SOUTH AFRICA: A Show of Iron Fists

The 1.6 million South Africans who went to the polls in parliamentary elections last week were all white, but uppermost in their minds were the 18,750,000 nonwhite South Africans who cannot vote. Prime Minister John Vorster, 58, called the elections 18 months ahead of schedule to seek a mandate to pursue the racial policy that Afrikaners call kragdadigheid (ironfistedness), which has been coming under increasing fire from verligte (enlightened) South Africans. After the ballots were counted, the sentiment was clear: five more years of harsh segregation.

Slight Shift. As it has for...

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