Opposition to Apartheid Flashcards
1
Q
What was the United Democratic Front (UDF)?
A
- Umbrella term
- Opposition groups’ response to Botha’s reforms
- Supported boycotts, carried out strikes and forms of passive resistance
2
Q
What was important about the groups that formed the UDF?
A
- Made up of community groups, religious groups, unions, sporting associations
- Crucial that none were political parties, so they could not be banned
3
Q
What is the truth about the UDF?
A
- Regime believed that it was a ‘front’ for the ANC
- Supported the basic principles of the Freedom Charter
- But the ANC leaders could not control or direct its activities
- ANC did not always agree with them, especially if they resulted in violence
4
Q
Was the UDF an effective opposition group?
A
- Security Forced tried to remove their leaders and ban it
- UDF was clever in not having a designated leadership group
- Nearly 60 arrests were made in the first year
- But more groups sprung up to oppose them under the UDF umbrella
- Sparked open revolt against the regime after protests in 1948 against rent collection
- Started in Eastern Cape but spread to other areas
5
Q
What happened to the ANC leadership group between 1978 and 1990?
A
- Most key leaders (Mandela and Sisulu) suffered from imprisonment
- Membership and influences declined in 1970s
- Attempts to recover were led by Oliver Tambo
6
Q
What were Tambo’s aims?
A
- Increase membership and gain international support for the ANC so foreigners would view ANC as a government in exile
- To carry on the ‘armed struggle’ as the ANC was under pressure to prove to the younger generation of its relevance and effectiveness
7
Q
What was the problem about Tambo’s aims?
A
- Contradictory in practice to an overwhelming extent
- Violence repelled major western democracies like the USA and Great Britain
- ANC gained support from countries like East Germany but it did not play well in the West due to the context of the Cold War
8
Q
What is the most that can be said about the ANC’s effectiveness at this time?
A
- ANC’s guerrilla bases on South Africa’s borders forced an expensive overreaction from security forces
- A drain on the regime’s resources
9
Q
What phenomenon was taking place in the late 1970s?
A
- The world regarded Mandela’s imprisonment as a symbol of the evils of apartheid itself
10
Q
How did the ANC respond to the phenomenon in the 1970s?
A
- Great political opportunity but great risk
- Able to actively direct the world’s attention towards Mandela through literature, rallies, concerts
- Might compromise ANC’s principle of collective leadership (set up in the first place to combat the dangers of a dictatorship as they had observed in Hitler and Stalin during the 1930s)
11
Q
Was the ANC’s response to the phenomenon successful?
A
- Calculated risk taken and it paid off
- ‘Free Mandela’ became a worldwide slogan
- Mandela’s imprisonment was a global embarrassment to the regime
12
Q
What was the regime’s response to Mandela’s global popularity?
A
- They were scared because they had a negative image worldwide
- Offered Mandela his freedom as early as 1985
- Provided he gave up his armed struggle publicly
- But he refused
13
Q
What did Mandela do in prison?
A
- Smuggled essays out of prison
- Worked hard within it to persuade warders and younger, more radical prisoners of his ideas
- Took advantage of his study privileges to learn Afrikaans
14
Q
Why was it useful that Mandela learnt Afrikaans?
A
- Helped his personal and political growth
- Gave him a window into the Afrikaner mind through their language, history and culture
- Perceived common ground: all people of resistance to British colonial oppression
15
Q
Why did the regime ease Mandela’s prison conditions?
A
- He had health scares and it feared the consequences of his death, even if he died of natural causes, no one would believe it
- Lost confidence so it began to explore the possibility of a negotiated solution to the crisis while trying to retain as much of their position as possible
16
Q
Why did Botha (then de Klerk) meet Mandela in prison?
A
- To hold negotiation talks
- Mandela was identified as the opposition figure with whom the regime could most likely negotiate with
17
Q
What did the ANC leadership group fear Mandela would do in these talks?
A
- Betray them
- ANC leadership group was not involved at all
18
Q
What was the situation of South African townships in the mid-1980s?
A
- Many became anarchic
- Conditions had always been bad in terms of housing, education and life opportunities
19
Q
How did the regime reduce hatred of white officials in townships? Was it effective?
A
- Gave black town councils greater control
- Created more serious problems without solving any
- Black councillors were targeted as they were seen as defectors, even if they were honest
- Sometimes murdered
- Corrupt black councillors were attacked and the property they bought with the fruit of their corruption (e.g. a fancy car) was symbolically destroyed
20
Q
What was the consequence of township unrest?
A
- Arise of ‘people courts’
- In practice was score-settling by violent young male
- Victims were subjected to ‘necklacing’, a horrible punishment
21
Q
In the mid-1980s, what were violent young male used for? (give an example)
A
- To establish personal power bases
- Most notorious: Winnie Mandela’s ‘Mandela United Football Club’ In Soweto
- Its members acted as her bodyguards and exerted a reign of terror over Soweto
- Exploited their link to Mandela to terrorise local people
- Cunning security forces did nothing to stop this as they were hoping to discredit Mandela’s name
22
Q
How did the anarchy in townships affect the regime?
A
- Damaging consequences
- Endless showing on news of images of violence and defiance of state repression
- Proved that government had no answers
- Contributed to the disinvestment of foreign businesses
23
Q
Which churches supported/opposed to Apartheid?
A
- All-white Dutch Reformed church felt obligated to provide religious justification for Apartheid
- Multi-racial churches rejected its deliberate misreading of the Gospel
- Multi-faith churches (well attended) were active in opposition
- Covert/overt forms
24
Q
What was a domestic form of overt opposition?
A
- Refusal to implement certain pieces of legislation that applied to churches
- Verwoerd’s Native Laws Amendment Act prohibited blacks from worshipping to whites
- Churches defied this clause
- But rarely enforced in practice
25
Why was overt opposition hard to sustain?
- Regime's response
- Deportation of Bishop Reeves of the Anglican Church
- Desmond Tutu was selected as his replacement
26
Who was Desmond Tutu?
- First black Archbishop of Cape Town
- Major anti-Apartheid campaigner
- Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for sticking to non-violent protests
- Major churchman allowed him to be a unifying figure (with most of ANC and PAC leadership in prison)
27
What was an example of international overt oposition?
- Set up of Multi Faith Committee in 1984
- Purpose was to increase awareness with different faiths of the evils of Apartheids
28
How did South African church leaders influence Britain?
- Church leaders gained an international profile
- Christian churches in Britain were more active in opposition to Apartheid
- Called for disinvestment in 1980s (they refused to do so in 1960s and 1970s)
29
To what extent were church leaders significant in dismantling the regime?
- Do not overstate significance
- Political, economic, military factors were more important
30
How did Western sanctions affect South Africa in the 1980s?
- Sanctions had limited impact early on as they were never completed but were deeply resented
- Whites in South Africa felt isolated
31
What changed in 1985 regarding sanctions on South Africa?
- Western attitudes hardened, especially in the USA
- US Congress overrode a presidential veto to impose sanctions
- Major US banks and companies withdrew, causing an economic crisis
- This economic pressure helped push the regime toward negotiations
32
What was the military equipment boycott?
- 1977
- The UN made it illegal to sell weapons to South Africa
- Because of how violent the government was during events like the Soweto uprising
33
What was the impact of the arms boycott on South Africa by 1988?
- Military had outdated equipment due to UN banning sale of arms to South Africa
- South Africa had to let Namibia become independent which was a major blow
