Word: botha
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...Under heavy pressure, the government takes steps toward change % THAT WAS WIDELY EXPECTED TO HERALD SIGNIFICANT REFORMS IN SOUTH AFRICA'S APARTHEID SYSTEM, HE DISAPPOINTED THE WORLD AND SOME OF HIS COUNTRYMEN BY SAYING PRACTICALLY NOTHING. LAST WEEK, AS PRESSURE ON SOUTH AFRICA CONTINUED TO MOUNT FROM EVERY SIDE, BOTHA AND HIS GOVERNMENT MADE TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT COULD ALTER...
...address before a provincial congress of his ruling National Party in Bloemfontein, Botha declared that South Africa would henceforth grant citizenship to those blacks who live in the country's urban areas but are nominal citizens of the four "independent" homelands created within the boundaries of South Africa over the past nine years. A day later, a presidential commission recommended to Botha the scrapping of "influx control" regulations, or pass laws, by which the movements of South African blacks have been controlled since...
...even centuries overdue. But in South Africa, they were seen as significant cracks in the structure of "grand" apartheid envisioned by the late Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. Helen Suzman, a veteran antiapartheid Member of Parliament, called the proposed changes "probably the most important step forward in 30 years." Botha had said nothing about parliamentary representation for the black majority, she conceded, let alone the right to vote. But, she said, "the abolition of pass laws and influx control, to my mind, is something that should be welcomed by every South African hoping for a peaceful solution...
...Botha announced his latest reform efforts after pressure at home and overseas had reached almost unbearable intensity. Unrest has been sweeping South Africa's impoverished black townships for more than a year, resulting in the loss of more than 700 lives, the majority killed by police. During a two- month-old state of emergency in 36 districts, violence has waxed and waned as the government rushed police and army units into troubled areas. At the same time, the Botha government has begun to feel the heat of disapproval abroad. The withdrawal of credit by a number of U.S. and other...
...South African businessmen flew to neighboring Zambia for a six-hour meeting with the exiled leaders of the African National Congress, the oldest black South African political organization, which is outlawed at home. The businessmen, led by Gavin Relly, head of the giant Anglo American Corporation, were undeterred by Botha's warning that such a meeting would be "a disloyal act," and afterward pronounced it a success...