“Separate development” in South Africa
From David Raič’s Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination:
Although racial segregation and discrimination, accompanied by the creation of separate areas exclusively designated for the native black Africans (the Bantus) featured in the policy of the white governments in South Africa as early as the beginning of the 20th century, no independent Homelands were envisioned at that time. This idea developed as a result of international pressure and condemnation of the Apartheid policy and the growing emphasis and interest in decolonization in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The South African Government attempted to combat this international pressure to its policy of systematic racial discrimination — of which kind of policy Apartheid is the example par excellence — through a territorial definition of “separate development.” This resulted in the introduction in 1959 of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act. The Act set up machinery for the creation of ten territorial areas in South Africa (‘Homelands’) for different government-designated African tribal groups. The ‘Homelands’ comprised some 13 percent of the territory of South Africa. The South African government in the course of the 1960’s and 1970’s would constitute evidence of the South African government’s adherence to the principle of self-determination. In 1971, the South African government announced that it intended eventually to grant “self-determination” or “sovereign independence” to the ten areas. The first Homeland to obtain ‘independence’ was Transkei, which was granted independence on 26 October 1976. This was followed by grants to Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981.
Even before the grant of independence to Transkei, the General Assembly of the United Nations had already adopted several resolutions stating that the Bantustan policy was in pursuance of Apartheid, and condemning the policy as violating the right of self-determination and as being prejudicial to the territorial integrity of South Africa. In addition, these resolutions called upon ‘all governments and organizations not to accord any form of recognition to [the Bantustan homelands].” On 26 October 1976, in response to the grant of independence to Transkei, the General Assembly passed Resolution 31/6 A, which called the ‘independence’ of Transkei a sham. The resolution continued by stating that the General Assembly:
1. Strongly condemns the establishment of bantustans as designed to consolidate the inhuman policies of apartheid, to destroy the territorial integrity of the country, to perpetuate white minority domination and to dispossess the African people of South Africa of their inalienable rights;
2. Rejects the declaration of ‘independence’ of the Transkei and declares it invalid;
3. Calls upon all governments to deny any form of recognition to the so-called independent Transkei and to refrain from having any dealings with the so-called independent Transkei or other bantustans […].
The grants of ‘independence’ to Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei were also denounced generally…Until their dismantling, no State had recognized the Homeland territories as States under international law, despite the fact that no resolution adopted by the United Nations organs on the subject of withholding recognition was legally binding.
