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South Africa 1960–1994: The People and the State

Growing pressure on the regime

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Sanctions and the financial crisis of 1985, the United Democratic Front and how it operated, mass resistance in the townships, Inkatha and the civil war in Natal, the state's hidden part in the violence, and the 1983 constitution and the opposition to it.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

Which foreign sanctions bit hardest in the mid-1980s?

Numbers

How was opposition to the new constitution expressed in practice?

Key term

Why was 1985 a turning point for the economy?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which foreign sanctions bit hardest in the mid-1980s?

    Model answer

    The United States Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, passed over President Reagan’s veto, together with measures agreed by the European Community and most Commonwealth governments.

  2. 2

    Why was 1985 a turning point for the economy?

    Model answer

    After Botha’s Rubicon speech promised no real reform, foreign banks refused to renew their short-term loans, the currency collapsed and the government had to freeze repayment of its debts.

  3. 3

    What was the United Democratic Front and when was it launched?

    Model answer

    An umbrella body launched in August 1983 at Mitchells Plain near Cape Town, bringing together hundreds of civic associations, church groups, student bodies and unions under leaders such as Allan Boesak and Albertina Sisulu.

  4. 4

    How could the United Democratic Front operate when the African National Congress was banned?

    Model answer

    It worked openly and legally as a loose federation, so banning one affiliate did not destroy it, while its charterist aims and symbols left nobody in doubt whose politics it shared.

  5. 5

    What did mass resistance look like in the townships after 1984?

    Model answer

    Rent, school and consumer boycotts, stayaways backed after 1985 by the new trade union federation COSATU, and street committees and people’s courts taking over from councillors who had been forced to resign.

  6. 6

    What was Inkatha and who led it?

    Model answer

    A Zulu cultural and political movement revived in 1975 by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, chief minister of the KwaZulu homeland, which rejected both sanctions and armed struggle and refused to follow the African National Congress.

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