Word: botha
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...supposed to be a time of ceremony and celebration, as South Africa admitted nonwhite members to its national Parliament and prepared to swear into office its first executive State President, Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha, who now becomes head of both state and government. Instead the week will be remembered for the worst wave of violence to sweep the country in eight years. It was an ominous welcome to the new "reform" constitution, which grants a measure of political power to South Africa's Indian and so-called colored, or mixed-race, minorities but none whatever to the blacks...
Opposition turned violent near Johannesburg, where more than 100 people were injured as police used tear gas and sjamboks (whips made of hide) against Indian demonstrators. Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha is nonetheless determined to proceed with the three-part Parliament, which will begin deliberations in Cape Town later this month...
...citizens of Indian origin. Whites will retain almost total control of legislation, but coloreds and Indians will be allowed to pass bills that would affect them as racial groups. Proponents of the new system point to it as evidence that the government of Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha is serious about its promises of political reform. But because the country's 23 million blacks are completely excluded from the new Parliament, some critics regard it as a divide-and-conquer strategy to set blacks against coloreds and Indians. The United Nations Security Council, with the U.S. and Britain abstaining...
During his 16-day, eight-nation tour of Western Europe, which concluded last week, South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha emphasized his eagerness to resolve the issue of Namibia, the South West African territory that his nation has ruled for decades in defiance of the United Nations. In Bonn and London, Botha agreed to remove his troops from the area on condition that five West European nations take over at their own expense and, at the same time, that Cuba withdraw its forces from neighboring Angola. In Zurich, Botha guaranteed "safe passage" for Sam Nujoma, head of the nationalist South...
Meanwhile, back in Namibia, scores of camouflaged policemen were stealing up on a group of 37 SWAPO leaders and supporters enjoying a barbecue. All 37 were jailed without charge, then released from custody just as abruptly four days later. Were Botha and his government embarrassed by the timing of the arrests? "Yes," snapped a government official in Pretoria. "Next question...