I. S.OTHER THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS OF CONFLICT IN MANDINI Three other basic theoretical positions account for the conflict and violence which
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONFLICT 1. INTRODUCTION
2.2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CONFLICT
It is important before one can explain the dynamics of the South African conflict in the 1980s and the 1990s to trace back the historical cornerstones of the violence in the system of apartheid and the tactics used to enforce this policy, such as forced removals, pass arrests, race classification and other laws which violated human rights. Moreover, some important secondary causes of the violence were rooted in poverty and unemployment. Since 1948 election of the National Party into office, a number of racially
23 See Indicator South Africa Issue Focus. 1992. Pp 01 -15.
discriminatory laws were inherited, including those which deprived blacks of the franchise and those that set aside special areas for black occupation. It further enacted a host of discriminatory statutes such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 which forbade marriages across the color line, the Population Registration Act of 1950, classifying South African citizens into four racial categories and provided the cornerstone for the apartheid system, Bantu Authorities Act of 1951, which gave increased powers to tribal chiefs and brought them more fully under the government's control, and envisaged the establishment of "territorial authority" for the different ethnic groups as well as then Group Areas Act of 1955 which consolidated earlier attempts to secure residential segregation.
Equally revealing, between 1950 and 1990 the apartheid regime restricted the lives and activities of political activists and other individuals it considered as threats through the use of listing, banning and banishment orders. The laws which provided for such restrictions included the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950, the Public Safety Act of 1953, the General Laws Amendment Act of 1962, the Suppression of Communism Amendment Act of 1967, the Terrorism Act of 1979 and the Internal Security Acts of 1979 and 1982.
The 1927 Native Administration Act empowered the Minister of Bantu Education and Development to order any tribe or native to proceed forthwith to any designated place and not to leave it without a permission. By 1960, up to 97 people had been banished, most of them being chiefs and headmen who opposed the Bantu Authorities system and
other aspects of government policy. Banished people were sent to isolated farms on Native Trust land where they were usually given work as labourers24• Banning of persons took place between 1951 and 1990. Its purpose was similar to that of "preventive"
detention to ensure withdrawal from the political arena. Banning orders restricted people's active involvement in organizations as well as their ability to publish. Many orders restricted banned persons from attending social gatherings of more than one person. These banning orders were imposed on social and political activists from all spheres of civil society.
The formation of the liberation movements was undertaken to fight these injustices of the apartheid regime. The African National Congress CANC) was founded in 1912. For its first thirty years of existence, it was a timid and reformist organization dominated by an African middle class. It underwent a process of radicalization in the 1940s for a variety of reasons, for instance, the development of mass worker's and township struggles culminating in the 1946 miner's strike, the formation in 1943 of a militant nationalist ANC Youth League, and the coming to power in 1948 of the National Party with its apartheid programme designed to intensify the system of racial domination. The ANC organized a variety of forms of mass resistance to the Nationalist regime before being banned in the wake of the March 1960 Sharpville massacre.
After 1960, the liberation movements engaged in a number of operations designed to challenge white supremacy in an attempt to provide a more coherent and just socialist society. These liberation movements, particularly the ANC, the South African
24 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 1998. Vol 2. Pp 166.
Communist Party (SACP) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) provided a potential threat to the apartheid state being aligned to the communist bloc. In 1961, the ANC embarked on an anned struggle after many of its leaders had concluded that non-violent tactics had been exhausted. The use of violence was than sanctioned on the basis that controlled violence was necessary to channel and direct the anger of African people and that it represented the only remaining choice between "freedom and surrender". Its leadership subsequently went underground, fonned Umkhonto We Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation) and launched its sabotage campaign. Umkhonto We Sizwe was established in Novennber 1961 and became popularly known as Umkhonto or "MK". It was mandated to engage in a sabotage campaign aimed at undennining the country's economy and destroying the government installations and other symbols of race discrimination25.
