South Africa: Apartheid, UDHR, and Human Rights (Video Notes)

UDHR and the UN Foundations

• The Second World War (1939–1945) and the Holocaust highlighted massive human suffering and spurred international cooperation to prevent future violations of basic rights.
• The United Nations Organisation (UNO) was formed after WWII with aims to promote international cooperation, keep peace, promote human rights, and improve living conditions in poorer parts of the world.
• In 1948, the UN drafted and accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which establishes the universal standard for how human beings should be treated so that everyone’s dignity is respected.
• Key idea: human rights are universal, held by all people from birth to death, and cannot be taken away by anyone.
• The UDHR states that rights are universal and belong to everyone simply because they are human, regardless of who they are.

The UDHR in Practice in South Africa

• The UDHR sets out basic rights to enable everyone to live free and equal lives with dignity and respect.
• When UDHR was adopted in 1948 ext{ } o ext{ }1948, South Africa was entering its most racist era, with the National Party in power implementing apartheid.
• Apartheid laws ignored every one of the UDHR rights and the South African government did not sign the UDHR, though it remained a member of the UN. The UN declared apartheid a crime against humanity.

Key Concepts and Definitions (Glossary)

• Human Rights: basic rights and freedoms every person has from birth to death, e.g., freedom of speech and opinion, right to work, education.
• Apartheid: a system of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s, built on white supremacy and racial categorization.
• Segregation: separating people or groups based on race, religion, or ethnicity.
• Repression: use of force or violence to control a group of people.
• Resistance: refusal to accept or comply with something.
• Non-Violent Resistance: achieving social change through protests, civil disobedience, non-cooperation, and other peaceful methods.
• Defiance Campaign: the first large-scale, multiracial political mobilization against apartheid laws under communal leadership.
• Treason: crime of attempting to overthrow or harm one’s country (government).
• Freedom Charter: foundational document of the South African alliance and its allies, articulating core rights and values.
• Massacre: killing many people in a violent and cruel manner.
• Banned: prohibition of distribution or activity by legal means.
• Programme of Action: civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, and other non-violent resistance strategies.

Pre-1948 Context: Racism, Segregation, and Early Policies

• The National Party came to power in 1948; apartheid laws governed the country, rooted in racism and the belief that whites were superior.
• South Africans were classified into racial groups: Black Africans, Coloureds, Indians, and Africans; whites (Europeans) dominated government and policies.
• Segregation extended to all aspects of life: separate schools, housing, train seating, and even ambulances.
• The ideology of apartheid was reinforced by the belief that skin colour and other physical traits dictated social status, which was used to justify oppression.
• The term apartheid means “apartness” in Afrikaans.

Racism, Race, and Human Evolution

• The concept of race is not scientifically valid; human evolution shows a common ancestry. Humans share a common ancestry from Africa as recently as 100{,}000 years ago.
• Physical features like skin colour do not determine intelligence, behavior, or capabilities.
• The misuse of the term race has historically led to discrimination and human rights abuses.
• Although scientifically invalid, racial labels became part of identities due to apartheid laws, influencing social and political life.

Apartheid Ideology and Language

• Apartheid used skin colour and other physical traits to classify people into racial groups and to justify unequal treatment.
• The apartheid system was built on racism, with the belief that light-skinned people were superior to dark-skinned people.
• Black South Africans were referred to with terms like “Native” or “Bantu”; the term Africans is used in this document to refer to Black South Africans in general.
• The Afrikaans word for apartheid, “apartheid,” reflects the policy of keeping different racial groups separate.
• Even after formal policy changes, racial categorization continued to shape identities and social organization.

The Formal System of Segregation: Foundations and Early Steps

• Pre-1948 segregation existed and intensified after WWII, driven by white fears about economic and political changes.
• Background processes established segregation:
  • The South African War (1899–1902) established groundwork for separate social orders.
  • 1903: South African Native Affairs Commission recommended separate land ownership, native locations, controlled movement, different wages, and separate administration—laying groundwork for later apartheid policies.
  • 1910: Four colonies united to form the Union of South Africa under a white Afrikaner government; Cape Province retained a non-racial franchise, but overall white control remained dominant.
  • The 1920s–1930s saw continued segregation via laws and policies that limited black rights and access to resources.
  • World War II reshaped urban demographics: more Black workers moved to cities to fill jobs left by white soldiers, increasing demand for better pay and conditions, while whites worried about the erosion of segregation and rising political demands.
  • The war’s economic changes contributed to whites supporting the National Party’s promise to “solve” these problems through apartheid.
  • The National Party won the 1948 election and formalized apartheid as policy.
  • The 1940s–1950s also featured a shift in labour and political strategy, including a commitment to racialized control of land, people, and resources.

