The Republic of South Africa occupies the southernmost portion of the African continent, stretching from the \TLimpopo River\t in the north to Cape Agulhas (see \TAgulhas, Cape\t) in the south. The Indian Ocean lies to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The strategic sea route around the Cape of Good Hope (see \TGood Hope, Cape of\t) has long made South Africa important in world commerce. South Africa shares boundaries with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Swaziland, and it completely surrounds the independent nation of Lesotho. The country consists of four provinces--\TCape Province\t and \TNatal\t (former British colonies) and the \TOrange Free State\t and \TTransvaal\t (former Boer republics). Ten black African "homelands" are to be reintegrated into South Africa, including the four (\TTranskei\t, Ciskei, \TBophuthatswana\t, and \TVenda\t) granted an "independence" recognized only by South Africa and themselves. The country has three capitals: \TPretoria\t (administrative), \TCape Town\t (legislative), and \TBloemfontein\t (judicial). The South African economy is the most diversified and developed in Africa, but enormous differences exist between the economies of the homelands and white areas, and there are significant economic, social, and political differences between the racial groups. Until 1991, all development took place within the framework of \Tapartheid\t ("apartness" in Afrikaans), a system of legalized racial separation that had been rigidly enforced by the ruling white minority since 1948. Apartheid has been challenged and weakened by increased black political activism and urban violence, work stoppages, economic boycotts, disinvestment by foreign companies, and international condemnation. In recent years the ruling white government has undertaken significant reform. The black majority is still excluded from the national parliament, however. On Feb. 1, 1991, however, President F.W. \Tde Klerk\t called on the parliament to get rid of the "cornerstones" of the system on which the apartheid system is based. LAND AND RESOURCES South Africa is a country with a great diversity of natural landscapes and resources. Its 2,955-km (1,836-mi) coastline has few natural harbors and is rimmed by a narrow undulating coastal lowland that gives way to a series of folded sedimentary mountain ranges--including the Cedarberg, the Swartberg, and the Bariannskloof--collectively known as the Cape Ranges. Further east is the Drakensberg, consisting of the country's highest and most spectacular mountains, which parallels the Indian Ocean northward into the eastern Transvaal. Mountain passes are frequently blocked by heavy winter snowfalls. South Africa's highest peak, Injasuti (3,408 m / 11,181 ft) is located in the Drakensberg near the border with Lesotho. The Drakensberg and its outward-facing escarpments (the Great Escarpment) separate the coastal lowlands of Natal and the Cape from the high interior plateaus commonly known as the highveld. Here elevations range from 1,220 to 1,830 m (4,000 to 6,000 ft). The terrain is undulating and broken in places by isolated hills and low mountain ridges, the principal being the gold-bearing \TWitwatersrand\t that trends east-west across the southern Transvaal. The highveld contains most of South Africa's extraordinary mineral wealth--gold, diamonds, coal, iron ore, copper, and manganese. Along the northwest border with Botswana, the high plateau gives way to the \TKalahari Desert\t. Between the Cape Ranges and the Great Escarpment lies the Great Karoo, a broad, semiarid basin of mesas and buttes. Drainage None of South Africa's rivers is navigable, primarily because of inadequate rainfall and broken terrain. Most of the interior plateau is drained by the \TOrange River\t and its two main tributaries, the Vaal and the Caledon. Some of the waters of the Orange are being diverted for industrial, urban, and agricultural uses around Bloemfontein and \TKimberley\t and south to the Cape coast. This undertaking is part of the Orange River Project (scheduled for completion in about the year 2000), designed to provide both irrigation and hydroelectric power. The Limpopo River forms part of South Africa's northern boundary and drains much of the Transvaal. Many smaller rivers, such as the Pongola, Kei, Great Fish, and Tugela, rise in the Drakensberg and cut deep valleys across the foothills and coastal lowlands of Natal, Transkei, and the eastern Cape. Climate South Africa has great climatic diversity influenced primarily by elevation, latitude, and its coastal position. A Mediterranean climate prevails in the southwest around Cape Town, whereas a humid subtropical climate occurs along the Natal coast. Much of the northern highveld has a savanna climate, while temperate steppe conditions prevail in the Orange Free State and southern Transvaal. Semidesert and desert climates are found in the Cape interior and northwest. The mean annual temperature ranges from 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit) in the north to 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern and eastern region. The highest precipitation (more than 1,000 mm/40 in a year) occurs in the Drakensberg and coastal Natal. The lowest (less than 200 mm/8 in a year) occurs along the Namaqualand coast north of Cape Town. About 65% of the country