South African Impressions: (I) The Social and Political Scene

Extract

The Afrikaans daily Die Burger for Saturday, 26th August, 1967, reports the Prime Minister, Mr Vorster, as saying the following to a Nationalist Party gathering in the Transvaal: ‘We have developed a way of life in South Africa. We have learned from experience, so that we have been able to find a solution (to the problem of race relations) which the world can learn from. South Africa has never expected the world to subscribe to its policy or accept it; our standpoint has always been that we should be given credit for being honest. I think more and more people are giving us credit for our honesty. They are asking whether we haven’t perhaps got something. South Africa is being looked at with new eyes.’ Mr Vorster asked the United States and Britain whether they had found the solution to the colour question. ‘We have reached the stage when we can tell the world that we have the solution. We have reached the stage when we can invite the world, and say: “Come and see what it looks like where people can live in a country according to the policy of separate development.” In South Africa there is peace and calm, and this is not because of pressure from the government. South Africa has no need to call out an army, in order to let people live together like this. Everywhere in the world there are problems and strife. This is not the case in South Africa, because we have been dealing with the question for generations. We can discuss these matters, because the evidence is there for any unprejudiced person to see.’