As a Black South African, watching these horrific events unfold, I cannot but reflect on my…

Apartheid South Africa reached a tipping point, Israel will, too

As a Black South African, watching these horrific events unfold, I cannot but reflect on my country’s own violent past.

I recall the relentless planning and violence that accompanied the last decades of white South Africa’s attempts to make apartheid work. I remember the fears that grew among white South Africans as they put their trust in a sophisticated military capability, a conscription army, a nuclear weapons capacity and steadfast friends in the West, particularly the United States, Britain and France.

It was the height of the Cold War and South Africa claimed to be the only democracy in Southern Africa, protecting “civilisation” from the encroaching threats surrounding it.

Its military might and expansive police force were accompanied by a series of policies designed to maintain white minority rule.

Each attempt to impose new such policies failed in the face of mass resistance. The more they failed, the more brutal the violence meted out by the military and the police with the encouragement of white politicians and a terrified white electorate.

The “terrorists”, as the national liberation movements were referred to, could not be crushed by the mightiest army in Southern Africa. By mid-1985 a significant section of the white electorate and some in the ruling party realised that the problem of Black resistance was not going to go away. Something more drastic was going to be required.

… continues at Al Jazeera (16 Nov 2023)