Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. [Volume 39, Issue 8. April 1976]

[Introduction]

"A generous description of the current political system in South Africa would be to call it a partial democracy. More correctly it is a racial oligarchy. The National Party is firmly in power, the official White opposition supine and without hope of every defeating it. The appurtenances of democracy are retained in free elections, a parliament and the rule of law. This is a facade. The free elections are confined to the White fifth of the population; Parliament consists of a government and an opposition, both dedicated to the maintenance of White hegemony; the rule of law is distorted by numerous discriminatory laws and extensive delegated powers, despotically applied"

Opposition to the ruling Nationalist Party within South Africa covers a spectrum of groups. Firstly, there are four other White political parties which aspire to gain power by winning a parliamentary majority from the existing White electorate.