ABSTRACT
South African political structures were directed over the course of more than a quarter of a century by the policy of apartheid, or separate development, which formally dictated political rights and, to a significant extent, economic opportunities according to the criteria of race. The backbone of the apartheid edifice was the tribal, ethnic or national ‘homeland’. The political and financial costs of independence must be measured in terms of massively increased taxation and the use of police and vigilante terror on a scale which excites comment even by South African standards. Apartheid was essential in ensuring the survival of white civilisation and indigenous culture. In the dialectic of apartheid, racism would be eliminated when the races were segregated on territorial grounds. The economic power of the South African Republic in the region provided the framework for the international debates, controversies, and interventions in the region.
