tion, health, and welfare tothose
already existing in South Africa and its
ten Homelands.
The government also made a fresh effort to deal with the problem of
African urbanization. Bythe early 1980s, it recognized that some Africans,
referred to as "urban insiders," were legally entitled to live permanently in
the metropolitan areas, but it was still trying to apply the pas~ laws to
prevent Africans domiciled in the Homelands from coming to the cities
except as migrant workers on temporary contracts. In 1984, for example,
officialsarrested 238,894 Africans for pass law offenses.Even so, they were
unable to stem the tide. The reason was obvious. The Homelands could not
sustain their populations. For their inhabitants, it was a matter of survival.
As one African worker said, "The countryside ispushing you into the cities
to survive; the cities are pushing you in the countryside to die."13
In 1986, accepting this reality, the government repealed no fewer than
thirty-four legislative enactments that had constituted the p-ass laws. It
announced a policy of "orderly urbanization." It still hoped-vainly,
as it
proved-that
orderly urbanization would be promoted by the Natives
Land Act (1913) and the Group Areas Act (1950) and its amendments,