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A republic at the southernmost part of Africa; first European settlers were Dutch (known as Boers); Also called: Republic of South Africa.
Country on the southern tip of Africa, bounded N by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe and NE by Mozambique and Swaziland.
government
In Nov 1993 the South African government and the African National Congress (ANC) agreed on an interim constitution, which was adopted by the Transitional Executive Council Dec 1993 and took effect after the first multiracial elections April 1994. It provides for a National Assembly of 400 members, elected by a system of proportional representation through national and regional party lists, and a Senate, consisting of 10 members from each regional assembly. Elections are by universal adult suffrage. The president is elected by the National Assembly and appoints a first deputy president, to act as premier, from the majority party within the Assembly, and a second deputy president from the second-largest party. Both appointments are subject to confirmation by the National Assembly.
The earlier 1984 constitution was based on racial discrimination in the context of apartheid, with black Africans completely unrepresented at national level.
history
For early history, see Africa. The area was originally inhabited by Kung and Khoikhoi. Bantu-speaking peoples, including Sotho, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu, settled there before the 17th century. The Cape of Good Hope was rounded by Bartolomeu Diaz 1488; the coast of Natal was sighted by Vasco da Gama 1497. The Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town 1652 as a port of call on the way to the Indies. Occupied by Britain 1795 and 1806, Cape Town and the hinterland were purchased by Britain 1814 for £6 million. Britons also settled in Natal, on the coast near Durban, 1824.
In 1836 some 10,000 Dutch, wishing to escape from British rule, set out north on the Great Trek and founded the republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free State; they also settled in N Natal, which became part of Cape Colony 1844 and a separate colony 1856. The Orange Free State was annexed by Britain 1848 but became independent 1854.
Boer War
The discovery of diamonds at Kimberley, Cape Colony, 1867, and of gold in Transvaal 1886, attracted prospectors, who came into conflict with the Dutch farmers, the Boers. Britain attempted to occupy Transvaal 1877–81 but withdrew after a severe defeat at Majuba in the first of the South African Wars. Denial of citizenship rights to the migrant miners (uitlanders) in Transvaal, and the imperialist ambitions of Cecil Rhodes and others, led to the Jameson Raid (see L S Jameson) and the Boer War 1899–1902.
Union of South Africa
In 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed, comprising the provinces of Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal. A Boer rebellion on the outbreak of World War I was speedily crushed by Jan Smuts. South Africa occupied German SW Africa (now Namibia). Between the wars the union was alternately governed by the republican nationalists under James Hertzog and the South African Party under Smuts, who supported the Commonwealth connection. Hertzog wanted South Africa to be neutral in World War II, but Smuts took over as premier, and South African troops fought with the Allies.
introduction of apartheid
The National Party (NP) has ruled South Africa since 1948. Its leader, Daniel Malan, initiated the policy of apartheid, attempting to justify it as “separate but equal” development. In fact, all but the white minority were denied a voice in the nation’s affairs. In the 1950s the African National Congress (ANC) led a campaign of civil disobedience until it and other similar movements were declared illegal 1960, and in 1964 the ANC leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged sabotage. He became a central symbol of black opposition to the apartheid regime, remaining in prison until 1990.
“homelands” established
Malan was succeeded 1958 by Hendrik Verwoerd, who withdrew from the Commonwealth rather than abandon apartheid, and the Union became the Republic of South Africa 1961. Verwoerd was assassinated 1966, but his successor, B J Vorster, pursued the same policy. Pass laws restricting the movement of blacks within the country had been introduced, causing international outrage, and ten “homelands” (Bantustans; see Black National State) were established to contain particular ethnic groups. By the 1980s thousands of the apartheid regime’s opponents had been imprisoned without trial and more than 3 million people had been forcibly resettled in black townships. International condemnation of police brutality followed the news of the death in detention of the black community leader Steve Biko 1977.
