Racial Equality Improvement, 1982

Hi my name is Albert Ponucata and I am a citizen of South Africa that has been paying very close attention to what has been going on involving the apartheid and my country’s people. The white political parties started to split due to the political and economic pressures that have been building up for years. In 1968 three conservatives were kicked out of Vorster’s cabinet. One of those three was the son of J.B.M. Hertzog who founded the Reconstituted National Party advocating that no concessions should be made in pursuing the apartheid. The HNP contested elections in 1970 and also four years later without winning a single seat from Vorster. But in 1978 a scandal was brought to the public’s knowledge of Vorster and many small supporters including the head of security, which showed that they those people had used government funds to secretly and illegally manipulate the media and purchase newspapers including the Washington Star. This is where P.W. Botha became the prime minister after being minister of defense since 1966.

Botha was supported by Afikaner businessmen and by armed forces leaders and initiated a self styled program of reform, which dealt with the smaller aspects of the apartheid. He also put two government commissions appointed to investigate the way labor and pass laws were applied to Africans. Then the Wiehahn Commission established in the aftermath of the strike wave of the 1970’s and argued that blacks should be allowed to be a part of trade unions and should be recognized as part of the official conciliation process. This also proposed that the elimination of statutory job reservation. All of these recommendations were approved in 1979 and resulted with huge growth in African trade unionism in the early 1980’s.

At the same time Botha deemed his enemies in order to ensure that white power would be held securely. South Africa became involved with their military in the 70’s and 80’s with extensive and multiple military interventions in the states bordering and political efforts to wipe out SWAPO in Namibia. The ANC was considered to be shut down after many arrests and bandings took place including the one of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu who were big roles in the underground ANC. Botha set up enough houses within the government so that each race was represented in the government which showed a slight depletion in the apartheid efforts.

Botha held a vote for only whites that asked if the proposals made to equal out the races in the government were supported for this constitutional change in South Africa. Many government officials were completely against these constitutional rearrangements and believed that this should exclude Africans from having any political role in South Africa. Many other politicians and businessmen were speaking alike agreeing that any change in the apartheid would be an improvement, but two thirds of those who participated in the referendum voted yes and the new houses of the South African government were formed.



-Albert Ponucata, January 2nd, 1982