Africa's neighbors. But none of those goals was fully attainable; moreover,
they were mutually incompatible. First, the use of emergency powers in the
search for domestic control reduced the manifestations
of resistance but
did not remove its underlying causes. Second, the government's reform
program created a backlash within the white electorate but stopped short
of giving Africans-the
majority of the population-a
substantial say in
government, which alone might have achieved durable pacification. Third,
the employment of emergency powers at home and the use of South Africa's
economic and .military strength to overawe its neighbors provoked in-
creased econom.ic pressures from the industrialized countries, with serious
consequences for the national economy.
To reestablish control of the black population,
the government resorted
to bannings,
arrests, detentions,
and treason trials. Police interrogators
tortured victims, and unidentified persons who were widely believed to be
members of the security police assassinated antiapartheid
activists inside
and outside South Africa. The South African Defence Force said that South
Africa was in a state of war and deployed 5,000 to 8,000 soldiers in the
townships to augment the police. On February 12, 1987, Adriaan Vlok,