The 1960s was a decade characterized by extreme repression and demoralization in the political life of the nation. With the liberation movements banned in 1960, the apartheid regime could strengthen its policy of "divide and rule". The banning of these liberation movements was an attempt to repress all fonns of opposition in the country as a whole.
The ANC then became effectively an exile organization. After the establishment of MK, the ANC developed an underground campaign to expose and counter state repression.
This multi-pronged strategy included a propaganda campaign and student protest action in a number of black universities. However, it is important to note that this is a period characterized by decolonisation in Africa and the Cold War internationally. The tide of decolonisation sweeping through Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) argued, served only to reinforce the tendency of whites to regard blacks as the
25 See Anthea Jeffery ( 1997: 18 )
enemy. They did so in the face of rising expectations of black South Africans that the days of white minority rule were numbered and that it was a matter of a time before South Africa, too, would be ruled by a black majority. The anti-communist zeal of the Cold War was also an important factor in shaping the South African government's actions in the 1960s. The notion of a common struggle against the forces of communism gained increasing popularity and momentum among the key security policy makers. The struggle against communism was put forward as explanation and justification for security force actions26. The history of resistance in South Africa was therefore frequently associated with shifts in the patterns and forms of gross human rights violations. In response to the events of 1960, the liberation movement's adoption of the armed struggle, the apartheid state invoked the full force of its security legislation to curb resistance. Detention of political activists became the primary means of intensifying repression27.
Along with the banning of both the ANC and the PAC, the government declared a nation- wide state of emergency during which it detained over 1 600 people. It banned all public gatherings in terms of the Riotus Assemblies Act. The end of the national state of emergency in August 1960 led to a re-evaluation of tactics and strategies of resistance on the part of a number of political movements opposed to government. A development of more lasting significance was the abandonment of non-violence as the preferred mode of protests by both the ANC, SACP and PAC and the adoption of one or other forms of armed struggle.
26 TRC (1998). Vol 2. Pp. 6 - 7.
27 TRC. 1998. VOL 2. PP 08.
Following these events, the apartheid state began to implement its Bantustan policy. All Africans were to be stripped of South African citizenship and forced to become citizens of separate, ethnic Bantustans or homelands28• Also, the General Law Amendment Act of 1962, one of many to amend the Suppression of the Communism Act of 1950, built on the general premise that new security legislation was necessary to fight the perceived threat of Communist organizations and the Marxist ideology. The then Justice Minister, BJ Vorster, stated categorically that the state should offer protection only to the law-abiding citizens of South Africa. In view of the brutal acts of sabotage that had been committed, the state, by all means at its disposal, needed protection against subversion and the legislation was intended as a pre-emptive measure to maintain order and calm with the state29. The Act increased government's power to declare organizations unlawful and also embarked on measures aimed at strengthening the legal powers and effectiveness of the police, resulting in the establishment of the special unit (Sabotage Squad) as well as the covert intelligence section as part of the Security Branch.
It then became clear to the oppressed people of South Africa that the ANC's basic programme and policies represented the aspirations of the oppressed people for a democratic and non-racial society. Since the mid 1970s, the violence was increasingly associated with the upsurge of opposition to apartheid, and more generally with the politics of transition to a new social order. However, the nature and incidence of the violence had also been strongly shaped by the racial structuring of the South African society, particularly in the cities. From the Morogoro Conference held in Tanzania in
28 TRC. 1998. Vol 2. Pp II.
29 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 1998. Vol 2. Pp 12.
1969, convened jointly by the ANC and SACP, a "Strategy and Tactics" document was adopted which set out the political and military means these organizations should follow to achieve revolution, laying great stress on the need to involve the masses30.
In 1975, however, a new player had entered the South African political scene. This was Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe (Cultural Liberation Movement), an organization advocating the liberation of South Africa through strategies "diametrically" opposite from those of the ANC/SACP alliance and commanding growing support inside the country.