‘Apartheid harmed all South Africans. To what extent do you agree ?’

‘Apartheid harmed all South Africans. To what extent do you agree ?’

Nowadays, South Africa is a democratic country where the values of equality and respect are part of the constitution. However, we must not forget that from 1948 to 1994, a discriminative regime was ruling the country : itw as called Apartheid. People were treated differently and segregated according to the colour of their skin. Blacks, Indians, Whites and Coloureds were all seperated into different groups, and obviously, the rights and the treatments were not the same depending on the group you were belonging to. But, to what extent can we consider that this regime harmed all South Africans ?

First of all, the regime put in place in South Africa in 1948 was ruled by Boers, so only white people whereas blacks were present in the country before and were more numerous. White people described Apartheid as ‘a policy of good neighbourliness’, but it was not the case at all. In fact, Apartheid means ‘separatness’, and it was all about separating people in all the aspects and parts of their lives. Many laws were voted, such as the the Group Areas act, which segregated housing, the Separate Amenities Act, the Bantu education Act, and above all, the Population registration Act, which divided South Africa into racial groups. Weddings and sexual relation between people of different races were also forbidden. As an instance, Regina Brooks and her husband were sent to jail because they were belonging to different groups but they had a child together. Moreover, laws were not the same for everyone, and they were specific rules. Favours were reserved for white people : only them had the right to vote. They were also reserved the better housing, they had more land and better amenities. School was also different for white and black children : less money was spent on the education of black children, and they were taught a different curriculum to white children. They also learned, for example, that they were inferior to white people. But the most revolting law was that all black people, Coloured and Indians had to carry a pass all the time with them. If they did not have it, they could be arrested without judgment or any valuable reason.

However, whites were only a few to impose those rules that were beneficial for them. Thereby, many protests, peaceful marches, and demonstrations were organised by the population. Unfortunately, those demonstrations were often innefective and repressed in the blood. For example, on 1960 at Sharpeville, a civil disobedience protest was organised by the Pan African Congress in order to fight against Pass Laws. The police opened fire on the peaceful and unarmed crowd. 69 people were killed, included women and children, and over 180 were injured. Fortunately, illegal resistant groups were also formed, like the African National Congress, and were a little more efficient even if they did not manage to improve the Blacks overall situation in South Africa. Indeed, they did not want to collaborate with other groups, such as communists. They also wanted to get rid of all whites in South Africa. However, they organised many events like the campaign of civil defiance of Apartheid, and it started to have an impact on the people’s minds. Mandela was then even elected president a few decades later.

In conclusion, I think that indeed Apartheid harmed all South Aficans,

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