APARTHEIDIN CRISIS
Rieken, making it a criminal offense, subject to a large fine, for employers
to hire Africans who did not possess residential rights in the cities."
By 1986, African trade unions had a dues-paying membership of over a
million, spread between two national federations: the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Council of Unions of South Africa-
Azanian Confederation
of Trade Unions (CUSA-AZACTU), which was im-
bued with a black consciousness philosophy. Besides their demands for
wage increases, which met with considerable success, these unions gave
Africans experience in democratic organization
and became sources of
worker power. The government's intention to control the African trade
unions by legalizing them had backfired. By 1986, both federations were
politically militant. African unions had become a central force in the
struggle for power in South Africa.I?
The next major change was constitutional. Following prolonged debates
in the President's Council and the all-white Parliament, and a two-to-one
majority in a referendum of white voters, a new constitution
came into
force in 1984. The new Parliament consisted of three uniracial chambers: a
House of Assembly, comprising
178 white people eleeted by Whites; a