South Africa A country on the southern tip of Africa consisting of the former Cape Colony (under British control since 1806), the Natal Province (a British Crown Colony since 1856), the Orange Free State (OFS, independent since 1854), and the South African Republic (independent since 1852, from 1902 known as the Transvaal). Efforts by British administrators, particularly in the Cape, to annex the two independent
Afrikaner republics to create a British-led union were given a decisive stimulus with the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1886. In addition, the creation of British-controlled territories in the north (
Botswana) and north-east (
Zimbabwe) during the 1890s provided a strategic reason to link these landlocked areas to the Cape/Natal and thus to the sea.
Despite heavy losses, the British managed to fulfil their aspirations through the
South African War (1899–1902), whereby the OFS and Transvaal became two British Crown Colonies. They received self-government in 1907, and in 1910 joined with the Cape and Natal to form the Union of South Africa. With the general support of the White population, the new state maintained and extended laws of racial segregation which had already existed in the various provinces. By contrast, led by Presidents whose views on nationhood were formed by their experience of the South African War, until the early 1960s the main area of conflict among Whites was the question of national sovereignty. The Union's first Prime Ministers, J.
Botha and
Smuts, believed that unity between the English-speaking minority and the Afrikaner majority of Whites could best be established through gaining as much independence as possible while maintaining formal links with the
British Empire.
South Africa's entry into World War I against Germany as part of the British Empire, which led to the South African occupation of South-West Africa (
Namibia), proved to be a major divisive issue and even led to an abortive rebellion by Afrikaners. Afrikaner opposition to the war increased the fortunes of the
National Party (
NP) founded in 1914, whose leader,
Hertzog, became Prime Minister in 1924. Hertzog joined with
Smuts to form the
United Party in 1934, in order to cope with the effects of the Great
Depression. Hertzog increased racial segregation, for example depriving people of mixed race (‘Coloureds’) of the franchise. Afrikaans was recognized as an official language in 1925, while South Africa's independence from Britain was increased. Nevertheless, against Hertzog's appeals, a parliamentary majority voted in 1939 to join Britain in World War II, during which it was led by Smuts. Despite Smuts's importance in the establishment of the
UN in the closing stages of the war, South Africa became increasingly isolated there and in world opinion because of its continued occupation of South-West Africa, and its laws of racial discrimination and segregation.
Those laws were intensified in 1948, when the victory of the NP under
Malan and the advent of
Verwoerd as Minister for Native Affairs (1950) marked the beginning of the system of
apartheid. This was an attempt to maximize White control in an industrializing, urbanizing economy which was increasingly dependent on Black labour. Its ultimate goal was to establish a ‘White’ South Africa, with those of other races forced to live in inadequate and overcrowded homelands (
bantustans). An elaborate system of racial discrimination was established, with Whites enjoying full political rights while Coloureds, Indians, and Blacks (Bantus) had progressively fewer rights. Protest campaigns by the
PAC, the
ANC, and the
Communist Party (SACP) were severely repressed after the
Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.
Active resistance was all but crushed by 1965, and in the subsequent decade the ‘stability’ thus created caused an unparalleled boom, stimulated by the availability of cheap labour and foreign investment. The latter started to decline after the
Soweto uprising of 1976, however, which became a symbol of the repression of the apartheid system. Its annual commemoration worldwide, the continued imprisonment of Nelson
Mandela, the prominence of Winnie
Mandela and
Tutu within South Africa, and the increasing effectiveness of the ANC led by
Tambo and
Mbeki from exile served to heighten international concern about apartheid. Concerned by South Africa's growing economic, cultural, and political isolation, its leaders,
Vorster and P. W.
Botha, tried to relax some of the more extreme aspects of the system while maintaining its substance.
The deadlock was broken by
de Klerk, who recognized that apartheid could no longer be maintained. He also appreciated the essential role of the hitherto stigmatized and banned ANC and its imprisoned leader, Nelson Mandela, whose singular popularity provided a quintessential point of contact for negotiations. Together with other political prisoners, Mandela was released in 1990, when the ANC, PAC, and SACP were also legalized again. Negotiations were delayed and threatened by intra-Black violence between the ANC and
Buthelezi's Inkatha movement on the one hand and White right-wing opposition, as evidenced in the growth of the
Conservative Party, on the other.
The end of apartheid was officially proclaimed with the declaration of a provisional Constitution in 1993, coming into force on 27 April 1994. In the first multiracial elections of 1994, the ANC gained 62.6 per cent of the popular vote, the NP 20.4 per cent, and Inkatha 10.5 per cent. These parties proceeded to form a Coalition Government of National Unity, which ended its deliberations on a permanent Constitution in April 1996. Shortly afterwards, the NP left the coalition government, initiating a normalization of politics through the creation of a constitutional opposition in Parliament. In 1998 Mbeki succeeded Mandela as President, and formed a coalition with Inkhata despite the ANC's increased representation in parliament, with almost two-thirds of the seats.
Attempts at cementing racial harmony in the post-apartheid era included the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the creation in 1997 of the United Democratic Movement consisting of former NP and ANC members. From 2000, however, Mbeki struggled to pacify radical Blacks in townships who were attracted by
Mugabe's policies of forced expropriation of White farmers in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Instead, the government tried to reduce unrest and dissatisfaction in the townships through large-scale provision of sanitation and electricity, though this was limited by its conflicting aim to keep public spending and inflation under control. After a period of economic difficulty, by 2000 inflation had been reduced to 5 per cent, with annual GDP growth exceeding 5 per cent. For the majority of the population, the supply of basic services (such as health and electricity) had been improved, but official unemployment persisted at over 30 per cent. Furthermore, throughout the 1990s capital investment was hindered by South Africa's crime rate, one of the highest in the world. As a result, a disproportionate and increasing amount of wealth was spent on personal and public security, in order to stem the emigration of wealthy Whites. A further challenge was provided by the rapid spread of
AIDS, which posed dramatic challenges to the health system and the country's economic potential.
