The rubicon revisited : a documentary approach re-examining racial identity constructions in 1980s apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This paper argues that P.W. Botha’s constitutional reforms and, most importantly, his subsequent re-engineering of Apartheid's documentary apparatus, laid the foundation for a future non-racial state. By altering certain Apartheid documents, these reforms re-imagined South African identity as light-skinned, that is, for the first time nonwhite groups were recognized and considered a part of the nation. The effects that emerged from changes to the documentary apparatus opened up possibilities for racial cooperation. Although an enduring symbol of Apartheid, Botha permitted the earliest stages of racial integration while cracking the once rigid Apartheid edifice.