NATION Party of Buthelezi.
This is the originality and deverness of De Klerk's position. Not to try to hold back the tide of history, but to manage change to preserve capitalism and position of the white bourgeoisie.
The ANC have agreed that there will have to be a 70 per cent majority in parliament on constitutional change. The right-wing bloc can always provent that, unless the ANC won every single black vote, which is impossible. Has the negotiation process brought concrete gains to the non-white population, in terms of living standards, social security, health etc? The economic situation has deteriorated tremendously in South Africa, as part of the world crisis. Inflation is rampant at 19 per cent; unemployment is 4 million in a population of 30 million. All ocial services, health, pensions etc. are still divided on black-white lines, with the situation much worse for the black population. The average wage in South Africa for a black family of 5-6 is 400 rand a month (667 sterling; FF 530); the governments's own estimate is that such a family needs R2400 (E400/FF3200). So poverty is very widespread.
People from the rural areas are moving to the cities, so there is a major housing. with mass squatting. drought in the north cast has played a tremendous role in that, and the abolition of the Group Areas Act means that families can now move to the cities to be with the husbands to work there.
Because of the economic situation, South Africa has its own IMF austerity plan, which calls for 'retrenchment' of the state sector, which means mass sackings of government employees. But this falls on the black population. About 45 per cent of the white working population is employed by the state, a totally unreal figure.
people cannot all be sacked. So it is the black teachers, health workers etc who have to go. For example in black schools now the teacher-student ratio is 1:70.
One effect of the economic crisis has been to put a temporary stop to the growth of the black and colored middle class, which grew rapidly in the 1980s, and which often plays a conservative political role.