Editing History of South Africa (section)

==Apartheid era (1948–1994)==
{{Main|Apartheid}}

===Apartheid legislation===
[[File:ApartheidSignEnglishAfrikaans.jpg|thumb|left|"For use by white persons"&nbsp;– sign from the apartheid era]]
The [[Racial segregation|segregationist]] policies of apartheid stemmed from colonial legislation introduced during the [[Dutch Cape Colony|period of Dutch rule]] in the 17th century, which was continued and expanded upon during the [[Cape Colony|British colonial era]], and reached its apogee during the Boer-dominated [[Union of South Africa]].<ref>SA History.org [http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/segregationist-legislation-timeline-1856-1913 Segregationist legislation 1856–1913] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907103959/http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/segregationist-legislation-timeline-1856-1913 |date=7 September 2018 }} Accessed 4 May 2015</ref>

From 1948, successive [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] administrations formalised and extended the existing system of racial discrimination and denial of human rights into the legal system of ''apartheid'',<ref>Brian Bunting, ''Rise of the South African Reich'', Chapter Nine, "South Africa's Nuremberg Laws"</ref> which lasted until 1991. A key act of legislation during this time was the Homeland Citizens Act of 1970. This act augmented the Native Land Act of 1913 through the establishment of so-called "homelands" or "reserves". It authorised the forced evictions of thousands of African people from urban centres in South Africa and South West Africa (now [[Namibia]]) to what became described colloquially as "[[Bantustans]]" or the  "original homes", as they were officially referred to, of the black ethnic groups of South Africa. The same legislation applied also to [[South West Africa]] over which South Africa had continued after World War I to exercise a disputed League of Nations mandate. Pro-apartheid South Africans attempted to justify the Bantustan policy by citing the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]]'s 1947 [[partition of India]], which they claimed was a similar situation that did not arouse international condemnation.<ref>Susan Mathieson and David Atwell, "Between Ethnicity and Nationhood: Shaka Day and the Struggle over Zuluness in post-Apartheid South Africa" in ''Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity'' edited by David Bennett {{ISBN|0-415-12159-0}} (Routledge UK, 1998) p.122</ref>

[[File:Bantustans in South Africa.svg|thumb|300px|right|Map of the black homelands in South Africa at the end of apartheid in 1994]]

Although many important events occurred during this period, apartheid remained the central pivot around which most of the historical issues of this period revolved, including violent conflict and the militarisation of South African society. By 1987, total military expenditure amounted to about 28% of the national budget.<ref>Mark Swilling & Mark Phillips, "State power in the 1980s: from total strategy to counter revolutionary warfare", in Jacklyn Cock & Laurie Nathan (eds) ''War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa'', Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 5, 145–8 {{ISBN|0-86486-115-X}}.</ref>

In the aftermath of the 1976 [[Soweto uprising]] and the security clampdown that accompanied it, Joint Management Centres (JMCs) operating in at least 34 State-designated "high-risk" areas became the key element in a National Security Management System. The police and military who controlled the JMCs by the mid-1980s were endowed with influence in decision-making at every level, from the Cabinet down to local government.<ref>Desiree Hansson, "Changes in counter-revolutionary state strategy in the decade 1979–89", in Desiree Hansson and Dirk van Zyl Smit (eds.), ''Towards Justice?: Crime and state control in South Africa'', Cape Town: Oxford University Press 1990, pp.45–50 {{ISBN|0 19 570579 3}}</ref>

