The Vorster Government 1966-78

The Vorster Government 1966-78


In September 1966 Verwoerd was stabbed to death in the parliament building at Cape Town. His murderer Demetrio Tsafendas was a Mozambique Greek immigrant to South Africa, of partial African ancestry with a history of mental illness.
After Vorster replaced Verwoerd as Prime Minister he promised to 'go further along the road which Dr. Verwoerd followed.
Internally this meant the encouragement of Bantustans, notably the Transkei.
Externally this meant improved relations with black African states, which had started when Verwoerd met the new Prime Minister of Basutoland and continued with the opening of diplomatic relations by Vorster with Malawi's Kamuzu Banda in 1967.
Attempts by the United Nations to end South African rule in South West Africa were rejected. Good business relations with the USA, West Germany, France and Japan were encouraged as well as with Britain - the traditional home of multinational companies operating in South Africa.
Anti-apartheid movements a home and abroad were muted by South Africa's apparent peace and prosperity in the later 1960's, but there was no weakening of apartheid or police control in South Africa.
Besides the police, the defense budget steadily increased from R 38.S million in 1960 to R 230 million in 1966 to RI.350 million in 1970.
South African military forces were sent in strength to the Caprivi Strip and to the Zambezi border of Southern Rhodesia, where the first incursions of SWAPO, ZAPU and ANC's Umkhonto We Sizwe guerillas occurred in 1967.
Within in South Africa itself virtually the only legal public voices against apartheid came from within the Christian churches. But a new kind of voice was emerging through the University of Natal's black medical school under a student leader called Steve Biko.
The succession of B.J. Vorster as Prime Minister in 1967 further reinforced the role of the security police in South Africa. Some scholars say that South Africa underwent a 'creeping coup' because of the increasing power of the security forces - first police and then military - between the 1960's and 1989.
The Bureau of State Security (BOSS) was set up in 1968-69 by Vorsters’ friend and police chief, Hendrik Van den Berghe. It operated secretly, with secret funds provided by government, both inside and outside South Africa.
The Vorster government saw the peak of Apartheid 1967-72 in Bantustans. Its programmes centered on Africa 1964-73. It also faced worst black nationalism by the 'black consciousness movement' between 1976-79.
In 1977 Steve Biko was killed in police custody. The defense Minister P.N. Botha like Verwoerd before he saw overseas communists behind every form of opposition to Apartheid -from black consciousness to church theology and international sports boycotts. In 1977, a must be ‘total strategy’ to attack all opponents of apartheid in every possible way-including legal reforms that would take away the grievances of black urban dwellers being exploited by 'Communists'