Earliest Possible End to the Apartheid

South Africa had really suffered under the embargo and despite their great natural resources, they never recovered until after the Republic's end. I want to know if there is any chance of ending the Apartheid earlier and what the effects on South Africa would be. Bonus if you have them still develop a nuclear program and they don't give up their nukes in the 90's.
 

Cook

Banned
Why not avoid its introduction in the first place? Prior to Cecil Rhodes becoming Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, blacks were eligible to vote if they complied with the property requirements (universal suffrage did not exist for blacks, but it didn’t exist for whites either) and some black businessmen owned mining leases at the Kimberley. Rhodes abolished their rights to both, setting the country on a path that would lead to Apartheid.
 
Why not avoid its introduction in the first place? Prior to Cecil Rhodes becoming Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, blacks were eligible to vote if they complied with the property requirements (universal suffrage did not exist for blacks, but it didn’t exist for whites either) and some black businessmen owned mining leases at the Kimberley. Rhodes abolished their rights to both, setting the country on a path that would lead to Apartheid.

Good idea. Have Cecil Rhodes die early and hopefully horribly, like being eaten by a crazed marmoset. That way we'd never have had that dreadful drama series based on his life inflicted on us all.
 
Why not avoid its introduction in the first place? Prior to Cecil Rhodes becoming Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, blacks were eligible to vote if they complied with the property requirements (universal suffrage did not exist for blacks, but it didn’t exist for whites either) and some black businessmen owned mining leases at the Kimberley. Rhodes abolished their rights to both, setting the country on a path that would lead to Apartheid.

That is not a bad one.

But Rhodes's death may butterfly away the Union of South Africa.

There are two other PODs that Isee here, either Rhodesia joins the Union in 1922 (there was quite a long thread on this about a month ago), or another POD that has been done quite a lot, the UP beats the Nats in '48 (not a stretch, they won far more overall votes that the Nats, but came short with regard to constituencies.
 
Change Smuts's thinking by giving him a stroke shortly after the war, and a rekindling of friendship with Gandhi and Kant. A reinvigorated and better organized United Party that organized amongst the northern farmers could dispel the myths of Kaffir threats to their dominance against HNP populism. Though Smuts does not live to see his new mission to completion, a new generation of United Party politicians forge a new national identity throughout the 1950s based on all groups working together for the good of the country.

South Africa agrees to both of the UN demands domestically and wrt SW African native consultations in 1946. Co-operation with Israel continues albeit even stronger: the new SA recognizes a fellow traveller in nationbuilding, able to channel formerly racist notions of dominance into betterment. By 1958 blacks are once again allowed to vote on free and almost even terms, with a shift to the Alternative Vote system to keep extreme minority parties out - principally seen as the ANC, the Communists, and the remnants of the HNP hardliners. A puppet ANC-lite is co-opted into the United Party as a caucus, with blacks and Indians encouraged to join to legitimize the state and ruling classes. South Africa is the third nation to sign Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.

The emerging South African national army "advises" the Rhodesian resistance against segregationism, funding the NDP of Joshua Nkomo. while not formally opposing UDI in 1965, but training and supplying ZAPU paramilitaries. Namibian recognition of South African development assistance and political support is shown through a referendum supporting joining the South African state. The mandate formally becomes a province of South Africa in 1967, and UN monitors depart. Uranium mining begins covertly, and the strong Israeli co-operation continues as South Africa strongly supports Israel in the 1967 and 1970 wars, portraying its enemies as Arab proponents of segregation and shariah fighting a liberal, secular, and inclusive state.

The 1970 election is inconclusive as the UP begins to stagnate and old divisions re-arise. The Progressive Labour Party has its best result yet since merging in the mid 1960s, and enters coalition with the UP. To the rage of the remaining segregationists, all leftovers of Rhodes' legacy in South Africa are removed and the Equality Proclamation is made by home secretary Pik Botha in 1973.

The government's ability to hold the country together is put to the test when a fission bomb of unknown provenance explodes in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1974, wiping out most of the white government and security apparatus at a single stroke. The weapon is later revealed to have been made from South African uranium and Israeli manufacture, smuggled out of the country by segregation sympathists to the Rhodesian regime. Its accidental explosion brings the war to a swift surrender and Nkomo to power, wipes out lingering support for white supremacy in Africa and forces both South Africa and Israel to answer difficult questions about their secret programme...
 
Decent scenario but I don't see a white dominated, relatively conservative SA support black guerillas in Rhodesia.
 
Indeed. Also, if SA liberalised a little post WW2 rather than go as per OTL, that may well have implications in Rhodesia.

UDI may not happen at all, or at least in a different way. The leadership and voters of the RF/etc no doubt took some comfort knowing that they had a sympathetic South Africa next door who could act as a patron in the absence of the UK. Without a sympathetic patron, their decision may well end up different
 
For clarity sake, the Republic did not end in 1994, it merely changed its political structure.

In respect of the earliest end of Apartheid, it could have been abandoned at any time in the rule of the National Party. However, if Apartheid as a political philosophy had not been implemented by the Nats, it seems inevitable that some other form of enforced segregation, milder OR worse, would have happened.
 
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