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Escalating violence and unrest
In 1966, when Dr Verwoerd was assassinated, John Vorster became Prime Minister. In 1969, he created the Bureau of State Security (BOSS). Detainees were often subjected to imprisonment without trial, house arrests and death. At the same time, the prime minister tried to present the face of reform abroad, travelling in Africa and meeting African leaders.
In 1976, after the Soweto Uprising, the death of a 13-year-old boy sparked off nationwide protests and riots. By February the next year, nearly 600 people had died, a quarter of them children. The unrest rolled on into 1977 and despite government attempts to stop them, a whole range of grass roots organisations had arisen, and their opposition escalated through the 1980s. There were rent, bus and school boycotts, strikes and campaigns. By the end of the decade businessmen were complaining that apartheid wasn’t working. Even the government began to realise this. The white population had fallen from 21% of total population 1910 to only 16% and looked set to fall to only 10% by century’s end. There was also a shortage of skilled labour (due to the nearly non-existent education system for blacks) and the unrest was scaring away investment.
In September 1978, John Vorster was ousted from the cabinet and P W Botha became the new prime minister who embarked on a complex strategy of reform and increased use of force. For the blacks, he offered reforms, such as the legalisation of trade unions. Through the 1980s, pass laws were relaxed and replaced in 1986 with "orderly urbanisation" which unsuccessfully tried to stem the flow of blacks into the cities by limiting housing and work. In the end, Botha’s plan to create a black middle class to defuse international pressure failed. Unrest continued and Botha soon resorted to increasing force, even sabotaging and assassinating opposition activists. Violent armed clashes became common.
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How
can a country keep on running this way??