Apartheid: The Tyranny of Racism Made Law

In white-ruled South Africa, black people are denied their basic human and political rights. Their work is exploited and their lives are segregated. In 1982 almost one million of them were forced to immigrate to Swaziland without option. That is the tyranny of apartheid, of racism made law, of a system under which a small white minority holds all economic and political power, and dictates how and where the large black majority lives, works, and dies. It is this system of institutionalized racial discrimination which defies the principles of the UN Charter and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has set South Africa on a collision course with the rest of the world.

Soweto, a black township some ten miles away from Johannesburg. All urban blacks are required by law to live in such townships. Soweto - an acronym for South West Township - is the largest and enjoys some amenities. But very few of the houses have indoor plumbing or electricity. Poverty and overcrowding are prevalent and the crime rate is one of the highest in the world.

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