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Interpreting Constitutional Change in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Newell M. Stultz
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Extract

For more than a decade, the South African Government has tried to suggest that a rethinking of some of the basic tenets of that country's race policy—apartheid—was not only possible, but was actually underway. Starting with the March 1973 appointment of the Theron Commission to look into the position of the then 2·3 million Coloureds of South Africa (persons of mixed-blood), there have by April 1984 been no fewer than three government-appointed commissions of inquiry, two parliamentary select committees, and three President's Council reports—all dealing with such fundamental matters, in addition to the position of the Coloureds, as trade-union rights for blacks, the movement of Africans into urban areas, and—repeatedly—constitutional change.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 1984 , pp. 353 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

page 353 note 1 The 1980 census determined that there were 23·7 million inhabitants of South Africa, not including the populations of the ‘independent’ Homelands. Of this number, 4·4 million were whites, 2·5 million were Coloureds, 794,000 were persons of Indian ancestry, and 15·9 million were black Africans.

page 353 note 2 In addition to investigations identified later, the foregoing included the Riekert Commission on utilisation of manpower and the Wiehahn Commission that examined labour legislation (both appointed in 1977), and the 1982 joint report of the economic affairs and constitutional committees of the President's Council on local and regional management systems.

page 353 note 3 Coloureds in the Cape Province were represented in Parliament until 1970, but always (under law) by whites, A similar arrangement was offered Indians in the Transvaal and Natal in 1946, but they rejected this, and two years later the relevant legislation was repealed. Under the new constitution, a universal adult franchise will obtain for whites, Coloureds, and Indians, albeit organised on a communal basis. That is, a voter will be able only to choose candidates of his or her own race, who will be standing for election to the parliamentary chamber specified for that race.

page 354 note 1 Schrire, Robert A., ‘Constitutional Change and the Issue of Reform’, in Africans (Pretoria), 13, 1983, p. 41.Google Scholar

page 354 note 2 Adam, Heribert, Modernising Racial Domination: the dynamics of South African politics (Berkeley, 1971).Google Scholar For a more recent statement, see Toit, André du, ‘Emerging Strategies for Political Control: nationalist Afrikanerdom’, in Price, Robert M. and Rosberg, Carl G. (eds.), The Apartheid Regime: Political power and racial domination (Berkeley, 1980), pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

page 354 note 3 Hirschman, Albert O., Journeys Toward Progress (New York, 1963), p. 283.Google Scholar

page 355 note 1 For the purpose of the 1983 referendum, South Africa was divided into 16 large voting districts, making direct comparisons of returns with ordinary election results difficult. The estimates in the text are from an examination of the P.F.P. vote in the referendum by Dirk Lourie, head of the applied mathematics section of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria.

page 355 note 2 A number of such statements, though not all by recognised Progressives, have been collected in de Villiers, Fleur (ed.), Bridge or Barricade? The Constitution: a first appraisal (Johannesburg, 1983).Google Scholar

page 356 note 1 Schlemmer, Lawrence, ‘Social Indicators for Change’, in van Vuuren, D. J. et al. (eds.), Change in South Africa (Durban/Pretoria,1983), p. 269.Google Scholar

page 356 note 2 Ibid.

page 356 note 3 Huntington's, Samuel address was later published in the United States under the title ‘Reform and Stability in South Africa’, in International Security (Cambridge, Mass.), 6, 1982, pp. 3–25.Google Scholar

page 356 note 4 The cases included Japan under the Meiji Emperor at the end of the nineteenth century, Turkey under Ataturk in the 1920s, Mexico under Lazaro Cardena in the 1930s, France under Charles de Gaulle in the late 1950s, and Venezuela under Romulo Betancourt in the 1960s, among others.

page 357 note 1 This and ensuing points attributed to Huntington are taken from loc. cit. especially pp. 11–25. However, for a longer and more general statement on the idea of ‘reform-mongering’, see Huntington, Samuel P., Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven and London, 1968), chs. 3 and 6.Google Scholar

page 357 note 2 Anderson, Charles W., ‘“Reformmongering” and the Uses of Political Power’, in Inter-American Economic Affairs (Washington, D.C.), 19, 1965, p. 25.Google Scholar

page 358 note 1 Hirschman, op. cit. pp. 276–97.

page 359 note 1 For example, Schrire, loc. cit.

page 359 note 2 Ibid. p. 43.

page 360 note 1 Republic of South Africa, House of Assembly Debates (Cape Town), weekly edn. No. 15, 16–20 05 1983, cols. 7065–75.Google Scholar

page 361 note 1 Horrell, Muriel (ed.), Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1981 (Johannesburg, 1982), p. 1.Google Scholar

page 361 note 2 For a general discussion, see Stultz, Newell M., ‘Is South Africa Changing?’, Parts I and II, in American Universities Staff Reports, Nos. 35 and 36 (Hanover, N.H., 1980).Google Scholar

page 362 note 1 Huntington, loc. cit.

