APARTHEIDIN CRISIS
thatswana, were regarded as aliens in South Africa, and employers were
not to hire them without special official perrnission.!"
The government had also come to realize that the geographical frame-
work of the Verwoerd era did not correspond with economic realities. It
planned to create new institutions, cutting across the Homeland bound-
aries, by dividing
South
Africa into four metropolitan
regions
(the
Pretoria- Witwatersrand- Vereeniging triangle,
Port Elizabeth,
Durban-
Pinetown, and Cape Town) and four development regions centered on such
cities as Bloemfontein. The regional institutions would parallel the institu-
tions at the national level, except that Africans were to be included. Each
region was to have a multiracial Regional Services Council for general
affairs and uniracial councils for own affairs. The government also replaced
the provincial councils with executive committees responsible for general
affairs. Although Africans were to be included in these new bodies, how-
ever, the councils would be undemocratic:
their members would be ap-
pointed by the government or indirectly elected. IS
By June 1986, the government had also eliminated some segregation
laws. It had repealed the bans on multiracial political parties and inter-