“Apartheid Did Not End Through War But Through Negotiation — And Now South Africans Are Fighting Over Who Really Changed The Country’s History” 🇿🇦
A massive debate has erupted online after social media personality Alice VL claimed that apartheid ended because White South Africans voted to dismantle it during the historic 1992 referendum.
On 17 March 1992, White voters were asked whether they supported then-President F.W. de Klerk’s negotiations to end apartheid and move South Africa toward a democratic constitutional system. Nearly 69% voted “Yes,” helping pave the way for the 1994 democratic elections that brought Nelson Mandela and the ANC into power.
The post has now divided South Africans. Some argue the referendum proves the transition happened mainly through negotiations and political compromise rather than military defeat. Others strongly disagree, saying decades of resistance, sanctions, international pressure, protests, labour strikes and sacrifices by anti-apartheid activists forced the apartheid government to negotiate in the first place.
Many online users say South Africa’s history is far more complicated than one political narrative, with both negotiation and resistance playing major roles in ending apartheid.