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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The emergency state: its structure, power and limits |
Authors: | Swilling, M. Phillips, Mark |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | South African Review - SARS |
Issue: | 5 |
Pages: | 68-90 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subject: | state of emergency |
Abstract: | This contribution assesses the strategies, structures and resources that the emergency state in South Africa has deployed to fight its battles on the 'political terrain'. The explosion of mass resistance from 1984 onwards led to the collapse of the reform policies which were part of P.W. Botha's 'total strategy'. By 1988, the State had arrived at a point where 'crisis management' had become its primary strategic concern. The state of emergency was declared and 'total strategy' was replaced by 'counter-revolutionary warfare' strategies. In this process, the balance of institutional forces within the State shifted against the Department of Constitutional Development and Planning (DCDP), which had formulated the 'total strategy' reform programmes, in favour of the National Security Management System (NSMS). The NSMS was structured as a separate arm of government under the auspices, direction and effective control of the Office of the State President (OSP). The State Security Council (SSC) was turned into a powerful policymaking body at the apex of the NSMS. The article analyses the implementation of the 'counter-revolutionary warfare' strategy and the organizations, committees and centres involved in it. Notes, ref. |