page 362 note 2 However, even these proceedings were open only to whites. See Thompson, L. M., The Unification of South Africa, 1902–1910 (Oxford, 1960).Google Scholar

page 362 note 3 Wiechers, Marinus, The Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 15 05 1983.Google Scholar

page 362 note 4 House of Assembly Debates, 16 05 1983, col. 7056.Google Scholar

page 362 note 5 Horrell, Muriel (ed.), Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1977 (Johannesburg, 1978), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 363 note 1 See Stultz, Newell M., ‘Consociational Engineering in South Africa’, in Journal of Contemporary African Studies (Pretoria), forthcoming.Google Scholar

page 363 note 2 Of course, the looming ‘Muldergate’ scandal in the affairs of the Department of Information may also have contributed to this decision on the part of the Prime Minister.

page 363 note 3 In addition, the Schlebusch Commission recommended (i) that the Upper House or Senate should be abolished, (ii) that a number of nominated M.P.s be added to the membership of the House of Assembly, and (iii) that a special black advisory council be established to consult with the President's Council. This last idea was later dropped by the Government when it became clear that no politically credible blacks were willing to serve in this rôle.

page 364 note 1 About 10,000 persons of Chinese ancestry live in South Africa, where their legal status under apartheid has long been ambiguous.

page 364 note 2 Republic of South Africa, First Report of the Constitutional Committee of the President's Council (Cape Town, 1982), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

page 364 note 3 Hanf, Theodor et al. , South Africa: the prospects for peaceful change (Bloomington, 1981), p. 412.Google Scholar

page 364 note 4 Department of Foreign Affairs and Information, Constitutional Guidelines: a new dispensation for Whites, Coloureds and Indians (Doornfontein, 1982), p. 2.Google Scholar

page 365 note 1 During the drafting process, the author understands that Christiaan Heunis, Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning, held frequent though unpublicised meetings with both Indian and Coloured political figures in an effort to broaden support for the resulting bill.

page 366 note 1 The Star (Johannesburg), 19 09 1983, international airmail weekly.Google Scholar

page 366 note 2 Stulz, loc. cit.

page 366 note 3 Except as indicated in fn. 3 on p. 363, above, Africans were variously represented in Parliament from 1910 until 1960, but always (under law) by whites.

page 367 note 1 House of Assembly Debates, 16 May 1983, col. 7051.

page 367 note 2 First Report, pp. 39–40.

page 367 note 3 Ibid. p. 40.

page 368 note 1 R. E. van der Ross in de Villiers (ed.), op. cit. p. 117.

page 368 note 2 Under the new constitution, bills are divided into two types, to be determined by the State President, if there is any ambiguity: those that deal with ‘own affairs’, meaning that they affect the ‘identity’ of a recognised ‘population group’, and those that deal with ‘general affairs’, meaning all others. Bills deemed to deal with ‘own affairs’ may become law with the majority support of the relevant chamber. In contrast, ‘general interest’ bills require the support in all three chambers, except as explained in the text.

page 368 note 3 The constitution provides that there shall be 178 members of the white House of Assembly, 85 members of the Coloured House of Representatives, and 45 members of the Indian House of Delegates.

page 369 note 1 The New York Times, 5 January 1984.

page 370 note 1 The only grounds for the removal of a State President (by the electoral college) are misconduct or inability to perform his duties.

page 371 note 1 First Report, p. 8.

page 371 note 2 The Sunday Times, 6 November 1983.

page 372 note 1 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 28 10 1983.Google Scholar

page 372 note 2 House of Assembly Debates, 16 May 1983, col. 7053.

page 373 note 1 Johnstone, Frederick A., ‘White Prosperity and White Supremacy in South Africa Today’, in African Affairs (London), 69, 04 1970, p. 126.Google Scholar

page 373 note 2 One such interpretation is presented by Toit, André du, ‘Political Factors Likely to Influence Constitutional Change’, in Dean, W. H. B. and van Syl Smit, Dirk (eds.), Constitutional Change in South Africa-the Next Five Years (Cape Town, 1983), pp. 21–2.Google Scholar

page 374 note 1 Leadership SA (Johannesburg), 3, 1983, pp. 11–21.Google Scholar

page 378 note 1 For a recent authoritative summary of militant black opposition to the South African régime, see Karis, Thomas G., ‘Revolution in the Making: black politics in South Africa’, in Foreign Affairs (New York), Winter 1983–1984, pp. 378–406.Google Scholar

page 379 note 1 P. W. Botha's interview in Leadership SA, previously cited, suggests that he is well aware of his own mortality.