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No Time to Be Sensitive. His theme was kragdadigheid, an Afrikaans word meaning unyielding strength, and he lost no time pushing through Parliament the laws that would make him strong. First came the Anti-Sabotage Act, under which anyone suspected of "liberalist" ideas could be confined to his home indefinitely, denied the right to be heard in the press, and isolated from contact with decent citizens. Then came laws empowering his police to hold anyone without charge—first for 90 days and, as of last year, for 180 days. He also gained the right to extend indefinitely the sentences of all political prisoners, and this year was empowered to take "emergency" police measures such as imposing curfews without declaring a state of emergency. Accused last year of turning South Africa into a police state, Vorster rose in Parliament to offer his defense: "It is not the time to be sensitive about principles."
When he became Prime Minister last week, Vorster assured his fellow whites that there was at least one principle he would uphold. "I will continue along the road of apartheid," he promised, and proceeded to deliver his own definition of it. "It is not," he said, "a denial of human dignity to anyone. On the contrary, it gives an opportunity to every individual, within his own sphere, not only to be a man or woman in every sense of the word, but also to create the opportunity to develop and advance without restriction or frustration—as circumstances justify in accordance with the demands of the development achieved."
That kind of doubletalk must have mystified his listeners. Then he added: "Until we are again in calmer waters, I believe that I owe it to South Africa to take personal responsibility for the safety of the state."
Everybody knew what that meant.