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Student Information Sheet: Racial Equality in South Africa.

Have students construct a grid that records a number of the activities and choices that are common to their society and that they consider important. (See Grid One)

• Students should also indicate on the grid whether restrictions apply to each activity/choice.

Step Two

Have students assume the role of a South African Black. Ask them to use Grid Two. On the grid they should indicate whether each activity is open to them or whether official restrictions apply. (See Grid Two)

Student Worksheet

Grid One

Activity	Freedom or Restriction	Who Imposed the Restriction?
attend a movie	free to choose movie selection	cost of attending
select a future occupation
vote in an election when of legal age
select an educational institution
freedom to choose who one is going to marry
other

Grid Two

Activity	Freedom or Officially Restricted	Canadian Citizen	Black South African
attend a movie
select a future occupation
vote in an election when of legal age
select an educational institution
freedom to choose who one is going to marry
other

This information is to accompany Activity Three of the Unit Five Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: Racial Equality in South Africa

Since the 1950s, considerable world attention has focused on South Africa and its institutionalized policy of apartheid.

The chief proponent of apartheid has been the Nationalist Party. It attracts most of its electorial support from the Afrikaner population.

• The Afrikaner population is composed of the ancestors of the Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600's.

When the Nationalist Party gained power in 1948, voting rights were restricted to whites only.

• The white population represented less than 20 percent of the entire population of South Africa.

The Nationalist government of South Africa has institutionalized a policy of apartheid or separate development for the races.

• The policy of separate development has extended to almost all facets of life - education, residence, health, recreational and governmental services, etc.

Since 1948, voting rights were restricted to whites only.

• The Population Registration Act of 1950 classified the population into four racial categories: White, Black, Asian And Coloured.

Blacks who represent 72 percent of the nation's population are forced to live in designated districts or "homelands".

• The homelands constitute 13 percent of the poorest land in South Africa.
• The homelands lack the resource base to support the large populations that reside in them.

Black resentment has been channelled through the African National Congress.

• The ANC has organized peaceful demonstrations against the government and its discriminatory laws.
• One law that required non-whites to use a passbook in order to work, to get accommodation, and to travel, was targeted for protest.

A splinter organization, the Pan-African Congress was created in 1959.

• It was willing to use violence to end the apartheid system.
• The PAC organized a demonstration in Sharpeville township in March of 1960. The police fired on the crowd and 69 people were killed.

The government banned the PAC and ANC and the leader of those organizations, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in 1962.

In the mid-1970s, demonstrations to protest the government's decision to force Black students to learn the Afrikaan language, occurred in the Soweto township.

• The protests spread to other townships and violence ensued. Over 700 people were killed.

The South African government reacted to the growing protests of the non-White population.

• In 1983, a new parliament was created with separate representation for Whites, Coloureds and Indians, but not the Black majority.
• The ANC responded by supporting violence against civilian as well as government targets.

In the late 1980s a number of the apartheid laws including the Mixed Marriage Act and the hated pass laws, were abolished.

In late 1989, F.W. de Klerk became president of South Africa. De Klerk released a number of political prisoners, including Mandela in February 1990.

1990 also witnessed increased violence within the Black community as rival groups struggled to gain political advantage as the possibility of a transition to black majority rule seems possible.

Mandela and de Klerk held meetings concerning the release of political prisoners, the lifting of the state of emergency, the suspending of guerrilla activities and the lifting of economic sanctions on South Africa.

• The government and the A.N.C. agreed to elections that would allow all South Africans to vote to take place in 1994.

All adult South African citizens were allowed to vote in the 1994 election. Nelson Mandela was elected President.