A History of South Africa

by Leonard Thompson

  42. John de Gruchy, The Church Struggle in South Africa (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1979).

  43. “The Koinonia Declaration,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa (September 1978).

  44. Van der Merwe and Welsh, Future of the University; Survey of Race Relations, 1978.

  45. Cherry Michelson, The Black Sash of South Africa: A Case Study in Liberalism (London, 1975).

  46. Paton, The People Wept (Kloof, Natal, 1958), 44.

  47. Philip V. Tobias, The Meaning of Race (Johannesburg, 1961), 22.

  48. Joanne Strangwayes-Booth, A Cricket in the Thorn Tree: Helen Suzman and the Progressive Party in South Africa (Bloomington, Ind., 1976).

  49. William Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa (New York, 1986), is representative of the “blame capitalism” school; W. H. Hutt, The Economics of the Colour Bar (London, 1964), and Michael O’Dowd, “South Africa in the Light of the Stages of Economic Growth,” in South Africa: Economic Growth and Political Change, ed. Adrian Leftwich (London, 1974), 29–43, represent the “Leave it to capitalism” school.

  50. David Pallister, Sarah Stewart, and Ian Lepper, South Africa, Inc.: The Oppenheimer Empire (New Haven and London, 1987), 93.

  51. Merle Lipton contends that the growth of the South African economy increased the costs of the constraints and inefficiencies inherent in apartheid, pushing businessmen toward reform (Capitalism and Apartheid [Totowa, N.J., 1985]). Stanley Greenberg argues that businessmen “managed to find the silver lining” in apartheid and reconciled themselves to its costs until “the African population has called the prevailing hegemony into question” (Race and State in Capitalist Development [New Haven and London, 1980] 208). Andrew Torchia reconciles the two positions (“The Business of Business: An Analysis of the Political Behavior of the South African Manufacturing Sector under the Nationalists,” Journal of Southern African Studies 14:3 [1988]: 421–45).

  52. Leo Kuper, An African Bourgeoisie: Race, Class, and Politics in South Africa (New Haven and London, 1965).

  53. Tom Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (New York, 1983); Peter Walshe, The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa: The African National Congress, 1912–1952 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971); Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M. Carter, general eds., From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964, 4 vols., vol. 4: Political Profiles, ed. Gail M. Gerhart and Thomas Karis (Stanford, Calif., 1977). In the rest of this section, I draw heavily on Thompson and Prior, South African Politics, 192–204.

  54. Leo Kuper, Passive Resistance in South Africa (London, 1956).

  55. Lodge, Black Politics, 68–74; Karis and Carter, eds., From Protest to Challenge, vol. 3: Challenge and Violence, 1953–1964, ed. Thomas Karis and Gail M. Gerhart (Stanford, Calif., 1977), 56–69.

  56. Karis and Gerhart, eds., Challenge and Violence, 205–8.

  57. Julia C. Wells, “Why Women Rebel: A Comparative Study of South African Women’s Resistance in Bloemfontein (1913) and Johannesburg (1958),” Journal of Southern African Studies 10:1 (1983): 55–70; Debbie Budlender, Sheila Meintjes, and Jenny Schreiner, “Women and Resistance in South Africa: Review Article,” ibid., 131–35.

  58. Lodge, Black Politics, 83.

  59. Gail M. Gerhart, Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1978), 124–72.

  60. Lodge, Black Politics, 201–30; Gerhart, Black Power, 173–251.

  61. Karis and Gerhart, eds., Challenge and Violence, 776–77.

  62. Cited in John D. Brewer, After Soweto: An Unfinished Journey (Oxford, 1986), 305.

  63. Brewer, After Soweto, 157–68; Lodge, Black Politics, 326–28.

  64. Steve Biko, I Write What I Like, ed. Aelred Stubbs (London, 1979), 49. See also Gerhart, Black Power, 257–99, and Anthony W. Marx, Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960–1990 (New York, 1992).

  65. Baruch Hirson, Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution? (London, 1979); Lynn Berat, “Doctors, Detainees, and Torture: Medical Ethics v. the Law in South Africa,” Stanford Journal of International Law, 25: 2 (1989): 501.

  66. Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited; Thompson and Prior, South African Politics; Prosser Gifford and Wm. Roger Louis, eds., The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization, 1940–1960 (New Haven and London, 1982), and Decolonization and African Independence: The Transfer of Power, 1960–1980 (New Haven and London, 1988).

  67. Robert C. Good, The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion (Princeton, 1973); Elaine Windrich, Britain and the Politics of Rhodesian Independence (London, 1978).