receives less than 500 mm (20 in) of precipitation annually, the minimum amount required for dry-grain farming. Soils Most South African soils are low in humus content and are not especially fertile. Unleached alkaline soils characterize the arid regions; thin immature soils are found in the winter-rainfall regions with moderate temperatures; and red lateritic soils predominate in the lowlands of Natal and the Transvaal. Soil erosion is severe in the Drakensberg. Vegetation and Wildlife South Africa is poorly endowed with forests; less than 0.2% of the land is naturally forested. The most extensive forests are in the mountains and near Knysna. Afforestation projects have been undertaken in the Drakensberg. Savanna vegetation occurs in the northern Transvaal and eastern lowveld, and grasslands cover the highveld and dry southwest. South Africa's wildlife is extremely rich and diverse. Elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, and other wildlife are protected in such game reserves as Kruger National Park, Hluhluwe, and Mkuze. Bird life is varied, and more than 100 species of snakes are native to the area. PEOPLE South African law recognizes four racial groups: indigenous Africans, or blacks (74% of the total population); whites (14%); \TColoureds\t (9%); and Asians (3%). The Africans may be divided into four major ethnolinguistic groups: the \TNguni\t (including the \TXhosa\t, \TZulu\t, \TSwazi\t, and \TNdebele\t, who are concentrated east of the Drakensberg and constitute 60% of South Africa's Bantu-speaking peoples; the \TSotho\t (including the Tswana, Pedi, and Basotho), who live primarily in the Transvaal, northern Cape, and Orange Free State; and the \TVenda\t and \TThonga\t peoples of the northern Transvaal. A small number of Khoisan-speaking peoples--the \TSan\t (Bushmen) and \TKhoikhoi\t (Hottentots)--live in and near the Kalahari Desert. Under the law of separate or multinational development, the South African government recognized ten separate black "nations," defined in ethnolinguistic terms. Each was assigned to a homeland, and four of these homelands were declared "independent." Approximately 55% of all blacks lived outside their prescribed homelands, which collectively constituted only 13% of South Africa's total land area. In 1990 the government announced its willingness to abandon the unpopular homelands policy as part of a broader political settlement. The whites form the second largest racial group and dominate South Africa's political and economic institutions. They comprise two main groups: \TAfrikaners\t (60% of the total), who are descended from 17th-century Dutch settlers in the Cape and refugee French Huguenots and German Protestants; and the English-speaking group (34% of the total), who are descendants of British settlers who arrived as early as 1820 and more recent immigrants from the United Kingdom and former British colonies in Africa, especially Zimbabwe and Kenya. There are also many recent immigrants from Germany, Italy, Greece, and the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. While few Afrikaners can claim foreign nationality, a great majority of other whites in South Africa hold or are entitled to foreign passports. Almost 90% of the whites are urban dwellers. The Coloureds are persons of mixed race whose origins date back to the 17th century when Europeans interbred with local Africans and imported Malay slaves. They live mostly in the western Cape and form the largest racial group in metropolitan Cape Town. Three-fourths are urban dwellers. Culturally they are closer to Afrikaners than to blacks. The Asians are concentrated in Natal, especially metropolitan \TDurban\t. Because their forebears came from many different parts of the Indian subcontinent in the late 19th century, they are ethnically and linguistically diversified. Asians are forbidden to live in the Orange Free State. Most are urban dwellers and work in commerce, manufacturing, and finance. There are small Chinese communities in Johannesburg, \TPort Elizabeth\t, and Durban. Demography South Africa's rate of population growth is typical of the developing world. The highest growth rate is among blacks (2.8%), and the lowest among whites (0.8%). White immigration, encouraged by the government, has generally exceeded emigration, but immigration rates have declined as urban violence has escalated. Internal migration is primarily of blacks from the homelands to the cities (where most jobs are), often to shantytowns and illegal squatter camps. The hated pass laws, which required blacks to have specially stamped passbooks to remain in white areas for more than 72 hours, were abolished in 1986. The practice of classifying South Africans by race at birth was discontinued in 1991. The Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 and the Group Areas Act of 1966, which segregated communities and limited blacks to a small percentage of South Africa's land, were repealed in 1991. Between 1960 and 1985, however, it is estimated that some 3.5 million blacks--along with much smaller numbers of other races--were moved against their will to conform to apartheid regulations specifying where people of various races might live. Reforms proposed in 1991 to end discrimination in land ownership and residential living ruled out reparations for people thus dispossessed, and most blacks