What was Botha’s new deal?
In 1982, PW Botha, president of the white South African republic, proposed a “new deal” through a series of bills. (These were also called the “Koornhof bills”, as they were formally presented by the cabinet minister Piet Koornhof). Botha wanted to form a “tricameral parliament”. Apartheid already classified people into categories by race: African (previously labelled “Bantu”), white, Indian, and coloured. This plan called for those people defined as coloured, Indian and white to vote separately for racially segregated “houses” of parliament. These three houses together would make up the national legislature. The “white” parliament would be the most powerful, and would continue to control most of the resources. But the majority of the population – three quarters of the people of South Africa – were classified “African”. The new deal proposed that no African would be considered a citizen of South Africa. Instead, the government would make separate countries for them, cut out of the land
