South Africa celebrates 30 years of the end of Apartheid, a system of racial discrimination

Posted 03 May 2024

2 min read

Apartheid System was legal system for racial segregation against non-whites, enforced through political, social, and economic discrimination.
- Though apartheid policies existed earlier, it was institutionalized by National Party in 1948 and Population Registration Act, 1950 formed its basic framework.
  - It classified South Africans by race into Blacks, Coloured, Whites, and Indians.
- Other apartheid laws include Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949, Group Areas Act 1950 (separate residency areas), Bantu Education Act 1953 (segregation of education).

Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM): AAM is characterized by three phases including
- Non-violent Resistance movement with African National Congress (ANC) as main organization.
- Internationalisation with support from Organization of African Unity (now African Union) and
  - UN: Adopted International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
  - India: First country to sever trade relations with apartheid Government (1946) and subsequently imposed a complete embargo on South Africa.
- Massive Resistance with boycotts, demonstrations including Defiance Campaign (1952) by ANC.

Role of Mahatma Gandhi: Seeds of AAM in South Africa were sown by Mahatma Gandhi as he established first anti-colonial and anti-racial discrimination movement and founded Natal Indian Congress in 1894.
- He experimented Satyagraha technique against the 1906 legislation requiring registration of Asians.
- At Satyagraha’s climax in 1913, 5000 indentured workers marched in Natal, which was the beginning of marches to freedom and mass strikes which became characteristic feature of AAM in later years.

Mandela was a symbol of AAM and South Africa’s first democratically elected President in 1994.
He joined the ANC in 1944 and helped form ANC Youth League.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 (Rivonia Trial) and was released in 1990 after 27 years.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
UN celebrates the Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July every year.