I had an old friend from university days who became a politician. His name was Frederik van Zyl Slabbert. He then became a politician for the white opposition, the Progressive Party. So we kept contact and in ’87 he had a discussion with me and said, well, he feels he has to leave the party, because at this point I am now very close to the internal resistance in the country called the United Democratic Front, the UDF, which the ANC [African National Congress] still claims was a sister organization inside the country. We never experienced as part of the ANC but as an authentic internal resistance—that’s what I had drifted to.
So they started in 1983 and by 1985, ’86 I did everything I could in my journalism and in my private life to further those ends because I fully associated with them.
[Frederik van Zyl Slabbert (1940 – 2010) was a South African politician who led the Progressive Reform Party and opposed apartheid. The United Democratic Front was a multiracial anti-apartheid coalition. The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party that served as the most prominent resistance movement against South Africa’s apartheid system, at times resorting to violence through its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. It was officially banned by the South African government from 1960 to 1990. As apartheid collapsed, the ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela, was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and established a democratic government.]
And I was asked by these English language newspapers, the National Mail and Sunday Times, to write on the white politics of the white parliament, and I kept on saying, “But it’s a sideshow. The real politics of South Africa are outside of parliament. It’s in the streets. It’s in the trade unions. It’s in the UDF. It’s in the churches. It’s in community organizations. It’s in the mass protests. It’s in the ANC.” And here I am in this white elephant once again.
So I had this conversation with van Zyl Slabbert, who felt exactly the same way—I think he might’ve even influenced me to feel that way—and he then dramatically resigned from parliament, saying, “This is a white elephant, and this is irrelevant, and real politics happen outside.” He asked me to help organize a group that were going to meet with the ANC, still then a banned organization in exile, to see what the possibilities would be of talking about the future, talking about a democracy, talking about a settlement, partly for us to find that information, to meet the guys; partly for them to meet some of us and to sort of break the ice. But mainly if this didn’t turn out to be a flop, to have it serve as a way of changing the atmosphere inside the country, ‘cause at this point, 1987, ’87, South Africa was bordering on a civil war. We had mass protests.
[Banning was a legal process during apartheid enabled primarily by the Suppression of Communism Act, where individuals were prohibited from communicating with more than one person at a time and from traveling domestically or internationally without permission. Organizations were also banned by the government. The media was restricted in covering banned individuals.]
We had 10,000 people in jail at any given time without trial. We had death squads running around killing people. We had people disappearing. We had bombs in shopping centers and restaurants. The economy was very bad because we had sanctions against us, sport boycotts and cultural boycotts. It just kind of—it was a rough neighborhood in the ‘80s, in the late ‘80s.
So we then did this. We went with a group of sixty people to Dakar in Senegal and we met a delegation of the ANC under Thabo Mbeki. And again it’s one of those things that sort of pushes you along, that tips you further into, not only because I met these guys and spent a few days socializing with them, drinking with them and talking with them and seeing who they really were—you know, people like Thabo Mbeki—and Mac Maharaj and Pallo Jordan and Steve Tshwete and so on, and Kader Asmal—but also knowing the reaction from back home was that we were traitors and we were communist fellow-travelers and we should be shot and so on.
And that pushes you along a little bit more. It alienated me a little bit more from the white establishment and from my Afrikaner roots, which makes you slightly more committed to fight for more change.
[Thabo Mbeki (1942 – ) is a South African politician and anti-apartheid supporter from the African National Congress (ANC). He was the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 1999-2008. Sathyandranath Ragunanan “Mac” Maharaj (1935 – ) is a South African politician affiliated with the ANC, academic and businessman. He was an anti-apartheid supporter and a member of the ANC’s militant wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Zweledinga Pallo Jordan (1942 – ) is a South African politician affiliated with the ANC. He was an anti-apartheid supporter who was involved in the ANC’s research and communications efforts. Steve Vukhile Tshwete (1938 – 2002) was a South African politician and anti-apartheid supporter with the ANC and was involved in the party’s militant wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe. Abdul Kader Asmal (1934 – 2011) was a South African politician, academic, and human rights activist who served in the first post-apartheid government. Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch settlers who came to Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1652. During the Anglo-Boer Wars that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, the Afrikaners were overtaken by the British Empire and agreed to live under British rule.]
