Apartheid was a very demeaning act of violence and disrespect and the fact that it took South Africa so long to realise that, is devastating. If other countries did not see the problem in the actions of the South African apartheid government South Africa would have formed an autocratic state or crumbled under the pressure of apartheid resistance. In this essay I am going to discuss to which extent international pressure forced the South African government to introduced reform measures.
The world grew anxious about the devastating conditions that Apartheid has in instilled in South Africa. International initiatives were implemented to isolate the Apartheid government. These initiatives were not implemented to start a process of negotiations but to fully end apartheid. The AAM was a British organisation consisting of mostly white individuals that fought for the end of apartheid and implemented many boycotts.
By the late 1980’s,The British government under Margaret Thatcher was able to encourage F.W. de Klerk through friendly relations that they should engage in a meeting with the African national Congress (ANC). At the same time however, the Soviet Union and many other African governments encouraged the ANC to negotiate a political resolution to the conflict. Many efforts were made to isolate the Apartheid government. There were many different fronts from where this battle was being fought: Anti-apartheid campaigns were being lead in other countries; governments acting through organisations such as the Commonwealth and the UN.
Countries from around the world started their efforts to abolish Apartheid when the ANC appealed for international solidarity. In 1962 the UN general assembly passed a resolution that labelled apartheid as a violation of South Africa’s obligations under the UN charter and a threat to international peace and security. This resolution started a series of voluntary boycotts by requesting the ending of diplomatic relations and to stop all trading with South Africa (SA) and to deny passage to SA ships and aircrafts.
An Academic boycott was implemented in 1965 by a group of British university staff. It isolated scholars in SA by restricting their access to research, publishing of work internationally and to engage with their counterparts overseas. The boycott was seen as an irritation and not as a true threat as it was intended. It worried many people because they felt that it was taking away academic freedom and that knowledge should be treated differently from material objects. However, this boycott had many supporters including Archbishop Desmond Tutu who felt that this movement raised awareness in white liberal institutions that they are not excluded from a role in undermining the Apartheid system.
The UN endorsed a sanction that stated that foreign artists should not work in SA and that South African artists would not be allowed to work overseas. Many British artists refused to perform in South Africa. The British Screenwriters Guild banned the distribution of British films in South Africa. The cultural boycott almost completely isolated South Africa and the only programmes available were SABC programmes.
The most effective initiative was the sports boycott; it was implemented due to the large presence of apartheid in sport. One of the first steps was in 1961 when the South African soccer team was expelled by FIFA from international soccer; SA was then excluded from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and a huge embarrassment was the expulsion from the Olympic Games in 1970 after almost 50 countries threatened to boycott the Olympics if South Africa was included in the Olympics. Many sporting events also banned SA from test match cricket. Protesting became more extreme in 1981 when thousands of protesters invaded the pitch of a South African Tour rugby game against New Zealand, ending the tour. The campaigners were endorsed by the Commonwealth in 1977 and in 1985 the UN convention against apartheid in sport also showed their support. Sport was seen as the most influential boycott because that was one of the biggest interests in white communities.
Economic sanctions sought out to damage South Africa’s economy. An oil embargo was proposed in 1963 by the UN but did not make any difference until the Arab government acted and implemented an oil embargo of theirs in 1973. However, the Apartheid government was assisted by other international oil companies to continue supplying them with oil. The Commonwealth Countries and European Community implemented financial sanctions and limited trade.
The US administration of President Reagan implemented a limited export ban to instigate stronger action in the US congress, however this move was overplayed when the US legislature enforced the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid act, it banned a range of categories from operations like prohibitions against many goods ‘ however exports like minerals and gold was excluded because it was South Africa’s largest export.
Many US campaigners pleaded with businesses to end their investments with South African businesses and the state. Shareholders grew concerned and tried to implement the ‘Sullivan Principles’, which forced all South African businesses to treat all employees equally in an integrated workspace. Campaigners also sought out institutional investors like pension funds to withdraw their funds from South African companies. By the end of the 1980’s most of the world’s largest companies withdrew from South Africa because of the fear of gaining a bad reputation and because of the fact that the market for investment in South Africa had deteriorated considerably.
