Pandora's Apartheid Box
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Human Rights and Political Transition in South Africa: the Case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission1
brazilianpoliticalsciencereview ARTICLE Human rights and political transition in South Africa: the case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission1 Cristina Buarque de Hollanda Political Science Department, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil This article is dedicated to recounting the main initiative of Nelson Mande- la’s government to manage the social resentment inherited from the segregationist regime. I conducted interviews with South African intellectuals committed to the theme of transitional justice and with key personalities who played a critical role in this process. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is presented as the primary in- stitutional mechanism envisioned for the delicate exercise of redefining social re- lations inherited from the apartheid regime in South Africa. Its founders declared grandiose political intentions to the detriment of localized more palpable objec- tives. Thus, there was a marked disparity between the ambitious mandate and the political discourse about the commission, and its actual achievements. Keywords: Human rights, transitional justice, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa Prologue: ethnographic note n the same day that I arrived in Johannesburg to start my research about the OSouth African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), in August 2008, I was invited by my hosts to a dinner with friends. The first night in the city gave me a clear idea of just how alive and controversial my theme of research was, even ten years after the Commission ceased its activities. In a restaurant in a wealthy neighborhood of the city, an unexpected gathering brought together friends of friends. On the long table that 8 bpsr Human rights and political transition in South Africa: the case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission formed, there were only whites, with the exception of a South African born and raised in Soweto, who was sitting opposite me. -
Malibongwe Let Us Praise the Women Portraits by Gisele Wulfsohn
Malibongwe Let us praise the women Portraits by Gisele Wulfsohn In 1990, inspired by major political changes in our country, I decided to embark on a long-term photographic project – black and white portraits of some of the South African women who had contributed to this process. In a country previously dominated by men in power, it seemed to me that the tireless dedication and hard work of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters needed to be highlighted. I did not only want to include more visible women, but also those who silently worked so hard to make it possible for change to happen. Due to lack of funding and time constraints, including raising my twin boys and more recently being diagnosed with cancer, the portraits have been taken intermittently. Many of the women photographed in exile have now returned to South Africa and a few have passed on. While the project is not yet complete, this selection of mainly high profile women represents a history and inspiration to us all. These were not only tireless activists, but daughters, mothers, wives and friends. Gisele Wulfsohn 2006 ADELAIDE TAMBO 1929 – 2007 Adelaide Frances Tsukudu was born in 1929. She was 10 years old when she had her first brush with apartheid and politics. A police officer in Top Location in Vereenigng had been killed. Adelaide’s 82-year-old grandfather was amongst those arrested. As the men were led to the town square, the old man collapsed. Adelaide sat with him until he came round and witnessed the young policeman calling her beloved grandfather “boy”. -
The Quest for Liberation in South Africa: Contending Visions and Civil Strife, Diaspora and Transition to an Emerging Democracy
Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 30, Nr 2, 2000. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za The Quest for Liberation in South Africa: Contending Visions and Civil Strife, Diaspora and Transition to an Emerging Democracy Ian Liebenberg Introduction: Purpose of this contribution To write an inclusive history of liberation and transition to democracy in South Africa is almost impossible. To do so in the course of one paper is even more demanding, if not daunting. Not only does "the liberation struggle" in South Africa in its broadest sense span more than a century. It also saw the coming and going of movements, the merging and evolving of others and a series of principled and/or pragmatic pacts in the process. The author is attempting here to provide a rather descriptive (and as far as possible, chronological) look at and rudimentary outline to the main organisational levels of liberation in South Africa since roughly the 1870' s. I will draw on my own 2 work in the field lover the past fifteen years as well as other sources • A wide variety of sources and personal experiences inform this contribution, even if they are not mentioned here. Also needless to say, one's own subjectivities may arise - even if an attempt is made towards intersubjecti vity. This article is an attempt to outline and describe the organisations (and where applicable personalities) in an inclusive and descriptive research approach in See Liebenberg (1990), ldeologie in Konjlik, Emmerentia: Taurus Uitgewers; Liebenberg & Van der Merwe (1991), Die Wordingsgeskiedenis van Apartheid, Joernaal vir Eietydse Geskiedenis, vol 16(2): 1-24; Liebenberg (1994), Resistance by the SANNC and the ANC, 1912 - 1960, in Liebenberg et al (Eds.) The Long March: The Story of the Struggle for Liberation in South Africa. -
True Confessions, End Papers and the Dakar Conference
Hermann Giliomee True Confessions, End Papers and Hermann Giliomee was Professor of the Dakar conference: A review of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town and is presently Professor the political arguments Extraordinary at the History Department, University of Stellenbosch. E-mail: [email protected] True Confessions, End Papers and the Dakar conference: A review of the political arguments As a social critic Breyten Breytenbach published two books of political commentary and political analysis during the mid-1980s without the opportunity of engaging with commentators at home. While True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist is part autobiography and part searing comment on prison life, End Papers is a more detached dissection of the major political and cultural issues confronting South Africa. Breytenbach was now one of the respected international voices on the political crisis in South Africa. The violent break-up of apartheid had changed Breytenbach’s social criticism. In the place of the earlier rejection and denunciation had come a willingness to engage and reason with his audience. The Dakar conference of 1987, which Breytenbach co-organised, offered an ideal opportunity for this. The conference was given wide publicity and was seen by some as the catalyst that broke the ice for the negotiations between the government and the ANC two and a half years later. Key words: Afrikaans literature, Dakar conference, National Party, African National Congress, South Africa, violence, negotiations. Introduction Shortly after being released from jail in 1982 Breyten Breytenbach published two non-fiction books, The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (1984) and End Papers (1986). -
