ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the central issues in the South African conflict. The root of the South African conflict in the 20th century was white minority rule. The origins of apartheid are in the segregationist policies of the four colonies and republics which combined to form the Union of South Africa in 1910. The ruling United Party went into the infamous 1948 election firmly committed to these ideas and recommendations, which accepted the principle that African workers were a permanent part of urban South African society and migrant labour was economically undesirable. The origins of resistance to white minority rule are in the politics of African nationalism in South Africa. The Sharpeville shootings were a turning point in the South African conflict, “when protest finally hardened into resistance, and when African politicians were forced to begin thinking in terms of a revolutionary strategy”.
