Apartheid

South Africa’s English language press played an ambivalent role under apartheid, with most media rooted in the white community and only exceptional newspapers, like the Rand Daily Mail, speaking out against apartheid. Even so, the National Party government enacted a barrage of legislation to ensure that journalists did not step out of line. This pamphlet examines apartheid press censorship. It was one of many published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Education under apartheid was totally segregated by race, with schools for black students hugely inferior to those for whites. Under the misnamed ‘Extension of Universities’ Act universities were also segregated. Published just after the 1976 school students uprising, this pamphlet exposes how the apartheid education system was designed to confine black students to the ranks of unskilled labourers. It was published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Women played a big role in the liberation struggles in Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as in South Africa. This pamphlet tells the stories of Southern African women who were imprisoned and banned because they fought back against apartheid and racism. It was published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Under apartheid black workers were exploited to provide high living standards for the white minority. This pamphlet describes the web of legislation which controlled where Africans could work and imposed a rigid ‘colour bar’ confining them to unskilled jobs and poverty wages. It shows how in the 1970s African workers fought back against restrictions on their right to organise and, against all the odds, began to build an independent trade union movement.  

The Freedom Charter was adopted by the Congress of the People held in South Africa in 1955. In the 1980s it once again became a rallying point for anti-apartheid organisations within the country.

Segregated facilities at Cape Town railway station in the 1950s.

Pretoria Parks Department notice saying Africans are not allowed to use the park unless they are looking after white children.

Black nannies sit on the grass looking after white children because the park bench is for whites only.