===UN embargo===
On 16 December 1966, [[United Nations General Assembly]] Resolution 2202 A (XXI) identified apartheid as a "crime against humanity".
The Apartheid Convention, as it came to be known, was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 November 1973 with 91 member states voting in favour, four against (Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 26 abstentions. The convention came into force on 18 July 1976. On 23 October 1984 the UN Security Council endorsed this formal determination. The convention declared that apartheid was both unlawful and criminal because it violated the [[Charter of the United Nations]].<ref>John Dugard, [http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html ''Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid''], New York: UN Office of Legal Affairs, 2013. Accessed 26 July 2015</ref>
The General Assembly had already suspended South Africa from the UN organisation on 12 November 1974. On 4 November 1977, the Security Council imposed a mandatory arms embargo in terms of Resolution 181 calling upon all States to cease the sale and shipment of arms, ammunition and military vehicles to South Africa. The country would only be readmitted to the UN in 1994 following its transition to democracy.<ref>United Nations, [https://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/apartheid.shtml "Partner in the Struggle against Apartheid"]. Accessed 30 September 2015.</ref> Apartheid South Africa reacted to the UN arms embargo by strengthening its military ties with Israel, and establishing its own arms manufacturing industry with the help of Israel.<ref>Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, ''The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel arms and why'', London: I B Tauris 1998, pp. 108–174 {{ISBN|1-85043-069-1}}</ref> Four hundred M-113A1 armoured personnel carriers, and 106mm recoilless rifles manufactured in the United States were delivered to South Africa via Israel.<ref>International Defence and Aid Fund, ''The Apartheid War Machine'', London, 1980.</ref>

===Extra-judicial killings===
In the mid-1980s, police and army death squads conducted state-sponsored assassinations of dissidents and activists.<ref>Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1998), Findings in respect of the state and its allies: findings 82, 100 c, 100 f, 101, 102 pp. 213, 219, 223, 224 – Quote: ''"Evidence placed before the Commission indicates, however, that from the late-1970s, senior politicians – as well as police, national intelligence and defence force leaders – developed a strategy to deal with opposition to the government. This entailed, among other actions, the unlawful killing, within and beyond South Africa, of people whom they perceived as posing a significant challenge to the state's authority."''</ref> By mid-1987 the Human Rights Commission knew of at least 140 political assassinations in the country, while about 200 people died at the hands of South African agents in neighbouring states. The exact numbers of all the victims may never be known.<ref>Patrick Laurence, ''Death Squads: Apartheid's secret weapon'', London: Penguin 1990, p.30</ref> Strict censorship disallowed journalists from reporting, filming or photographing such incidents, while the government ran its own covert disinformation programme that provided distorted accounts of the extrajudicial killings.<ref>Richard Leonard, ''South Africa at War'', Chapter six: "The propaganda war", Johannesburg: Donker, 1983, pp.161–197 {{ISBN|0-86852-093-4}}</ref> At the same time, State-sponsored vigilante groups carried out violent attacks on communities and community leaders associated with resistance to apartheid.<ref>Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1998), Findings on the role of allies of the state, pages 227–238</ref> The attacks were then falsely attributed by the government to "black-on-black" or factional violence within the communities.<ref>Peter Harris, "The role of rightwing vigilantes in South Africa", in ''States of Terror'', Catholic Institute of International Relations, London: 1989, pp. 2–3 {{ISBN|1-85287-019-2}}</ref>

The [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] (TRC) would later establish that a covert, informal network of former or still serving army and police operatives, frequently acting in conjunction with extreme right-wing elements, was involved in actions that could be construed as fomenting violence and which resulted in gross human rights violations, including random and targeted killings.<ref>''Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report'', Vol. 6, Section 4 Appendix: The "Third Force", 2003, p.584</ref>
Between 1960–1994, according to statistics from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the [[Inkatha Freedom Party]] was responsible for 4,500 deaths, [[South African Police]] 2,700, and the ANC about 1,300.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf |title=Volume Five – Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report |access-date=2 May 2014 |archive-date=19 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119114845/http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf }}</ref>

In early 2002, a planned military coup by a white supremacist movement known as the ''[[Boeremag]]'' (Boer Force) was foiled by the South African police.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No81/Chap4.pdf |title=Institute of Security Studies, Monograph No.81 |access-date=18 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111213246/http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No81/Chap4.pdf |archive-date=11 January 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Two dozen conspirators including senior South African Army officers were arrested on charges of treason and murder, after a bomb explosion in Soweto. The effectiveness of the police in foiling the planned coup strengthened public perceptions that the post-1994 democratic order was irreversible.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}

