Word: pretoria
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Within hours South Africa demonstrated how seriously it considered the Commonwealth action. "You can rest assured we are not going to take this lying down," declared Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha. At a Pretoria press conference he announced what amounted to retaliatory actions. One was a levy on goods transported from South African ports to black states to the north. A cash deposit of 25% will now be required for imported goods bound for Zambia. In addition, a slowdown immediately went into effect at the Beit Bridge crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe, as officials began a "statistical" study...
...pressure for sanctions increased last month, Thatcher twice sent her Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, to Pretoria. His mission: to seek the release from prison of Black Leader Nelson Mandela and the "unbanning" of the African National Congress, the exiled black political movement, in the hope of heading off sanctions. Howe was rebuffed at every turn, both by black leaders angered at Thatcher's refusal to consider sanctions and by the government of State President P.W. Botha for "direct interference" in South Africa's affairs. By mid-July, Kaunda was threatening to leave the Commonwealth if Thatcher remained adamant. Reports...
...white President, P.W. Botha, saying virtually the same thing. The defiant stands on both sides of the embattled nation's apartheid clash focused on the same subject: sanctions. While Tutu had reacted angrily to Ronald Reagan's attack on the whole notion of employing punitive measures against the Pretoria government, Botha was striking out at the mounting international determination to step up pressure against South Africa...
...government has been a holdout against the use of sanctions. Howe was winding up a futile week-long attempt to open a dialogue with the key players in South Africa's racial conflict. Despite his good intentions, he had been rudely rebuffed by both sides. As Howe was leaving Pretoria, Botha held his bitter press conference. He dismissed all such mediating efforts as "direct interference in our internal affairs" and part of "this hysterical outcry of certain Western countries against South Africa...
Instead of going along with any trend toward banning textiles, the Administration shot its South Africa policy in the foot again last week by announcing that it had reached an agreement with Pretoria to increase U.S. imports of South African textiles by 4% a year. The unfortunate timing managed to outrage the advocates of protectionist legislation in the depressed U.S. textile industry even as it angered supporters of sanctions. The mild-mannered Lugar called the textile deal "hard to believe." Pennsylvania Congressman William Gray termed it "lunacy." Protested Democratic Congressman Butler Derrick, of textile-producing South Carolina: "We're wrapping...