200 1. Voortrekkers Were Groups of Nineteenth- Century Afrikaners Who
Notes 1. Voortrekkers were groups of nineteenth- century Afrikaners who migrated north from the Cape colony into the South African interior to escape British rule. 2. ‘Township’ is the name given by colonial and later apartheid authorities to underdeveloped, badly resourced urban living areas, usually on the outskirts of white towns and cities, which were set aside for the black workforce. 3. See, for example, Liz Gunner on Zulu radio drama since 1941 (2000), David Coplan on township music and theatre (1985) and Isabel Hofmeyr on the long- established Afrikaans magazine Huisgenoot (1987). 4. In 1984 the NP launched what it called a ‘tricameral’ parliament, a flawed and divisive attempt at reforming the political system. After a referendum among white voters it gave limited political representation to people classi- fied as coloured and Indian, although black South Africans remained com- pletely excluded. Opposition to the system came from both the left and right and voting rates among non- whites remained extremely low, in a show of disapproval of what many viewed as puppet MPs. 5. The State of Emergency was declared in 1985 in 36 magisterial districts. It was extended across the whole country in 1986 and given an extra year to run in 1989. New measures brought in included the notorious 90- day law, in which suspects could be held without trial for 90 days, after which many were released and then re- arrested as they left the prison. 6. According to André Brink, ‘The widespread notion of “traditional Afrikaner unity” is based on a false reading of history: strife and division within Afrikanerdom has been much more in evidence than unity during the first three centuries of white South African history’ (1983, 17). -
A Comparative Study of Zimbabwe and South Africa
FACEBOOK, YOUTH AND POLITICAL ACTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ZIMBABWE AND SOUTH AFRICA A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY of SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES, RHODES UNIVERSITY by Admire Mare September 2015 ABSTRACT This comparative multi-sited study examines how, why and when politically engaged youths in distinctive national and social movement contexts use Facebook to facilitate political activism. As part of the research objectives, this study is concerned with investigating how and why youth activists in Zimbabwe and South Africa use the popular corporate social network site for political purposes. The study explores the discursive interactions and micro- politics of participation which plays out on selected Facebook groups and pages. It also examines the extent to which the selected Facebook pages and groups can be considered as alternative spaces for political activism. It also documents and analyses the various kinds of political discourses (described here as digital hidden transcripts) which are circulated by Zimbabwean and South African youth activists on Facebook fan pages and groups. Methodologically, this study adopts a predominantly qualitative research design although it also draws on quantitative data in terms of levels of interaction on Facebook groups and pages. Consequently, this study engages in data triangulation which allows me to make sense of how and why politically engaged youths from a range of six social movements in Zimbabwe and South Africa use Facebook for political action. In terms of data collection techniques, the study deploys social media ethnography (online participant observation), qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews. -
South Africaâ•Žs Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Towards Africa
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Iowa Research Online Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 6 South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Article 1 Towards Africa 2-6-2001 South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Towards Africa Roger Pfister Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, Zurich Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Pfister, Roger (2001) "South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Towards Africa," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 6 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1003 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 6 (2000) South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy Towards Africa Roger Pfister, Centre for International Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, Zurich Preface 1. Introduction Two principal factors have shaped South Africa’s post-apartheid foreign policy towards Africa. First, the termination of apartheid in 1994 allowed South Africa, for the first time in the country’s history, to establish and maintain contacts with African states on equal terms. Second, the end of the Cold War at the end of the 1980s led to a retreat of the West from Africa, particularly in the economic sphere. Consequently, closer cooperation among all African states has become more pertinent to finding African solutions to African problems. -
Land Reform from Post-Apartheid South Africa Catherine M
Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review Volume 20 | Issue 4 Article 4 8-1-1993 Land Reform from Post-Apartheid South Africa Catherine M. Coles Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/ealr Part of the Land Use Law Commons Recommended Citation Catherine M. Coles, Land Reform from Post-Apartheid South Africa, 20 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 699 (1993), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/ealr/vol20/iss4/4 This Comments is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LAND REFORM FOR POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Catherine M. Coles* I. INTRODUCTION...................................................... 700 II. LAND SYSTEMS IN COLLISION: PRECOLONIAL AND COLONIAL LAND SYSTEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 703 A. An Overview of Precolonial Land Systems. 703 B. Changing Rights to Landfor Indigenous South African Peoples Under European Rule. 706 III. THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF RACIAL INEQUALITY AND APART- HEID THROUGH A LAND PROGRAM. 711 A. Legislative Development of the Apartheid Land Program. 712 B. The Apartheid System of Racial Zoning in Practice: Limiting the Land Rights of Black South Africans. 716 1. Homelands and National States: Limiting Black Access to Land by Restricting Citizenship. 716 2. Restricting Black Land Rights in Rural Areas Outside the Homelands through State Control. 720 3. Restricting Black Access to Urban Land..................... 721 IV. DISMANTLING APARTHEID: THE NATIONAL PARTY'S PLAN FOR LAND REFORM............................................................ -
