Sun City

The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 stripped black South Africans of their citizenship. It deprived them of their few remaining political and civil rights in South Africa, making them citizens of the supposedly autonomous Bantustans – bantu being the word for 'people' in the Bantu language.

As a supposedly independent state, Bophuthatswana could provide entertainment such as gambling and topless revue shows, which were banned in South Africa. Those factors, as well as its relatively close location to the large metropolitan areas of Pretoria and Johannesburg, soon made Sun City a popular holiday and weekend destination for South Africans and global tourists. Its developer, hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, offered substantial financial incentives to music artists to perform there – in defiance of the cultural boycott that had been imposed on South Africa by the United Nations in condemnation of apartheid. Acts that chose to accept Kerzner's incentives included the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra (1981), Status Quo, Rod Stewart (July 1983), Elton John (October 1983), and perhaps most controversially of all, Queen (1984). The resort also hosted a boxing match, for the WBA world heavyweight title, between the American holder Mike Weaver and the South African challenger Gerrie Coetzee.

Sun City was a focus for the music–industry activist group Artists United Against Apartheid (AUAA), led by guitarist Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band (Bruce Springsteen's backing band). In 1985, AUAA released a single entitled Sun City, in which 49 top recording artists pledged not to perform at the resort because of their opposition to apartheid.

Since the dismantling of Apartheid in 1994, Sun City has been re–incorporated (along with the rest of Bophutatswana and the other Bantustans) into South Africa. It has continued to host not only rock and pop concerts, but other high–profile events such as Bollywood film awards, film Premieres, and beauty pageants – including Miss World five times.