Reforms in South Africa: Right-Wing Reaction

Since the 1980s, a number of ultra-right political parties and groups have come into existence in South Africa. All of them are strongly opposed to any dilution of apartheid and any system of government in which whites do not enjoy the monopoly of power. The author looks in particular at the Conservative Party (CP), led by Andries Treurnicht, and its rejection of reforms, its call for fresh all-white elections (despite its electoral defeat in 1987 and 1989), the threat of armed struggle, its ‘no’ to negotiations, and its proposal for partition and the setting up of an exclusively white ‘homeland’. He also briefly discusses the ideas of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), led by Eugene TerreBlanche, and several other militant, far right-wing groups. Ref.