The renewed resistance and apartheid state’s response to the resistance

The domination that apartheid state enjoyed in 1960s started to crumble down in 1970s due to various factors. ANC and PAC were still banned organizations and their activities inside of South Africa were still weak and they tried to affect liberation struggle from exile. However, two forces filled in the vacuum that absence of ANC and PAC had left and these were Inkatha and Black Consciousness (BC). Inkatha, which is mainly Zulu organization and it used the existing structures of apartheid state (Bantustan policy), Zulu culture and especially the KwaZulu Bantustan as a political implement. Inkatha and its prominent leader Buthelezi were accused of cooperating with apartheid state and Inkatha’s opponents claimed that it is approving apartheid by acting within the system. Inkatha diverged clearly from the line of PAC and ANC that both had adopted communist sponsors⁹⁸ and communist ideologies that affected the strategies and political persuasions of these movements. Besides this difference Inkatha did not officially approve violent reform and Buthelezi believed strongly that confrontation between people has to be solved by non-violent means and through constructive engagement.⁹⁹

The other organization that rose to resist apartheid state was Black Consciousness and its origins were in Black people universities and students associations that Steve Biko, the leader of Black Consciousness had found and subsequently Biko became the leader of Black Consciousness. Black Consciousness was an organization that searched results through rational argumentation and peaceful protest and mass movement. Biko was the main voice of BC and he saw that apartheid state had stolen Black people’s identity and this identity has to be returned before Black people can see clearly how apartheid state is making them obedient and modifying their identity and provoking population group’s hatred towards each others.

Biko rejected Bantustan policy and he said that the aim of system is to make African people to believe in false promises of freedom and to deceive outside world. Biko was also one of criticisers of Buthelezi and in his opinion: ”The combination of Buthelezi and the white press make up the finest ambassadors that South Africa ever had”.¹⁰⁰ In the beginning apartheid state was not worried about BC’s and Biko’s activities but as they managed to gain more

98 Barber 1999, 196-198.

99 Barber 1999, 189-192

100 Barber 1999, 195.

attention apartheid state started to consider them as threat and State imposed banning orders on BC officials and eventually Biko died in security police custody in 1977 which caused a worldwide outcry.¹⁰¹

A fact that concerned apartheid which was paranoid about the security of the state was that the ‘White buffer zones’, Portuguese colonies Mozambique and Angola and originally British Rhodesia, that had kept ANC and PAC military camps away from South Africa’s borders.

When Portuguese dictatorship collapsed in 1974 one of last African colonies Mozambique and Angola became independent. This meant that when Portuguese military presence was gone from these geographically enormous countries it was possible for South African liberation organizations to create connection with these countries that shared borders with apartheid state and establish cooperation. Angola became a playground of Cold War and South Africa supported anti-communist troops and tried to protect the border of Namibia from SWAPO (South West African Peoples Organization) fighters. The change of power in Mozambique was a major strategic change for Rhodesia that was controlled by White government and the aim of Black opposition was to overthrow the government by liberation struggle. Umkhonto we Sizwe assisted ZAPU (Zimbabwean African Peoples Union) and ZANU (Zimbabwean African National Union) in this endeavour and when the Portuguese power was gone from Mozambique it left the vast border open between Mozambique and Rhodesia. Through the struggle that was in Mozambique ZANU managed to achieve independence and in 1980 Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. These developments posed a new threat for apartheid state that was already fearful about its security and it tried to protect its external and internal security by all the conceivable means.¹⁰²

The danger that Biko and BC posed to apartheid state was that they started to build and shine the Black identity that apartheid state had manipulated and people had become passive subjects of social engineering. This was largely an achievement of apartheid state policies that aimed containing the Black people and their emotions and this identity manipulation and mental oppression was seen as the biggest obstacle preventing change. As the name Black Consciousness indicates the movement was based on Black people’s consciousness and the knowledge of identity and the sense how apartheid state is suppressing Black people was asleep in 1960s. This is one more reason that guaranteed the period of confidence for

