Survival in
the mounting
isolation
The 1960s
T
he 1960s were the start of the isolation years as the architects of
apartheid systematically painted South Africa into a corner. For industry,
the Sixties also became years of innovation and resilience.
In this decade, the country experienced a succession of events that divided
its people even more deeply, alienated world opinion and led to intensified
international pressures.
First came the massacre of 69 blacks by police at a demonstration against the
humiliating and detested pass laws in the Vereeniging township of Sharpeville. The
world was appalled. The government responded by banning the African National
Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
A year later, South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth and became a
republic. In 1963, at the Rivonia Trial, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life
imprisonment. That same year, Transkei became the first “independent Bantustan”.
The following year the National Party government walked out of the International
Labour Organisation (of which South Africa had been a founder member), and
the country’s team was excluded from the Tokyo Olympic Games. Other sports
protests and boycotts followed.
All this led to a flight of money. Thousands of whites emigrated and property
prices plummeted. Tthese events also demonstrated two things: the country still
had considerable financial resources to invest in new productive capacity, and its
people were extraordinarily resilient and innovative as they sought to survive
the increasing isolation.
Fundamental to “Fortress SA” was the government’s support of local industry.
State departments gave preference across the board to local manufacturers.
High-level investigations took place to find ways of replacing imports with local
products. The economy boomed, and gross domestic product (GDP) rocketed
from R5 billion in 1960 to R13 billion in 1970.
SEIFSA AT 75 - SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE
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