South Africa was falling into a massive financial crisis. From 1983 consumer boycotts and strikes combined with the ANC’s implementation of economic warfare and attacks was bringing the country to a standstill. The government responded to these uprisings by implementing a national state of emergency and repealing some apartheid laws. Many people believed that the Government was going to announce massive changes to their laws due to the pressure that they were feeling but Botha announced that they were not harmed by the pressure and that he will not accept any tension from inside his country and without. After his speech Chase Manhattan Bank said that it will not renew South Africa’s short term loans which lead to a liquidity crisis because other lenders followed Chase Manhattan Bank and withdrew credit as well. South Africa’s economy depended highly on the financing from foreign lenders to assist in the paying off of external debt. Many foreign lenders’ decision was based on the fact that they might experience financial losses and not the fact that apartheid should be banned.
Peter Vale and Sanford Ungar described the situation as follows:’ Having been offered many carrots by the United States over a period of four-and-a-half years as incentives to institute meaningful reforms, the South African authorities had simply made a carrot stew and eaten it. Under the combined pressures of the seemingly cataclysmic events in SA since September 1984 and the dramatic surge of anti-apartheid protest and political activism in the US, the Reagan administration was finally embarrassed into brandishing some small sticks as an element of American policy. The Reagan sanctions, however limited, are an important symbol: a demonstration to the ruling white South African nationalists that even an American president whom they had come to regard as their virtual saviour could turn against them’. The US argued that the UK played an important role in the reforms of SA’s apartheid laws because they did not pressure the government into imposing sanctions. It was seen as the fact that US lost all its influence due to the fact that the congress disregarded President Reagan’s veto on sanctions because: ‘once Congress had shot its arrow, the American quiver was empty’ (New York Times, 15 May 1994)
Despite major pressure and encouragement to end Apartheid it was actually external and internal factors that lead the ANC and NP to starting political negotiations which ultimately deemed to be more successful. Many factors like the growing financial crisis and the economic sanctions and embargoes convinced many of South Africa’s business communities that a more dramatic solution was necessary.
A crucial time in Apartheid history was the collapse of the Soviet Union because the apartheid government based all their policies on the fear of communism and without the Soviet Union they lacked justification of their actions. One of the best things that came from the crash of the Soviet Union was the rising of the democracy movement. Although international isolation did not achieve their goal of changing governmental policies they did strengthen the case of those who argued to reform the sanctions. Immediately lifting the sanctions would have been a bad idea because it would have given the government the idea that they would not have to change their policies. Black leaders at the time felt that the sanctions were effective and after Nelson Mandela was released he said that if the sanction were lifted, all the hard work put in to end apartheid would have been for nothing.
Apartheid ended due to the fact that that the government was facing extreme pressure. The gold price collapsed which plummeted South Africa into an economic recession. After SA was cut off from all international capital markets and sanctions was implemented against products that generated foreign capital. This led the government to rethink their policies because without foreign capital it became too expensive to buy oil and technology. The bad economic situation forced people to take part in more uprisings because situations became very serious.
Even though South Africa’s government was under extreme pressure PW Botha refused to change his policies. Uprisings were growing more violent and there was a real fear of a civil war breaking out. Negotiations were taking place with Nelson Mandela. After PW Botha suffered a stroke, De Klerk was elected as the new party leader. Most NP politicians backed FW De Klerk and not PW Botha because they felt he was too autocratic and felt that it would be his fault if a civil war broke out. FW De Klerk was appointed as the new president and he implemented many new policies and changed most of PW Botha’s policies. Through his years as president he released most of the political prisoners and abolished apartheid.
Apartheid was an unbearable struggle that left many people devastated and feeling very powerful emotions of shock, anger and devastation. The people of the world felt a serious need to assist the helpless people in South Africa whose rights were taken away unfairly. It is because others felt the need to step in that South Africa is the country it is today. If an outside force did not step in we could have had a civil war at our hands and our country would have gained a very bad reputation and thousands of people would have suffered.