Word: apartheid
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...violence, however, rapid progress is still being made toward breaking down apartheid. The gradual easing of restrictions that began in 1982 has accelerated considerably since De Klerk took office in 1989. His government has done away with the segregation of facilities, such as public parks and government hospitals -- the last statutory vestiges of so-called petty apartheid -- lifted the ban on the African National Congress and freed many political prisoners, most prominently Nelson Mandela. Now De Klerk is about to pull down what are generally regarded as the last remaining legal pillars of apartheid: the laws that forbid blacks...
That, of course, does not mean apartheid will then cease to exist. The legal structure built up over more than 40 years cannot be demolished quite that quickly, and provincial and local governments have ways of maintaining segregation even when it is no longer required by federal law, for example, turning swimming pools over to private operators or charging fees for the use of libraries that whites can afford and most blacks cannot...
Despite his moves to eliminate apartheid, De Klerk seems to have retained most of his white support. His main opposition, the right-wing Conservative Party, has nothing to offer except a return to "grand apartheid" that most whites recognize to be impossible. Both South African and foreign experts agree that the dismantling of apartheid has gone too far to be reversed. But the big question remains: Can the now inevitable transition to a multiracial state be achieved smoothly by negotiation or only haltingly after more harrowing violence...
...bodyguard thugs known as the Mandela United Football Team who took it upon themselves to terrorize opponents -- real or imagined -- in the black township of Soweto. Increasingly imperious, Winnie was denounced in 1989 by other black leaders for having "violated human rights . . . in the name of the struggle against apartheid." She visited Nelson in prison shortly afterward, and though it is not known what he told her, a chastened Winnie immediately lowered her profile...
...action was a stinging defeat for the African National Congress, which had lobbied hard to keep sanctions intact. Said Congress spokesperson Gill Marcus: "We still have a long way to go before apartheid is scrapped." Government-sponsored laws tearing down most racial restrictions, however, are expected to be approved by Parliament this June, and their passage will probably spur the U.S. to reconsider its own sanctions against South Africa...