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South African Perspectives and Responses to External Pressures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John Seiler
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to explore the pattern of South African responses to external pressures. My study grows out of a concern with the regional conflict situation in Southern Africa, whose dimensions have become relatively clear only since the coup in Portugal in April 1974. Whatever the specific details of the policies and actions of the rest of the world; these should not rest on a misperception of the basic motivation and dynamics of South African decision-making vis-à-vis external pressures.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 1975 , pp. 447 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

Page 447 note 1 Hyam, Ronald, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 448 note 1 Spence, J. E., ‘Tradition and Change in South African Foreign Policy’, in The Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies (Leicester), I, 2, 1962, pp. 136–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 448 note 2 Stultz, Newell M., ‘The Politics of Security: South Africa under Verwoerd, 1961–1966’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), VII, 1, 04 1969, pp. 3–20;CrossRefGoogle Scholarde Kiewiet, C. W., ‘The World and Pretoria’, in Africa Report (New York), XIV, 2, 02 1969, pp. 46–52;Google Scholar and also Barratt, John, ‘South Africa's Outward Policy: from isolation to dialogue’, in Nic, Rhoodie (ed.), South African Dialogue (Johannesburg, 1972), pp. 543–61.Google Scholar

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Page 449 note 1 Toit, André du, ‘Ideological Change, Afrikaner Nationalism, and Pragmatic Racial Domination in South Africa’, in Jeffrey Butler and Leonard Thompson (eds.), Change in Southern Africa (forthcoming).Google Scholar

Page 450 note 1 Preez, Peter du, ‘The Construction of Alternatives in Parliamentary Debate: psychological theory and political analysis’, The Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies, University of Cape Town, 1972,Google Scholar Reprint No. 81, also published in The South African Journal of Psychology (Johannesburg), II, 1972 pp. 23–40.Google Scholar

Page 450 note 2 W. J. de Klerk, ‘The Concepts “Verkramp” and “Verlig”’, in Rhoodie (ed.), op. cit. pp. 519–31.

Page 450 note 3 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 10 10 1974 p. 9:Google Scholar Professor Gerrit Viljoen, Rector of the Rand Afrikaans University, speaking to the Broederbond.

Page 451 note 1 House of Assembly Debates (Cape Town), 9 09 1974,Google Scholar col. 2943: M.S.F. Grobler, National Party M.P.

Page 451 note 2 Financial Mail (Johannesburg), 9 03 1973, p. 863;Google Scholar and Rand Daily Mail, 15 06 1973, p. 6:Google Scholar the Minister of Economic Affairs in response to parliamentary questions.

Page 451 note 3 I know of only two published references since 1960 to the possibility of détente with the Soviet Union. The first was an abortive venture by verkrampte members of the Cabinet to raise the issue of recognition; see Schoeman, Beaumont, Van Malan tot Verwoerd (Cape Town and Pretoria, 1973),Google Scholar reviewed in the Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 3 06 1973.Google Scholar The second was a parliamentary inquiry during 1973 which was gently squashed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs; House of Assembly Debates, 9 May 1973, cols. 6114 and 6130.

Page 451 note 4 To the Point (Johannesburg), 29 01 1972, pp. 48–55.Google Scholar

Page 451 note 5 A recent reiteration was broadcast in the S.A.B.C. ‘Current Affairs’, 11 09 1974.Google Scholar

Page 452 note 1 Munger, Edwin S., Notes on the Formation of South African Foreign Policy (Pasadena, 1965), p. 85.Google Scholar

Page 452 note 2 For details of the co-ordinative arrangements between the Departments of Information and Foreign Affairs, see Mulder, C. P., House of Assembly Debates, 2 10 1974, cols. 4282–83.Google Scholar Concerning the rôle of the Secretary of Information, Eschel Rhoodie, see the article by van Schoor, Mostert in The Star (Johannesburg), 7 06 1974.Google Scholar

Page 452 note 3 South African embassies have increased from 17 in 1963 to 26 in 1974, with most additions in Latin America. Mulder, C. P., House of Assembly Debates, 10 09 1974, col. 404.Google Scholar

Page 453 note 1 See the West German supplement in the Financial Mail, 4 10 1974, pp. 37–8,Google Scholar and the report on recent Arab investments by Stephen Muiholland in the Sunday Times, 13 October 1974.

