Economy and society in South Africa
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Date
2011-05-09
Authors
Schlemmer, Lawrence
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Abstract
Between 1974 and the time of writing, dramatic political
events in the Southern African region have tended to shift the ongoing
debate on the economy and change in South Africa somewhat into the
background. There has been a primacy accorded to the political rather
than the economic in discussions of change. However, the events over
the period since the Portuguese coup in 1974 until the time of writing
will have to be seen in retrospect as having changed the political
environment of Southern Africa rather than as having introduced changes
of a meaningful kind within South Africa. Not that the South African
political climate has been unaffected. Far from it; the very recent
(mid-1976) disturbances in Soweto, other Black townships and in black
educational institutions as well as a minor spate of political trials
and detentions way very well attest to a heightened restiveness among
South African Blacks partly as a consequence of events in Southern
Africa. Yet a lull in the tempo of events seems inevitable with White
Rhodesia preparing for a long drawn-out resistance to Black incursions
and responses in South West Africa - Namibia dominated by the same
Major issue of extended, inconclusive querilla warfare and what are
likely to be extensive constitutional debates.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented July 1976
Keywords
South Africa. Social conditions, South Africa. Economic conditions