101 Barber 1999, 192-196.

102 Barber 1999, 201-202.

apartheid state, besides economical and international political success. BC started to raise this consciousness intentionally in the beginning of 1970s and this had far reaching consequences and this movement managed to raise the feelings of Black people and this can be seen as one contributing factor to heightened polarization in the 1970s. The old generations had stiffened under the suppression of apartheid state but the youth that was open to the future was full of energy and therefore it was open to the message of BC. The clash of identities began when apartheid state announced that Afrikaans shall be used as a medium of instructions at schools.

Most of the teachers were not fluent in Afrikaans and on the top of that this was a strong symbolic deed from apartheid state, which provoked identities to clash. Afrikaans was largely associated with Afrikaans people and the suppression that was directed against the Black people and compared to English that is widely spoken international language it does not provide the same possibilities. Decision to force Afrikaans on people was an attempt to force Afrikaner identity or at least part of that on Black people and justify the cultural supremacy.¹⁰³

As a result of increased tension the pressures of pent up anger were released in Soweto, which is a large township or group of townships south of Johannesburg. Secondary school pupil marched against the government’s intention to establish Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

When the march reached Orlando West High School the amount of crowd had grown to about 14 000 and marchers clashed there with the police. Students threw stones towards police and police responded with tear gas and warning shots and eventually police shot into crowd by killing at least one, Hector Petersen, who became the symbol of resistance. Rioting continued and it spread all over Soweto and eventually all over the Republic. The material and human losses were substantial and The Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger announced that alone in Witwaterstrand there had been 130 deaths and 1100 people injured and on the top of that 33 Bantu Administrative buildings, 27 beer halls and 90 schools had been burnt down. The final damage was much greater and the moderate evaluation by the government estimated that 575 people were killed and 2 389 were wounded by the end of 1977.¹⁰⁴

What was remarkable about Soweto happenings that it was truly an uprising and it was not organized particularly by any organization or institution. Exiled liberation movements had wished such an insurgence to take place inside South Africa but they did not expect it and it

103 Barber 1999, 211-214.

104 Barber 1999, 211-212.

was a surprise for both the apartheid state and liberation movements. As mentioned before the work BC had done to reinforce the Black identity and provoke the disapproval towards apartheid certainly played a role in the development of growing consciousness. The reason why the uprising began from Soweto was that the consciousness was growing there fastest.

Soweto was group of townships were apartheid state contained Black people with minimal costs, yet near enough that they can commute for work in Johannesburg. The housing conditions were therefore insufficient and problems of apartheid’s enforcement were piled up and they were clearly present in places such as Soweto. This caused that there were millions of people living in unsatisfactory conditions and especially young people saw how the government’s policies were blocking their future’s possibilities.¹⁰⁵

Apartheid state did not understand what kind of threat the radical and violent resistance posed to the State and they dismissed the criticism that for example Desmond Tutu and Inkatha presented. They claimed that if government does not make fast and radical changes there is huge risk that the resistance will turn into violent permanently. Government dismissed this criticism and they gravely believed that there were “certain organization and people” that deliberately “bring about polarization between Whites and Blacks”.¹⁰⁶ But the differences between 1960s and the latter half of 1970s were obvious. Whereas in 1960s there was very little insurgence from other actors than liberation organizations and in 1970s an unorganized movement of students rose and created an insurgence that was out of apartheid state’s control and lasted for many months. The radical youth of 1970s had actually very little connection to traditional liberation organizations and they felt that those organizations could not do much for them and instead they believe in radicalism and instant action. This brought in a new power to the game that was before played between the apartheid state and liberation movements and the consensus that apartheid state had managed to achieve was now partly lost.¹⁰⁷

105 Barber 1999, 213-214.

106 Barber 1999, 212.

107 Barber 1999, 213.