SA Questions Flashcards
Explain two effects of the Pass System on the black population.
- Restricted movement of Black South Africans as it forced them to carry pass books containing personal details including their race. It controlled where they could live or work (working in ‘white’ areas was illegal w/o passes) which made it hard for Blacks to find stable work, increasing poverty. Failure to produce a pass led to arrests.
- Sparked resistance and protests. It led to anti-pass demonstrations e.g. 1956 Women’s March (led by FEDSAW, yet 75% of women were issued passes by 1960), and 1960 Sharpeville (PAC called for not carrying passes to break the law), but led to 69 deaths and banning of ANC and PAC.
Explain two effects of de Klerk’s reforms on South Africa.
- Lifted ban on ANC and PAC, unbanned Mandela. Allows talks to proceed openly, leads to ending apartheid via CODESA. Also satisfied these groups by squashing white extremists and AWB.
- Repealed Acts ie Separate Amenities Act, 1990 and population registration act, 1991. And publicly committed to new democratic constitution and equal rights, helping to end apartheid. Legally repealed/dead on paper, but De Clerk used resources to keep it in practice.
Explain two effects of the Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) on South Africa.
- A strategic facade for Verwoerd’s grand apartheid in trying to separate a fully black and fully white South Africa. This act was disguised as giving power to black South Africans but was aimed at electing agreeable black chiefs into power and splitting black and white South Africans.
- Another effect of the Bantu Self-Governing Act was that it paved the way for the future Inkatha Freedom Party to be founded in 1975 which would become a pawn for de Klerk’s government in destabilising the ANC and delaying the CODESA talks.
Explain two effects of the anti-pass law demonstrations (1959) on South Africa.
- Sparked resistance and protests. 1960 Sharpeville (PAC called for not carrying passes to break the law), but led to 69 deaths and banning of ANC and PAC. Sharpeville was a bloody massacre which caught international media attention leading to more pressure on other countries to stop the apartheid regime.
- Also led to a shift in the ANC and PAC to create the MK and Poqo which were militant wings of these political parties. The MK would go on to form military bases in other countries and sabotage the country’s infrastructure and govt. Workplaces. Poqo would also target subversive black chiefs suspected of working with the NP.
Explain two effects of the Bantu Education Act (1953) on South Africa.
- Inferior quality of education for Blacks, who received separate and sub-par education system. Black schools had less funding (10x less than White schools) and resources. It prepared students for life in Bantustans by training them for manual labor and low-skilled jobs. Schools had to teach in their ethnic language, not in English.
- Government control and political indoctrination. Aimed to shape Black’s attitudes to align with apartheid ideology and taught them that they were inferior and that their role was to serve whites, as the government controlled the curriculum, excluding subjects encouraging critical thinking or leadership.
Explain two effects of Nelson Mandela on South Africa in the years 1990–94.
- Key player in negotiations in the CODESA. Refuses to resume armed struggle despite pressure from blacks, insistent on negotiation with de Clerk knowing that’s the only way to get blacks political power. However shows resilience, walks out of CODESA, suspecting NP working with Inkatha Party, who undermined he ANC. Prevents civil war in 1993 after murder of Chris Hani, head of SACP, by using political maturity.
- Leader of ANC so becomes president in 1994, by winning 1994 election with 62.5% of the vote. Was of great symbolic and emotional significance, for blacks it was an act of liberation. Mandela especially respected/given credit for winning the election, (not only negotiations) but also for his sacrifice, 27 years of incarceration.
Explain two effects of PW Botha’s reforms on South Africa.
1.One effect of Botha’s “Total Strategy” on SA was the limited reform it gave nonwhites. Botha’s govt introduced a tricameral parliament in which Indians and “Coloureds” were allowed to elect MPs, but this would be an unimportant and unproportionate number of MPs who could not swing any policies.
2. Another effect of Botha’s “Total Strategy” was that it increased military spending by 5x, made compulsory military enlistment for young SAs and created the Bureau of State Security which waged a ‘dirty war’ on ANC and PAC leaders, attacking foreign MK bases.
Explain two effects of the Nationalist election victory in 1948 on South Africa
- Led to legal introduction of apartheid and turned ideology of racial segregation into law. NP began passing first phase of apartheid laws such as the Pop. Reg. Act (1950) and the Group Areas Act (1950), laying out the fundamentals for development of apartheid, drastically increasing state control.
- It sparked more opposition. Inspired the ANC 1949 programme of action to combat the NP through nonviolent mass protests. Led to the 1952 defiance campaign which increased membership by 93000. This is symbolic of unifying the nonwhite South Africans against the unjust apartheid regime.
