JCH 2013 Volume 38 Issue 2

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/3207

Browse

Browsing JCH 2013 Volume 38 Issue 2 by Subject "Apartheid"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    "A decent man, but not very popular": JGN Strauss, the United Party and the founding of the Apartheid state, 1950-1956
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Mouton, F. A.
    JGN Strauss, leader of the United Party and the official parliamentary opposition between 1950 and 1956, was a flawed politician. His aloofness and inability to suffer fools meant that he lacked the popular touch, making it impossible for him to gain popularity. And yet, he never lacked courage and integrity. He was appalled by the ruthlessness of the National Party, especially its disregard for the rule of law and the entrenched clauses in the constitution protecting the Coloured franchise on the common voters roll, in creating the apartheid state. Against the wishes of a significant section in his own party he confronted the NP on these issues. A palace revolution in November 1956 led to his removal as leader of the opposition. And yet, despite the humiliating end to his political career, and the subsequent perception that he was a failure, Strauss was a shrewd and able politician who under challenging circumstances profoundly influenced white parliamentary politics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    "A decent man, but not very popular": JGN Strauss, the United Party and the founding of the apartheid state, 1950-1956
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Mouton, F. A.
    JGN Strauss, leader of the United Party and the official parliamentary opposition between 1950 and 1956, was a flawed politician. His aloofness and inability to suffer fools meant that he lacked the popular touch, making it impossible for him to gain popularity. And yet, he never lacked courage and integrity. He was appalled by the ruthlessness of the National Party, especially its disregard for the rule of law and the entrenched clauses in the constitution protecting the Coloured franchise on the common voters roll, in creating the apartheid state. Against the wishes of a significant section in his own party he confronted the NP on these issues. A palace revolution in November 1956 led to his removal as leader of the opposition. And yet, despite the humiliating end to his political career, and the subsequent perception that he was a failure, Strauss was a shrewd and able politician who under challenging circumstances profoundly influenced white parliamentary politics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Mediation by means of isolation: resistance against the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRC) during the 1980s
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Van der Merwe, Barend; Oelofse, Marietjie
    The isolation of South Africa on international terrain, especially during the 1980s, contributed to a large extent to the unfeasibility of the policy of apartheid. According to the theologian, Dr Allan Boesak, the role of the Christian society is one of the most underestimated factors in the struggle against apartheid. Churches and theologians worldwide raised their voices in resistance against the apartheid regime. Churches, inside as well as outside South Africa, increasingly criticized the theological justification of apartheid. In the process religion became an important anti-apartheid mechanism for various leaders who resisted apartheid. Although the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRC) abandoned the theological justification of the policy of racial segregation by the 1980s, the Church did not hold the point of view that the policy of apartheid was irreconcilable with the will of God. The isolation of the DRC by the international faith based institutions played a significant role on a spiritual level by increasingly discrediting the theological justification of the apartheid policy by the DRC and placing pressure on the Church to reform. The article highlights the role of international bodies like the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, as well as the South African Council of Churches. Against this background the article will debate in which ways, if any, the DRC and its power structures handled the pressure of the international and national religious communities during the 1980s.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sports isolation and the struggle against apartheid in South African sport: the sports policy of the National Party during the 1980s
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Rademeyer, Cobus
    Under the National Party (NP) government sport had been governed by apartheid laws since 1948. Towards the end of the seventies the NP introduced the idea of sports autonomy as their policy going into the 1980s. This was based on the fact that government wanted to withdraw from the development and management of sport in the country. Growing resistance from the opposition, anti-apartheid movements, sports people in South Africa, as well as from the conservative elements within the NP against apartheid in sport, continued to work against government principles. The overwhelming anti-apartheid idea that apartheid in sport was no longer the ultimate goal, but the abolishment of apartheid legislation in general emphasised the pressure on the South African government during the decade under discussion. Various small amendments to the sports policy did not bring much relief, as the struggle against apartheid and apartheid in sport intensified. Government’s frequent reassurance that sports autonomy removed government from the management sphere of sport in the country did not reach base, as various racially inclined laws and acts still ensured that governments had to intervene in sport and the practice thereof from time to time. This culminated in talks between the African National Congress (ANC) and, amongst others, a group of South African sports people, with a view to counteracting the NP’s sports policy and paved the way for more talks towards dismantling apartheid in sport and the normalisation of sporting ties in South Africa and internationally.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sports isolation and the struggle against apartheid in South African sport: the sports policy of the National Party during the 1980s
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Rademeyer, Cobus
    Under the National Party (NP) government sport had been governed by apartheid laws since 1948. Towards the end of the seventies the NP introduced the idea of sports autonomy as their policy going into the 1980s. This was based on the fact that government wanted to withdraw from the development and management of sport in the country. Growing resistance from the opposition, anti-apartheid movements, sports people in South Africa, as well as from the conservative elements within the NP against apartheid in sport, continued to work against government principles. The overwhelming anti-apartheid idea that apartheid in sport was no longer the ultimate goal, but the abolishment of apartheid legislation in general emphasised the pressure on the South African government during the decade under discussion. Various small amendments to the sports policy did not bring much relief, as the struggle against apartheid and apartheid in sport intensified. Government’s frequent reassurance that sports autonomy removed government from the management sphere of sport in the country did not reach base, as various racially inclined laws and acts still ensured that governments had to intervene in sport and the practice thereof from time to time. This culminated in talks between the African National Congress (ANC) and, amongst others, a group of South African sports people, with a view to counteracting the NP’s sports policy and paved the way for more talks towards dismantling apartheid in sport and the normalisation of sporting ties in South Africa and internationally.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The storms of reforms: South Africa's reform-strategy, c. 1980-1989
    (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, 2013) Stemmet, Jan-Ad
    2013 marks the thirtieth anniversary of South Africa’s 1983 referendum in which the majority of whites voted in favour of Pretoria’s proposed reformist constitution. The reform strategy, set out as a 12 Point Plan, was part of the grandiose Total National Strategy. The latter was conceptualized in an attempt to simultaneously enlighten the political status quo while safeguarding minority power. It implied the scrapping of a myriad of laws and regulations and a mesh of new ones – including the 1983 Constitution. In order to reform apartheid the National Party regime of PW Botha had to reform the country almost in its entirety. Pretoria nonetheless refused a statement of intent or time frame. If the reform strategy failed the minority would be left out of options and would in whatever way surrender its position of unquestionable power. Without grasping the processes inherent to this topic the processes of 1990 and thereafter cannot be understood. This article will examine the reform strategy and implementation thereof. Furthermore the article will enlight the reaction to it and so too its effect.