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EUROPEAN
UNION

The role of the

IN THE STRUGGLE
AGAINST APARTHEID

In August 1961

the South African Communist Party bought Liliesleaf, a farm at the time on the outskirts of Johannesburg, as a secret meeting place for its leadership. Liliesleaf was the birthplace of the ANC military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and evolved into the underground headquarters of its High Command and the leadership of the Congress Alliance.

It was at Liliesleaf that the overthrow of the apartheid regime was discussed, and where the leaders of the liberation movement took refuge in their struggle for a non-racial, just, united and democratic South Africa.

Today, it is a site of memory celebrating the long journey to democracy in South Africa, a journey that is still ongoing. For a key struggle today is the struggle against forgetting.

Why an exhibition on the role of the EU?
This exhibition on the European Union’s contribution to South Africa’s liberation forms part of a series of international solidarity exhibitions at Liliesleaf. These exhibitions are the expression of Liliesleaf’s commitment to ensuring that the role of international solidarity in the fight for freedom and justice is not forgotten.

SIgnatories to the Maastricht treaty copy 2 ret

Group photo of the European Council Heads of State (or Government of the Twelve), convening on 9 and 10 December 1991 in Maastricht to reach an agreement on the Treaty on European Union. The Maastricht Treaty was signed by the leaders of the twelve Member States (Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, and Spain) on 7 February 1992, and came into effect on 1 November 1993.

"I think the experience we had with South Africa in its transition challenged our way of managing
development cooperation with
partner countries.

South Africa is a very unique case where the whole Special Programme, with huge resources, was set up in the 1980s outside the government machinery, entirely with civil society and churches. It is a strong lesson that South Africa gave us, that civil society is not just a beneficiary but a possible actor of change.

And this we learnt through the Special Programme."

Jean-Claude Boidin, Head, Task Force negotiations
with South Africa, EU DG Development

EUROPE UNITED,
SOUTH AFRICA DIVIDED

The European Union emerged following the end of World War II, with the aim of ending wars between neighbours; ensuring the economic integration of Member States; and uniting Europe.

In 1951, the Treaty of Paris established the European Coal and Steel Community to start building a common market for coal and steel. The six founding countries were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, joined in 1973 by Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

As of completion of this exhibition, the EU has 27 Member States, with the United Kingdom having ‘Brexited’ on 31 December 2020.

“European integration is a political project of peace, security and reconciliation. All the other things that go with it, the economy and even the common currency, are building blocks to this end.”

Dieter Frisch, EC Director-General for Development, 1982-1993

Robert Schuman,
French Foreign Minister,
signs the Treaty of Paris
establishing the
European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC),
18 April 1951
EC – Audiovisual Service

Mass funeral for
the victims of the
Sharpeville Massacre,
March 1960

© Peter Magubane /
Drum Social Histories /
Baileys African History Archive /
Africa Media Online

EUROPE UNITED,
SOUTH AFRICA DIVIDED

The Sharpeville Massacre in March 1960, and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Chief Albert Luthuli in December 1961, focused the attention of Western Europe on South Africa and gave impetus to anti-apartheid activism. For many people who had experienced the horrors of two world wars, the notion of apartheid – the oppression and brutalisation of the black majority by a white minority government – was difficult to comprehend.

Over the next three decades, Western European civil society actively opposed the apartheid regime in numerous ways. The global anti-apartheid movement was one of the biggest civil society movements in history. Ordinary people were mobilised to boycott South African products, join protest actions and get involved in fundraising efforts to support South African anti-apartheid activists and their families. Pressure was put on governments to impose economic and military sanctions and cultural and sports boycotts against South Africa.

“Anti-apartheid resistance was one of the largest, most resilient and arguably most influential global social movements in the late twentieth century.”

Jan Aart Scholte, writer and professor in politics and international studies

The European Union played a significant role in mobilising broad-based opposition to apartheid in Western Europe, and financing humanitarian and development aid.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Chief Albert Luthuli, ANC president 1952-67

In the UK, the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group maintained a Non-Stop Picket outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square from 1986 to 1990 © Jonathan Kempster, NUJ

TAKING ACTION:
THE EC TWIN-TRACK POLICY

Many Western governments, uncomfortable with the idea of sanctions, preferred to pursue a policy of ‘constructive engagement’. Anti-apartheid activists saw this as being soft on the apartheid regime. In 1984, Archbishop Tutu declared constructive engagement ‘an abomination, an unmitigated disaster’.

However, by the mid-1980s, the global political order was starting to shift. In the USSR, Gorbachev was embarking on his policy of glasnost, and the end of the Cold War was in sight. In September 1985, EU foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, responded to the increasingly repressive situation in South Africa and sustained pressure from civic anti-apartheid movements by instituting a twin-track policy of restrictive and positive measures. Restrictive measures included an oil and arms embargo and an end to military cooperation with South Africa, while scientific, sporting and cultural ties were discouraged. Positive measures included support for southern African countries targeted by apartheid South Africa’s destabilisation policies.

