Shortly after Parliament opened in January Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd announced that a referendum would be held, the first in the history of the Union, asking only the European electorate to decide for or against the establishment of a republic. The referendum was held on October 5, and, with 90.7% of the European electorate of 1,800,426 in the Union and in South-West Africa voting, there was a majority of 74,380 for a republic (850,458 to 775,878).

Racial distrubances which broke out in Windhoek at the end of 1959 were generally attributed to the announcement od plans for the removal of Africans to a new residential township. In the rioting, 12 people were killed and about 80 injured by the police. A judicial inquiry laid the blame on agitators and exonerated the authorities. In January 1960 a police raid for illegal liquor resulted in disturbances in the Cato Manor Township, Durban. Nine policemen were killed by the rioters, of whom 27 were later tried. Pondoland East in the Transkei was the scene of sporadic disorders caused partly by dissatisfaction with the Bantu tribal authorities set up by the government. Eleven tribesmen were killed by police during those disorders.

Prime Minister Vorwoerd at a political meeting in January 1960. In an address he blamed the agitation and violence in South Africa upon only a few extremists.

The worst racial troubles occurred in March, after an announcement by Pan-Africanist Congress president R.M. Sobukwe that a nonviolent campaign would be launched for the abolition of the pass laws. Participants were instructed to surrender their pass-books and invite arrest. On March 21 many thousands of Africans gathered in the Sharpeville Township near Vereeniging to demonstrate against the pass laws. Police equipped with armored cars and automatic weapons subsequently appeared and opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 67 and wounding 186, including 48 women and children. At the Langa Township in Cape Town, on the same day, large anti-pass demonstrations resulted in the death of one African.

Africans burn their pass books as a protest against the policy of apartheid.

Aftermath of the tragedy at Sharpeville, March 21, 1960.

After these events the Pan-Africans called for stay-at-home strikes to coincide with a day of mourning for the dead. On March 22 a widespread strike movement began among Africans in Cape Town and in the Vereeniging area that lasted for three weeks. The government rushed through legislation to ban the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress. On March 30 it proclaimed a state of emergency in 122 magisterial districts. Regulations were promulgated prohibiting meetings and authorizing the detention of persons without trial as well as the banning of publications considered subversive. By the time the state of emergency was lifted, on August 31, 94 Europeans and 1,813 non-Europeans had been detained, as had leaders of the banned congresses.

Some of the 30,000 Africans who marched into Cape Town on March 30, 1960, to demand the release from custody of leaders of the Pan-African Congress. They dispersed quietly after making their protest.

On April 1 the United Nations Security Council met in special session at the insistence of the Afro-Asian countries. By a vote of 9 to 0 (France and the United Kingdom abstained) it adopted a resolution deploring the loss of life and the Union's racial policies, declaring that the situation, if continued, might endanger peace, and calling on South Africa to abandon the policy of apartheid. Boycotts of South African goods and other economic measures were instituted or threatened in many countries in disapproval of the Union's racial policies. Most of the boycotts were privately organized but some had government support.

Demonstrators in England show their displeasure with South Africa's apartheid policy.

Anti-South Africa protest rally at The Hague, Netherlands, on April 2, 1960.

On April 9, in Johannesburg, Prime Minister Verwoerd was shot twice in the head by David Pratt, a British-born Transvaal farmer who was opposed to Verwoerd's policies. Verwoerd remained under medical care for about six weeks but recovered. Pratt was later found to be mentally unfit to stand trial and was committed to custody for an indefinite period.

Attendants at the side of Prime Minister Verwoerd after he was shot twice in the head on April 9, 1960.

Source

Britannica Book of the Year Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1961

See Also

In the Year 1960

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This page was last updated on September 06, 2018.