Page 185 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

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down apartheid was futile disbanded itself in 1958. The Congress of Democrats (COD),
43
one peaceful voice since the Kliptown Declaration/Congress of the People was banned.
44
Following the Soweto Revolts, that was not confined to the transvaal Province/the northern
part of South Africa only, various groups within a broader Black Consciousness Movement
(BCM) arose. Liberation groups could be broadly categorised at the time as those of a non-
racial nature (a principled stand against any form of racism, ethnic labelling or imposed
group identities) and those of an Africanist orientation. It has to be mentioned that between
Africanists and Black Consciousness groups there were differences with the latter seeing all
oppressed people as “black” (thus black being a symbolic term rather than a racial term).
By the 1980s resistance escalated with an array of organisations that established themselves
inside the country. Apart from several trade unions broadly in sympathy with the non-racial
and Africanist or Black Consciousness Movement, the United Democratic Front came into
existence. More sympathetic to the Africanist and Black Consciousness Movement was the
National Forum. The latter had strategic differences with that were perceived as the Marxist-
Leninist approach of the SACP.
The apartheid state evolved in the meantime from what the political elite saw as the need
to be paternal guardians over the “non-white” population (voogdyskap) to ruling supreme
(baasskap). With increasing pressures from below and foreign pressure (sanctions and politi-
cal isolation) the apartheid government declared its allegiance to the west, amongst others
leading to their less fortunate involvement in Angola as a part proxy force for the United
States of America in 1975.
Internal pressures from below, external sanctions and the increasing involvement of the
South African security forces against states in southern Africa (the so-called Frontline States,
a loose economic coalition against apartheid), white society became increasingly militarised.
The South African military - according to some observers, under protest - became involved
as one of the arms to uphold apartheid. Just as in the Boer Republics and the Union of South
Africa the state’s power depended on the sword and one also wielded against the internal
population when deemed necessary.
South Africa was a country divided (once more) against itself. The atmosphere penetrated
the whole society, including tertiary institutions. It also touched the Afrikaans-speaking uni-
versities which swore allegiance to the National Party. The University of Stellenbosch could
not, despite its relative isolation from the South African reality escape the winds of change
that swept over South Africa. Though overall the Reformed Churches, the National Party and
secret student bodies such as the Ruiterwag kept their sway over power, they could no longer
by the 1980s stifle all their critics, even if they could isolate and label them as unpatriotic,
liberal, communist or naive.
However, years of Afrikaner Nationalist rule had its effect on the Afrikaans speaking
white South Africans. This also applies to the students in tertiary institutions. A study con-
ducted in 1977 found that 77,6% of students at the University of Stellenbosch supported the

43 G. van der Westhuizen, The Liberal party of South Africa, 1953 - 1968 In I. Liebenberg et al, The Long
March: The story of the struggle for liberation in South Africa (Kagiso/HAUM, Pretoria, 1994), p. 81.
44 G. van der Westhuizen, The South African Congress of Democrats In I. Liebenberg et al, The Long March:
The story of the struggle for liberation in South Africa (Kagiso/HAUM, Pretoria, 1994), p. 72.