Early Structural Policies and Key Laws Under Apartheid

• Land Act 1913 (1913): pivotal in entrenching racial land segregation, its key provisions included:
  • Land Ownership: Confined Africans to owning land only in designated "native reserves" (later known as Bantustans), initially comprising about 7 ext{ extbackslash} ext{backslash}7 ext{ extbackslash}ext{ extbackslash}99— of the country's land, a figure later nominally increased to 13 ext{ extbackslash} ext{backslash}13 ext{ extbackslash}ext{ extbackslash} through the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. This act legally solidified the concept of separate areas for African land ownership.
  • Prohibited Transactions: Explicitly forbade Africans from buying, leasing, or occupying land outside these designated reserves, except under specific, restrictive circumstances, effectively making them tenants or laborers on land owned by whites.
  • Impacts: Its implementation led to widespread dispossession of fertile land from African communities, forcing many into overcrowded and underdeveloped reserve areas. This act generated severe impoverishment, propelled forced labor (as Africans needed to work on white farms or in mines to survive), and caused extensive social disruption by destroying traditional agricultural practices and community structures. It served as the foundational legal instrument for ongoing racial segregation and dispossession, fundamentally reshaping South African demography and economy.
  • Long-term Consequences: The Act’s dispossession of land created a landless African majority, forming a cheap labor pool for white-owned mines, industries, and farms. Its consequences continue to fuel contemporary land reform debates and efforts to address historical injustices.
• Native Affairs Commission (1903): proposed separate areas for black and white land ownership, native locations, restrictions on movement, different wages, and a separate system of administration via Native Councils; recommended against expanding Cape voting rights.
• 1910 Union of South Africa: consolidation of white governance; indicates clear limits on Black political participation.
• The combined effect of these policies laid the institutional groundwork for formal apartheid after 1948.

Core Apartheid Legislation (Main Laws)

• Population Registration Act (1950): This cornerstone of apartheid legally mandated the racial classification and registration of every South African citizen from birth, categorizing them into predefined racial groups: White, Coloured (mixed race), Indian (of Asian descent), and Black (African).
  • Classification Criteria: Classification was based on a combination of appearance, ancestry, and general societal acceptance, often involving arbitrary tests administered by officials. These classifications were recorded on identity documents ("pass books" for Black Africans) and determined an individual’s legal rights, freedoms, and opportunities under apartheid.
  • Foundational Impact: This act was fundamental to the entire apartheid system, as all other discriminatory laws (such as the Group Areas Act, Separate Amenities Act, and Bantu Education Act) were predicated on these rigid racial classifications, dictating where people could live, work, and access services.
• Group Areas Act (1950): A central pillar of grand apartheid, this act legally enforced residential segregation by designating specific urban and rural areas for occupation by different racial groups identified under the Population Registration Act.
  • Implementation and Objective: Its primary objective was to eliminate all mixed-race communities and create ethnically homogenous townships, effectively carving up the country into racially exclusive zones. The government gained powers to proclaim an area for a specific racial group, subsequently forcing "unqualified" residents to vacate their homes and businesses, often with little or no compensation.
  • Forced Removals: This led to massive forced removals, dispossessing hundreds of thousands of non-white South Africans from their homes and communities, destroying established social networks, economic livelihoods, and cultural heritage. Iconic examples include the destruction of Sophiatown, a vibrant mixed-race suburb in Johannesburg, whose residents were forcibly relocated to Meadowlands in Soweto, and the systematic clearing of District Six in Cape Town.
  • Spatial Apartheid: The act fundamentally reshaped South Africa's urban landscape, cementing spatial segregation, deepening racial divisions, and entrenching economic disparities by concentrating resources and infrastructure in white areas while neglecting non-white townships.
• Apartheid-era laws targeting political activity and civil rights:
  • Separate Amenities Act
  • Suppression of Communism Act and Terrorism Act
  • Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
• Pass Laws Act (various iterations, solidified in 1952): These laws were a fundamental mechanism for controlling the movement and labor of Black South Africans, particularly between rural reserves and urban areas.
  • Requirement and Enforcement: They mandated that all Black African males (and later, females) over the age of 16 carry a "reference book" (colloquially known as a "dompas," meaning "dumb pass"), which contained their identity, employment details, and permission to be in white-designated areas for a specific purpose and duration. Failure to produce this pass on demand to any police officer resulted in immediate arrest, fines, or imprisonment.
  • Purpose and Impact: The primary purpose was to regulate the supply of cheap Black labor to white-owned industries and farms, prevent permanent urbanization of Black families, and maintain white control over cities. These laws led to hundreds of thousands of arrests annually, filling prisons and significantly disrupting family life and economic stability for Black South Africans. They were a constant source of harassment and a symbol of oppression, embodying the daily indignities of apartheid.
• Bantu Education Act (1953): This notorious act created a separate and inferior education system for Black African children, deliberately designed to limit their intellectual and professional development and prepare them for subservient roles in the apartheid economy.
  • Curriculum and Philosophy: The curriculum was tailored to reinforce tribal identities and provide only rudimentary vocational skills, deliberately excluding subjects that could foster critical thinking or aspirations for higher education. Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, a key architect of apartheid, explicitly stated its goal was to ensure Black people were not educated "above the level of certain forms of labour," thereby preventing them from competing with whites for skilled jobs.
  • Underfunding and Inequality: Black schools were severely underfunded compared to their white counterparts, leading to overcrowded classrooms, poorly paid and often unqualified teachers, and a severe lack of resources, including textbooks and infrastructure.
  • Long-Term Effects and Resistance: The act effectively created a cycle of poverty and limited social mobility for generations of Black South Africans, systematically depriving them of quality education and future opportunities. This discriminatory education system became a major flashpoint for resistance, culminating dramatically in the Soweto Uprising of 1976 when students protested the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
• Mixed Marriages Act and Immorality Act
• These laws collectively entrenched racial segregation in every sphere of social, economic, and political life.

