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Apartheid

DEFINITION:
Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa while it was
under white minority rule. This was used in the 20th century, from 1948 to the early
1990s.
ETYMOLOGY:

Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart",


literally "apart-hood" (from Afrikaans "-heid").

AIM OF APARTHEID:
The aim of apartheid was to separate the people of South Africa into
small independent nations. It was a legal system, implemented by The National Party
government, of political, economic and social separation of the races.

BEFORE APARTHEID:

Prior to the 1940s, some aspects of apartheid had already emerged in the form of minority
rule by white South Africans.
Before the ascension of the National Party government during the country’s general
elections in 1948, racial segregation already existed in South Africa. But once it became
a formal policy known as Apartheid the segregation was intensified with stern penalties
for non-whites.

DURING APARTHEID:
Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid, which entailed the
segregation of public facilities and social events, and grand apartheid, which dictated
housing and employment opportunities by race.
During apartheid, people were divided into four racial groups ("black": Bantu, "white",
"Coloured", and "Indian") and kept apart by law. The system was used to deny many
rights of the non-white people, mainly black people who lived in South Africa in the
beginning of the apartheid times unlike the white people who had no restrictions at all.
The NP passed a string of legislation that became known as petty apartheid. Some of
them are:
- Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949.
- Immorality Act, 1950 (which made it illegal for most South African citizens to
marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines).
- Population Registration Act, 1950 (classified all South Africans into one of four
racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and
cultural lifestyle: "black", "white", "Coloured", and "Indian)
Some other prohibitions to non-white people were:

Places of residence were determined by racial classification. Blacks were not allowed to
run businesses or professional practices in areas designated as "white South Africa"
unless they had a permit - such being granted only exceptionally. They were required to
move to the black "homelands" and set up businesses and practices there. Transport
and civil facilities were segregated. Trains, hospitals and ambulances were segregated.
Blacks were only allowed to live in white areas if employed as a servant and even then
only in servants quarters.

-Protests:

The United Nations did not agree with the South African government's apartheid
policies. There were protests in South Africa, like in Sharpeville in 1960 and in Soweto in
1976.
-The Sharpeville massacre was an event which occurred on 21 March 1960, at the
police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in Transvaal (today part
of Gauteng).
After a day of demonstrations against pass laws, a crowd of about 5,000 to 7,000
protesters went to the police station. The South African Police opened fire on the
crowd, killing 69 people. Sources disagree as to the behaviour of the crowd; some
state that the crowd was peaceful, while others state that the crowd had been hurling
stones at the police, and that the shooting started when the crowd started advancing
toward the fence around the police station. There were 289 casualties in total,
including 29 children. Many sustained back injuries from being shot as they fled. [1]
In present-day South Africa, 21 March is celebrated as a public holiday in honour of
human rights and to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre.

- Soweto came to the world's attention on 16 June 1976 with the Soweto Uprising, when
mass protests erupted over the government's policy to enforce education in Afrikaans
rather than their native language. Africans were forced to study some subjects at school
in Afrikaans. Many black people did not like this because it was the language of the
apartheid government and they did not understand it. Police opened fire in Orlando
West on 10,000 students marching from Naledi High School to Orlando Stadium. The
rioting continued and 23 people died on the first day in Soweto. Since 1991 this date
and the schoolchildren have been commemorated by the International Day of the
African Child.

-Women under apartheid:


Colonialism and apartheid had a major impact on Black and Coloured women, since they
suffered both racial and gender discrimination.Jobs were often hard to find. Many Black
and Coloured women worked as agricultural or domestic workers, but wages were
extremely low, if existent. Children suffered from diseases caused by malnutrition and
sanitation problems, and mortality rates were therefore high. The controlled movement
of black and Coloured workers within the country through the Natives Urban Areas Act
of 1923 and the pass laws separated family members from one another, because men
could prove their employment in urban centres while most women were merely
dependents; consequently, they risked being deported to rural areas.

ENDING APARTHEID:
In 1989 F. W. de Klerk became the President of South Africa. He wanted to end
apartheid. In a speech in 1990, de Klerk said the African National Congress was legal
again. He also said that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison.
In 1991, the UN created the National Peace Accord. The purpose of the Peace Accord
was "to bring an end to political violence" in South Africa. It was agreed on by 27
organizations and governments. After this the Convention for a Democratic South
Africa (CODESA) was formed. CODESA worked to find a solution to the violence.
Apartheid legislation was abolished in mid-1991, pending multiracial elections set for
April 1994.
The first democratic election was on 27 April 1994. Nelson Mandela became president,
with De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputies.

Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some


of the most influential global social movements of the twentieth century.

APARTHEID TODAY:
Although black South Africans were granted equal rights by law, there is still economic
inequality between blacks and whites. In 2012, South Africa had its first census in over
ten years. It found that the average black family earned one-sixth (about 17%) of what
the average white family earned. "These figures tell us that at the bottom of the rung is
the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty unemployment and
inequality,” President Jacob Zuma said when the results came out.
Today, the term apartheid is sometimes used for similar systems in other countries.

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