The Dying Days of Apartheid

Abstract

As the negotiations to establish a new constitutional order in South Africa were underway during the period 1990 to 1994, over 16000 people were to lose their lives in violence which centred on KwaZulu-Natal and the Reef.¹ In fact, in the transition period the violence claimed far more lives than did the fight against apartheid itself. Moreover, much of this violence was not directed against the state but took myriad forms; with people, overwhelmingly those whom apartheid designated ‘black’, being killed day and night in their homes, in trains and taxis, at work, on the street, during attendance at political rallies or funeral vigils, or whilst drinking in beer-halls. And the list of causes has been seen to be long. As one analyst has argued, the violence should be traced to the ‘presence of hostels, SDUs (Self Defence Units), proliferation of illegal arms, unrealistic political demands, “no-go” areas and political intolerance, economic competition between rival politicized taxi organizations, traditional hierarchical structures (chiefs), conflicts over control of land specifically tribal land, presence of “warlords/strongmen” in informal settlements, embittered and frustrated Afrikaners etc.’²