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South Africa 1960–1994: The People and the State

The State of Emergency and the failure of total strategy 1985–1990

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Where emergency rule was imposed, the powers it gave the security forces, restrictions on journalists, what it achieved and at what price, verligte and verkrampte, the Conservative Party breakaway, the failure of total strategy and Cuito Cuanavale.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did the terms verligte and verkrampte mean?

Numbers

What did emergency rule achieve, and at what price?

Numbers

Why did the fighting at Cuito Cuanavale matter?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    When was emergency rule first imposed, and how far did it spread?

    Model answer

    On 20 July 1985 in thirty-six districts, chiefly in the Eastern Cape and the Vaal, then over the whole country from 12 June 1986, renewed every year until 1990.

  2. 2

    What powers did emergency rule give the security forces?

    Model answer

    They could arrest and hold people without charge or trial, break up meetings and funerals and impose curfews, and they were largely protected from prosecution for what they did.

  3. 3

    What restrictions were placed on journalists under emergency rule?

    Model answer

    They were forbidden to film or report unrest, so the television pictures that had shocked viewers abroad stopped reaching them.

  4. 4

    What did emergency rule achieve, and at what price?

    Model answer

    Tens of thousands of detentions did drive open revolt off the streets by 1988, but the government won no consent and the crackdown brought sanctions and the loss of foreign credit.

  5. 5

    What did the terms verligte and verkrampte mean?

    Model answer

    The enlightened wing of the National Party, ready to reform and eventually to share power, and the narrow wing, which regarded any concession as surrender.

  6. 6

    Which party broke away from the National Party in 1982, and why?

    Model answer

    The Conservative Party under Andries Treurnicht, formed in protest at Botha’s plan to give Coloureds and Indians their own chambers of parliament, and it drew away much of the Afrikaner working-class vote.

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