By Maidei Magirosa

SOUTH AFRICA’s political system was dominated by the apartheid policy and segregation which meant the separation of whites, Coloureds, blacks and Asians in everyday life activities. A minority ethnic group of white people controlled political and economic life based on heavy discrimination of black South Africans. The black people were denied basic political rights and movement was restricted. The ruling Nationalist Party sentenced Nelson Mandela, the leader of the African National Congress to life in prison in the early 1960s, accusing him of sabotage against the white minority government.
In 1983, South Africa’s President PW Botha introduced a new constitution incorporating Coloured and Asian communities into government but only on a lower rank to whites.
He thought he had pleased the critics of apartheid by making such reforms. Then in 1985, Botha made his infamous ‘Rubicon’ speech at a time when the international community was expecting change and reform.
There was talk signalling the release of Nelson Mandela and the extension of the vote to Black South Africans.
A delegation had already been to London for discussions with Margaret Thatcher’s government. But, PW was not prepared to share power with the black people.
The world was looking at South Africa expecting change and many could see the dream of Mandela becoming free.
However, at the very last moment, and the horror of many, PW Botha made the disastrous Rubicon speech on August 15 1985, at the opening of the National Party Natal Congress.
PK Botha began by thanking people for their advise and good intentions and noted “the force of rising expectations” moving towards new reforms and political change.
He felt that the National Party was being forced to make changes that they were not ready to make and this he found unacceptable.
In his patronising attitude, Botha argued that the outside world was trying to make decisions for the black people without holding consultations with them.
“Over the years, that was exactly the criticism against our Government-that we make decisions about people and not with them. Now, suddenly I’m expected to make the decision for them. “
Then Botha argued that white party stood for the justice and equal treatment of everyone in South Africa, black white, Indian or Asian. South Africa was not prepared to listen to the advice or the manipulation of others who did not understand what South Africa stood for.
“We are not prepared to accept the antiquated, simplistic and racist approach that South Africa consists of a White minority and a Black majority….”
He said the Republic of South Africa still remained the leading country in the sub-continent of Southern Africa.
Then he went on to argue that many people had perceptions of the South African situation overseas and they were heavily mistaken in their views.
He admitted that South Africa had problems but every country had and some of those problems were even worse than those of South Africa. He was referring to Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
“People are flocking to South Africa tonight, from neighbouring countries because they are looking for work and health services. … In their tens of thousands. How do you explain that? Do people flee to hell?…We can ill afford the irresponsibility and destructive actions of barbaric Communist agitators and even murderers who perpetrate the most cruel deeds against fellow South Africans, because they are on the payroll of their masters far from this lovely land of ours.”
Botha became more and more arrogant in his Rubicon speech, arguing that he had the knowledge and facts of how South Africa operated because he was head of this government and therefore he was in a position to tell that no government in Southern Africa or elsewhere in the world that could solve the problems in South Africa in a given time.
He then said the underdevelopment in the part of the economy where non-White communities live was caused by the problems of history whereby the white people have been paternalistically trying to do everything for the Blacks. It was time that black Africans were allowed to help themselves in the informal as well as the formal sector of the economy.
He even went as far as claiming that South Africa was enjoying independence from colonial rule: “But let me point out at once that since South Africa freed itself from colonialism, democracy has already been broadened and millions of people who never had a say in governmental affairs under the British Colonial system, have it today.
We believe in the same Almighty God and the redeeming grace of His Son, Jesus Christ…..I am not prepared to lead White South Africans and other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide. Destroy White South Africa and our influence, and this country will drift into faction strife, chaos and poverty.”
He then presented the case that Mandela was in prison for treason because he plotted to overthrow the state.
He was judged by the Judge, Mr. Justice De Wet, who said that the crime of which Mandela was convicted was the main crime, the crime of conspiracy and high treason.
In ending his Rubicon speech, P.K. Botha says, “I have applied much self-discipline during the past weeks and months. I have been lenient and patient. Don’t push us too far in your own interests. Talking, consulting, and bargaining with all our peoples’ leader is not weakness.”
P.K Botha said he was not going to be deterred from doing what his party thought was best, nor was he being forced to do what he did not want to do. He ended his speech by saying that he would undertake to do all that man can possibly do and in doing so, he prayed that the Almighty God would grant him the wisdom and the strength to seek to fulfill His Will.
There was anger nationally and also from the international community. It was what commentators called “a cataclysmic misjudgment… made in a single speech. As history has accurately judged that speech was a total misreading of the political and social reality in the country – the point of no return for apartheid.”
The speech led to the economic and investment collapse imminent. The value of the rand plummeted.
In June 1988, some 2 million workers staged a massive strike to protest against government restrictions placed on trade unions and anti-apartheid groups.
The strike crippled several key industries for days, shaking business confidence and adding further pressure on the minority ruling party.
Finally, the endless unrest, sporadic violence, the ailing economy and international sanctions, took its toll on Botha, who resigned in August 1989.
The succession by education minister Frederic W de Klerk in September produced initial optimism among South Africa’s blacks. F W de Klerk seemed to have gone through some kind of conversion.
In 1990, the president ended the government ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid groups. De Klerk also ordered the release of Nelson Mandela the same year, ending his 27-year ordeal in prison.
They held elections and the African National Congress received 62,7 percent of the vote in the April elections, and Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.
In his death, we remember him.