By Chakamwe Chakamwe

APARTHEID simply means ‘a state of being apart’.
In other words, ‘separateness’.
While the meaning of the word apartheid, itself sounds pretty innocent, however, when we come to its real political meaning as it was applied in South Africa before 1994 it is quite frightening.
In the old racist South Africa, apartheid meant racial segregation through legislation.
Furthermore this racial segregation meant separate development of races i.e whites and blacks.
On top of this, this separate development was skewed in favour of whites, with blacks getting small and poor lands, poor jobs, poor housing, poor education etc and suffering political oppression.
Now, the question that quickly pops up is: who was responsible for the creation of the above evil apartheid system as described above?
British and American propaganda gurus will tell you that the above system of separate development and black oppression was created by “the National Party (NP) governments, the ruling party from 1948 to 1994 under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained.”
The same British and American propagandists will go on to tell you with very straight faces that their nations had nothing to do with the creation right from the beginning of a system of separate development between whites and blacks and the racial oppression of blacks that went with it.
Yes, they will tell you that as far as apartheid was concerned, their nations were as clean as angels and that they fought tooth and nail to destroy it.
Not at all.
Lies through and through.
It is our aim in this article to show that yes, while the Nationalist Party in South Africa perfected the system of separate development and racial oppression in South Africa, the evil system of separate development which the Nationalist Party perfected had been developed earlier on by both the British and Americans as part of their colonisation project.
And in South Africa itself, the ‘chief messiah’ from whom the Nationalist Party drew their inspiration in coming up with their own version of separation development and discrimination was Cecil John Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia.
To start with, when the British colonised the Cape in 1806, they joined white settlers already there in curtailing movement by black people.
For example, in 1809, the British passed a law called “the Hottentot Proclamation, which decreed that if a KhoiKhoi were to move, they would need a pass from their master or a local official.
“Ordinance No. 49 1829 decreed that prospective black immigrants were to be granted passes for the sole purpose of seeking work.”
There you have it.
Long before the Nationalist Party came to power, the British were already demanding that blacks should have ‘passes’ in South Africa.
Therefore, when blacks were killed at Sharpeville over ‘passes’ they died over ‘passes’ initiated by the British.
Now let us come to Cecil John Rhodes himself and the role that he played in the creation of apartheid.
And for us to get the full story we hereby call upon one of the greatest proponents of separate development in South Africa and a darling of the British, one general Jan Christian Smuts.
Here is what he says about the need for separate development and Cecil John Rhodes’ role in it.
“We have realised that political ideas which apply to our white civilisation largely do not apply to the administration of native affairs.
“To apply the same institutions on an equal basis to white and black alike does not lead to the best results.
“And so we must give natives their own separate institutions on parallel lines with institutions of whites.”
Then he goes on to tell us who has inspired him and his apartheid friends to go the racial segregation route.
“More than 20 years ago as many of you remember, an experiment in native self- government (read homelands and in Zimbabwe reserves) was begun by Cecil John Rhodes in the old Cape colony which gave local institutions (reserves, homelands) to natives (blacks) in the Glen Grey reserve.
“That principle (of separate development) has been expanded over a large part of the old Transkeian territories and so successful has it been that when we came to framing the Act of Union an ‘appendix’ was added about the future administration of Protectorates (read homelands and reserves) when they should be incorporated into the Union.”
Now what did that appendix based on Cecil John Rhodes experiments (on apartheid) say?
“This appendix laid down that the native territories in South Africa should be governed apart from the Parliamentary institutions of the Union and on different lines which would achieve the principle of native self- government (homeland governments).”
Here you have it.
Many many decades before the Nationalist Party came to power, Cecil John Rhodes had successfully crafted and implemented the pillar of apartheid.
It is therefore not difficult to see that when the Nationalist Party passed the Group Areas Act in 1950, which put an end to the practice of races living side by side, but having each racial group allotted its area, the inspiration to craft that piece of law came from Cecil John Rhodes’ creation of tribal reserves and homelands in the Eastern Cape.
Here at home, Zimbabweans cannot be surprised by the fact that Cecil John Rhodes was behind the creation of apartheid.
We all know that once Zimbabwe had been colonised, reserves where blacks were dumped were created by Mr Rhodes’ British, South Africa Company who were the government of the day.
Americans too cannot be left out.
Long before the Nationalist Party came to power in 1948, in 1851, the United States government began creating what became known as ‘American, Indian reservation’.
These were ‘reserves’ or ‘homelands’, where native Americans were dumped as part of America’s apartheid system.
As we write, there is still apartheid in the United States where native Americans are staying in ‘Reservations’ which are poor, crowded, full of squalor, drugs and drunkenness.
Therefore, it is utter nonsense for the British and American propagandists to tell you that the Nationalist Party of South Africa created apartheid.
As far as apartheid in its true meaning is concerned the Nationalist Party in South, “ndivana mafikizolo.”
The founders are the British, Cecil John Rhodes and Americans.