could not afford to buy property no longer reserved for whites. \TJohannesburg\t, the center of the nation's industrial core, has been overtaken as the largest city by both Cape Town, the legislative capital, an educational center, and a major port, and Durban, the principal port. Other large cities include Bloemfontein, \TEast London\t, \TGermiston\t, Kimberly, \TPietermaritzburg\t, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria. All cities were segregated by law until 1991, with black, Coloured, and Asian townships located on the peripheries of white cities. \TSoweto\t, the country's largest black township, is near Johannesburg. Language and Religion Afrikaans and English are the official languages. Afrikaans, derived from Dutch, is the mother tongue of the Afrikaners and the principal language of the Coloureds. More Afrikaners are bilingual than English-speakers. Most urban blacks speak English and Afrikaans in addition to their native language. The Bantu languages (See \TAfrican languages\t) are not mutually intelligible. Many blacks speak Fanakalo, a lingua franca that developed among black workers in the mines. The politically influential Dutch Reformed church, which professes a fundamentalist-type Calvinist Protestantism, has almost 4 million members, of whom 2 million are Afrikaners and 1.2 million are Coloureds. The Roman Catholic church claims 2.4 million adherents. The Anglicans, whose spiritual leader is Bishop Desmond \TTutu\t (a black awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid), claims 2 million members, as do the Methodists. Most Africans belong to black independent churches or follow traditional religious practices. Three-fourths of the Asians are Hindu. The Jewish community numbers less than 140,000. Health and Education Wide disparities exist between races in health indicators and facilities. Life expectancy at birth is 59 years for blacks and Coloureds, 65 years for Asians, and 72 years for whites. Gastroenteritis, malnutrition, and tuberculosis are major causes of death among blacks, and the black infant mortality rate is more than six times the rate for whites. Medical facilities for whites are superior to those for other races. Education has been under the control of a single government agency since 1985 except in the homelands, each of which has its own education department. Schooling is compulsory for all whites and most Coloureds between the ages of 7 and 17, and for Asians between 7 and 14. Compulsory education for blacks between the ages of 7 and 16 began to be phased in in 1981, but many black children do not attend school. Expenditures for black education have increased, however, and modest moves to integrate some public schools began in 1991. Ten universities cater to whites--five teaching in Afrikaans, four in English and one in both languages. There are five universities for blacks, and one each for Coloureds and Asians. The University of South Africa, a correspondence university, is open to all races. Nonwhite students are gradually being admitted to white universities. The Arts Each population group has contributed to South Africa's rich and diverse artistic heritage. African art, dance, and literature have gained international acclaim and popularity (see \TAfrican art\t; \TAfrican literature\t; \TAfrican music\t). Albert \TLuthuli\t, author of Let My People Go (1962), was South Africa's first Nobel laureate (for Peace, 1960). Other prominent black writers include Thomas \TMofolo\t, B. W. Vilikazi, Peter \TAbrahams\t, and Ezekiel Mphalele. Internationally known white authors who write in English include Athol \TFugard\t, Alex \TLa Guma\t, Nadine \TGordimer\t, Stuart \TCloete\t, and Roy \TCampbell\t. Andre Brink, Uys Krige, J. M. \TCoetzee\t, Breyten \TBreytenbach\t, Ingrid \TJonker\t, and Etienne Leroux are prominent Afrikaner writers, while Dennis Brutus and Adam Small are important Coloured authors. All published work in South Africa is subject to strict censorship, as is reporting by foreign journalists. The government uses television and radio to communicate its own views and to control criticism. The country has six professional orchestras and several fine museums and theatrical groups. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY The discovery of diamonds near Kimberley (1867) and gold on the Witwatersrand (1886) helped transform South Africa from a land of subsistence farmers into a modern industrial state controlled by the white minority but reliant on black labor. Minerals provided the stimulus for railroad expansion from the coast to the interior. The mines brought black Africans into the wage economy and created demands for explosives, machinery, energy, and many other goods and services. Development occurred unevenly, however; white areas witnessed rapid industrialization and economic growth, while the homelands remained economically disadvantaged with limited manufacturing, few industrial resources, high unemployment, and only marginal subsistence agriculture. The economy developed as private investment from Western Europe and the United States increased. Today South Africa is the strongest industrial state on the African continent. In the 1980s the United States and various other nations imposed limited economic \Tsanctions\t on South Africa in an effort to end apartheid. Foreign-owned companies were