Foreign relations of South Africa during apartheid refers to the foreign relations of South Africa between 1948 and 1994. South Africa introduced apartheid in 1948, as a systematic extension of pre-existing racial discrimination laws. Initially the regime implemented an offensive foreign policy trying to consolidate South African hegemony over Southern Africa. These attempts had failed by the late 1970s. As a result of its racism, occupation of Namibia and foreign interventionism in Angola, the country became increasingly isolated internationally.
Initial relations In the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust, the Western world began distancing itself from ideas of racial dominanceSee Borstelmann, Thomas; 'Jim Crow's coming out: Race relations and American foreign policy in the Truman years'; Presidential Studies Quarterly; volume 29, issue 3, (September 1999), pp. 549-569 and policies based on racial prejudice, though it would still take years to fully disappear from official policy in parts, as exemplified by the Jim Crow laws of the United States.Borstelmann, Thomas; Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle: The United States and Southern Africa in the Early Cold War, pp. 83-85 Racially discriminatory and segregationist principles were not novelties in South Africa, given the racial make-up of their society. From unification in 1910, the state had been run by the white minority and pursued segregation from there. Apartheid was a certified, lawful and inflexible type of separation that was methodically entrenched from 1948 through a battery of legislation. As it was not completely new to the country, and because many Western countries still exercised their own forms of prejudice in their assorted colonies, there was minimal rejoinder and indignation. The conclusion of the Second World War signified the commencement of the Cold War, and South Africa, with its anticommunist stance, was considered a possible assistant in the passive battle against the Soviet Union.
The world did not, however, condone South Africa's discriminatory policies. At the first United Nations gathering in 1946, South Africa was placed on the program. The primary subject in question was the handling of South African Indians, a critical cause of hostility between South Africa and India.Hamilton, Thyomas J.; 'India Calls on U.N. to Discuss Friction with South Africa'; The New York Times, 24 June 1946, p. 1 In 1952, apartheid was thrashed out again in the aftermath of the Defiance Campaign, and Indian demands caused the UN to set up a task team to keep watch on the state of racial affairs and the progress of apartheid in South Africa.Borstelmann; Apartheid's Reluctant Uncle, p. 173 Although racial segregation in South Africa was a cause for concern, most countries in the UN concurred that race was an internal issue for South Africa, which fell outside the UN's jurisdiction. Only later did the UN become resolute in challenging South Africa. In 1952, 13 African and Asian countries sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution condemning apartheid as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations.
South Africa's treatment of Coloureds people under early apartheid was also highlighted by the death of Milton King while in police custody in 1951. King's killing sparked numerous protests, marches, and union-led boycotts across the Caribbean and United Kingdom that foreshadowed Jamaica's 1959 government-wide economic boycott of South African goods.
Sharpeville and the severing of British ties South Africa's policies were subject to international scrutiny in 1960, when British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan criticised them during his celebrated Wind of Change speech in Cape Town. Weeks later, tensions came to a head in the Sharpeville massacre, resulting in more international condemnation. Soon thereafter, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd announced a referendum on whether the country should sever links with the British monarchy and become a republic instead. Verwoerd lowered the voting age for whites to eighteen and included whites in South West Africa on the voter's roll. The referendum on 5 October that year asked whites, "Do you support a republic for the Union?", and 52 per cent voted "Yes".
As a consequence of this change of status, South Africa needed to reapply for continued membership of the Commonwealth, with which it had privileged trade links. Even though India became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1950, it became clear that African and Asian member states would oppose South Africa due to its apartheid policies. As a result, South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth on 31 May 1961, the day the country became a republic.
In 1960, the UN's conservative stance on apartheid changed. The Sharpeville massacre had jolted the global community, with the apartheid regime showing that it would use violent behaviour to repress opposition to racial inequity. Many Western states began to see apartheid as a possible danger to global peace and stability, as the policy caused much intercontinental abrasion over human-rights violation.
In April 1960, the UN Security Council settled for the first time on concerted action against the apartheid regime, demanding that the National Party bring an end to racial separation and discrimination; but, instead, the South African administration merely employed further suppressive instruments. The ANC and PAC were forbidden from continued existence, and political assemblies were prohibited. From then on, the UN placed the South African issue high on its list of priorities.
In 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld stopped over in South Africa and subsequently stated that he had been powerless to effect a concurrence with Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. That same year, Verwoerd proclaimed South Africa's exit from the Commonwealth as a result of its censure of his government.