The TRC, at the conclusion of its mandate in 2004, handed over a list of 300 names of alleged perpetrators to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for investigation and prosecution by the NPA's Priority Crimes Litigation Unit. Less than a handful of prosecutions were ever pursued.<ref>Ranjeni Munusamy, [http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-03-25-the-trcs-unfinished-business-old-wounds-new-oppressor/#.VTj-SNKqqkr Unfinished business of the TRC], ''Daily Maverick'' 23 March 2013. Accessed 23 April 2015.</ref><ref>Paul Seils, [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-seils/political-pardons-would-d_b_6810864.html Political pardons would damage the legacy of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission], ''Huffington Post'', 6 March 2015. Accessed 25 April 2015.</ref>

===Military operations in frontline states===
{{see also|South African Border War|Angolan Civil War}}

South African security forces during the latter part of the apartheid era had a policy of destabilising neighbouring states, supporting opposition movements, conducting sabotage operations and attacking ANC bases and places of refuge for exiles in those states.<ref>Stephen Ellis, ''Comrades against apartheid: the ANC and the South African Communist Party in exile.'' James Currey Publishers. p. 106.</ref> These states, forming a regional alliance of southern African states, were named collectively as the Frontline States: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and, from 1980, Zimbabwe.<ref>M Evans, [http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/Fronline%20States.pdf The Frontline States], ''Zambezia'' (1984/5), Vol XII, University of Zimbabwe. Accessed 11 April 2016.</ref><ref>Scott Thomas, ''The Diplomacy of Liberation: Foreign relations of the ANC since 1960'', London: I B Taurus 1996, p.18 {{ISBN|1850439931}}</ref>

[[File:SADF-Operations 4.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Members of [[44 Parachute Brigade (South Africa)|44 Parachute Brigade]] on patrol during the [[South African Border War]].]]

In early-November 1975, immediately after Portugal granted independence to its former African colony of Angola, [[Angolan Civil War|civil war]] broke out between the rival [[UNITA]] and [[MPLA]] movements. In order to prevent UNITA's collapse and cement the rule of a friendly government, South Africa intervened on 23 October, sending between 1,500 and 2,000 troops from Namibia into southern Angola in order to fight the MPLA.<ref>W. Martin James III (2011). ''A Political History of the Civil War in Angola 1974–1990''. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, p. 65.</ref><ref>Meredith, Martin (2005). ''The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair, a History of Fifty Years of Independence'', p. 316.</ref> In response to the South African intervention, Cuba sent 18,000 soldiers as part of a large-scale military intervention nicknamed [[Operation Carlota]] in support of the MPLA. Cuba had initially provided the MPLA with 230 military advisers prior to the South African intervention.<ref>Bourne, Peter G. (1986), ''Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro'', New York City: Dodd, Mead & Company, pp. 281, 284–287.</ref> The Cuban intervention was decisive in helping reverse SADF and UNITA advances and cement MPLA rule in Angola. More than a decade later 36,000 Cuban troops were deployed throughout the country helping providing support for MPLA's fight with UNITA.<ref>Wilson Center Digital Archives, International History Declassified, [https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/search-results/1/%7B%22search-in%22%3A%22all%22%2C%22term%22%3A%22Cuban+Armed+Forces%22%7D?recordType=Record Archive of the Cuban Armed Forces]. Accessed 12 November 2015.</ref> The civil war in Angola resulted in 550,000–1,250,000 deaths in total mostly from famine. Most of the deaths occurred between 1992 and 1993, after South African and Cuban involvement had ended.<ref>Inge Tvedten, Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction</ref><ref>SIPRI Yearbook: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</ref><ref>[[Victoria Brittain]], ''Hidden Lives, Hidden Deaths: South Africa's crippling of a continent'', London: Faber 1990, p. 2, {{ISBN|0571142168}}.</ref>

