Inqaba ya basebenzi Number 2 April 1981 - DISA

ely solely on the support of the wrjite
voters.
Thus the rigid conservatism of the
verkramptes, with their appeal to the
white voters inside and outside the
Nationalist Party, is an obstacle
which is tying the hands of the
bosses. The more far-sighted section
of the ruling class, the 'verligtes' and
'liberals' see the desperate situation
and are trying to create more room in
which to manoeuvre.
The election was called by P.W.
Botha ostensibly to rout the verkramptes.
But in fact the question
goes much deeper than this. The
ruling class is well aware that the
influence of the verkramptes cannot
be diminished within the framework
of the parliamentary system. The
election has been called, at a
favourable moment, to try and give
time to the ruling class to reduce the
significance of elections themselves.
Even the bosses' press has
recognised . that this is a 'predictatorship
election'—i.e. a dictatorship
affecting also the existing
rights of the whites.
The election is in this respect just
one more step in a series of attempts
by the ruling class to regain the
initiative, and break out of the
political impasse which has plagued
them since the huge struggles of
1976.
Impasse
In 1977 another general election
was called before the government
had served its time. Beating the
drum of 'white unity', Vorster called
for support for his proposals for
constitutional reform. Though he
was re-elected with a huge mandate,
the proposals were never implemented.
There was too much resistance
to them from both black and white.
The 'Muldergate scandal' was
engineered by a section of the ruling
class to oust Vorster anil his cronies
and bring in new faces. Botha swept
into office to the applause of the
ruling class and its press.
The Botha regime made many
promises of reforms and set up
endless commissions to study how to
bring them into being. The slogan of
"adapt or die', Botha's 'twelve-point
plan\ and what went with il was
supposed to herald a new deal for
blacks in every sphere of life. But, no
more than Vorster before him, has
Botha been able to carry anything
through. In fact the government's
plans have foundered even more
quickly than VorsterY
The Wiehahn and Riekert
Commissions were appointed and
their reports tabled in Parliament.
The first steps were taken towards
making the Wiehahn proposals into
law—and were met with rejection
from the side of the black workers,
and also, though for different
reasons, the white workers.
The labour movement rejected
these proposals as an attempt to
chain the black workers to influx
control, group areas, toothless
unions, etc; and as an attack on the
right to organise fighting unions and
the right to strike. The white workers
rejected these proposals as endangering
their jobs, by making possible
the replacement of white labour by
cheap black labour.
The Senate was abolished without
so much as a murmur. But the
puppet consultative apparatus which