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Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999

The collapse of Apartheid 1978–1989: the state in 1978 and Botha’s Total Strategy

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the apartheid state’s strengths and weaknesses in 1978, adapt or die, Total Onslaught and Total Strategy, Botha’s labour reforms and repeals, the tricameral constitution and the white right.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

How did Botha's reforms change the position of black workers?

Numbers

Which symbolic apartheid laws did Botha repeal?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What strengths did the apartheid state still possess in 1978?

    Model answer

    It had a powerful economy and armed forces, an efficient security police, an electorate solidly behind the National Party, and no organised internal opposition capable of challenging it.

  2. 2

    What weaknesses and threats faced apartheid by 1978?

    Model answer

    The buffer of friendly colonial regimes had gone with the independence of Mozambique and Angola, the economy needed skilled black labour it refused to train, black trade unionism was reviving, and international isolation was deepening.

  3. 3

    What did Botha mean by ‘adapt or die’?

    Model answer

    He accepted that apartheid had to be modernised if white rule was to survive, reforming its most costly features while strengthening the security state.

  4. 4

    Define Total Onslaught.

    Model answer

    It was the government's claim that South Africa faced a co-ordinated communist assault directed from Moscow through neighbouring states and internal opponents.

  5. 5

    Explain what Botha meant by Total Strategy.

    Model answer

    It was Botha's answer to the perceived onslaught, mobilising military, economic and political resources together under a security establishment that dominated policy-making.

  6. 6

    How did Botha's reforms change the position of black workers?

    Model answer

    Following the Wiehahn recommendations black trade unions were legalised and job reservation was largely abandoned, while influx control was eased for those with urban rights and finally the pass laws were repealed in 1986.

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