Between 1975 and 1988, the SADF continued to stage massive conventional raids into Angola and Zambia to eliminate [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia|PLAN]]'s [[forward operating base]]s across the border from [[Namibia]] as well as provide support for UNITA.<ref name="Frontiersmen">{{cite book|title=Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950|url=https://archive.org/details/frontiersmenwarf00clay|url-access=limited|last=Clayton|first=Anthony|location=Philadelphia|publisher=UCL Press, Limited|date=1999|isbn=978-1857285253|pages=[https://archive.org/details/frontiersmenwarf00clay/page/n145 120]–124}}</ref> A controversial bombing and airborne assault conducted by 200 South African paratroopers on 4 May 1978 at Cassinga in southern Angola, resulted in around 700 South West Africans being killed, including PLAN militants and a large number of women and children. Colonel Jan Breytenbach, the South African parachute battalion commander, claimed it was "recognised in Western military circles as the most successful airborne assault since World War II."<ref>Jan Breytenbach, ''They Live by the Sword: 32 Battalion, South Africa's Foreign Legion'', Johannesburg: Lemur 1990, p.180 {{ISBN|0620148705}}</ref> The Angolan government described the target of the attack as a refugee camp. The United Nations Security Council on 6 May 1978 condemned South Africa for the attack.<ref>UN Security Council, [http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/RES/428%20(1978)&Lang=E&Area=RESOLUTION Resolution 435]</ref> On 23 August 1981 South African troops again [[Operation Protea|launched an incursion into Angola]] with collaboration and encouragement provided by the American [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA).<ref>Cambridge Journals, [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2464792 ''Review of Stockwell, In Search of Enemies''] accessed 27 April 2015</ref><ref>John Stockwell, ''In Search of Enemies'', London: Futura, 1979 pp. 193–96, 228–29, 214, 241 {{ISBN|0 7088 1647 9}}</ref> The Angolan army, in resisting what it perceived as a South African invasion, was supported by a combination of Cuban forces and PLAN and ANC guerrillas, all armed with weapons supplied by the [[Soviet Union]]. The apartheid-era South African military and political intelligence services, for their part, worked closely with American, British and West German secret services throughout the Cold War.<ref>Anthony Egan, Review of "The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era" by Irina Filatova & Apollon Davidson, ''Focus: Journal of the Helen Suzman Foundation'', issue 70, October 2013</ref>

Both South Africa and Cuba claimed victory at the decisive [[battle of Cuito Cuanavale]], which have been described as "the fiercest in Africa since World War II".<ref>Horace Campbell, [http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:288776/FULLTEXT01.pdf "Siege of Cuito Cuanavale"] ''Current African Issues'' No.10, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, pp.22–6 Accessed 27 April 2015</ref> However, the South African military had lost air superiority and its technological advantage, largely due to an international arms embargo against the country.<ref>Phyllis Johnson & David Martin, Apartheid Terrorism: The destabilisation report, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989, p.122 {{ISBN|0253331331}}</ref> South African involvement in Angola ended formally after the signing of a United Nations-brokered agreement known as the [[New York Accords]] between the governments of Angola, [[Cuba]] and South Africa, resulting in the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Angola and also South Africa's withdrawal from South West Africa (now Namibia), which the UN regarded as illegally occupied since 1966.<ref>UN General Assembly, res n° 2154 (XXI), 17 November 1966. Available at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/21/ares21.htm [Recovered 1 October 2015]</ref><ref>United Nations, [http://peacemaker.un.org/namibia-genevaprotocol88 UN Resolution 435 of 1978] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518081735/http://peacemaker.un.org/namibia-genevaprotocol88 |date=18 May 2015 }} Accessed 1 May 2015</ref>