pressed to dispose of their South African investments (disinvest), and those that remained in South Africa were asked to adhere to the Sullivan Principles, which called for nondiscrimination in the workplace. Agriculture and Fishing Despite the limited supply of arable land (about 11% of the total area), South Africa is virtually self-sufficient in foodstuffs, although the homelands must import 45% of their food. Agriculture, which contributed about 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1988, was adversely affected by drought in the early 1980s. Fields in the homelands are generally cultivated by women; the chief subsistence crops are corn and sorghum. The principal cash crops, grown almost exclusively by whites, are sugarcane, corn, wheat, citrus fruit, cotton, tobacco, and grapes. Cattle and sheep raising are also important. South Africa has a major fishing industry based at Cape Town and Durban. Mining and Power Minerals account for about 70% of the country's foreign exchange earnings and contributed 13% of the GDP in 1988. South Africa leads the world in the production of gold, chrome, and vanadium and is among the leading producers of gem and industrial diamonds, uranium, antimony, asbestos, manganese, and platinum. Petroleum and bauxite are the only major industrial resources that have not been found in commercial amounts. South Africa also possesses 60% of all African coal reserves; the largest deposits are found in Natal and Transvaal. Mining is heavily dependent on cheap black migrant labor, both domestic and foreign. Coal mined domestically provides nearly 80% of South Africa's primary energy needs. The country is the world's leading producer of synthetic fuels; oil-from-coal plants built by the national energy corporation will eventually provide about 60% of domestic fuel-oil requirements. The first nuclear power plant in the nation became operational in 1984. About 70% of all electricity generated on the African continent is generated in South Africa, which is a major supplier of electricity to Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, and Mozambique. Industry The South African government has encouraged the growth of industry to make the country self-sufficient and independent of external pressure. Factories in the southern Transvaal (Witwatersrand) account for about half of the country's manufacturing, and the region is the most diversified industrial zone in Africa. A further 25% of manufacturing income is derived from the port cities of Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and East London. Ports and multifaceted industrial complexes were established in the 1970s at Richards Bay in Natal and Saldhana Bay northwest of Cape Town, and further industrial decentralization is being encouraged. Most South African manufactured goods are marketed domestically, and manufacturing is the leading contributor to the annual GDP, amounting to 25% in 1988. Leading industries include food processing, metalworking, and the manufacture of clothing, textiles, iron and steel, and machinery. Trade The country's chief exports are gold (which accounts for about one-third of all export earnings), other metals and metal products, foodstuffs, diamonds, chemicals, machinery, and transportation equipment. South Africa is the leading trade partner in a customs union that includes Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland and is the dominant economic power in the southern third of the African continent. Nearly all the imports and exports of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland and more than half the trade of Zaire, Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe pass through South Africa. The disruption of traffic on rail lines from the landlocked interior to ports in Mozambique and Angola by South African-backed antigovernment guerrillas in those countries further increased regional dependence on South Africa's transportation system. Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, and Swaziland are also heavily dependent on remittances from workers employed in South Africa, particularly in the gold mines. In 1979, in an effort to lessen their dependence on South Africa, nine black-ruled nations in the region formed the \TSouthern\t \TAfrican\t \Tdevelopment\t \Tcoordination\t \Tcouncil\t. In the early 1990s, as major parts of the apartheid system began to be dismantled, some of the trade sanctions imposed on South Africa by the United States and various European countries were lifted, and trade between South Africa and the black-ruled nations of Africa increased. GOVERNMENT A constitution approved by white voters in 1983 replaced the formerly all-white parliament with a multiracial, tricameral legislature. Each chamber exercises authority over the affairs of its own community. Foreign policy, defense, taxes, law and order, and other general affairs are considered by standing committees representing all three chambers. The membership of the three chambers--white (178), Asian (45), Coloured (85)--guarantees whites a legislative majority. Many Coloured and Asian voters boycotted the 1984 elections, and the new constitution, which continued to deny parliamentary representation to blacks, set off a wave of violent protests in black communities. The new constitution abolished the presidency and prime ministership and made