Economic boycott is one way in which the world at large can bring home to the South African authorities that they must either mend their ways or suffer from them.

In Ireland, Mary Manning, a young teller, sparked a two-year picket by Dunnes Stores workers against the sale of South African produce. From L to R: Mary Manning, Michelle Gavin, Sandra Griffin and Alma Russell, July 1984 Derek Speirs

This iconic Sam Nzima image of the dead body of Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhuba alongside Hector’s sister, Antoinette Sithole, on the first day of the Soweto student protests, 16 June 1976, shocked the world and refocused attention on the horrors of apartheid

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS
AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA

1962
UN Resolution 1761:
Condemning apartheid and calling for a voluntary boycott

1963
UN calls for a voluntary arms embargo
OAU calls for economic sanctions

1964
UN Resolution 190:
Question relating to the policies of apartheid of the
Republic of South Africa

1973
OPEC countries institute an oil embargo

1977
EU imposes Code of Conduct for firms doing business in
South Africa.
UN imposes mandatory arms embargo

1982
The Hague Conference:
members of the European Parliament call for sanctions

1985
EU imposes limited trade and financial sanctions

1986
USA Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act bans new investments
EU economic sanctions extended

1987
UN introduces voluntary oil embargo

"I would often ask Cyril
Ramaphosa, secretary-general
of the miners’ union,
‘What do your people think?
Is it all right to have sanctions
against coal and iron?
Because almost all member
states said no, beware,
that will harm the people,
they will lose their work.’
But the answer was always
clear: ‘Our people want peace
and freedom, no matter
what happens now.’ So, this
convinced me that I had to
continue in favour of sanctions
in the Parliament."

Barbara Simons, EU parliamentarian

Peter Sluiter, first secretary-general, AWEPAA

Towards the end of the 1980s, sanctions and boycotts had rendered the apartheid regime isolated, a pariah of the world. The liberation movements, on the other hand, became recognised as forces for change, with the international community providing essential political, material and moral support for their efforts.

RESTRICTIVE MEASURES:
SANCTIONS, BOYCOTTS AND BANS

As international opposition to apartheid intensified, the European Commission came under increasing pressure to officially and explicitly condemn apartheid. In 1977, a voluntary Code of Conduct was drawn up for European businesses operating in South Africa, and in April 1985, partial trade sanctions were imposed. These sanctions were extended in 1986 to a ban on new investments, and imports of South African iron and steel products and gold coins.

Sanctions were not primarily conceived as punishment or for satisfying one’s moral indignation, but as a potentially effective policy instrument against a regime whose internal or external policies were considered objectionable by the international community and a violation of international human rights laws and standards.

Posters used by the Danish and Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movements to call for an end to economic links with South Africa, which included special campaigns against Outspan fruit and Shell.

The Workers Museum, Denmark and Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives

Chief Albert Luthuli, ANC president 1952-67

"The idea came up of a programme to support victims of apartheid. Now, if the Commission had proposed to create a budget line in support of victims of apartheid, it is almost sure that the Council of Ministers would have said you are proposing political things, that’s not your business. So, Wim Blonk and others went to the European Parliament, and Social Democrat Parliamentarian Barbara Simons proposed a new budget line and it was approved by the majority of the Parliament. The Council did not dare to reject a political initiative of the Parliament.”

POSITIVE MEASURES:
THE SPECIAL PROGRAMME
FOR THE VICTIMS OF APARTHEID

In 1985, the European Parliament proposed and approved the implementation of a special programme to assist victims of apartheid. The European Commission made contact with South African church leaders to explore the idea, and after extensive consultations, the Special Programme for the Victims of Apartheid was launched.

Dieter Frisch, Brussels, 1982

EC - Audio Visual Service

Achmat Dangor, Founding Executive Director, Kagiso Trust

"The impact was what I would call bottom up. The support to communities empowered them to become far more responsive and oppose the apartheid government. That was what the government really feared and disliked about NGOs like the Kagiso Trust and others.”

POSITIVE MEASURES:
THE SPECIAL PROGRAMME
FOR THE VICTIMS OF APARTHEID

The Special Programme was run by the European Commission and funds were channeled through the South African Council of Churches (SACC), the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), trade unions, and the Kagiso Trust.

Kagiso Trust, the churches, and European NGOs with South African experience identified projects and submitted them to the European Commission for approval. In the case of trade union projects, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) would do the same. The NGOs in Europe formed an NGO liaison committee to get money from the EU to distribute to various projects in South Africa.