  68. Lord Hailey, The Republic of South Africa and the High Commission Territories (Oxford, 1963); James Barber, South African Foreign Policy, 1945–1970 (Oxford, 1973).

  69. Kenneth Maxwell, “Portugal and Africa: The Last Empire,” in Gifford and Louis, eds., Transfer of Power, 337–85.

  70. Taiwan initially occupied the China seat; in 1971, it was transferred to the People’s Republic of China.

  71. John Dugard, The South West Africa/Namibia Dispute (Berkeley, 1973); A. W. Singham and Shirley Hune, Namibian Independence: A Global Responsibility (Westport, Conn., 1985); Lynn Berat, Walvis Bay: Decolonization and International Law (New Haven and London, 1990).

  72. Joseph Hanlon, Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa (Bloomington, Ind., 1986).

  73. Cited in Eric H. Louw, The Case for South Africa (New York, 1963), 147.

  74. Louw, Case for South Africa, 62–76; Barber, Foreign Policy, 53–54, 57–59, 80–82.

  75. James Barber and John Barratt, South Africa’s Foreign Policy: The Search for Status and Security, 1945–1988 (Cambridge, 1990), 2.

  76. Time Running Out, 323–39; Thomas G. Karis, “South African Liberation: The Communist Factor,” Foreign Affairs 65:2 (Winter 1986/1987): 267–87.

  77. Time Running Out, 310–22.

  78. Ibid., 134–35. See also Lipton, Capitalism and Apartheid; Nattrass, The South African Economy; Barbara Rogers, White Wealth and Black Poverty: American Investments in Southern Africa (Westport, Conn., 1976); Desaix Myers et al., U.S. Business in South Africa (Bloomington, Ind., 1980); Ann Seidman and Neva Seidman Makgetla, Outposts of Monopoly Capitalism: Southern Africa in the Changing Global Economy (Westport, Conn., 1980); and Duncan Innes, Anglo American and the Rise of Modern South Africa (New York, 1984).

  79. Time Running Out, 141–43. See also Nancy L. Clark, Manufacturing Apartheid: State Corporations in South Africa (New Haven and London, 1994), 160–62.

  80. Time Running Out, 302–3. See also Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited, for notes 79–83.

  81. Time Running Out, 303–6.

  82. Ibid., 340–62; William Foltz, “United States Policy toward Southern Africa: Economic and Strategic Constraints,” Political Science Quarterly 92:1 (1977): 47–64; Rogers, White Wealth and Black Poverty; Ann and Neva Seidman, South Africa and U.S. Multinational Corporations (Westport, Conn., 1977); U.S. Department of State, A U.S. Policy toward South Africa: The Report of the U.S. Advisory Committee on South Africa (Washington, D.C., 1987).

  83. Mohamed A. El-Khawas and Barry Cohen, ed., The Kissinger Study of Southern Africa: National Security Study Memorandum 39 (Westport, Conn., 1978), 105–6.

  84. Time Running Out, 353.

  Chapter 7: Apartheid in Crisis

  1. South African Institute of Race Relations, Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1978 (Johannesburg, 1979) (annual hereafter cited as Race Relations Survey, 1978, etc.). See also Stephen Gelb, ed., South Africa’s Economic Crisis (Cape Town, London, and Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1991); N. Nattrass and E. Arlington, eds., The Political Economy of South Africa (Oxford, 1990); Shaun Johnson, ed., South Africa: No Turning Back (Bloomington, Ind., 1989); Robert M. Price, The Apartheid State in Crisis: Political Transformation in South Africa, 1975–1990 (New York, 1991); R. Hunt Davis
, Jr., ed., Apartheid Unravels (Gainesville, Fla., 1991).

  2. John D. Brewer, After Soweto: An Unfinished Journey (Oxford, 1986); Stephen M. Davis, Apartheid’s Rebels: Inside South Africa’s Hidden War (New Haven and London, 1987); Martin Murray, South Africa: Time of Agony, Time of Destiny; the Upsurge of Popular Protest (London, 1987); Heribert Adam, “Survival Politics: Afrikaners in Search of a New Ideology,” Journal of Modern African Studies 16:4 (1978): 657–69.

  3. Leonard Thompson and Andrew Prior, South African Politics (New Haven and London, 1982), 220–43.

  4. George M. Houser, No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa’s Liberation Struggle (New York, 1989); Mildred Fierce, “Black and White American Opinions towards South Africa,” Journal of Modern African Studies 20:4 (1982): 669–87.

