That's what I remember, too- I always believed that ( left alone and given time ) the government and businesses in South Africa would realize what a huge market the coloreds represented and see the self-defeating foolishness of holding them down as second-class citizens.
That's what the old "merchant" in me saw, anyway- you want your neighbor to do better in life because everybody eventually benefits from it.
I, too, find looking at Africa almost terminally depressing- there is so much potential, but it always seems to get short-circuited by the bad side of human nature....
They really WOULD have gotten rid of Apartheid, on their own, and by now ; IF they had been left alone. Instead, a pack of tribal Commies now govern South Africa, and Mugabe, of Zimbabwe , is one of THE worst tyrants, ever .