constitutional reform
In 1978 Vorster resigned and was succeeded by Pieter W Botha. He embarked on constitutional reform to involve coloreds and Asians, but not blacks, in the governmental process. This led to a clash within the NP, and in March 1982 Dr Adries Treurnicht, leader of the hard-line (verkrampte) wing, and 15 other extremists were expelled. They later formed a new party, the Conservative Party of South Africa (CPSA). Although there were considerable doubts about Botha’s proposals in the colored and Indian communities as well as among the whites, they were approved by 66% of the voters in an all-white referendum and came into effect Sept 1984. In 1985 a number of apartheid laws were amended or repealed, including the ban on sexual relations or marriage between people of different races and the ban on mixed racial membership in political parties, but the underlying inequalities in the system remained and the dissatisfaction of the black community grew. In the 1986 cabinet of 21, including Botha, there were 19 whites, 1 c
olored, and 1 Indian. The NP continued to increase its majority at each election, with the white opposition parties failing to unseat it.
state of emergency
In May 1986 South Africa attacked what it claimed to be guerrilla strongholds in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The exiled ANC leader Oliver Tambo was receiving increasing moral support in meetings with politicians throughout the world, and Winnie Mandela, during her husband’s continuing imprisonment, was “banned” repeatedly for condemning the system publicly. Nonviolent resistance was advocated by Bishop Tutu, the Inkatha movement, and others. A state of emergency was declared June 1986, a few days before the tenth anniversary of the first Soweto uprising, marked by a strike in which millions of blacks participated. Serious rioting broke out in the townships and was met with police violence, causing hundreds of deaths. Between 1980 and 1990 some 1,070 people were judicially executed.
sanctions imposed
Abroad, calls for economic sanctions against South Africa grew during 1985 and 1986. At the Heads of Commonwealth conference 1985 the Eminent Persons' Group (EPG) of Commonwealth politicians was conceived to investigate the likelihood of change in South Africa without sanctions. In July 1986 the EPG reported that there were no signs of genuine liberalization. Reluctantly, Britain's prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, agreed to limited measures. Some Commonwealth countries, notably Australia and Canada, took additional independent action. The US Congress eventually forced President Reagan to move in the same direction. Between 1988 and 1990 economic sanctions cost the South African treasury more than $4 billion in lost revenue. The decisions by individual multinational companies to close down their South African operations (see disinvestment) may, in the long term, have had the greatest effect.
promise of reform
At the end of 1988 South Africa signed a peace agreement with Angola and Cuba, which included the acceptance of Namibia's independence, and in 1989, under United Nations supervision, free elections took place there. In Feb 1989 state president Botha suffered a stroke that forced him to give up the NP leadership and later the presidency. He was succeeded in both roles by F W de Klerk, who promised major constitutional reforms. Meanwhile the nonracialist Democratic Party (DP) was launched, advocating universal adult suffrage, and, together with the Conservative Party, made significant gains in the Sept 1989 whites-only assembly elections. The ruling NP lost one-quarter of its seats. Its new total was only nine seats more than was required for a majority, its worst electoral showing since coming to power 1948.
Despite de Klerk's release of the veteran ANC activist, Walter Sisulu, and some of his colleagues Oct 1989, the new president's promises of political reform were treated with skepticism by the opposition until he announced the lifting of the ban on the ANC, followed by the release of Mandela 11 Feb 1990. In Sept President de Klerk declared membership in the NP open to all races. In Dec ANC president Tambo returned triumphantly and in Jan 1991 Nelson Mandela and Zulu leader Chief Buthelezi both urged their followers to end attacks on one other, but revelations of government financial support and police funding for Inkatha political activities, for example to counter the ANC and foment division among blacks, threatened ANC cooperation. Mandela was subsequently elected ANC president.
abandonment of apartheid announced
In Feb 1991 President de Klerk announced the intended repeal of all remaining apartheid laws. In March he announced legislation to abolish all racial controls on land ownership, enabling all South Africans to purchase land anywhere. In June 1991 all the remaining racially discriminating laws were repealed. As a result the US lifted its trade and investment sanctions against South Africa in July and the country was readmitted into international sport by the International Olympic Committee. In Sept President de Klerk announced a draft constitution, giving black people the franchise but providing strong safeguards for the white minority. It was immediately criticized by the ANC because it served to perpetuate the white hegemony. However, the ANC agreed to negotiate and it joined with the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) to form a united front against the government. In Dec, however, PAC withdrew, claiming that the planning of the negotiations was undemocratic. A whites-only referendum held March 1992 gave de Klerk
a clear mandate to proceed with plans for the new constitution which would end white minority rule.
