While the tricameral parliament was designed to co-opt Coloureds and Indians and to bring a renewed legitimacy to the Apartheid regime, developments in the country moved at a pace that made the parliament irrelevant to the direction the country was taking. The beginning of a sustained and violent uprising in the townships of the Vaal Triangle in September 1984 – at around the same time that the three houses began sitting – shook the security forces, which were unable to suppress the revolt. After the African National Congress (ANC) made a call to render the country ungovernable, the UDF, Cosatu and other groupings accelerated the challenge to every structure of Apartheid rule.

In July 1985, PW Botha declared a State of Emergency in parts of the Eastern Cape and the Transvaal that would be extended to the entire country a year later, and which would be in place for the duration of White rule until June 1990. Out of step with the sentiments of the majority, Rajbansi expressed support for the Emergency.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party outdid the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) when it won enough seats to become the official opposition in May 1987. But even before the PFP defeat, in February 1986, the leader of the PFP, Frederick van Zyl Slabbert, made the decision to reject parliamentary politics, issuing a statement saying that parliament was incapable of bringing about the reforms necessary to put the country on the path of democracy.

By now, the government was engaging in negotiations with Nelson Mandela in prison, and with the ANC in exile. More and more delegations, including White members of opposition parties as well as government, began to trek to Lusaka to engage in talks with the ANC.

Botha suffered a stroke in January 1989, and the NP chose FW de Klerk as the party leader, and in August 1989 de Klerk became the State President. He unbanned the ANC and other banned organisations, and the country moved towards negotiations for a transition to democracy. The real centre of power was no longer parliament but the negotiations taking place in Kempton Park under the rubric of CODESA (Convention for a Democratic South Africa).

In the tricameral parliament, the NP began to woo Indian and Coloured MPs, and became the majority party in the HoD and the HoR by 1993. The NPP was decimated. Rajbansi, still in parliament, berated the defectors, saying:

‘The HoD has made a laughing stock of itself again with the defections to the NP. I will not be part of it by biting at the carrots which the NP is dangling in front the HoD MPs and Ministers. Those who have switched alliances have sacrificed their principles for the sake of political expediency.’

Indeed, whether it was because of Rajbansi’s self-proclaimed high principles or his unfailing instinct for survival, he re-emerged in the post-Apartheid era, once again as a politician in parliament. His NPP morphed into the Minority Front, which secured a seat in the new post-Apartheid parliament.

>After the election of 2004, he entered into an alliance with the ANC, and was appointed MEC for Sports and Recreation in KwaZulu-Natal. He died in 2011.

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