The Assassination That Couldn't Kill Apartheid

On September 6, 1966, in the hushed confines of South Africa’s parliament, 48-year old Dimitri Tsafendas drew a blade and ended the life of South Africa’s Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, was no more. But the venomous system he designed would outlive him for decades, entrenching itself deeper into South Africa's soil.

Tsafendas, for decades after the murder, was painted as a madman. As someone tormented by his mind and an imaginary tapeworm that pushed him to kill. The story stuck because it was easy to believe. Who else but a lunatic would commit such an act in broad daylight, in the halls of South Africa’s parliament, no less? Officially, the courts ruled him insane, saving face for the apartheid regime and saving him execution. He however became one of South Africa’s longest serving prisoners.

The Mad Man Who Wasn’t Mad

A deeper truth, uncovered years later, told a different story. Tsafendas wasn’t mad; he was angry. He wasn’t driven by madness but by conviction. In later years after his imprisonment, a police statement revealed his true motivations: “I was disgusted by the racial policy,” Tsafendas said. “I went through with my plan to kill the prime minister.” To Tsafendas, this was no crime of passion or insanity; it was an act of revolution.

His crime, however, did not shake the foundations of apartheid as he had hoped. Verwoerd may have fallen, but apartheid stood tall, and the machinery of oppression rumbled on without him.

Why Killing Verwoerd Didn’t Kill Apartheid

The system Verwoerd left behind was far more resilient than its architect. Apartheid had been meticulously designed to survive its creator, supported by laws that segregated everything from land ownership to public restrooms. It had become a self-sustaining system, upheld by the white minority, whose survival depended on its existence.

When Verwoerd’s successor, B.J. Vorster, took over, it was business as usual. The state’s racist policies, from forced removals to the oppressive Bantustan system, continued without interruption. The system was too strong, too entrenched. It had become something more than the sum of Verwoerd’s ideas. It was the lifeblood of white supremacy in South Africa.

Apartheid lived on, in the shadows of its architect’s death, for nearly three more decades. Its ghost lingers even now. Modern South Africa, despite its democratic government, is still haunted by Verwoerd’s legacy. As of 2022, the World Bank still ranked South Africa as the most unequal country globally, a dubious honor that reflects just how deeply apartheid’s economic divisions have scarred the nation.

The Unfinished Business of Dismantling Apartheid

Despite Nelson Mandela’s historic rise to power in 1994, apartheid’s ghost wasn’t exorcised from South Africa’s institutions. Racial divisions remain. Black South Africans, who make up the majority, still struggle for economic parity with the white minority. In many ways, the formal end of apartheid was just the beginning of a much longer, more arduous battle.

Land ownership remains a glaring reminder of the incomplete work of dismantling apartheid. The vast tracts of land owned by white South Africans, much of it seized during apartheid, have yet to be redistributed equitably and legally. And while political rights were won, the fight for economic justice is ongoing. The disparity between rich and poor in South Africa remains staggering, and racial inequality still underpins much of this divide.

What South Africa faces now is not just the legacy of apartheid but the challenge of uprooting its systems—tackling the deep economic and social inequalities that were hardwired into the country during Verwoerd’s reign.

The African Fight Against Neocolonialism

South Africa’s struggle is a reflection of a broader African story, one where the end of formal colonialism has not meant the end of exploitation. Neocolonialism, like apartheid, isn’t about one leader or one system; it’s about systemic power. It’s about economic control, about how multinational corporations and foreign governments still hold sway over Africa’s resources, its people, its future.

Africans face a choice: to either focus their anger on neocolonialists themselves or to concentrate on dismantling the system that allows neocolonialism to thrive. The former, while cathartic, is fleeting – akin to scratching an itch. But the latter? The latter is where the real work begins. Hating the men who control the system is easy; taking down the system itself is hard.

The fight extends beyond demonizing the neocolonialists who profit off African labor and resources. It entails dismantling the economic structures that allow them to do so. It’s a fight that requires patience, strategy, and unity across the continent. And like apartheid, it won’t fall with the death of one man—it requires tearing down the entire edifice.

Conclusion: The Long Road Ahead

In killing Hendrik Verwoerd, Dimitri Tsafendas sought to destroy apartheid at its core, but the system was too strong to die with its architect. The work of dismantling apartheid, of breaking down the structures that support racial and economic inequality, remains unfinished. And it’s a task that extends beyond South Africa. Across Africa, the fight continues, not just against neocolonial figures but against the systems they uphold.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from Tsafendas’s act, it’s this: individual acts of defiance are not enough. Dismantling a system, whether apartheid or neocolonialism, requires collective action, sustained effort, and a focus on the structures of power. The end of one leader or one era is not the end of the fight. The War is much bigger.

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