Sanctions
On 6 November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, condemning South African apartheid policies. On 7 August 1963, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181 calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa, and that very year, a Special Committee Against Apartheid was established to encourage and oversee plans of action against the regime.
In 1966, the United Nations held the first (of many) colloquiums on apartheid. The General Assembly announced 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in memory of the Sharpeville massacre. In 1971, the UN General Assembly formally denounced the institution of homelands, and a motion was passed in 1974 to eject South Africa from the UN, but this was discarded by France, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of them key trade partners of South Africa.
One probable type of action against South Africa was economic sanction. If UN affiliates broke fiscal and trading links with the country, it would make it all the trickier for the apartheid government to uphold itself and its policies. Such sanctions were argued frequently within the UN, and many recognised and backed it as an effectual and non-violent way of applying force, but South Africa's major trading partners once more voted against mandatory sanctions. In 1962, the UN General Assembly requested that its members split political, fiscal and transportation connections with South Africa. In 1968, it suggested the deferral of all cultural, didactic and sporting commerce as well. From 1964, the US and UK discontinued their dealings of armaments to South Africa. In spite of the many cries for sanctions, however, none were made obligatory, because South Africa's main trading partners were again primarily concerned for their own financial security.
In 1977, the voluntary UN arms embargo became mandatory with the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 418.
An oil embargo was introduced on 20 November 1987 when the UN General Assembly adopted a voluntary international oil embargo.
Aid to apartheid casualties Another way in which the UN could do something to combat apartheid was to lend support and aid to its victims. In 1963, the General Assembly passed a decree requesting that members contribute financially towards assisting apartheid sufferers.
Lusaka Manifesto
The Organisation for African Unity (OAU) was created in 1963. Its primary objectives were to eradicate colonialism and improve social, political and economic situations in Africa. It censured apartheid and demanded sanctions against South Africa. African states swore to aid the freedom movements in their fights against apartheid. In April 1969, fourteen Central and East African nations gathered in Lusaka, Zambia, to discuss various matters affecting the continent. The assembly formulated the 'Lusaka Manifesto', which was signed on 13 April by all of the countries in attendance, except for Malawi. This manifesto was later taken on by both the OAU and the United Nations.
The Lusaka Manifesto summarised the political situations of self-governing African countries, snubbing racism and inequity, and calling for black majority rule in all African nations. It did not rebuff South Africa entirely, though, adopting an appeasing manner towards the apartheid government, and even recognising its autonomy. Although African principals desired the emancipation of black South Africans, they trusted in their abilities to attain this in peaceable ways, intercession instead of militancy. The manifesto's signatories did not want to engage in a military war by supporting the liberation pugilists, because, for one thing, they could ill afford it and, for another, they dreaded retaliation.
Morogoro Conference
Neither the ANC nor the PAC was content with the Lusaka Manifesto. The signatories had not checked with them before laying out the document, and they foresaw the fact that African backing for the struggle would taper. The Manifesto did not truly recognise the significance of the liberation groups in the answer to South Africa's problems and even proposed dissuading them from an armed struggle. Both the ANC and the PAC had started using violent means in the 1960s, with the formation of their military wings.
Disinclined to destroy the support that they did have, however, the ANC and PAC did not explicitly condemn the Manifesto. In 1969, though, the ANC held the inaugural National Consultative Conference in Morogoro, Tanzania, where it ironed out its troubles and anxieties. The result was a decision not to end the armed struggle but, rather, to advance it. Oliver Tambo summed up thus: "Close Ranks! This is the order to our people, our youth, the army, to each Umkhonto we Sizwe militant, to all our many supporters the world over. This is the order to our leaders, to all of us. The order that comes from this conference is 'Close Ranks and Intensify the Armed Struggle!'"
Unlike the independence factions, the South African administration hailed the Lusaka Manifesto's plans for arbitration and détente. This tied in nicely with Prime Minister Vorster's own plan for the reduction of South Africa's seclusion from the rest of the world. He called his "Outward looking" policy. The state also maintained that the preservation of separate development through homelands carried out the Manifesto's insistence on human equality and dignity. The homelands, it argued, were meant eventually to be self-governing, decolonised nations where black people could take part in ballots and be free to live how they wished.
That is not to say that the NP government agreed to the Lusaka Manifesto, however. It rejected the manifesto's backing of liberation movements, although the movements themselves felt the Manifesto was showing a lack of support.
Mogadishu Declaration