massacre at Boipatong
More than 40 people were killed in the black township of Boipatong by Inkatha, aided and abetted by police, June 1992. The ANC called a halt to the constitutional talks until the government took steps to curb township violence.
proposed government of national unity
In Feb 1993 state president F W de Klerk and ANC president Nelson Mandela agreed to the formation of a government of national unity after free nonracial elections in 1994. Inkatha leader Chief Buthelezi complained of not having been consulted and warned that he would oppose such an arrangement. Radical ANC leader Chris Hani was assassinated by a white extremist April 1993. In the same month President F W de Klerk apologized for apartheid for the first time in public and announced April 1994 as the date for the first nonracial elections. An escalation in township violence followed, initiated by groups opposed to the proposed constitutional changes and to the ANC's dominant role in negotiating them. In Sept 1993 it was agreed that a multiracial Transitional Executive Council would be established (to comprise one member from each of South Africa's political parties) in the run-up to the elections. In Oct 1993 a new Freedom Alliance was formed by Inkatha leader Chief Buthelezi, white right-wing groups, and the le
aders of the black homelands of Ciskei and Bophuthatswana, all opposed to the creation of a single democratic state and seeking greater autonomy for their respective areas. In the same month, Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
interim nonracial constitution
In Nov 1993 the government and the ANC agreed on an interim constitution, providing for multiracial elections to a 400-member National Assembly in April 1994 and incorporating a fundamental bill of rights. Under the new constitution, South Africa would be divided into nine provinces (existing “homelands” were to be dissolved and progressively integrated), and, in addition to English and Afrikaans, Xhosa and eight other languages would be made official. The constitution was approved by South Africa’s Transitional Executive Council Dec 1993, but the vote was boycotted by the right-wing Freedom Alliance.
preelection violence
South Africa was invited to rejoin the Commonwealth Jan 1994. Chief Buthelezi continued his campaign to derail the democratization process, calling on Inkatha supporters to boycott the forthcoming elections. In March 1994 Bophuthatswana was annexed following a popular uprising against its leader, Lucas Mangope, and an attempted takeover of the capital, Mmbatho, by white right-wing extremists. The Freedom Alliance rapidly disintegrated. First Ciskei registered, then the leader of the far-right Volksfront party, General Constand Viljoen, quit his party to form and register a new right-wing Freedom Front. Buthelezi remained intransigent, and politicially motivated violence increased. A temporary state of emergency was imposed in KwaZulu/Natal after violence escalated there in retaliation for the massacre of Inkatha demonstrators in Johannesburg. Within days of polling, Buthelezi agreed to call off Inkatha's campaign of violence in return for the status of the Zulu king being enshrined in the constitution. The vi
olence abated to some extent, but the ultraright (the only group still refusing to participate) carried out preelection bombings in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
first multiracial elections
In the first nonracial elections April 1994, the ANC captured 62% of the popular vote and won seven out of South Africa's nine new provinces. The NP came second with 20% (winning Western Cape), and Inkatha (IFP) third with 10%. Despite reports of ballot rigging in KwaZulu/Natal (where the IFP received most support), the Independent Electoral Commission declared the elections as free of fraud. The following month ANC president Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president, with his ANC colleague Thabo Mbeki as first deputy president (premier), and the former president and NP leader, F W de Klerk, as second deputy president. The post of home affairs minister went to Zulu leader Chief Buthelezi.
In Aug 1994, after three months in office, President Mandela made an historic “100 days” speech to a joint sitting of parliament, replying to the growing popular frustration at the slow pace of economic and social reform. In the same month it was announced that a 40-member select committee would be set up to oversee the drafting of a new, permanent constitution. In Sept 1994 a serious rift developed between the Zulu king and Chief Buthelezi. A bill was passed restoring land to dispossessed blacks Nov 1994. In March 1995 President Mandela dismissed his wife Winnie from her cabinet post following allegations of dereliction of duty.