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report: Volume 2
VOLUME TWO Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was presented to President Nelson Mandela on 29 October 1998. Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize Chairperson Dr Alex Boraine Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza Vice-Chairperson Ms Mary Burton Dr Wendy Orr Revd Bongani Finca Adv Denzil Potgieter Ms Sisi Khampepe Dr Fazel Randera Mr Richard Lyster Ms Yasmin Sooka Mr Wynand Malan* Ms Glenda Wildschut Dr Khoza Mgojo * Subject to minority position. See volume 5. Chief Executive Officer: Dr Biki Minyuku I CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 6 National Overview .......................................... 1 Special Investigation The Death of President Samora Machel ................................................ 488 Chapter 2 The State outside Special Investigation South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 42 Helderberg Crash ........................................... 497 Special Investigation Chemical and Biological Warfare........ 504 Chapter 3 The State inside South Africa (1960-1990).......................... 165 Special Investigation Appendix: State Security Forces: Directory Secret State Funding................................... 518 of Organisations and Structures........................ 313 Special Investigation Exhumations....................................................... 537 Chapter 4 The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990 ..................................................... 325 Special Investigation Appendix: Organisational structures and The Mandela United -
Creating Provinces for a New South Africa, 1993
NEGOTIATING DIVISIONS IN A DIVIDED LAND: CREATING PROVINCES FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA, 1993 SYNOPSIS As South Africa worked to draft a post-apartheid constitution in the months leading up to its first fully democratic elections in 1994, the disparate groups negotiating the transition from apartheid needed to set the country’s internal boundaries. By 1993, the negotiators had agreed that the new constitution would divide the country into provinces, but the thorniest issues remained: the number of provinces and their borders. Lacking reliable population data and facing extreme time pressure, the decision makers confronted explosive political challenges. South Africa in the early 1990s was a patchwork of provinces and “homelands,” ethnically defined areas for black South Africans. Some groups wanted provincial borders drawn according to ethnicity, which would strengthen their political bases but also reinforce divisions that had bedeviled the country’s political past. Those groups threatened violence if they did not get their way. To reconcile the conflicting interests and defuse the situation, the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum established a separate, multiparty commission. Both the commission and its technical committee comprised individuals from different party backgrounds who had relevant skills and expertise. They agreed on a set of criteria for the creation of new provinces and solicited broad input from the public. In the short term, the Commission on the Demarcation/Delimitation of States/Provinces/Regions balanced political concerns and technical concerns, satisfied most of the negotiating parties, and enabled the elections to move forward by securing political buy-in from a wide range of factions. In the long term, however, the success of the provincial boundaries as subnational administrations has been mixed. -
Year of Fire, Year of Ash. the Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution?
Year of fire, year of ash. The Soweto revolt: roots of a revolution? http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.ESRSA00029 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Year of fire, year of ash. The Soweto revolt: roots of a revolution? Author/Creator Hirson, Baruch Publisher Zed Books, Ltd. (London) Date 1979 Resource type Books Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1799-1977 Source Enuga S. Reddy Rights By kind permission of the Estate of Baruch Hirson and Zed Books Ltd. Description Table of Contents: -
Apartheid Laws & Regulations
APARTHEID LAWS & REGULATIONS : INTRODUCED AND RESCINDED A Short Summary The absurdity of apartheid legislation, which incorporated legislation passed by the (minority) white governments prior to 1948, is reflected in the following list . Although the legislation was seemingly passed in the interest of the white minority, to maintain both political and social hegemony, it is obvious that most of the measures carried little or no economic benefit for the ruling class and that its scrapping would be in the interests of the capitalist class as well as the majority of blacks . For blacks the end of apartheid laws meant that the hated pass system was abolished, that the legality of residential apartheid was removed from the statute book and that antu education was formally ended . Nonetheless there was little freedom for the poor to move from their squatter camps or township houses and most children still went to third rate schools with few amenities to assist them . It was only a section of the wealthier blacks and those who ran the political machine that benefited most fully from the changes . The vast majority saw no improvements in their way of life, a matter that is dealt with in this issue of Searchlight South Africa . It is also not insignificant that many measures were repealed before the unbanning of opposition political movements and before negotia- tions got under way. The pressure for change came partly from the activities of the internal resistance movement and the trade unions, from covert discussions between movements that supported the government and the ANC, from the demographic pressure that led to a mass migra- tion to the urban areas and also from the altered relations between the USSR and the west - a change which was interpreted by the govern- ment as removing the communist threat from the region .