As a member of the National Union of Mineworkers, led by Cyril Ramaphosa, I myself am very enraged with the new constitution that came into effect in 1984. This constitution, replacing the single House of Parliament, institutes three new bodies, consisting of one-hundred and seventy-eight all white House of Assembly, eighty-five colored members of the House of Representatives, and a forty-five member House of Delegates consisting of all Indian decent. As thankful as I am that South Africa has made an attempt towards a less-segregated nation, there is still a large portion of social, economic, and most evidently, political discrimination against the non-white population. This new constitution, despite the few socialistic changes, still allows whites to retain their ultimate power, leaving people like myself on the bottom of society yet again. Not only do the whites still remain in almost full power, but the state presidential vote of 1984 was decided by an eighty-eight member electoral college, consisting of a white: colored: Indian ratio of 4:2:1, giving P.W. Botha (of white decent) the first presidential position.
These acts of discrimination are just a few more things advocating the Apartheid, as it is becoming more challenging every day to envision a nation in which all men are equal, and are not racially targeted. With vast support to why we, the non-white people of South Africa, shall be given full freedom, I am pleased that we are using it to fight for our independence, as new protests and reforms have begun. Holding strongly against the government’s plans that seventy-five percent of the country’s work force is non-white, yet the role in government, freedom of land ownership, education, and voting rights is still very limited to the colored or Indian population, the United Democratic Front has strived towards gaining independence and persuading the government to do away with the Apartheid and create a new South Africa. Consisting of over one thousand delegates representing nearly five-hundred and seventy-five organizations to start, this group has been a model towards the non-white people, as it has aimed to use nonviolent means to reach their goal of establishing an independent nation, one in which race has nothing to do with rank in society.
Now, after several years of protests, this organization, one in which myself has joined and have learned to follow, has increased its members to more than three-million people from about six-hundred organizations. Over these few years, this front has exponentially increased its strength in power as well, as two of our largest spokesman, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Reverend Allan Boesak, have gained more trust and belief from the South African government. Along side are the many other black trade unions, which have displayed a key role in economic and political protests in the past couple years. One of these unions, the National Union of Mineworkers, or NUM, the union in which I take great pride in being a part of, put an end to our work in 1985 as we protested greatly over our poor wages and the refusal to increase those wages. This protest is just one prime example of how we, the discriminated and discouraged people of South Africa have fought to gain our full independence. Despite these peaceful, nonviolent protests, many non-whites have brought extreme calamities to parts of our nation due to their violent acts of protestation. For example, government buildings, government official’s houses, and many other belongings of those who advocate for the Apartheid have been destroyed, burned, and attacked. These attacks, all of which derive from the anger and fury we have going through these discriminatory acts, have been counterattacked with more violence. Disaster has broken out in several places as these members of the pro-Apartheid campaign have fought back and sought to destroy and eliminate any person who intends to disturb governmental property. Following these controversies, President Botha issued several state of emergencies in hope to calm the tension between both sides. With over three hundred thousand deaths in these times of emergency, fortunately, Mr. Botha had the decency to acknowledge the stupidity of the Apartheid, declaring it as an outgrown, outdated concept of a system. However, this led to a stronger yield towards demands for racial equality, an even more uptight government.
Following this were more violent outbreaks within our nation, as well as a change in presidency in Frederik W. de Klerk. Now, in the year of 1989, I firmly believe and hope that through all we have been through as a nation, our government will burn out its advocation for the Apartheid, ultimately leading to our full independence of the non-white community.
-An angry miner, March 29th, 1989
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