Page 453 note 2 Owen, Ken, ‘The IMF Lesson SA Must Learn’, in The Star, 10 10 1974, p. 10.Google Scholar

Page 453 note 3 Cf. Denis Worrall, ‘South Africa's Reactions to External Criticism’, in Rhoodie (ed.), op. cit. p. 585: ‘all the pressure notwithstanding, the thrust of change in South Africa has been in the opposite direction from that demanded by the country's critics’. According to Lipton, Merle, ‘Independent Bantustans?’, in International Affairs (London), 48, 5, 01 1972, p. 16:Google Scholar ‘Possibly the main single pressure towards independence for the Bantustans is the outside world — not because it wants or is even interested in the policy but because it requires some concessions from South Africa.’

Page 454 note 1 Sunday Times, 24 06 1973, Magazine Section, p. 8:Google Scholar translation from Schoeman, Van Malan tot Verwoerd.

Page 454 note 2 Meiring, Piet, Inside Information (Cape Town, 1973), p. 166;Google ScholarMiller, J. D. B., ‘South Africa's Departure’, in The Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies, I, 1, 11 1961, pp. 56–74;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and also Barber, James, South Africa's Foreign Policy, 1945–1970 (London, 1973), pp. 163–7.Google Scholar

Page 455 note 1 Barber, op. cit. pp. 168–72. For a reference to a 1954 initiative by Prime Minister D. F. Malan to incorporate the Territories, perhaps against U.K. opposition, see Beukes, Piet, ‘Talking Point’, in To the Point, 26 07 1974, p. 25.Google Scholar

Page 455 note 2 Cf. Barber, op. cit. p. 162 concerning contacts with Katanga.

Page 455 note 3 Ibid. pp. 172–3, also cited by du Toit, loc. cit.

Page 455 note 4 De Kiewiet, loc. cit. and Barber, op. cit. pp. 213ff.

Page 455 note 5 Munger, Edwin S., ‘New White Politics in South Africa’, in Hance, William A. (ed.), Southern Africa and the United States (New York, 1968), pp. 66–7.Google Scholar

Page 456 note 1 As regards attitudes in Malawi, see Hoagland, Jim in the Washington Post, 21 08 1971,Google Scholar and Munger, Edwin S., ‘Die Afrikaner Soos Gesien in Die Buiteland’ [‘Foreign Views of the Afrikaner’], Centre for Intergroup Studies, University of Cape Town, 03 1974.Google Scholar

Page 456 note 2 Personal interviews, 1974. It appears that parallel effort towards détente were made in the same period by a representative of the Lesotho Government.

Page 456 note 3 Personal interview, June 1972.

Page 456 note 4 Washington Post, 6 October 1971, and New York Times, 6 and 9 October 1971.

Page 457 note 1 Landell-Mills, P. M., ‘The 1969 Southern African Customs Union Agreement’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, IX, 2, 08 1971, pp. 263–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 457 note 2 A notable exception was in June 1973, when South African air-force helicopters dropped food and blankets to Basotho who were stranded in a snowstorm in the Malutj Mountains.

Page 457 note 3 Landell-Mills, loc. cit. pp. 269–71; also Financial Mail, 13 10 1972, pp. 67–9, and 8 12 1972, p. 995.Google Scholar

Page 457 note 4 Geldenhuys, D. J., ‘Lesotho en Suid-Afrika — 'n studie in waagpolitiek’ [‘Lesotho and South Africa: a study in political brinkmanship’], in Politikon (Pretoria), I, 1, 06 1974, pp. 28–43.Google Scholar

Page 457 note 5 The Star Weekly (Johannesburg), 9 06 1973, p. 12,Google Scholar discussing Schoeman's Van Malan tot Verwoerd.

