Causes Of Apartheid In South Africa

1770 Words8 Pages
Apartheid was a very demeaning act of violence and disrespect and the fact that it took South Africa so long to realise that, is devastating. If other countries did not see the problem in the actions of the South African apartheid government South Africa would have formed an autocratic state or crumbled under the pressure of apartheid resistance. In this essay I am going to discuss to which extent international pressure forced the South African government to introduced reform measures. The world grew anxious about the devastating conditions that Apartheid has in instilled in South Africa. International initiatives were implemented to isolate the Apartheid government. These initiatives were not implemented to start a process of negotiations…show more content…
One of the first steps was in 1961 when the South African soccer team was expelled by FIFA from international soccer; SA was then excluded from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and a huge embarrassment was the expulsion from the Olympic Games in 1970 after almost 50 countries threatened to boycott the Olympics if South Africa was included in the Olympics. Many sporting events also banned SA from test match cricket. Protesting became more extreme in 1981 when thousands of protesters invaded the pitch of a South African Tour rugby game against New Zealand, ending the tour. The campaigners were endorsed by the Commonwealth in 1977 and in 1985 the UN convention against apartheid in sport also showed their support. Sport was seen as the most influential boycott because that was one of the biggest interests in white communities. Economic sanctions sought out to damage South Africa’s economy. An oil embargo was proposed in 1963 by the UN but did not make any difference until the Arab government acted and implemented an oil embargo of theirs in 1973. However, the Apartheid government was assisted by other international oil companies to continue supplying them with oil. The Commonwealth Countries and European Community implemented financial sanctions and limited…show more content…
Uprisings were growing more violent and there was a real fear of a civil war breaking out. Negotiations were taking place with Nelson Mandela. After PW Botha suffered a stroke, De Klerk was elected as the new party leader. Most NP politicians backed FW De Klerk and not PW Botha because they felt he was too autocratic and felt that it would be his fault if a civil war broke out. FW De Klerk was appointed as the new president and he implemented many new policies and changed most of PW Botha’s policies. Through his years as president he released most of the political prisoners and abolished
Open Document