the head of government a state president with power to appoint the cabinet and control of the President's Council (a multiracial body that replaced the upper house of parliament in 1980 and can resolve disputes among the legislative chambers). P. W. \TBotha\t, head of the \TNational party\t that has held power since 1948, became state president in 1984, when the new constitution came into effect. Botha resigned the presidency in August 1989 and was succeeded by F. W. de Klerk, who had become party leader in February and remained in office after legislative elections in September. Under the theory of separate development, blacks were to have voting rights only in the homelands. All blacks were to be designated citizens of one of the ten homelands and be stripped of their South African citizenship as the homelands were declared independent. After negotiations designed to give blacks a role in national politics began in 1990, the government said that the homelands policy would be abandoned as part of an overall settlement. By late 1991, the government and the \TAfrican National Congress\t (ANC) had reached agreement on the need for an independent judiciary, a bill of rights, and a two-chamber parliament with one house elected by universal suffrage and proportional representation and a second house elected according to regions. Differences remained concerning the way in which South Africa would be governed pending the transition to multiparty rule and the degree of power to be given to regional and local government. HISTORY The first known inhabitants of present-day South Africa were San and Khoikhoi hunters and gatherers; they were followed southward by Bantu-speaking peoples between AD 1000 and 1500. In 1488, Portuguese mariners led by Bartolomeu \TDias\t rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck established the first European settlement at Table Bay (now Cape Town) in 1652 as a station for the Dutch East India Company (see \TEast India Company, Dutch\t). Dutch pioneers spread eastward, and in 1779 war broke out between Xhosas migrating south and the Dutch near the Great Fish River. Britain controlled the Cape sporadically during the Napoleonic Wars and formally received the territory in 1814 under provisions made by the Congress of Vienna. Large-scale British settlement began in 1820. To preserve their Calvinist way of life, the Dutch (Boer) farmers began (1836) to move into the interior on the so-called \TGreat Trek\t. In 1838 approximately 70 of the Voortrekkers were massacred by Zulus. Seeking vengeance, Andries \TPretorius\t led the Boers against the Zulus, defeating them in the Battle of Blood River. The Voortrekkers eventually established independent republics, including the Orange Free State (1854) and the South African Republic (1852; later the Transvaal). The discovery of diamonds and gold in the late 1800s drew British immigrant entrepreneurs (Uitlanders, or "foreigners") into the interior, and conflict over ownership ensued. Paul \TKruger\t (Oom Paul), leader of the Transvaal, resisted British attempts to claim the area, including those by Cecil \TRhodes\t, prime minister of the British-controlled Cape Colony, who encouraged the Uitlanders to take over the Transvaal. The unsuccessful Jameson Raid, engineered by the British and intended to aid the Uitlanders in an uprising, added to the mounting tension (see \TJameson, Sir Leander Starr\t). Eventually, the \TSouth African War\t (1899-1902) erupted between the British and the Boers, with the British the victors. In 1910 such leaders as Jan \TSmuts\t helped create the Union of South Africa, with dominion status, out of the former British colonies and the two defeated Boer republics. Louis \TBotha\t, a moderate Afrikaner advocating close cooperation with the British, became the first prime minister. Between the two world wars, mining and manufacturing expanded. The Depression of the 1930s, however, forced black Africans and white farmers alike into the cities to compete for unskilled jobs. As a result, both African and Afrikaner nationalism emerged. At the same time, a segregationist policy was adopted by James Barry \THertzog\t'S government (1924-39) to preserve South Africa as a white country in which black Africans would be restricted as far as possible to reserves. The Coloured population, whose voting rights had been protected by the 1910 constitution, was disenfranchised. The Introduction of Apartheid In 1948, Daniel F. \TMalan\t'S National party was elected to office and introduced the policy of apartheid--"separate development"--which was designed to ensure white supremacy. During the premiership of Hendrik F. \TVerwoerd\t, parliament adopted the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, which created the legal machinery by which ten African homelands would eventually receive independence. The homelands, reserved for 74% of the country's total population, were territorially fragmented and overpopulated and had limited resources, although parts of them have since been consolidated to make them more viable. Transkei received nominal independence in 1976, Bophuthatswana a year later, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981. No country except South Africa recognizes the homelands as independent countries. About 9 million blacks in the ethnic groups associated with these homelands lost