Page 457 note 6 Serfontein, J. H. P. in the Sunday Times, 17 06 1973, p. 7.Google Scholar

Page 458 note 1 The Lesotho Government criticised the South African Government for supporting Mokhehle's wing of the Basutoland Congress Party, notably for allowing him and some of his supporters access to and transit through the Republic — apparently by train for a large part of the journey — on to Botswana. See The Star, 24 January and 1 February 1974. When the Prime Minister of Lesotho reviewed the situation before the Interim National Assembly, he referred specifically to the Republic only in connection with the proposal to exchange B.C.P. men for South African political émigrés, which he was unwilling to consider. Hansard. Official Report (Maseru), 15 02 1974.Google Scholar

Page 458 note 2 ‘Southern Africa: weakening links’, Financial Mail, 22 06 1973, pp. 1109–10.Google Scholar

Page 458 note 3 See Sunday Times, 6 10 1974, p. 55Google Scholar for an assessment of South Africa's B.L.S. policy as ‘A decade of lost initiatives, tragic blunders, squandered opportunities’. For a review of Swaziland's relations with South Africa, see the Financial Mail, 1 11 1974, pp. 447–8.Google Scholar

Page 458 note 4 Strydom, Hans in the Sunday Times, 20 10 1974, p. 13.Google Scholar

Page 459 note 1 House of Assembly Debates, 30 August 1974, cols. 1850 ff.

Page 459 note 2 Ibid. 9 September 1974, col. 2537.

Page 459 note 3 Ibid. 10 September 1974, col. 2590.

Page 459 note 4 The Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth), 17, 18, and 25 09 1974.Google Scholar

Page 459 note 5 Financial Mail, 4 10 1974, pp. 37–8, West German Supplement.Google Scholar

Page 459 note 6 House of Assembly Debates, 2 October 1974, cols. 4300–8, Minister of Information, C.P. Mulder, justifying the success of the new approach. See also the Financial Mail, 18 10 1974, pp. 233–4.Google Scholar

Page 460 note 1 For excerpts of a recent B.B.C. interview with Vorster, see the Rand Daily Mail, 25 11 1974, p. 7,Google Scholar and for the problems of co-ordination facing Rhoodie, see the Financial Mail, 29 11 1974, p. 859.Google Scholar

Page 460 note 2 For Muller's invitation to journalists to visit the Caprivi Strip, see D'Oliveira, John, The Star, 5 08 1974, p. 1,Google Scholar also Hitchcock, Bob, Rand Daily Mail, 21 and 22 08 1974.Google Scholar All editorials in both the English and Afrikaans press were favourable towards the initiative of the South African Government and its outcome, although The Star, 21 08 1974, p. 28,Google Scholar did suggest tartly that the same candour might be usefully applied towards the situation in Ovamboland and in the Republic itself.

Page 460 note 3 House of Assembly Debates, 2 October 1974, cols. 4234 and 4281: C. P. Mulder on black Information officers.

Page 460 note 4 The Star, 3 October 1974, and Rand Daily Mail, 4 and 5 October 1974.

Page 460 note 5 House of Assembly Debates, 10 September 1974, cols. 414–19.

Page 461 note 1 Rand Daily Mail, 5 10 1974, p. 8.Google Scholar On the difilculties of responding to the B.B.C. film, see Mulder, C.P., House of Assembly Debates, 2 10 1974, cols. 4295–2, and 15 10 1974, cols. 730–2.Google Scholar

Page 461 note 2 Imrie, John, Sunday Times, 2 06 1974, p. 13.Google Scholar

Page 461 note 3 For the distinction between ‘discrimination’ and ‘differentiation’ as seen by Vorster, see The Eastern Province Herald, 16 09 1974 p. 2.Google Scholar Cf. also Patten, John, The Star, 11 10 1974, p. 27.Google Scholar

Page 462 note 1 Financial Mail, 4 10 1974, pp. 37–8,Google Scholar and Clark, Caroline, Sunday Times, 13 and 20 10 1974 pp. 1 and 7 respectively.Google Scholar

Page 462 note 2 For background information on this policy review, see Cowley, Clive, The Star, 17 09 1974, p. 29;Google ScholarStrydom, Hans, Sunday Times, 22 09 1974, p. 3Google Scholar and also To the Point, 4 10 1974, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

Page 462 note 3 For S.W.A.P.O.'s attack on the proposal for Ovamboland ‘independence’, see The Star, 15 10 1974, pp. 3 and 29.Google Scholar For Vorster's reaction, see Uys, Stanley, Sunday Times, 20 10 1974, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 462 note 4 For an insight into the South-West African stalemate, see Cowley, Clive, The Star, 19 03 1975, p. 49.Google Scholar

