Internationally though more and more people were taking notice at this fact, that South Africa was literally split in two because of apartheid. This was noticed by the Olympic Committee and in 1963 they refused to allow racially segregated teams into their Olympics. This help to widen the knowledge of the problems and made yet even more of the world aware of the problems. With the status made higher due to the Olympic committee this put more emphasise on various more powerful powers to do something about it.
1966 saw one of the most controversial moments in South Africa’s history. After the of world war 2, the UN ordered the end to tempory mandate, but this was refused by the South African Government after being ordered to give up control of South West Africa. By 1968 things internationally had changed, most of the countries in Africa had actually gained independence and done away with white colonial rule. Other countries neighbouring South Africa were involved in fights and struggles to gain their independence and break away from the white rule idea.
One of the most publicised protests internationally was when the South African Rugby Team came to England in 1969. These protests were anti-apartheid protests that once again helped to increase international awareness of South Africa and its evident problems. These protests of 1969 had implications and in 1970 pressure was put on the British government to cancel the South African Cricket tour. The pressure on the South African government was so clearly increasing and making things harder that ever for the Government and the man in power at the time, Dr Vewoerd.
During the early 1970’s yet more and more international countries were taking notice of the goings on. Throughout this time many brits and Americans actually boycotted buying fruit or any other product of South Africa as it was seen as a way for their government to take notice and sort it out. Other boycotts were set up to cause as much disruption as possible to the economic state of a country that so many were worried about. There was another boycott in 1973 of Barclays bank and many other banks that were lending money to South Africa to help them economically. The idea being that if South Africa had no money coming in, but money going out then soon they would come into serious problems and have to get rid of apartheid, as this would have been the reason for the boycotts. Another boycott that had a much larger impact on the South Africans was the ban of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) from selling oil to South Africa, meaning that the country now had no oil coming in, nor much income, either from banks or the selling of its produce. South Africa was now in quite serious trouble, without these incomes they would have trouble sorting it out, and there was only one way to actually sort out these problems, one simple way, abolish apartheid.
In the same year of 1973 it came to light of some irregularities within the South African governmernment. The government under Vorster had appointed a Minister of information called Connie Mulder who had been given 64 rand to conduct secret propaganda war to improve the international image of apartheid. Because f this Vorster was forced to resign. Many things that this 64million rand did was to buy suits and whatever abroad to hold meetings in and use as platforms for propaganda, they bought advertising rights for many popular foreign magazines and newspapers and advertised to try and make people believe that apartheid really wasn’t as bad as it was made out. One of the most commonly used pieces of propaganda was the idea that if South Africa was allowed to run under a black government then it would lead to a communist takeover which worried many of the more powerful countries like Britain, America and even Russia.
In conclusion it could be said that there were various examples of pressure exerted from international causes on the South Africa. The main problem being that this pressure was not really caused by the governments of these international countries but instead from the people of these powers. Like the British people that worried enough about the apartheid that they boycotted various produce and banks and even protested enough to seriously disrupt the sporting sides of their own nation and the visitors, South Africa. The only real power that seemed to intervene, and not surprisingly, was the UN who mad various statements and orders saying that Apartheid was bad, and to get rid of it. These orders and pressure were obviously not significant enough to make a real impact on it as it did not make terrible difference but instead cause the international people to sit up and take notice, thus causing the boycotts and protests. Although there was some pressure put upon South Africa this was by no means enough to make any real difference to the situation inside the boarders. There should have been considerably more pressure from the governments of opposing countries, not just the people, there is a limit to the power of the people but the governments could have made a considerable difference, but they chose not to.
