South Africa in 1960

By 1960 apartheid laws controlled almost every part of black South Africans' lives - and resistance was growing.

During the 1950s the National Party government had built apartheid into law. Pass laws were among the most hated: they forced African people to carry a passbook at all times, controlling where they could live, work and travel.

• The African National Congress (ANC) led resistance through campaigns like the 1952 Defiance Campaign.
• In 1959 the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe, broke away from the ANC.
• Both organisations planned protests against the pass laws for early 1960.

The Sharpeville massacre

Police opened fire on a peaceful anti-pass protest, killing 69 people.

On 21 March 1960 the PAC called on people to leave their passbooks at home and gather peacefully at police stations, offering themselves for arrest. At Sharpeville, a township in the Vaal area south of Johannesburg, a large crowd gathered outside the police station.

• Without a clear warning, police opened fire on the unarmed crowd.
• 69 people were killed and about 180 were wounded; many were shot in the back as they fled.
• A similar protest at Langa near Cape Town also ended in police violence.

State of emergency and the banning of the ANC and PAC

The government cracked down hard and made the main liberation movements illegal.

Sharpeville caused protests across the country and alarm around the world. The government declared a state of emergency, detained thousands of activists, and rushed a new law through parliament.

• The Unlawful Organisations Act (1960) was used to ban both the ANC and the PAC in April 1960.
• Leaders were arrested, and many went underground or into exile.
• Peaceful, legal protest was now almost impossible - a major turning point in the struggle.

From protest to armed struggle

With peaceful protest banned, the movements changed their methods.

Bantu Education and the Afrikaans decree

Anger at an inferior, controlled education boiled over in the schools.

The Bantu Education Act (1953) gave black children a deliberately inferior education meant to train them only for labour. By the 1970s schools were overcrowded and underfunded, and a new movement, Black Consciousness, led by Steve Biko, encouraged young people to take pride in themselves and resist.

• In 1974 the government ordered that Afrikaans be used to teach half of school subjects.
• Students saw Afrikaans as the language of their oppressor and could not learn well in it.
• Anger built up in Soweto's schools through early 1976.

The Soweto uprising

Thousands of schoolchildren marched in protest - and were met with police bullets.

On the morning of 16 June 1976, thousands of Soweto students marched peacefully to protest against being taught in Afrikaans. Police blocked the march and opened fire. Among the first to be killed was 12-year-old Hector Pieterson, whose photograph shocked the world.

• The protest was organised largely by students themselves.
• Uprisings spread from Soweto to towns across South Africa.
• Hundreds of people, many of them young, were killed in the months that followed.

Why Soweto was a turning point

The uprising changed the struggle and turned world opinion against apartheid.

The Soweto uprising showed that a new generation would not accept apartheid. Many young people left the country to join the ANC and PAC in exile, strengthening the armed struggle. In 1977 the Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko died after being tortured in police detention, causing further outrage.

• The world saw images of children being shot, and pressure on South Africa grew.
• The United Nations and many countries increased sanctions against apartheid.
• 16 June is now remembered every year in South Africa as Youth Day.

From Sharpeville to democracy, 1960-1994

1. 1960 Sharpeville massacre; ANC and PAC banned
2. 1964 Mandela sentenced to life at the Rivonia Trial
3. 1976 Soweto uprising begins on 16 June
4. 1983 United Democratic Front (UDF) formed
5. 1990 ANC and PAC unbanned; Mandela released
6. 1994 First democratic election on 27 April

Apartheid under pressure

By the late 1980s the government could no longer control the country as before.

In 1983 many organisations joined together in the United Democratic Front (UDF) to resist apartheid inside the country. Protests, strikes and boycotts made many areas 'ungovernable', and the government repeatedly declared states of emergency.

• International sanctions damaged the economy and isolated South Africa.
• Calls to 'Free Nelson Mandela' grew louder at home and abroad.
• In 1989 F.W. de Klerk became State President, willing to negotiate.

Unbanning and the release of Mandela

On 2 February 1990 the government lifted the bans; nine days later Mandela walked free.

I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all. Nelson Mandela, Cape Town, 11 February 1990

In a speech to parliament on 2 February 1990, State President F.W. de Klerk unbanned the ANC, the PAC and other organisations and freed political prisoners. On 11 February 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released.

• Exiled leaders could return and the movements could work openly again.
• Mandela called for peace and for talks to build a democratic South Africa.
• The way was now open for negotiations to end apartheid.

Negotiating a new South Africa

Old enemies had to talk, despite deep mistrust and continuing violence.

From late 1991 the government, the ANC and other parties met at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) to plan a new, non-racial country. The talks were difficult and were threatened by political violence, but they kept going.

• In a 1992 whites-only referendum, white voters backed continuing the negotiations.
• Multi-party talks agreed on an interim constitution and a date for elections.
• Everyone over 18, of every race, would be able to vote for the first time.

The first democratic election

For the first time, all South Africans could vote - and they chose freedom.

On 27 April 1994, millions of South Africans of all races voted in the country's first democratic election. People stood in long, patient queues, many voting for the very first time in their lives. The ANC won, and Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president.

• 27 April is now celebrated each year as Freedom Day.
• A new Constitution in 1996 guaranteed equal rights for everyone.
• The turning points of 1960, 1976 and 1990 had led, at last, to democracy.

What we learned - and questions to answer

Three turning points - 1960, 1976 and 1990 - moved South Africa from apartheid towards democracy.

Sharpeville (1960) exposed apartheid's violence and led to the banning of the ANC and PAC. Soweto (1976) brought a new generation into the struggle and turned world opinion against apartheid. The unbanning and Mandela's release (1990) opened the road to negotiations and, in 1994, to democracy.