Word: kragdadigheid
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...Merwe's statements before Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission marked a turning point in the process of seeking redress for the brutality suffered by millions of South Africans during apartheid's kragdadigheid ("ironfistedness"). Set up by President Nelson Mandela last year, the commission has heard mainly from victims. But while many of their stories were moving, the inquiry was perceived as largely feckless, unable to tie the crimes to perpetrators, black or white, on either side of apartheid. Despite offers of amnesty, alleged culprits refused to confess because they were convinced they could get a better deal...
...elections in two Transvaal constituencies. Botha's ruling National Party is eager to win back at least one of the seats from the far-right Conservatives, who seized them in last May's general election and supplanted the liberal Progressive Federal Party as the official opposition in Parliament. Kragdadigheid, or a show of strength, is a standard tool in Afrikaner electioneering, and the security of South African borders and the country's white minority has long been the central plank in the National Party's political platform...
Among South Africa's Afrikaner politicians, it is axiomatic that kragdadigheid, a show of strength, wins elections. With that strategy in mind, the National Party government of State President P.W. Botha has been preparing for the May 6 whites-only parliamentary elections by pouring on just about as much kragdadigheid as the country can bear. His government last week was threatening to strike at neighboring countries that might be harboring anti- Pretoria guerrillas and was attempting to enforce harsh new regulations against opposition demonstrations at home...
...sanctions from abroad and a profound unrest kindled by one of the country's worst recessions in 50 years, seemed increasingly to be on the defensive. Yet, as ever, the more pressure exerted on the leadership, the deeper it dug in its heels, and the more it retreated into kragdadigheid, or a mailed-fist attitude. In an interview on ABC's Nightline program, Botha declared defiantly, "I am going to keep order in South Africa, and nobody is going to stop...
Kruger has from time to time advocated a new deal for his country's African population and has helped to desegregate some of the country's best hotels and restaurants. He is far better known, however, for his kragdadigheid (iron-fistedness). He has defended the actions of his police to the hilt, declaring them to be "in the forefront of the fight to combat Communism [which is] infiltrating the country." Asked why the police did not use rubber bullets during the June rioting in Soweto in which 176 were killed, Kruger replied: "Rubber bullets give the impression...