  5. Leonard Thompson, “The Parting of the Ways in South Africa,” in The Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization, 1940–1960, ed. Prosser Gifford and Wm. Roger Louis (New Haven and London, 1982), 417–44.

  6. Heribert Adam and Hermann Giliomee, Ethnic Power Mobilized: Can South Africa Change? (New Haven and London, 1979), 145–76.

  7. Race Relations Survey, 1978, 3–5.

  8. Dirk and Johanna de Villiers, PW (Cape Town, 1984); Kenneth Grundy, The Militarization of South African Politics (Bloomington, Ind., 1986); Philip Frankel, Pretoria’s Praetorians (Cambridge, 1984); Gavin Cawthra, Brutal Force: The Apartheid War Machine (London, 1986); Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley, South Africa without Apartheid (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986).

  9. Race Relations Survey, 1979, 202–20, 274–85, 391–97.

  10. Race Relations Survey, 1986, 231–90.

  11. Race Relations Survey, 1983, 71–98; Murray, Time of Agony, 107–18.

  12. Race Relations Survey, 1984, 127–28.

  13. Cited in Michael Savage, “The Imposition of Pass Laws on the African Population in South Africa, 1916–1984,” African Affairs 85 (April 1986), 205. See also Hermann Giliomee and Lawrence Schlemmer, ed., Up against the Fences: Poverty, Passes and Privilege in South Africa (Claremont, S.A., 1985).

  14. Race Relations Survey, 1986, 331–48.

  15. Ibid., 97–109.

  16. Ibid., xx.

  17. Ibid., 417.

  18. Josette Cole, Crossroads: The Politics of Reform and Repression, 1976–1986 (Johannesburg, 1987).

  19. Brewer, After Soweto; Davis, Apartheid’s Rebels; Murray, Time of Agony.

  20. Race Relations Survey, 1983, 57–61.

  21. Brewer, After Soweto, 216–99; Murray, Time of Agony, 195–238.

  22. Murray, Time of Agony, 239–352.

  23. John D. Brewer, “Internal Black Protest,” in Can South Africa Survive?: Five Minutes to Midnight, ed. J. D. Brewer (London and New York, 1988); Cole, Crossroads.

  24. John D. Brewer, “From Ancient Rome to KwaZulu: Inkatha in South African Politics,” in South Africa: No Turning Back, ed. S. Johnson (London, 1988), and After Soweto, pp. 338–406; Davis, Apartheid’s Rebels, 106–12; Murray, Time of Agony, 315–24.

  25. David Pallister, Sarah Stewart, and Ian Lepper, South Africa, Inc.: The Oppenheimer Empire (New Haven and London, 1988); Joseph Hanlon, Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa (Bloomington, Ind., 1986); Ronald T. Libby, The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa (Princeton, 1987); William Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa (New York, 1986).

  26. Hanlon, Beggar Your Neighbours.

  27. Crocker enunciated his South African policy before he came into office in “South Africa: Strategy for Change,” Foreign Affairs (Winter 1980–81): 323–51. See also Chester A. Crocker, High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighborhood (New York, 1992).

  28. The Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons, Mission to South Africa: The Commonwealth Report (Harmondsworth, 1986).

  29. Anthony Sampson, Black and Gold: Tycoons, Revolutionaries, and Apartheid (New York, 1987); Pauline Baker, The United States and South Africa: The Reagan Years (New York, 1989).

  30. Cited in Baker, United States and South Africa, 25.

  31. Race Relations Survey, 1986, 139–40, 144–45, 146–48.

  32. Race Relations Survey, 1983, 3; 1984, xix; 1985, xxviii; 1986, xxi.

  33. Race Relations Survey, 1986, 830–45.

  34. Lynn Berat, “Doctors, Detainees, and Torture: Medical Ethics v. the Law in South Africa,” Stanford Journal of International Law; The Times (London), February 13, 1987, February 25, 1988; Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, 509–604.

  35. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, 813–49.

  36. Guardian (London), May 11, 1988.

  37. Ibid., February 2, 1989.

  38. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, xxxi.

  39. The Times, June 23, 1988.

  40. Independent (London), August 19, 1988.

  41. The Times, October 28, 1988.

  42. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, 103–5.

  43. The Times, October 28, 1988.

  44. Daily Telegraph (London), February 2, 1988.

  45. Financial Times (London), October 21, 1988.

  46. Staffrider (Johannesburg), 7:3, 4 (1988).

  47. Star (Johannesburg), September 14, 1988.

  48. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, 667–84.

