There was much criticism of the tardiness with which previously marginalised rugby players were being brought into the sport and the lack of development of sports facilities in the townships. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Under the Group Areas and Independent Homeland policies, consolidation often meant changing boundaries and cutting up and parcelling out land according to the claims of' homeland leaders and against the wishes of people living in these areas. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings dragged on, perpetrators of political crimes under the previous government continued to drag their heels in applying for amnesty. Nelson Mandela, committed to reconciliation, kept extending the deadline. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The Arms Deal, with its suspicion of bribes paid to well-connected persons, raised a storm in Parliament. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), the public accounts watchdog first raised the alarm, but once pressure was applied by the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament resulting in the resignation of its chief official spokesman in the Accounts Committee, Andrew Feinstein, the investigation into the scandal became muted. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Verwoerd's grand design of apartheid with blacks all living in separate homelands had one major flaw - what to do with urban blacks needed to keep the country's industry running and now flocking to the urban areas in increasing numbers. This was Vorster's conundrum. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The Auditor general's report on the arms deal was sufficiently edited and corrected when published to exonerate anyone from wrongdoing and confirm that the entire deal was above board. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Affirmative action had severe implications for white employees who, fearing the threat to their jobs, warned about lowering of standards. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Under the lunatic economic policies of ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front) the value of the Zimbabwe dollar went into free fall. Printing money was one of the solutions adopted to support it. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Legislation to stem the tide of black influx to the urban areas became increasingly futile. The government's forcible return of immigrants from Cape Town back to Transkei, from whence they would immediately board trains to return, was a dismal annual cycle. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
A response of the government to the misery and suffering caused by the Group Areas Act which had people being moved out of their homes to their own racial areas was that some pain was necessary for the greater good of grand apartheid. Piet Koornhof, Minister of Cooperation and Development, as it was quaintly known, an affable person, was one of those who expressed this regret. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Former president, FW de Klerk, a deputy president in Mandela's cabinet, decided to call it quits and left Parliament and a government struggling with a faltering economy. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
After three years the energy, enthusiasm and idealism which marked the birth of the new South Africa was beginning to wilt and service delivery was faltering. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The Department of Information, with its flamboyant secretary Eschel Rhoodie at the helm, did its best to improve the international image of the pariah apartheid state. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
A reader drew attention to a scandalous matter featuring 'in one of the Cape Times comic strips. Popular hero, Dr Kildare was defying the Immorality Act by falling in love with an Indian woman. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Under apartheid's so-called dumping bills large numbers of black people were forced to relocate from urban areas to barren and remote areas in the homelands. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Tony Yengeni used his political connections and position to get a discount on a fancy Mercedes 4X4. He served a contracted prison sentence, which on reflection seems unlucky given the corrupt practices which go unpunished today. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
There was serious concern about the battle-readiness of the army of the new South Africa when it was found that many members of the defence force were unfit and overweight. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
President Mandela was called to appear in court to respond to a dispute with the SA Rugby Board while the many far more urgent calls for his attention were left unattended. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
In spite of climate change and warnings of future water shortages and the need to adopt conservative measures of water usage, South Africans continued to waste water as if there was no tomorrow. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
One of the adjustments to apartheid necessary to accommodate influential black people visiting the urban centres was to allow blacks to stay in previously 'whites only' hotels provided they qualified as 'bona fide' travellers. This caused grave disquiet among purist government supporters. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Outraged at measures to restrict the licensing of firearms, ex?defence chief Constand Viljoen said the gun was paramount in Afrikaner culture, second only to his wife. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses, built in a rushed and haphazard policy to recover the enormous backlog developed during the apartheid years, resulted in poor building standards and shoddy workmanship. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Poachers employed by crime syndicates plundered abalone reserves while coastal management and police seemed ineffective in putting a stop to it. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The taxi industry was a law unto itself. Traffic officers, risking being shot at by taxi driver offenders, chose to target softer offenders instead. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
South African foreign relations policy was perplexing . Some very dodgy characters from abroad, who served the government's purposes during the apartheid era, were allowed to remain in the country. Many of these, such as Vito Palazzolo, had some very shady connections. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Announcements by Defence Minister Magnus Malan that our troops were not in Angola were met with scepticism while the media in the rest of the world were full of reports of their presence in that country. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
In a bid to bolster the strength of the police force to contain increasing unrest, a crash course in police work is launched to establish a unit dubbed the 'kitskonstabels' or 'blueflies'. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
History seemed to repeat itself when upheaval in the townships caused a nervous government to seek security by surrounding itself within a laager of steel. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
P.W. Botha adopts a Nero?like stance in response to public concern about disturbing reports of riots and upheaval throughout the country, incidents of insurgence over its borders and pressure from the international community. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The public protest and unrest which plagued the eighties was met with increased government oppression. P.W. Botha declared a state of emergency giving the police special powers, restricting the media and setting up a media council to give a sanitized version of the truth. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Peace on South Africa's borders after 1990 meant the retirement of many members of the former South African Defence Force, but the continued instability in many African countries to the north provided employment opportunities for them as mercenaries with dubious motives. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The main core of the information scandal in the 1970s was the secret funding of an English language newspaper using taxpayers' money. Fertilizer magnate, Louis Luyt, acted as a government front and the Citizen newspaper was born. It soon found itself in financial trouble and advertisers were aghast to read a report in the Rand Daily Mail that 30,000 copies of the Citizen were being dumped and claimed as valid circulation figures. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
Certain whites, feeling their cultural heritage and independence threatened, continued to yearn for an exclusive homeland. Description provided by Tony Grogan.
The implementation of the policy of' apartheid resulted in the removal of 3.5 million people to remote homelands or their own racially designated areas. Description provided by Tony Grogan.