South Africa without Apartheid?

Well, at least with a system not nearly so messed up as the OTL one...

Yea, it's a bit off the beaten track, but here are some thoughts:
Lord Carnarvon. British Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was the guy who shoved the Canada pattern confederation idea down South Africa's throat, bringing in Frere, and thereby kicking off the Zulu and Boer wars.
Evidently, the idea of going Federation, with semi-autonomy between the various states was far more popular on the ground, with even the Boer states contemplating signing up.
Carnarvon did a stint as Secretary of State from '68 to '67 when he left in a huff over some of the PM's policies. It was when he came back from '74 to '78 that he was able to push through his confederation plans.
So, if Carnarvon could somehow be prevented from returning to the position (either through political intrigue, death, illness, whatever), we'd have someone else take up the position. I'm inclined to think that just about anyone would have done a better job, and that most would have actually listened to what the Cape Colony was saying about going the Federation route (i.e. Saul Solomon), rather than Confederation.
Yes, the confederation idea was dropped in '78 when he left the post for good, but the mess he left had very far reaching consequences. An editor in the region said of Carnarvon:
He (Carnarvon) thought it no harm to adopt this machinery (Canadian Confederation System) just as it stood, even down to the numbering and arrangement of the sections and sub-sections, and present it to the astonished South Africans as a god to go before them. It was as if your tailor should say — "Here is a coat; I did not make it, but I stole it ready-made out of a railway cloak-room, I don't know whether you want a coat or not; but you will be kind enough to put this on, and fit yourself to it. If it should happen to be too long in the sleeves, or ridiculously short in the back, I may be able to shift a button a few inches, and I am at least unalterably determined that my name shall be stamped on the loop you hang it up by."

So, let's say South Africa does go the Federation route instead, maybe in the mid/late 1870's with a sizeable degree of self-governance for the Boer states (getting rid of much of the OTL hostility), and the war with the Zulu is avoided all together; rather, going something along the lines of this thread happens:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=124703

Following this line of thought, we would have a South Africa which was able to fully avoid the Xhosa, Zulu and Boer wars; and instead actually build a unified government with (potentially) recognized (mostly) independent Zulu and maybe even Xhosa states.

Race relations would still be there, but they would have been dramatically improved over OTL. Significant reductions in Boer-Anglo competition/combatantcy at the political level may lead to much more stable/equitable politics through the early/mid 20th century and Apartheid might be totally a non-issue.

Outside of South Africa itself, how would this have effected relations with Zim/Rhodesia? What might have happened in SW-Africa/Namibia? How might this have effected how SA dealt with Portuguese Moz and Angola?

Thought?
 
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Race relations would still be there, but they would have been dramatically improved over OTL.
There's an extremely deeply entrenched racist sentiment in the Boer states, though: it's unlikely you get over that. They left because of slavery, and racism is enshrined in the constitution (Article 1 of the Orange Free State constitution limits citizenships to whites, Article 8 of the Transvaal constitution says they will permit no equality between the races). It's possible that under the circumstances you suggest that the franchise in the British provinces (Natal and Cape Colony) would remain relatively colour-blind. There won't be many African voters on the electoral roll, but at least they'll be disenfranchised for the same reasons as white ones.

On the Zulu front, I think the POD is too late. What would have been interesting is if they petitioned for protectorate status in the 1840s: perhaps under Mpande, in the interest of protection from the Boers. Racial thinking might have been flexible enough at the time to accept a semi-independent African kingdom, though it'd depend on the views of the man on the spot. With a single figurehead, something the Maori lacked, they might have hung onto their autonomy under the crown; with an example of good African governance to point to, the idea that all Africans were inherently racially inferior might have been more difficult to sustain.
 
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