Word: pretoria
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...using overwhelming force, the government was able to control the situation in the black townships, though it failed to stamp out the rioting. But the signs were growing that Pretoria is coming under increasing pressure from abroad. On Tuesday the government suspended all currency and stock-market trading until this week. That move followed a disastrous drop in the value of the South African rand, which was worth $1.29 in 1980, 80 cents in early 1984, and last week hit an all-time low of 35 cents. Another critical factor has been the refusal of many American and European banks...
Indeed, the Botha government is receiving precious little encouragement from any quarter. Though Ronald Reagan had recently described it as a "reformist" regime, Washington issued several critical statements last week concerning Pretoria's actions. For the first time, the U.S. explicitly urged South Africa to permit the A.N.C. to take part in any discussions between the government and black leaders on the country's future. In one of the strongest comments yet made on the current situation by a Reagan Administration official, State Department Spokesman Charles Redman declared: "Banning individuals and organizations from political activity is one of the most...
...there was an air of expectancy. Under intense pressure, at home and abroad, to lift the gloom created by his refusal a week earlier to indicate any path away from apartheid, P.W. Botha had a chance to clarify his intentions. Some 4,000 young people at the University of Pretoria greeted South Africa's State President with cheers, whistles and applause. But Botha did not budge. Portraying himself as a moderate operating between "radical Communist forces" and "conservative elements who shout murder and fire," he delivered much the same message as he had in his speech to members...
Black Leader Steve Biko has been a martyr to South Africa's antiapartheid movement since his death in 1977 from brain injuries suffered while in police custody. In Pretoria last week, the South African Medical and Dental Council acted against two white government doctors for their treatment of Biko. Surgeon Benjamin Tucker was found guilty of "disgraceful" conduct, including failure to examine Biko properly and allowing police to move the badly injured prisoner 700 miles overland to a prison hospital. The panel also ruled that Surgeon Ivor Lang was guilty of "improper" conduct for, among other things, failing to notice...
Washington stood firm in its opposition to Botha's policies. Warren Clark, the alternate U.S. representative to the U.N. Security Council, declared that the U.S. "rejects the establishment of the so-called interim government in Namibia as null and void. These institutions created by Pretoria have no standing." The U.S., however, along with Britain, abstained on a Security Council-passed resolution calling on member states to "consider . . . taking appropriate voluntary measures" against South Africa over its action in Namibia...