A 350-YEAR JOURNEY TO LIBERATION (1652-1994)

Reform and the Last Days of Apartheid

Shaken by the scale of protest and opposition, and increasing international support for the anti-apartheid cause, the apartheid government embarked on a series of limited reforms in the early 1980s. In 1983, the constitution was amended to allow the Coloured and Indian minorities some limited participation in separate and subordinate houses of parliament. In 1986 the pass laws were scrapped. Mass resistance increasingly challenged the apartheid state, which resorted to intensified repression accompanied by an eventual recognition that apartheid could not be sustained.

By this time, many among the Afrikaner élite openly started to pronounce in favour of a more inclusive society, with a number of business people, students and academic leaders meeting publicly and privately with the ANC in exile. Petty apartheid laws and symbols were openly challenged and eventually removed. Protracted military conflicts on the borders of the country, sustained underground resistance to the apartheid system, a severely ailing economy, increasing public dissent, and international pressure eventually led to the fall of apartheid. On 2 February 1990 then Prime Minister Willem de Klerk announced the unbanning of the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela and all other political prisoners.