In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for ethnic government in African reserves, known as “homelands.” These homelands were independent states to which each African was assigned by the government according to the record of origin (which was frequently inaccurate). All political rights, including voting, held by an African were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their citizenship in South Africa and any right of involvement with the South African Parliament which held complete hegemony over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981, four of these homelands were created, denationalizing nine million South Africans. The homeland administrations refused the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the country as a whole. Nevertheless, Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa: aliens in their own country.
In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. Wielding the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the white regime had no intention of changing the unjust laws of apartheid.
The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture. Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life, like Nelson Mandela.
Even after the ban on south African sports around the world, and numerous united nations arms embargoes (frequently ignored by the Americans) the Afrikaans government still supported Apartheid. After years of peaceful protests the ANC and other organizations decided to fight violence with violence.
Their terrorist attacks involved sabotage of bridges, power lines etc.
School children were also apart of the fight against Apartheid, some children refused to go to school due to the fact that they were being taught in Afrikaans, which was the language of their oppressors this was done so that the black children would not be able to get decent jobs because of their limited skills in English which was the main language in south Africa at that time. The schools were patrolled by the military who broke up groups of young black so that they wouldn’t plan protests, this was even done in the playground! Some black children chose to simply burn down their schools and not go until they got what they wanted but this was just what the white oppressors would have wanted, an ignorant, race of people who wouldn’t ever be taught and therefore wouldn’t know how to get themselves out of the situation they were in.
The Soweto riots in 1976 started with school children marching to show their opposition to Apartheid and the education policies that were put in place. The riots lasted months and spread all over the country. Though the roits were eventually stopped they were stopped at a great cost in human life- mainly young life. Nearly 6000 people were arrested betweenu june 1976 and February 1977. as many as 14000 school children and university students fled the country many joining the ANC in exilemore than 700 blacks died, many of them killed by the police, others by other blacks who accused them of being police informers. Some migrant workers turned against the rioters and, encouraged by the police, they killed some of them, “my husband opened the door and saw the riot police who then allowed a group of migrants to come in, and they beat my husband until he was half dead. One riot policeman remarked, ‘you are lucky he is not stone dead.’ Minutes later he died of head injuries.”
The government told the world there were no riots and that it was just agitators and over excited young people.
The killing of 700 black people was a spark that ignited a huge outburst of violent protests and sabotages by black people as well as some more peaceful protests.
Other violent acts include the sharpeville and langa massacres in March 1960,
In the sharpeville township near Vereeniging, a large and noisy crowd surrounded the police station. A young officer lost his nerve and fired into the crowd, as did his colleagues. killing 69 and wounding 180 many from shots in the back. In Langa police ordered demonstrators to disperse, when they refused they were baton charged, they retaliated by throwing stones and the police opened fir on the crowd, killing two and wounding 49. sharpeville and langa shocked international opinion. From all over the world came demands that Apartheid should end.
Way the police handled sharpeville and langa showed the black leaders that the time for peaceful protest had passed, it was time for radical action.
Mandela formed the M.K. and started to plan sabotage action with the aim to avoid loss of human life, it released a leaflet explaining its actions to the black population. The actions of violence got the blacks’ needs noticed by the international community and more pressure was put on the south African government to stop Apartheid culminating with the collapse of Apartheid in 1991.