South Africa:PW Botha And Total Strategy

Question 1

How did Botha attempt to neutralise internal opposition to apartheid in South Africa?

Answer 1

By offering Africans some limited rights

Question 2

What was Botha’s plan to neutralise internal opposition and when was it announced?

Answer 2

The Total Strategy Budget was announced in April 1979

Question 3

What were the 2 fundemental policy changes towards Africans made as part of the Total Strategy?

Answer 3

• African labour unions were legally recognised in wage negotiations
• urban Africans would be given certain rights

Question 4

What rights would urban Africans be given as part of the total strategy?

Answer 4

Included limited partition in administration boards
Opportunities for entrepreneurship and home-ownership

Question 5

What was the African opinion of the reversals of policy that were part of the Total strategy?

Answer 5

They were met with substantial African suspicion

Question 6

Why did African Unions initially refuse to participate in the new government strategy?

Answer 6

They refused to register because they feared they were providing officials with information that could lead to arrests or banning

Question 7

What was the African reaction to the urban councils set up by the government?

Answer 7

Most Africans/ coloureds/asians refused to participate

Question 8

Were the government attempts of the total strategy genuine?

Answer 8

No
The government were trying to create allies with an interest in maintaining status quo and they were having no success

Question 9

When was the total strategy announced?

Answer 9

April 1979

Question 10

What commission did Botha convene in July 1979?

Answer 10

Schlebusch Commission

Question 11

What was the Schlebusch commission?

Answer 11

A government commission organised by Botha to consider plans to rewrite the South African constitution to expand voting rights to te disenfranchised

Question 12

When was the Schlebusch commission convened?

Answer 12

July 1979

Question 13

What proposal did the Schlebusch commission lead to?

Answer 13

A tricarneral system
A proposal for seperate parliaments for coloureds and Asians but not Africans

Question 14

what group of people were excluded from the tricarneral system?

Answer 14

Africans

Question 15

The new vision of apartheid, as a result of the tricarneral system would do what?

Answer 15

present an image of rights and freedom for all in group-identified institutions

Question 16

What was the reality of the tricarneral system?

Answer 16

The groups had very little power and remained firmly in white control

Question 17

What did Botha calculate about his proposal (the tricarneral system)?

Answer 17

That it would gather enough support to blunt home and abroad opposition

Question 18

What happened to those who didnt accept/support reforms?

Answer 18

The government took increasingly brutal steps to force support
There was secret police/ military activities alongside continued official and public repression

Question 19

What led to a new internal security act?

Answer 19

A background for the government of intensified arrests and mysterious deaths in detention

Question 20

name one example of a mysterious detention death

Answer 20

Steve Biko

Question 21

What did the new Internal Security Act allow the government to do?

Answer 21

-Investigate any person or organisation
- the minister of justice gained the power to ban anyone without explanation

Question 22

How did the role of the SADF increase at this time?

Answer 22

They were given expanded authority over areas in SA. Armed forces were granted the role of policing their own citizens

Question 23

In period context, how were the SADF forces armed?

Answer 23

With SA manufactured weapons because of international arms embargo

Question 24

What areas did the SADF invade and why?

Answer 24

Other neighbouring countries where there were suspected ANC camps

Question 25

How did the government man the SADF efforts?

Answer 25

They instituted military call up of all white males between 17 and 65 to double the size of the armed forces

Question 26

What policy did the government maintain in this period relentlessly?

Answer 26

Removal of Africans from white areas

Question 27

What did the government do in order to avoid advertising the violent actions?

Answer 27

Passing legislation which succeeded in prohibiting the South African press from publishing news on a variety of subjects

Question 28

Name the legislation the prohibited the South African press

Answer 28

-Inquest Act
-Police Act
-Protection of information Act

Question 29

What was the Inquest Act?

Answer 29

Meant information on deaths in detention could not be reported

Question 30

What was the Police Act?

Answer 30

It outlawed allegations of police brutality and mal administration

Question 31

What was the Protection of Information Act?

Answer 31

It prohibited the press from reporting on arrests unless it could be proved the report would not endanger state security

Question 32

How was media censorship enacted in this period?

Answer 32

Television and radio news were controlled by the government
A growing number of newspapers were closed down or silenced through the laws against the South African press

Question 33

What did young Africans do in the wake of Soweto?

Answer 33

They fled across the northern border in their hundreds and volunteered as guerrilla soldiers for the ANC and PAC

Question 34

What did the people who had fled the northern border to work with the ANC/ PAC begin to do in the late 1970s?

Answer 34

Re-enter South Africa to carry out sabotage attacks and target various people who were seen as symbols of apartheid
They also set of bombs at numerous municipal buildings e.g post offices and courthouses

Question 35

Name 3 significant bomb attacks on SA government property and the years they happened

Answer 35

-1980: on the government owned SA coal, oil and gas corporation plant
-1982: Koeberg nuclear power station
-1983: SA airforce intelligence HQ in Pretoria

Question 36

How may reported ANC attacks on government installations were there in just 1983?

Answer 36

42

Question 37

42

Answer 37

The amount of ANC attacks on government installations in 1983 alone

Question 38

What, alongside ANC attacks, was happening in 1983?

Answer 38

-increase in strikes
-more student boycotts shut down most schools throughout the country