South Africa in the 1980s also provided logistical and other covert support to ''Resistência Nacional Moçambicana'' ([[RENAMO]]) rebels, in neighbouring Mozambique fighting the [[FRELIMO]]-run government during the [[Mozambique Civil War]], and it launched cross-border raids into [[Lesotho]], [[Swaziland]] and [[Botswana]], killing or capturing a number of South African exiles.<ref>B Turok (ed), ''Witness from the Frontline: Aggression and resistance in southern Africa'', London: Institute for African Alternatives, 1990 {{ISBN|1 870425 12X}}</ref><ref>Edgerton, Robert B, Africa's armies: from honor to infamy: a history from 1791 to the present (2002) p.109</ref><ref>"B&J": Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, ''International Conflict: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Conflicts and Their Management 1945–1995'' (1997).</ref>

===Resistance to apartheid===

[[File:Murder at Sharpeville 21 March 1960.jpg|thumb|Painting of the Sharpeville massacre of March 1960]]From the 1940s to the 1960s, anti-apartheid resistance within the country took the form mainly of passive resistance, influenced in part by the pacifist ideology of [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. After the March 1960 massacre of 69 peaceful demonstrators at [[Sharpeville]], and the subsequent declaration of a state of emergency, and the banning of anti-apartheid parties including the [[African National Congress]] (ANC), the [[Pan-Africanist Congress]] (PAC), and the [[Communist Party of South Africa]], the focus of national resistance turned to [[armed struggle]] and underground activity.<ref>Sibiso Ndlovu (ed.)[http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol1/SADET1_chap02.pdf The Turn to Armed Resistance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130912011731/http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol1/SADET1_chap02.pdf |date=12 September 2013 }}. University of South Africa (Unisa) Press, Pretoria, Chapter 2, Vol 2, 2001</ref> The armed wing of the ANC, [[Umkhonto weSizwe]] (abbreviation MK, meaning Spear of the Nation) claimed moral [[Legitimacy (political)|legitimacy]] for the resort to violence on the grounds of necessary defence and [[just war]].<ref>Padraig O'Malley,[https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02985.htm ''Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Operations Report''], Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Johannesburg. Accessed 25 April 2015</ref> From the 1960s onwards until 1989, MK carried out numerous acts of sabotage and attacks on military and police personnel.<ref>South African Department of Justice, [http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix 4 ''Further submissions and response by the African National Congress to questions raised by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929205028/http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix |date=29 September 2018 }}, 12 May 1997</ref> The Truth and Reconciliation Commission noted in 2003 that, despite the ANC's stated policy of attacking only military and police targets, "the majority of casualties of MK operations were civilians."<ref>South African Press Association (SAPA), [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02938.htm "ANC killed mostly civilians"], 21 March 2003. Accessed 18 October 2015.</ref>

Organised resistance to Afrikaner nationalism was not confined exclusively to Black and Coloured activists. A movement known as the [[Torch Commando]] was formed in the 1950s, led by white war veterans who had fought the [[Axis Powers]] in Europe and North Africa during World War II. With 250,000 paid-up members at the height of its existence, it was the largest white protest movement in the country's history. By 1952, the brief flame of mass-based white radicalism was extinguished, when the Torch Commando disbanded due to government legislation under the [[Suppression of Communism Act, 1950]]. Some members of the Torch Commando subsequently became leading figures in the armed wing of the banned African National Congress.<ref>''Sunday Times'' (Johannesburg), ''Insight'' section. 1 November 1998</ref>