During the first phase of the Special Programme, three broad areas of assistance were targeted: education and training (receiving around 50% of the funding), humanitarian and social projects (40%), and legal aid (10%).

Dieter Frisch, Brussels, 1982

EC - Audio Visual Service

KAGISO TRUST

The Kagiso Trust was established to channel EU funding that would uplift and empower disadvantaged communities.The founding trustees of Kagiso Trust were all deeply involved in the struggle against apartheid: Rev. Beyers Naudé, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Eric Molobi, Rev. Frank Chikane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Yunus Mohamed, Dr. Abe Nkomo, Dr. Max Coleman, Prof. Jakes Gerwel and Rev. Allan Boesak.

“ The EU had visited South Africa several times to look for a credible structure to channel funding through. They didn’t only want to rely on churches, and they didn’t consider the ANC a feasible structure. So, thank goodness, we had a UDF voice, and the UDF voice had underneath it a structure that could spend development money and that was the Kagiso Trust.”

Horst Kleinschmidt, Executive Director, Kagiso Trust, 1996-98

The relationship between the European Commission and Kagiso Trust was not always easy. But such was the commitment that differences and disagreements were addressed, discussed and resolved.

At the end of 1993, when the EU opened its Delegation office in Pretoria, the focus of support rapidly shifted away from the Special Programme to development. Inevitably, the relationship between the EU and Kagiso Trust also had to change.

This changing relationship eventually gave impetus to the establishment of Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI), established by Eric Molobi as an investment company to generate sustainable, long-term financial support for the Trust.

LOBBYING AND MOBILISATION:
A COORDINATED APPROACH

In the 1980s, West European anti-apartheid movements agreed that they should coordinate their activities at the level of the European institutions: the European Parliament, European Commission and Council of Ministers. In 1984 the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action against Apartheid (AWEPAA) was founded to mobilise European parliamentarians to end apartheid. AWEPAA grew quickly from a small group of members in 16 national parliaments and the European Parliament, to some 1 000 members by the early 1990s. Parliamentarians lobbied for effective sanction policies and monitored the implementation of sanctions laws.

“It was politically very broad. Broad in a regional sense, and broad in a political sense. There were social democrats and communists but also Christian democrats, liberals with a small l, with a big L, Greens in Germany and in the end, it ranged from Iceland to Malta. The aim was to organise people from all relevant democratic countries in Europe and different political strands to see where they could cooperate and what they could do in common.”

Peter Sluiter, first secretary-general, AWEPAA

In 1988, solidarity organisations in Western Europe formed the Liaison Group of National Anti-Apartheid Movements in the European Community in order to lobby the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The Liaison Group aimed to push through sanctions policies by bringing public pressure to bear on their governments as well as on the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. It also offered support to South African liberation organisations.

SUPPORT IN NUMBERS

The first phase of the Special Programme ran between 1985 and 1991, and a total of 402 projects were sponsored to the tune of €130.7m. The Special Programme was the largest programmable development initiative ever implemented in a single country by the EU.

In 1987, a second ‘positive measure’ was instituted: a special budget to counter the effects of South African destabilisation in the SADC region.

Apartheid and Southern Africa Conference, organised by AWEPAA in Amsterdam in September 1985. In picture are Johnny Makathini (ANC), Jan Nico Scholten (AWEPAA) and Sam Nujoma (SWAPO)

Rob Bogaerts, National Archives of the Netherlands / Anefo

Eric Molobi, Kagiso Trust founder, 1992

© Gisele Wulfsohn / South Photos / Africa Media Online

Visit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu to the European Parliament, Strasbourg, with Jan Nico Scholten,
Barbara Simons and Ernest Glinne, 1990
Multimedia Centre / European Parliament

Reverend Beyers Naudé, 1987

© Eric Miller / Independent Contributors / Africa Media Online

Reverend Frank Chikane speaks while Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa and Nyami Booi listen, funeral in Alexandra, 1986

© Gille de Vlieg / South Photos / Africa Media Online

THE SAKHAROV PRIZE

In 1988 the European Parliament established the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to honour individuals and groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought, named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.

The first Sakharov Prize was awarded jointly in 1988 to Nelson Mandela (at that time still in prison) and Russian Anatoly Marchenko. Mandela’s prize was received by his 14-year old grandson, Mandla Mandela. On 13 June 1990, mere months after his release, Mandela addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg and thanked them for awarding him the Prize:

We take this as a challenge that we should remain true to the vision we all share of a world free of war and free of poverty and suffering. We take it as a challenge above all to have the courage to fight for justice and peace.

Nelson Mandela

Mandla Mandela receiving
the 1988 Sakharov Prize
on behalf of his incarcerated
grandfather, Nelson Mandela

Multimedia Centre / European Parliament