Constructed-Response Practice Set 2

Document A: "Article 1: Every person shall be classified by the Director of Population Registration as a member of one of the following groups: White; Coloured; Native (Black). Article 16: No marriage shall be solemnized between a European and a non-European." — Apartheid laws of South Africa, 1950–1953

Document B: "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has heard testimony from victims of apartheid-era violence and from perpetrators who applied for amnesty. The Commission's premise is that South Africa cannot move forward without facing the truth about what happened, but that prosecution of all responsible would deepen division." — Description of the TRC, mid-1990s

Q1: Identify two ways apartheid law classified and restricted South Africans.

Required legal classification of every South African by race; prohibited marriage between Europeans and non-Europeans.

Q2: Explain the purpose of the TRC.

To confront the truth about apartheid-era crimes through public testimony from victims and perpetrators, offering amnesty in exchange for full accounts, prioritizing truth and reconciliation over universal prosecution that would deepen division.

Q3: Explain the transformation of South Africa from apartheid to democracy.

The transformation combined internal resistance (ANC, Mandela, sustained imprisonment and exile), international pressure (sanctions, cultural isolation), and negotiated transition. De Klerk recognized apartheid was untenable and released Mandela in 1990. Four years of negotiations produced a new constitution and the first non-racial elections (1994), with Mandela as first Black president. The TRC then enabled confronting the past through testimony rather than mass prosecution.