The performing and visual arts in South Africa have always been at the forefront in promoting social change and human awareness. In a land split asunder by apartheid, the arts have brought South Africans of all races together, and, as a result, they have promoted a greater degree of harmony and understanding than any other sphere of human activity. Coupled with this is the fact that a great deal of ignorance exists overseas regarding the arts in South Africa, their true position in South African society, and what the arts community has accomplished in improving the standard of life for South Africans of all population groups.
At a time when genuine reform is beginning to emerge in South Africa at a political level, South Africans themselves tend to overlook the fact that the first cracks in the policy of apartheid occurred as long ago as 1971, through the efforts of the arts community in South Africa.
Multiracial Status
When the Nico Malan Opera House in Cape Town, the first of the four major new performing arts complexes, was opened on May 19, 1971, the government and local authorities that had funded the project announced that the complex was to be for the sole use of the white community. The furor that ensued, and in which the arts community played a leading role, soon forced the government to reconsider its stand, and the Nico Malan was duly accorded multiracial status.
In the period that followed, several professional theater managements openly defied the law and staged productions using multiracial casts, which were performed for the benefit of multiracial audiences. To the best of my knowledge, none of these managements was ever prosecuted.
In 1978, the South African Association of Theater Managements, a body comprising the majority of professional managements, succeeded in making representations to the South African government, and, on June 5, 1978, the then minister of community development, Marais Steyn, announced in Parliament that twenty-six theaters, including twelve in Johannesburg, had been granted permission by the government to open their doors immediately to all races for five performances.
It is significant to note that his breakthrough came about at a time when apartheid was firmly entrenched in South Africa's political system. At that stage, no South African would have believed that ultimately he would witness the gradual dismantling of the very cornerstones of the apartheid policy, which, in effect, has only come about beginning in 1984. In 1978, hotels, restaurants, and even sporting facilities had not, as yet, been thrown open to people of all races.
Since 1978, all theaters in South Africa offering live performances of drama, music, dance, and opera at a professional level have been fully multiracial.
Overseas Pressures
The opening of these venues to all races came about through the actions of the performing arts industry alone, and without any undue pressure from overseas being exerted. As Michale Venables, chairman of the Johannesburg Critics' Circle, has observed, "The days when a white company
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