And I think when we talk about change, we should always remember this kind of personal element. It’s not all just bravery and conscience. These things happen to you. There was no way I could post this Dakar safari come back and work in the mainstream again. The doors were just closed.
Max du Preez is a South African journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. He was an anti-apartheid journalist who worked to expose government repression.
Born in 1951, Max du Preez grew up in Kroonstad, South Africa. Unlike many Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch colonial settlers who largely supported the apartheid government, his parents were open-minded toward integration of whites and non-whites.
After attending Stellenbosch University, an Afrikaner institution, du Preez began a career in journalism writing for Afrikaans and English language newspapers supportive of the apartheid government. Du Preez quickly became disenchanted by the South African media’s blatant political bias and abandoned his work in the mainstream media.
Du Preez became involved with anti-apartheid movements like the United Democratic Front. In 1988, he founded Vrye Weekblad, the first Afrikaans-language, anti-apartheid newspaper that offered alternative policy perspectives from mainstream media and was critical of the government. The government attempted to stifle the paper financially and legally by levying exorbitant registration fees and charging it with various infractions. In 1990, a member of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a pro-apartheid group, bombed Vrye Weekblad’s headquarters. Vrye Weekblad survived, however, until 1994 when the government’s financial pressure finally forced its closure. Ironically, apartheid collapsed and South Africa transitioned to democracy later that same year.
During the transition, du Preez covered the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission on television, publicizing the body’s efforts to ease tension and promote a unified, post-apartheid South Africa.
Today, Du Preez remains a prominent South African columnist and media personality. He has received several awards including the Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism and been named the Yale Globalist International Journalist.
South Africa is a nation of almost 53 million on the southern tip of Africa. The nation has a unique multicultural character and is approximately 80 percent African and 10 percent European, with the remaining 10 percent being of mixed race or Asian heritage. These broad racial categories include a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.
Although it has the largest economy on the continent, much of the nation remains in poverty and there is great economic disparity. Historically, the mining industry has played a key role in South Africa’s economy and it continues to remain an important industry today, alongside manufacturing, tourism, and financial services.
South Africa was first settled by non-natives in 1652, when the Dutch established an outpost in what would later become Cape Town. Soon after, British, French, and German settlers came to the area. The descendants of the original Dutch settlers became known as Afrikaners. Conflicts over land and power arose between the settling groups as well as between the settlers and the native people of the region. In 1910, Britain formally created the Union of South Africa as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.
Throughout South Africa’s history, non-whites were subjected to widespread discrimination. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government passed a series of laws institutionalizing discrimination and segregation. In the 1948 elections, the National Party, which served as a platform for Afrikaner nationalism, gained power. The National Party program was centered on the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Supporters of apartheid argued that South Africa was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, “Coloured” or mixed-race, and Indian.
The white minority oppressed the African majority and other non-white groups. Black Africans were particularly disadvantaged in terms of education, housing, income, and health. Blacks were denied citizenship and not permitted to use the services and facilities accessible by the white minority. Many blacks were forced to relocate when their neighborhoods were declared “white.” A series of laws enacted in the 1950s further codified and expanded racial segregation. In part, the National Party justified its policies by branding its opponents as communists.
The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to advocate for the rights of black South Africans. As apartheid expanded, the ANC and other groups used both nonviolent and violent actions to combat the government. The ANC and other groups were oppressed by the government, and many of their senior leaders were banned or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader, was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement gained strength. Foreign governments and the international community isolated South Africa. International sanctions damaged the economy and helped erode domestic support for apartheid. Meanwhile, the end of the Cold War weakened the government’s claim that yielding power would lead to a communist takeover.
In 1990, the government of South Africa took its first steps toward ending apartheid when it ended a ban on certain political organizations including the ANC. Nelson Mandela and other opposition leaders were released from prison and apartheid legislation was repealed. F.W. de Klerk, President from 1989-1994, helped to broker this transition of South Africa from the apartheid-era to a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
In 1994, South Africa held its first election that allowed all adults to vote, regardless of race. The ANC gained power and Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa enacted a liberal, democratic constitution, backed by a strong and independent judiciary. While the ANC has remained the strongest party, elections are vigorously contested and democratic safeguards are respected. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated abuses and crimes committed during the apartheid era.
Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized South Africa as “free” with an overall freedom rating of two, with one being the most free and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of two in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2013 Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to government restrictions on the press and the prevalence of civil cases brought against journalists for libel.
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