Word: botha
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...policy: perpetuation of power by the country's whites, who number only about 5 million, or 18% of the population. Now, however, deep fissures have appeared within the ruling party. Sixteen members of Parliament, including two Cabinet members, have broken with the government of Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha and formed a new, far-right political group, the Conservative Party. They accused Botha of straying from the apartheid precepts set by the ruling party more than a generation ago. The public debate that erupted as a result may be the fiercest within the country's white community since...
Leading the defectors is Dr. Andries Treurnicht, a former clergyman and editor who had been Botha's Minister of State Administration and Statistics as well as the head of the National Party's right wing. Along with him went Dr. Ferdinand Hartzenberg, who had served as Minister of Education and Training. Exuding confidence, the Prime Minister accused the dissident group of "insubordination" and added that its members would not be missed...
...Botha's ruling party is considering the creation of three separate-but not equal-parliaments for whites, coloreds and Asians. A council of Cabinets, with a white majority, would coordinate government policy under the direction of an executive President, who would be chosen by a white-dominated electoral college. In effect, whites would remain in charge, but coloreds and Asians would be represented to some extent...
...power-sharing issue has suddenly become urgent because Botha would like to include colored males in the national service system. But he believes he cannot justifiably do so until the colored community is given a voice in its own affairs...
...party accepts the proposals, the government may submit them next year to separate referendums of the white, colored and Asian communities. Replying to Treurnicht, whose group opposes any notion of power sharing, Botha declared: "We are not taking a highway to complete integration [but are seeking] the decent, Christian course of action in granting the coloreds the right of self-determination in their own affairs." His Minister of Police Louis le Grange put it more vehemently. The country's whites, he warned, could not reject power sharing forever "and then bluff yourselves into thinking that you are not sitting...