Tricameral Parliament
The Theron commission laid the groundwork for the formation of the tricameral parliament. Before President P W Botha came to power, John Vorster had begun some constitutional reforms. A commission headed by Erica Theron was appointed to improve the lot of coloured people in South Africa. The Theron commission (1977) argued that the Westminister system posed an obstacle to good governance in a multicultural and plural society like South Africa as it caused political conflict and cultural dominance by one group. The report called for the replacement of the system. However, the commission did not have a problem with the concept of racial segregation or laws like the Group Areas Act that forced different race groups to live in separate zones. As a result, the scope of the recommendations was limited because they did not challenge apartheid.
Botha created a parliamentary select committee to look at the reforms proposed by the Theron commission, which was now gazetted as the Constitutional Bills. On 8 May 1980 the committee tabled its report suggesting the creation of a tri-cameral parliament to include limited representation of Coloured and Indian people but excluding African people. Despite this, the Conservative Party opposed the reforms believing they undermined apartheid. The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) opposed the reforms on the grounds that they would worsen tensions with the majority race that was excluded. The PFP wanted the inclusion of a bill of rights to protect individual freedoms against state abuse.
The government excluded the bill of rights from the final draft of the constitution, as it would lead to the lifting of repressive laws such as the Internal Security Act of 1972. The Internal Security Act gave police powers to arrest and detain people without trial for a renewable period of ninety days. The Bill of Rights would make this unconstitutional. The government also refused to include the Bill of Rights arguing that South Africa was consist of racial and ethnic communities and not individuals.
In reaction to criticism that he had no mandate to pursue these reforms, Botha proposed a Referendum through which White people could vote for their preference regarding the Tricameral Parliament . On 2 November 1983, about seventy percent of white people voted in favour of the reforms. The outcome was the establishment of a tri-cameral parliament with an executive president. The subsequent abolition of the Prime Minister's position and its replacement with the executive presidency created a very powerful position for one person and it weakened the parliament. Due to the efficacy of the massive anti-Tricameral Parliament campaign, Coloured and Indian voter turnout was extremely low, but the inauguration of the new Parliament went ahead regardless early in 1985.
A Cartoonist Impression of Tricameral Parliament
(Source: Bottaro, Jean and Visser, Pippa. (1999). In Search of History Grade 12.
Oxford: Oxford University Press Southern Africa)
One of Botha's reforms was to grant Coloureds and Indians a greater but powerless level of participation in the South African political system. In 1983, the National Party (NP) Government introduced an amendment to the South African constitution to create a new structure of Parliament. The new Tricameral Parliament would consist of three Parliamentary chambers:
⢠The House of Assembly (White representatives)
⢠The House of Representatives (Coloured representatives)
⢠The House of Delegates (Indian representatives)
Voters on separate ethnic voter's roles would elect the members of each chamber of parliament. Each House would furthermore have jurisdiction over matters, such as health and education, relevant to the community it represents. Under the new constitution, a new presidential cabinet system would also be introduced. The positions of State President and Prime Minister would be merged into the position of an executive State President as Head of both State and Government that would preside over a single multiracial cabinet consisting of members drawn from all three Houses. The cabinet would be responsible for initiating legislation on issues spanning all ethnic groups, while a President's Council would be introduced to replace the Senate. The President's Council members would be elected proportionally by the three houses, and have advisory (as opposed to legislative) functions.
The most important criticism against the proposed Tricameral Parliament was that the African majority was excluded from the entire process. The NP Government argued that Africans did not qualify for representation in Parliament, because they already had political rights in their respective homelands, and that greater political rights were extended to Coloured and Indians because they did not have their own homelands in which to exercise such rights. Yet it was clear that Coloured and Indian representation in Tricameral Parliament would be largely cosmetic, as real political power would remain concentrated in the House of Assembly, and, by extension, in the hands of the White minority.
Opposition to the proposed reforms also provided the main impetus for the next chapter of the resistance movement against apartheid and was a major factor in the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF launched a massive nationwide campaign to dissuade Coloured and Indian voters from participating in the elections for the Houses of Representatives and Delegates, as did other organisations such as the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC).
The White electorate approved the proposed constitutional amendments by a two-thirds majority in a referendum held on 2 November 1983, and the elections for the Houses of Representatives and Delegates were respectively held on 22 August and 2 September 1984. Due to the efficacy of the massive anti-Tricameral Parliament campaign, Coloured and Indian voter turnout was extremely low, but the inauguration of the new Parliament went ahead regardless early in 1985.
In reaction, mass action campaigns swept through the country and included strikes, mass protests and boycotts. Violence erupted on many occasions, and the Government responded by declaring a State of Emergency (that lasted for much of the 1980's) and using the emergency regulations to severely restrict extra-parliamentary activities.
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