Page 463 note 1 The Prime Minister's speech to the Senate on 23 October was reported and discussed in The Eastern Province Herald, The Star, and Rand Daily Mail on the following day; also To the Point, 1 11 1974, p. 7.Google Scholar For Ambassador Pik Botha's speech to the U.N. Security Council on 24 October, see The Eastern Province Herald, The Star, and Rand Daily Mail on the following day. Kaunda's speech at the University of Zambia was reported in the Sunday Times, 27 10 1974, p. 3.Google Scholar For comment on possible motives for these moves, see Walker, Richard, The Eastern Province Herald, 25 10 1974, p. 3;Google Scholar and Serfontein, J. H. P., Sunday Times, 27 10 1974, p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 463 note 2 In March 1975, South African Police units were withdrawn from duty on the Zambezi to rear-area camps in Rhodesia; The Eastern Province Herald, 18 03 1975 p. 1.Google Scholar The following month, Vernon Mwaanga, the Zambian Foreign Minister, informed the O.A.U. Council of Ministers in Dar es Salaam that the Prime Minister of South Africa had agreed to withdraw all the S.A.P. units from Rhodesia before June 1975; Ibid. 9 April 1975, p. 1.

Page 463 note 3 Krause, Otto, Die Trarrsvaler (Johannesburg), 5 06 1974;Google Scholar Cas de Villiers of the Africa Institute, Sunday Times, 16 06 1974, p. 5;Google ScholarS.A.B.C. ‘Weekend Newsroom’, 23 06 1974;Google Scholar and also Worrall, Senator Denis, The Eastern Province Herald, 20 09 1974, p. 17.Google Scholar

Page 463 note 4 For Nationalist concern, see Serfontein, J. H. P., The Sunday Times, 9 06 1974, p. 1Google Scholar and D'Oliveira, John, The Star, 30 09 1974, p. 29.Google Scholar For an interview with Vorster, see To the Point, 14 06 1974, p. 21;Google Scholar and for the diplomat's comment, see Edlin, John, The Star, 4 09 1974, p. 10.Google Scholar In a B.B.C. interview, Muller said that no sanctions would be applied against Rhodesia; The Eastern Province Herald, 22 01 1975, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 463 note 5 See Uys, Stanley, Sunday Times, 9 03 1975, p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 463 note 6 The Eastern Province Herald, 8 04 1975, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 464 note 1 The Star, 17 02 1975, p. 25.Google Scholar

Page 464 note 2 See especially his New Year's Eve message to the nation, The Star, 2 01 1975, p. 29,Google Scholar and Sunday Times, 5 01 1975, p. 8.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 1 For analyses of the change from 1973 to 1974, see D'Oliveira, John, The Star, 15 08 1974, p. 16;Google Scholar and Birkby, Card, Sunday Times, 18 08 1974, p. 8.Google Scholar For the 1975 defence budget, see The Eastern Province Herald, 27 04 1975, p. 15.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 2 The Star, 7 04 1975, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 3 Rand Daily Mail, 24 09 1974, p. 1.Google Scholar The Government's action received support in S.A.B.C. ‘Current Affairs’, 24 09 1974.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 4 Rand Daily Mail, 23 09 1974, p. 6.Google ScholarSunday Times, 15 09 1974, p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 5 Sunday Times, 15 09 1974, p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 465 note 6 Rand Daily Mail, 4 10 1974, p. 5.Google Scholar

Page 466 note 1 Sunday Times, 8 09 p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 466 note 2 J. H. P. Serfontein, ibid. 6 October 1974, p. 1.

Page 466 note 3 Ibid. 17 November 1974, p. 1.

Page 466 note 4 See the especially insightful analysis by Stanley Uys, ibid. 3 November 1974, p. 13.

Page 467 note 1 Hans Strydom, ibid. 20 October 1974, p. 7. He reports that conservative United Party members are even opposed to land grants to the Homelands to meet the requirements of the outdated 1936 Land Act. The ‘final’ consolidation proposals tabled in the House of Assembly in April 1975 fell far short of what had been requested by Homeland leaders, but did provoke the reactions from Natal white farmers that Strydom anticipated.

Page 467 note 2 For a somewhat similar analysis of significant policy areas reflective of basic change, see Hirschmann, David, ‘Pressures on Apartheid’, in Foreign Affairs (New York), 52, 1, 10 1973, p. 178.Google Scholar

Page 467 note 3 D'Oliveira, John in The Star, 30 09 1974, p. 29.Google Scholar