Resistance and Reform, 1973–1994

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521869836.011

9 - Resistance and Reform, 1973–1994

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2011

Edited by

Anne Kelk Mager and

Tom Lodge: Affiliation:
University of Limerick
Robert Ross: Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden
Anne Kelk Mager: Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Bill Nasson: Affiliation:
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

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Summary

Between 1973 and 1994, a succession of protests and rebellions transfigured South African political life. These eruptions assumed different forms and supplied different leaders and followers within different groups, but increasingly they converged strategically. Together, they embodied a challenge to authority without precedent in its scale, its resilience and in its depth of organisation. Early stages of this resistance engendered significant shifts in government policies. These policy shifts themselves in turn both facilitated and provoked fresh waves of revolt. Whilst opening up new opportunities for organised resistance, a combination of liberal reforms and militarised repression succeeded in containing or at least defining limits to popular insurgency. The relative success of these state policies helps to explain why the political settlement of 1994 left intact much of the structure of an extremely inequitable society.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of South Africa , pp. 409 - 491

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521869836.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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9 - Resistance and Reform, 1973–1994

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