their South African citizenship at independence; later government proposals to restore citizenship to those who qualify as permanent residents of white South Africa would apply to fewer than 2 million of them. African opposition to apartheid intensified in the 1950s, spearheaded by the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC). These organizations were banned in 1960 following the Sharpeville massacre near Vereeniging in which 69 Africans, demonstrating against the pass laws, were killed by police. In 1961 the Union of South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations due to opposition within that body to apartheid policies, and the Republic of South Africa was declared. Opposition to apartheid at home continued and became more violent. In 1976 some 400 persons were killed when riots broke out in Soweto and other black townships. The government retaliated by detaining its critics, including Stephen Biko, a young black activist whose death in police custody in 1977 aroused international protest. Reform and Reaction Under P. W. \TBotha\t, who replaced B. J. \TVorster\t as prime minister in 1978, the South African government began what it believed were major political and social reforms. In 1979, for example, it legalized black labor unions, and in 1985 it repealed the ban on multiracial political parties, ended limits on the number of black workers that could be employed by industrial concerns, and repealed the law prohibiting persons to marry outside their racial group. The hated pass laws that had controlled the movement of blacks to the cities were scrapped in 1986, and blacks were granted limited property rights in black urban areas, although new forms of influx control were imposed on inhabitants of the independent homelands. In 1987 the government proposed some modifications to the Group Areas Act, under which all urban areas are racially segregated. The new constitution, however, continued to deny the country's black majority the right to vote in national elections and gave only limited power to Coloureds and Asians. The homelands policy continued. The reforms met with mixed reaction. Ultraconservatives within the National party, criticizing the departures from the basic tenets of apartheid, defected to form two new parties--the Herstigte Nasionale party and the Conservative party. The Conservative party garnered enough votes in the 1987 parliamentary elections to replace the moderate Progressive Federal Labor party as the official opposition. National party leader F. W. de Klerk, who became acting state president in 1989, promised a gradual evolution away from the most rigid forms of apartheid. In August 1989, his party gained a narrow victory in elections to the (white) House of Assembly, but defections continued to the more rigid Conservative party and the more liberal Democratic party. The reforms, generally viewed as an attempt by whites to share power without losing control, largely failed to satisfy black aspirations. Elections for new black town councils with greater local authority, first held in 1983, were boycotted by about 80% of black voters. In 1984 the United Democratic Front (UDF)--a multiracial umbrella group for some 600 community, labor, student, church, and women's groups--urged Asians and Coloureds to boycott the first elections under the new constitution; less than 20% of eligible voters cast ballots. Most blacks also boycotted the 1988 municipal elections. In the white municipalities, the Conservatives made substantial gains in the 1988 elections and threatened to reverse some of the reforms. Another group, the black-consciousness Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO), rejected any idea of power-sharing with whites. Nelson \TMandela\t, the leader of the banned ANC, was removed from jail for medical treatment in 1988. Almost all groups demanded that the government permanently release the most popular leader among blacks and include him in any power-sharing negotiations. Moderate black spokesmen such as Bishop Desmond \TTutu\t had considerable success in their campaign to persuade foreign- owned businesses operating in South Africa to disinvest, although overseas investment in South Africa remained substantial. Another moderate, Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi, and the political leaders of Natal province proposed a merger of the KwaZulu homeland with Natal to create a new, nonracial political entity. The proposal was rejected by both the government and the ANC, although Natal and KwaZulu did establish a joint executive council in 1987. Black protest against apartheid, including rent strikes, consumer and school boycotts, demonstrations, and strikes, increased. So did violence--against the police, against blacks cooperating with the white regime, and against members of rival political and ethnolinguistic groups--particularly in the black townships. The government responded by cracking down on dissent. More than 2,000 people died between September 1984 and June 1986, when the government imposed a strict nationwide state of emergency just before the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising. Thousands of government opponents were imprisoned without trial, and severe restrictions were placed on press coverage of the violence. The state of emergency was renewed (1987, 1988, 1989), and