This publication explains why apartheid was abandoned by South Africa’s ruling white National Party (NP) in detail and why the NP was brought back to the negotiating table with the African National Congress and other black political organisations. Until 1970, those white interest groups which perceived themselves to be adversely affected by a market economy successfully used apartheid to control ‘colour-blind’ social and economic forces to their advantage. From 1970, however, power shifted, first to other white groups with interests in the erosion or abolition of apartheid and later from whites to blacks, who also undermined apartheid. In this way, anti-apartheid market forces were directed initially by whites, then by blacks. The author examines the underlying conditions for these power shifts and the NP’s failure to maintain apartheid.