  49. The Times, July 1, 1988. See also F. Chikane, The Church’s Prophetic Witness against the Apartheid System in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1988); J. de Gruchy, The Church Struggle in South Africa (Cape Town, 1979); and C. Villa-Vicenicio, ed., Theology and Violence: The South African Debate (Johannesburg, 1987).

  50. New York Times, December 15, 1988; Daily Telegraph, December 23, 1988; Herald Tribune, January 8, 1989; Lynn Berat, Walvis Bay: Decolonization and International Law (New Haven and London, 1990).

  Chapter 8: The Political Transition

  1. The political transition is dealt with in the autobiographies of the leading actors, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (Boston, 1994), and F. W. de Klerk, The Last Trek: A New Beginning (London, 1998); and in two excellent biographies, Martin Meredith, Nelson Mandela: A Biography (New York, 1997), and Anthony Sampson, Mandela: The Authorized Biography (New York, 1999); also in accounts by journalists—David Ottaway, Chained Together: Mandela, de Klerk, and the Struggle to Remake South Africa (New York, 1993); Marina Ottaway, South Africa: The Struggle for a New Order (Washington, D.C., 1993); Allister Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa’s Road to Change (New York, 1995); and Patti Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of a New South Africa (New York, 1997). See also work by scholars—R. W. Johnson and Lawrence Schlemmer, “Introduction: The Transition to Democracy,” and Mervyn Frost, “Preparing for Democracy in an Authoritarian State,” in Launching Democracy in South Africa, ed. R. W. Johnson and Lawrence Schlemmer (New Haven, 1996), 1–34; Robert T. Mattes, “The Road to Democracy,” Election ‘94 South Africa, ed. Andrew Reynolds (New York, 1994), 1–22; and Adrian Guelke, South Africa in Transition (New York, 1999).

  2. South African Institute of Race Relations, Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1987–88 (Johannesburg, 1989) (annual hereafter cited as Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, etc.), xxxiii, 10–14; W. P. Mostert and J. M. Lotter, eds., South Africa’s Demographic Future (Pretoria, 1990). The annual Surveys by the South African Institute of Race Relations, renamed South African Survey in and after the 1994–95 volume, is an excellent detailed, objective source.

  3. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, lvii.

  4. Ibid., 406, 409; Stephen Gelb, ed., South Africa’s Economic Crisis (Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1991); Sebastian Mallaby, After Apartheid: The Future of South Africa (New York, 1992), 42–69.

  5. Readers are reminded that in this book the term “black” is used to include Coloureds and Indians as well as Africans.

  6. Race Relations Survey, 1987–88, il.

  7. Anthony Sampson, Black and Gold: Tycoons, Revolutionaries, and Apartheid (New York, 198
7), 189–200; Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country, 68–75; African Economic Digest, July 17, 1987; West Africa, July 20, 1987.

  8. Race Relations Survey, 1989–90, 688.

  9. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 254–78.

  10. Meredith, Nelson Mandela, 388–90; Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle, 104–5.

  11. Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle, 105.

  12. Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country, 76–77.

  13. Meredith, Nelson Mandela, 398.

  14. Willem de Klerk, F. W. de Klerk: The Man in His Time (Johannesburg, 1991), 55.

  15. F. W. de Klerk, The Last Trek, 159–72; Heribert Adam and Kogila Mood-ley, The Opening of the Apartheid Mind (Berkeley, Calif., 1993), 39–58; Robert Schrire, Adapt or Die: The End of White Politics in South Africa (New York, 1991); Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country, 91–108; Ottaway, Chained Together, 52–71; Guelke, South Africa in Transition, 23–44.

  16. The complete speech is printed in Willem de Klerk, F. W. de Klerk, 34–46.

  17. Sampson, Mandela, 406–13.

  18. F. W. de Klerk (hereafter cited as de Klerk), The Last Trek, 183–85.

  19. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 494.

  20. Ottaway, Chained Together, 104–5.

  21. De Klerk, The Last Trek, 181–83; Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 504–5.

  22. Ottaway, Chained Together, 105; Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle, 156–66; Meredith, Nelson Mandela, 416–18.

  23. De Klerk, The Last Trek, 200–202; Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle, 81–82, 162, 164.

  24. Race Relations Survey, 1996–97, 600.

  25. De Klerk, The Last Trek, 202. In light of evidence given to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by several people, including some of de Klerk’s colleagues, it is probable that, as president, he knew much more than he has admitted. See also de Klerk’s equivocal evidence given to the commission as described by Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limit of Forgiveness in the New South Africa (New York, 1999), 135–39.

  26. For the Goldstone commission reports, see Race Relations Survey, 1992–93, 27–33, 124–26, and Race Relations Survey 1993–94, 652–72.