PIETER WILLEM BOTHA

This absurd statement was made in the midst of the huge Black protests against the Apartheid regime. It was very similar to what the Southern racist, segregationist politicians of the American South used to say about the Southern Negroes who in their view were only unhappy when the “communist outsiders” talk to the them and incite them.

This is an excellent example of the twisted, self-fulfilling logic of the Afrikaners in justifying apartheid. Many Afrikaners were inveterate racists, and were also usually armed which was a rural tradition of their early immigration and the Zulu and Boer Wars. Those whites would cause a riot if a black was allowed into a white audience performance. That in turn would cause chaos. Therefore mixed audiences could not be allowed. It never occurred to Botha and his colleagues that the government’s responsibility was to control and restrict the white rioters and instigators. This was not unique Afrikaner thinking; the same logic prevailed throughout the American South in the Jim Crowe segregation era.

Explaining apartheid to the European Press.

All of Europe and the US and the other industrial democracies wanted South Africa to end apartheid and allow majority rule. Many had imposed strong economic sanctions upon the Apartheid nation. Botha, and most of the other Afrikaners, believed that Nelson Mandala and the Blacks were all communists or under the control of the communists, and that ending apartheid would turn South Africa into a Communist Country. Of course that was a paranoid fantasy as all movements for racial or ethnic equality are accused of being communists just as in the American South. When majority rule finally came to South Africa, it showed just how wrong the Afrikaners were as there has been a small communist movement in South Africa which has like the Italian communists functioned but had very little power or influence.

Explaining apartheid to the European Press.

This is an excellent example of the twisted, self-fulfilling logic of the Afrikaners in justifying apartheid. Many Afrikaners were inveterate racists, and were also usually armed which was a rural tradition of their early immigration and the Zulu and Boer Wars. Those whites would cause a riot if a black was allowed into a white audience performance. That in turn would cause chaos. Therefore mixed audiences could not be allowed. It never occurred to Botha and his colleagues that the government’s responsibility was to control and restrict the white rioters and instigators. This was not unique Afrikaner thinking; the same logic prevailed throughout the American South in the Jim Crowe segregation era.

The Afrikaner’s were the descendants of the Dutch farmers who were the first white immigrants to South Africa. They ended up dominating the political scene of South Africa and other white minorities had little political power. The Blacks and Coloreds (Indians) had none in the Afrikaner Apartheid regime. This was a constant theme of the Afrikaners to the other White minorities that if the Afrikaner Apartheid and control of the Black majority, the other white minorities would suffer, This turned out not to be true however. When the Afrikaners were pushed out of control, Nelson Mandella led the Blacks to a non-vengeful creation of a new state, where most of the white minorities were reasonably happy except for some of the diehard Afrikaner racists. Botha was the political leader of the Afrikaners.

This was an amazing statement for a politician to make in a country where he needed votes to be reelected. The Afrikaners of South Africa were so paranoid about the possibility of their minority domination over the majority Blacks, that they voted overwhelmingly for Botha even though many were not sure of his policies and wanted a change. Botha was the “devil they knew” as opposed to a “devil they did not know”.

This absurd statement was made in the midst of the huge Black protests against the Apartheid regime. It was very similar to what the Southern racist, segregationist politicians of the American South used to say about the Southern Negroes who in their view were only unhappy when the “communist outsiders” talk to the them and incite them.

Few politicians in modern times have been so sure that they were not wrong about major policies and programs, and very few have actually been so wrong as history has shown him to be. See Otis Singetary’s great quotation on leaders and doubt -- {638385} .

All of Europe and the US and the other industrial democracies wanted South Africa to end apartheid and allow majority rule. Many had imposed strong economic sanctions upon the Apartheid nation. Botha, and most of the other Afrikaners, believed that Nelson Mandala and the Blacks were all communists or under the control of the communists, and that ending apartheid would turn South Africa into a Communist Country. Of course that was a paranoid fantasy as all movements for racial or ethnic equality are accused of being communists just as in the American South. When majority rule finally came to South Africa, it showed just how wrong the Afrikaners were as there has been a small communist movement in South Africa which has like the Italian communists functioned but had very little power or influence.