additional restrictions imposed on the UDF and other anti-apartheid groups further narrowed legitimate avenues of black protest. In the September 1989 parliamentary elections, the National party lost seats to both the right and the left, but an overall majority went to candidates advocating cautious reform. F. W. De Klerk, interpreting the election results as a "mandate" for a gradual reform of the apartheid system, lifted some restrictions on peaceful protest and freed several prominent black dissidents. On Feb. 2, 1990, De Klerk announced that he would lift the 30-year ban on the African National Congress. He also declared the legalization of the South African Communist party and the Pan-Africanist Congress, and said that restrictions dozens of other political groups would be lifted. De Klerk announced further that non-violent political prisoners would be released, and that most press censorship would end. On Feb. 11, Nelson Mandela was freed after more than 27 years in prison. F. W. de Klerk pledged to end apartheid, and the state of emergency was lifted in all provinces except Natal, where more than 3,000 blacks had died since 1986 in a struggle between supporters of the ANC and those backing moderate Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi's INKATHA movement. In August 1990, the ANC abandoned its armed struggle against the government. In exchange, the government agreed to release 1,500 political prisoners and allow thousands of antigovernment exiles to return home. Progress continued in 1991, when the basic apartheid laws were repealed, the UDF was disbanded, and the government accepted a UN-supervised plan for the return of political exiles. In September, the government, the ANC, and Inkatha signed a pact designed to end politically motivated violence in the black townships. Negotiations on the shape of post-apartheid South Africa's future continued in late 1991, although the right-wing Conservative party and the Azanian People's Organization, a black consciousness movement, refused to participate. Foreign Affairs Regionally and internationally, South Africa became more isolated and more confrontational by the mid-1980s. Although it had signed nonaggression pacts with Swaziland (1982) and Mozambique (1984) and a cease-fire with Angola (1984), its defense forces struck repeatedly at suspected ANC bases in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and it continued to wage war in Angola and Namibia against nationalist guerrillas of the South West Africa People's Organization (\LSwa\lpo). In addition, it allegedly continued its support of indigenous antigovernment guerrillas in Angola and Mozambique. International pressure to end apartheid seemed to have little effect. In 1991, however, the dismantling of apartheid led to the lifting of many of the sanctions that had been imposed on South Africa by the United States and other nations and organizations. South Africa's links with the rest of the continent also improved after the gaining of independence by Namibia in 1990 and an apparent end to Angola's civil war in 1991. Alan C. G. Best Bibliography: \TGeneral\t: Christopher, A. J., South Africa (1982); Meredith, M., In the Name of Apartheid (1989); Nattrass, N., and Arlington, E., eds., The Political Economy of South Africa (1990); Nelson, H. D., ed., South Africa: A Country Study (1981); Republic of South Africa, (Official yearbook, annual). \Tgeography\t: Pollock, N., and Agnew, S., An Historical Geography of South Africa (1963). \Thistory\t: Beinart, W., and Bundy, C., Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa (1987); Hull, R. W., American Enterprise in South Africa (1990); Inskeep, R. R., The Peopling of Southern Africa (1979); Keppel-Jones, A., South Africa: A Short History, 5th ed. (1975); Manning, R., They Cannot Kill Us All (1987); Minter, W., King Solomon's Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of South Africa (1986); Thompson, Leonard, A History of South Africa (1990). \LPolitic\ls AND \Tgovernment\t: Berger, P. L., and Godsell, B., eds., A Future South Africa (1988); Biden, G., ed., South Africa: Human Rights and the Rule of Law (1988); Bouille, L. J., Constitutional Reform and Apartheid (1984); Brewer, J. D., ed., Can South Africa Survive? (1989); Butler, J., et al., The Black Homelands of South Africa (1977); Carter, G. M., and O'Meara, P., International Politics in Southern Africa (1982); Davis, S. M., Apartheid's Rebels (1987); Hanlon, L., Beggar Your Neighbors: Apartheid Power in South Africa (1986); Kitchen, H., ed., South Africa: In Transition to What? (1988); Legum, C., The Battlefronts of Southern Africa (1988); Thompson, L., The Political Mythology of Apartheid (1985); Turnley, D. C. and Cowell, A., Why Are They Weeping (1988); Uhlig, M., ed., Apartheid in Crisis (1986). \TPeople\t AND \Tsocial\t \Lcondition\ls: Brink, A. P., Writing in a State of Siege: Essays on Politics and Literature (1983); Harrison, D., The White Tribe of Africa (1982); Hill, C. R., Change in South Africa (1983); Hope, C., White Boy Running (1988); Lelyveld, J., Move Your Shadow (1985; repr. 1986); Lewis, S. R., The Economics of Apartheid (1990); South African Institute of Race Relations, Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (annual); Sparks, Allister, The Mind of South Africa (1990); Western, J., Outcast Cape Town (1981).