Word: botha
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...soldiers had allegedly attacked installations of the outlawed African National Congress, South Africa's largest black political movement. But Malan's angry words, uttered only days before South Africa's white voters were set to go to the polls this week, epitomized the attitude of State President P.W. Botha's government toward all opposition, both domestic and international...
...raid into Zambia, where South African soldiers killed five people in the town of Livingstone, near Victoria Falls, undoubtedly strengthened the Botha government's standing among its right-wing supporters. So did a crackdown on demonstrations by students in Cape Town and Johannesburg. At the University of Cape Town, where some 300 white, black and mixed-race students gathered to protest the commando raid, police used tear gas, leather whips and bird shot to break up the meeting. On May Day, fearing another wave of unrest, the government banned rallies called by 20 black unions...
...Botha government was also having troubles last week with the country's independent judiciary. Court rulings in Natal struck down two emergency regulations, one that prohibited campaigning for the release of detainees and another that restricted press reporting and public comment on unrest. The government is certain to appeal the rulings...
...despite the violence and legal challenges to Botha's policies, the results of this week's parliamentary elections were not in serious doubt. The National Party, which has ruled the country since 1948, was expected to win again, and perhaps even register a slight increase in its 116-seat majority in the 166-member House of Assembly. The opposition Progressive Federal Party, in league with the small New Republic Party, could not hope to add more than a handful of seats to its present 30. P.F.P. Leader Colin Eglin said he saw "the emergence among upwardly mobile city Afrikaners...
...Frederik van Zyl Slabbert was leader of the official opposition, the Progressive Federal Party, until he resigned in disgust last year, so his criticisms are hardly new. But he is also a former professor of sociology and thus well tuned to the new mood of intellectual disaffection. He blames Botha for much of the discontent. "He is an authoritarian President, uncomfortable with questions or discussion. In the past, the National Party was consulted; now Botha tells it what to do. This has emasculated the Parliament. The party faithful feel that they have lost control over their destiny...