Testing the Tories' plans for schools TEACHERS denis Doronikallas
The aftermath of the In few other countries would a govern- ment with such a dismal economic record voluntarily pur as populanty to the test ar the ballot box (elections were not due cop- stitutionally for another two vears) Bar this was not being lought on such "election' THE WHELE ELECTION was of course not so much an election as a referendum. Even the tame Uncle Toms of the "coloured and in- The white voters were being asked if they would continue to place their future in the dian legislative chambers were excluded Although there was a general tendency on the left and in May elections in South Africa as liberation circles to dismiss the "irrelevant" (Tambo) — because Gideon Mendel Retex:
The scare of the coonomy scarcely figurd on the hustings As the financel Times por it for tany whires and the maintenance of white is : the pavilege is more umportant than prosperity thr bread-and-burrer issucs: COLTSE. çourantee of the other. For tany ut "security? hands of Botha and the dominant National The election was launched in a period of grave cconomic and political crisis and in the midst of a state of emergency. There is a 16.8 per cent inflation rate and almost stand- still growth. The rand has collapsed and Parry (NP). it was an all-white election, excluding the vast majority of the people of South Africa - its results and consequences cannot
What was at issue was the most effective mainstream, represented by the ruling Na- whire-dommated capitalism. Among the white clertorate there The nonal Party: believed that severely limited! of thoughr muncing three Were way unemployment has reached rocord levels: among whires as well as blacks — estimated conservatively ar six million (25 per cent of blacks are unemployed). The average white was better off after tax in 1970 than today, despire a 13-lold increase in the price of gold be lightly dismissed, argues CHARLIE VAN GELDEREN
Is the major reform): tinkering with some of "reforms" — the three chamber parliament; trade