Other Racial Segregation Laws and Practices

• Pass Laws: required Black people to carry passes to work and live in certain areas; failure to produce a pass could lead to arrest, fines, or jail.
• Job Color Bar: white workers held privileged positions; whites typically earned higher wages than Black workers performing the same work.
• The Group Areas Act and related housing policies forcibly relocated people, destroying communities and reshaping urban geography (e.g., Sophiatown and Meadowlands in Soweto).
• Separate Amenities Act: legalized racial segregation in public facilities (schools, transport, housing, recreation).
• Other core laws that reinforced racial hierarchy included the Population Registration Act, Bantu Self-Government Act, and the 1950s cluster of anti-communist and anti-terrorism measures.

Group Areas and Forced Removals: Impacts and Examples

• Group Areas Act (1950) led to forced removals and the destruction of mixed neighborhoods, exemplified by cases like Sophiatown being designated as white-only and residents being relocated to Meadowlands (Soweto).
• Source F (Emma Mashinini) and Source H (Sheena Duncan) highlight the human suffering caused by forced removals and the scale of displacement.
• These removals caused immense social and economic disruption and reinforced spatial separation by race.

The Bantu Education Act (1953) and Its Effects

• Purpose: to control Black education and limit access to quality schooling; curriculum designed to reinforce subservient roles and racial hierarchies.
• Effects: inferior education systems for Black South Africans; limited opportunities for advancement; contributed to long-term economic inequality and social marginalization.
• Resistance to Bantu Education contributed to later protests, including the Soweto Uprising of 1976.

Resistance and Non-Violent Resistance to Apartheid (1950s onward)

• Resistance began immediately after apartheid laws were enacted, taking many forms: petitions to the press, mass demonstrations, community organizing, and civil actions.
• Non-violent resistance strategies included civil disobedience, mass mobilization, and economic/political non-cooperation (Programme of Action).
• The Defiance Campaign was a landmark, as the first large-scale, multiracial political mobilization against apartheid laws under communal leadership.

Soweto Uprising and Other Protests

• Soweto Uprising (1976): a major, influential protest against the imposition of Afrikaans in schools and broader educational inequalities; became a global symbol of resistance to apartheid.
• Protests in the 1950s–1970s included petitions, demonstrations, and community-based resistance, signaling the growing challenge to apartheid policies.

Repeal, Reform, and Legacy

• Repeal and reform efforts began in the late 20th century, culminating in policy shifts that dismantled formal apartheid.
• Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act (1991) removed legal land-discrimination measures.
• Post-apartheid land reform included policies such as the Restitution of Land Rights Act and the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development program (contextual reference; specific dates may vary by policy).
• Ongoing challenges include ensuring fair access to land, resolving disputes, and addressing the lasting impacts of dispossession and spatial segregation created under apartheid.

Summary of Core Themes and Connections

• UDHR established universal human rights, contrasted with apartheid’s denial of those rights to Black South Africans.
• Apartheid was grounded in a racialized social order that affected where people could live, work, study, and move.
• The legal framework (Land Act, Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, Pass Laws, Bantu Education Act, etc.) created a comprehensive system of control and separation.
• Resistance, both non-violent and community-based, gradually challenged apartheid; the Defiance Campaign and the Soweto Uprising were turning points that drew global attention.
• Post-1991 reforms