even more strictly enforced. Reeling under the blow of the "Rivonia Trial", the ANC
nevertheless continued to operate, regrouping at the Morogoro Conference in Tanzania in 1969.

The first half of the next decade was marked by increasing repression, increasing militancy in the
resistance camp, and extensive strikes.

June 16, 1976

The moment of truth came on June 16, 1976, when the youth of Soweto marched against being taught in
the medium of Afrikaans. Police fired on them, precipitating a massive flood of violence that overwhelmed
the country.

Nevertheless, an attempt was made to further the "homeland" policy, with Transkei being the first to
accept nominal independence later that year.

A new movement known as Black Consciousness had become increasingly influential. The death as a
result of police brutality of its charismatic founder, Steve Biko, shocked the world in 1977.

PW Botha, who became Prime Minister in 1978 after Vorster's retirement, tried to co-opt the coloured and
Indian population in the early 1980s with a new constitution establishing a Tricameral Parliament, with
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separate houses for these groups. The constitution also did away with the post of Prime Minister and
provided for an executive State President.

Opposition came from both left and right, a section of the right wing splitting off from the National Party.
The United Democratic Front, an internal coalition of anti-apartheid groups, organised highly successful
boycotts of the coloured and Indian elections in 1984.

State of emergency

There was a further escalation of violence, with the country being governed – as far as it was governable
– under a state of emergency in a spiral of revolution and repression. International sanctions increased.

Among the other organisations in the spotlight at this time were the trade union body Cosatu and Chief
Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha, the latter involved in bloody conflict with pro-ANC factions.

1989 was the year in which the logjam started to break up. Negotiations had been entered into between
Mandela and PW Botha, but these were secret. Dissension within the Nationalist Party, in combination with
Botha's ill health, led to his resignation, and he was replaced by FW de Klerk.

After an election in September, De Klerk released Walter Sisulu and seven other political prisoners.

The death of apartheid

On 2 February 1990, FW de Klerk lifted restrictions on 33 opposition groups, including the ANC, the PAC
and the Communist Party, at the opening of Parliament. On February 11 Mandela, who had maintained a
tough negotiating stance on the issue, was released after 27 years in prison.

The piecemeal dismantling of restrictive legislation began. Political groups started negotiating the ending
of white minority rule, and in early 1992 the white electorate endorsed De Klerk's stance on these
negotiations in a referendum.

Violence continued unabated, a massacre at the township of Boipatong causing the ANC to withdraw
temporarily from constitutional talks.

In 1993, however, an agreement was reached on a Government of National Unity which would allow a
partnership of the old regime and the new.

The optimism generated by the negotiations was shattered by the assassination of Chris Hani, the
secretary-general of the Communist Party: only a prompt appeal to the nation by Mandela averted a
massive reaction. At the end of the year an interim constitution was agreed to by 21 political parties.

First democratic elections

South Africa's first democratic election was held on 26, 27 and 28 April 1994, with victory going to the
ANC in an alliance with the Communist Party and Cosatu. Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President on
May 10 with FW de Klerk and the ANC's Thabo Mbeki as Deputy Presidents.

Mandela's presidency was characterised by the successful negotiation of a new constitution; a start on the
massive task of restructuring the civil service and attempts to redirect national priorities to address the
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results of apartheid; and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up primarily to investigate the
wrongs of the past.

In the country's second democratic election on 2 June 1999 the ANC marginally increased its majority and
Thabo Mbeki became President. The New Nationalist Party, previously the official opposition, lost ground
and ceded that position to the Democratic Party, which later became the Democratic Alliance.

In 2004 South Africa's third democratic election went off peacefully, with Thabo Mbeki and the ANC again
returning to power, and the Democratic Alliance retaining its position as official opposition.

Then, three years later, Mbeki lost the presidency of the ANC to his former deputy, Jacob Zuma, and
power within the ruling party shifted away from Mbeki.

After nearly 10 years as president, Mbeki resigned in September 2008, with Kgalema Motlanthe appointed
as "caretaker" president by the National Assembly.

In the 2009 elections – democratic South Africa's fourth – the ANC won 65.9% of the vote and Jacob
Zuma was elected as president. The Democratic Alliance strengthened its position as opposition, winning
16.7% of the vote as well as the Western Cape.

Electronic source: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/521109.htm#ixzz25PgHnPdD

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The peaceful and orderly queues to vote in South Africa's first democratic elections were celebrated on the front
page of the Star newspaper on 28 April 1994 (Image: The Star)

On 9 May 1994, the day before Mandela's inauguration as President of South Africa, Time ran in-depth features
on the 'miracle' of the country's democratic transformation (Image: Time)

The History of Apartheid in South Africa

South Africa is a country blessed with an abundance of natural resources

including fertile farmlands and unique mineral resources. South African mines
are world leaders in the production of diamonds and gold as well as strategic
metals such as platinum. The climate is mild, reportedly resembling the San
Francisco bay area weather more than anywhere in the world.

South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth
century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or
Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free
State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900
resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War. Following
independence from England, an uneasy power-sharing between the two groups held sway until the 1940's,
when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party
invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, aim
of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60's,
a plan of ``Grand Apartheid'' was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.

With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws
touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites,
and the sanctioning of ``white-only'' jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South
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Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed
decent). The coloured category included major subgroups of Indians and Asians. Classification into these
categories was based on appearance, social acceptance, and descent. For example, a white person was
defined as ``in appearance obviously a white person or generally accepted as a white person.'' A person
could not be considered white if one of his or her parents were non-white. The determination that a
person was ``obviously white'' would take into account ``his habits, education, and speech and
deportment and demeanor.'' A black person would be of or accepted as a member of an African tribe or
race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white. The Department of Home Affairs (a
government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. Non-compliance with the race
laws were dealt with harshly. All blacks were required to carry ``pass books'' containing fingerprints,
photo and information on access to non-black areas.

In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for

ethnic government in African reserves, known as
``homelands.'' These homelands were independent states to
which each African was assigned by the government
according to the record of origin (which was frequently
inaccurate). All political rights, including voting, held by an
African were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea
was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their
citizenship in South Africa and any right of involvement with
the South African Parliament which held complete hegemony over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981,
four of these homelands were created, denationalizing nine million South Africans. The homeland
administrations refused the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the
country as a whole. Nevertheless, Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South
Africa: aliens in their own country.

In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the
government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or
supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large
group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of
emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded.
Wielding the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the white regime had no intention of
changing the unjust laws of apartheid.
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The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of
emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a
low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after
gruesome acts of torture. Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life,
like Nelson Mandela.

The apartheid policy was highly effective of achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites, as is
demonstrated by the statistics in Figure 1.

Electronic source: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html