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confederation ofhomelands each with a right to self-determination. They were opposed
to an African government. On March 13, 1992 angry students at the University of
Pretoria struck F.W. de Klerk on the head with a placard and on the same day two of
the National Party's offices were bombed in the now Gauteng Province. Even former
State President P.W. Botha affirmed his opposition to an ANC government. This period
was characterised by violence in the townships, which was attributed to either general
panic among South Africans, or White extremists who were derailing the run-up to the
referendum.
Both the National Party and the Conservative Party needed the votes of the
English speaking South Africans who made 40% of the White population. They were
regarded as more liberal e.g. the Democratic Party and had for a long time been
dominated by the Afrikaners. The DP supported De Klerk and artists, musicians,
athletes, television celebrities; business bosses as well as the media were canvassed to
support the referendum. The ANC also urged its White voters to support the idea.
The right-wing parties, on the other hand, like the Conservative Party whose
leader Andries Treurnicht was nicknamed "Dr No" because of his opposition to
political reform, the Herstigte Nasionale Party (the HNP or Reconstituted National
Party) and the AWB led by Eugene Terreblanche wanted a return to apartheid in the
form of self-determination for South Africa's different ethnic groups. They were
spelling doom and economic decline and cited rising crime and unemployment under
an ANC government, especially because of its alliance with the South African
Cornmunist Party. One ofthe Conservative Party's advertisements showed Mr de Klerk
lying down hanging on to a grinning Mr Mandela's leg.
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