Divided Against Itself: South Africa's White Polity

Peter B. Orlik

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00019625

Divided Against Itself: South Africa's White Polity

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Peter B. Orlik

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What many prominent Afrikaners heralded as a new era of independence began on 6 October 1960, when a referendum was held to determine whether or not the populace wished South Africa to become a republic. As in virtually all other aspects of national political action, only Whites could voice their opinion via the ballot. Supported by the largely Afrikaner Nationalist Party and opposed by the predominantly English-stock United Party, the referendum, passed by approximately 850,000 to 776,000 votes, probably constituted one of the best indices of the relative strength of Afrikaner and non-Afrikaner elements among South Africa's ruling White polity.1 This dichotomy within the White elite and the friction which still sustains it have their roots in the late nineteenth century, when the Briton vanquished the Boer. Now, the situation has largely reversed itself while the animosities remain.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , July 1970 , pp. 199 - 212

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00019625 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

^{Page 199 note 1} de Blij, Harm J., Africa South (Evanston, 1962), p. 198.Google Scholar

^{Page 200 note 1} The Times (London), 31 01 1961.Google Scholar

^{Page 200 note 2} Ibid. 16 March 1961.

^{Page 200 note 3} Ibid. 2 June 1962.

^{Page 201 note 1} Milburn, Josephine F., Governments of the Commonwealth (New York, 1965), p. 108.Google Scholar

^{Page 202 note 1} Ibid. pp. 116–17.

^{Page 202 note 2} Karis, Thomas, ‘South Africa’, in Carter, Gwendolen M. (ed.), Five African Slates: responses to diversity (Ithaca, N.Y., 1963), pp. 585–6.Google Scholar

^{Page 203 note 1} Republic of South Africa, House of Assembly Debates (Pretoria), 7 05 1962, cols. 5108–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 203 note 2} Carter, Gwendolen M., The Politics of Inequality: South Africa since 1948 (New York, 1958), p. 60.Google Scholar

^{Page 203 note 3} van den Berghe, Pierre L., South Africa: a study in conflict (Middletown, Conn., 1965), p. 130.Google Scholar

^{Page 204 note 1} The Times, 9 August 1963.

^{Page 204 note 2} Ibid. 1 December 1964.

^{Page 205 note 1} Milburn, op. cit. pp. 54–5.

^{Page 205 note 2} The Times, 20 October 1961.

^{Page 205 note 3} Karis, loc. cit. p. 530.

^{Page 205 note 4} Spooner, F. P., South African Predicament: the economics of apartheid (New York, 1962), pp. 132–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 206 note 1} Carter op. cit. p. 50.

^{Page 206 note 2} Karis, loc. cit. p. 529.

^{Page 207 note 1} van den Berghe, op. cit. p. 86.

^{Page 207 note 2} The Times, 20 October 1961.

^{Page 207 note 3} van den Berghe, op. cit. p. 172.

^{Page 208 note 1} Karis, op. cit. p. 523.

^{Page 208 note 2} Spooner, op. cit. pp. 116–17.

^{Page 208 note 3} The Times, 1 April 1966.

^{Page 209 note 1} Spooner, op. cit. pp. 117–18.

^{Page 209 note 2} Delius, Anthony, ‘Verwoerd Tightens the Screws’, in The Reporter (New York), 1 07 1965, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

^{Page 209 note 3} Interview with Father Robert Barrett, 1 May 1968.

^{Page 210 note 1} Letter dated 28 March 1968 from Basil Sloman.

^{Page 210 note 2} Letter dated 11 June 1968 from the Hon. Helen Suzman, M.P.

^{Page 210 note 3} Letter dated 30 June 1968 (name withheld).

^{Page 210 note 4} Letter dated 25 June 1968 from a South African radio actor (name withheld by request).

^{Page 211 note 1} ‘The Cabinet Shuffled,’ in News/Check (Johannesburg), 16 02 1968, p. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 211 note 2} Otto Krause, ‘South Africa Voting for Television’, ibid. 12 December 1969, p. 7.

^{Page 211 note 3} Letter dated 7 January 1970 from a South African sociology lecturer (name withheld by request).

^{Page 212 note 1} Interview with a South African ship's purser (name withheld by request), October 1968.

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