P.W. Botha Flashcards
What governmental change happened in 1978?
- Johannes Vorster resigned as prime minister
- Due to ill-health and financial scandals
- Replaced by a formidable (cunning and a brute force) opponent, P.W. Botha, who was the Defence Minister previously
Why was ‘Total Strategy’ created?
- Botha was convinced that South Africa was faced with attacks from communists outside the country and within
- South African armed forces believed this too
What did ‘Total Strategy’ involve?
- Destabilising opposition in neighbouring countries (e.g. Rhodesia, recently decolonised Mozambique and Angola)
- Limited domestic deforms that ended some measures from ‘petty apartheid’ without giving away political power
What domestic reforms did Botha make in this period?
- 1985 Mixed Marriages Act repealed
- 1986 Pass Laws abolished
- Some relaxation of segregation
- Increased spending on education for blacks
- Trade unions had more rights
What did Botha announce in 1983?
- His intention to create a tricameral parliament for Whites, Coloureds, Indians
- Blacks were excluded as they already had representation in the ‘homelands’
Why was Botha’s proposal in 1983 described as ‘smoke and mirrors’?
- Designed to convince foreigners that South Africa was fully democratic in its own way
- Fooled no one
- Too obvious that Coloured and Indian parts of the parliament had no real power
What was the purpose of Botha’s reforms?
- Focused on providing a good image rather than substance
- Wanted to preserve as much of the system as possible
What were the consequences of Botha’s reforms for the National Party?
- Negative because the party lost significant support among the white community due to fear for jobs and status
- Increased growth of opposition
What were the consequences of Botha’s reforms for the Coloured and Indians?
- Positive on a surface level (some measures of ‘petty apartheid’ were relaxed)
- Negative because real political power was not granted (low turnout in the first election for new parliament, only 20% bothered to vote)
What were the consequences of Botha’s reforms for the blacks?
- Benefited to an extent
- Dice still heavily loaded against them in areas that mattered (i.e. political power)
- Botha also developed an even more repressive security system
When did growth of opposition to the regime become clear, and what was an indicator?
- 1987 onwards
- Began to lose by-elections to the Conservative Party
Why did white extremists oppose Botha’s reforms?
- Fear for their jobs and safety
- Fear that any reforms, let alone dismantling of Apartheid, would mean a loss of power
What was the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB)?
- Led by Eugene TerraBlanche, a charismatic orator
- Created in 1970s as a response to Vorster’s minor reforms
- Aimed to create a volkstaat (republic), in which only Afrikaners could be citizens
What were the views and tactics of the AWB?
- Saw the ANC as a communist organisation
- Recruited thousands of members
- Actively opposed Botha’s reforms using neo-Nazi style marches, disrupted NP meetings
- Targeted poor whites to wide support base, supporting food parcels to the needy
- Tactics of intimidation, violence and murder was used when state of emergency was declared
What happened in July 1985?
- Botha declared a partial ‘State of Emergency’ in Eastern Cape and Praetoria
- Then extended to cover whole of South Africa in June 1986
What happened during the State of Emergency?
- Security forces surrounded townships and arrested teenage activists
- 8,000 troops were deployed
- Over 30,000 arrests were made
- Arrest warrants were not needed and those arrested could be heldy indefinitely without trial
- Strict censorship was enforced
- Torture was practices
- Organisations (e.g. UDF) were banned
- Security forces shot demonstrators and assassinated political leaders
What were the reasons Botha to declare the state of emergency?
- South Africa faced a forthcoming communists attack from outside and within (this was an excuse rather than a genuine reason)
- Townships were ungovernable because of radical Black nationalist agitators
- Botha believed that this would allow strict censorship of newspapers, television and radio, to micro-manage news and reduce ongoing negative headlines in the foreign press
How long did the State of Emergency last for?
- 5 years
- 1985-1990
What were the consequences of the state of emergency for the apartheid regime in the short term?
- Successful
- Mass arrests weakened opposition as the leaders were forced to go into hiding, in which communication was difficult
- Opposition was no match for security forces
- No future for Blacks in acts of random political violence in townships
What were the consequences of the state of emergency for the apartheid regime in the long term?
- Harmful
- Dramatised to the world that it’s sole solution to things was brute force
- Showed that they had no idea of how to achieve a lasting political settlement other than to protect white power
- Existing status as a ‘Pariah’ state intensified
How did the state of emergency contribute to the dismantling of the regime?
- Gave solid proof that the system had no answers
- Violence, censorship, dictatorial repression sparked domestic and international resistance
- Funerals of assassinated opposition leaders became political theatres
- Foreign investors began to pull out in large numbers