<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Hector pieterson.jpg|thumb|upright|The body of Soweto school student [[Hector Pieterson]]. In this photo he is being carried away from the scene of a shooting after being shot dead by police on 16 June 1976]] -->The national liberation movement was divided in the early 1960s when an "Africanist" faction within the ANC objected to an alliance between the ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa. Leaders of the Communist Party of South Africa were mostly white.<ref>Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg [http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/sites/default/files/files/downloads/Learners%20book%20Chapter4.pdf Resistance to Apartheid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172619/http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/sites/default/files/files/downloads/Learners%20book%20Chapter4.pdf |date=23 September 2015 }} Accessed 26 April 2015</ref> The Africanists broke away from the ANC to form the Pan-Africanist Congress and its military wing named [[Poqo]], which became active mainly in the Cape provinces. During the early-1990s, Poqo was renamed [[Azanian People's Liberation Army]] (APLA). Its underground cells conducted armed robberies to raise funds and obtain weapons and vehicles. Civilians were killed or injured in many of these robberies. In 1993, attacks on white civilian targets in public places increased. APLA denied the attacks were racist in character, claiming that the attacks were directed against the apartheid government as all whites, according to the PAC, were complicit in the policy of apartheid. An attack on a Christian church in Cape Town in 1993, left eleven people dead and 58 injured.<ref>South African Broadcasting Corporation and South African History Archive,[http://sabctrc.saha.org.za/glossary/apla_attacks.htm Truth Commission Special Report: APLA attacks.] Accessed 26 April 2015</ref>

Hundreds of students and others who fled to neighbouring countries, especially Botswana, to avoid arrest after the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976, provided a fertile recruiting ground for the military wings of both the ANC and PAC.<ref>Gregory Houston and Bernard Magubane, [http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/rtd/vol2/volume%202%20-%20chapter%208.pdf "ANC Political Underground in the 1970s"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227110146/http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol2/Volume%202%20-%20chapter%208.pdf |date=27 February 2012 }}, in ''The Road to Democracy'', Pretoria: South African Democracy Education Trust, Vol 2,  p.381, Accessed 4 May 2015</ref> The uprising had been precipitated by Government legislation forcing African students to accept Afrikaans as the official medium for tuition,<ref>{{Citation| last = Giliomee| first = Hermann| year = 2003| title = The Rise and Possible Demise of Afrikaans as a Public Language| publisher = PRAESA| location = Cape Town| url = http://www.praesa.org.za/files/2012/07/Paper14.pdf| access-date = 1 May 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150906111057/http://www.praesa.org.za/files/2012/07/Paper14.pdf| archive-date = 6 September 2015| df = dmy-all}}</ref> with support from the wider [[Black Consciousness Movement]]. The uprising spread throughout the country. By the time it was finally quelled, hundreds of protesters had been shot dead with many more wounded or arrested by police.<ref>SA History.org [http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising-casualties Soweto uprising casualties] Accessed 1 May 2015.</ref>

A non-racial [[United Democratic Front (South Africa)|United Democratic Front]] (UDF) coalition of about 400 civic, church, student, trade union and other organisations emerged in 1983. At its peak in 1987, the UDF had some 700 affiliates and about 3,000,000 members.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kraft |first=Scott |date=1991-03-05 |title=Anti-Apartheid Group Disbanding in August : South Africa: The UDF alliance, which united some 700 organizations, says its goals have been met. Many key figures have become ANC leaders. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-05-mn-227-story.html |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> A strong relationship existed between the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) and the UDF, based on the shared mission statement of the Freedom Charter.<ref>''Daily Dispatch'', [http://www.dispatch.co.za/2000/01/07/features/UDF.HTM "UDF unites Apartheid divides"], 7 January 2000. Accessed 28 March 2016</ref> Following restrictions placed on its activities, the UDF was replaced in 1988 by the Mass Democratic Movement, a loose and amorphous alliance of anti-apartheid groups that had no permanent structure, making it difficult for the government to place a ban on its activities.<ref>Padraig O'malley, [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03480.htm "Mass Democratic Movement"] Nelson Mandela Foundation. Accessed 29 March 2016</ref>

A total of 130 political prisoners were hanged on the gallows of Pretoria Central Prison between 1960 and 1990. The prisoners were mainly members of the Pan Africanist Congress and United Democratic Front.<ref>News24.com [http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/remains-of-83-hanged-prisoners-to-be-exhumed-from-kgosi-mampuru-ii-20160323 Remains of hanged prisoners to be exhumed.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323061434/http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/remains-of-83-hanged-prisoners-to-be-exhumed-from-kgosi-mampuru-ii-20160323 |date=23 March 2016 }} Accessed 25 March 2016.</ref>