Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Over the past two years, much of the world's attention has been drawn to events taking place in South Africa. High profile political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, have been released unconditionally.' The African National Congress ("ANC") and the South African Communist Party ("SACP"), to Europeans and Americans the most recognized standard-bearers of resistance to apartheid, were removed from the list of banned organizations, and members of both groups returned to their homeland from exile.' Additionally, the ruling National Party, which has governed the country since 1948, announced its intention to abandon white minority rule and has participated in a constitutional convention bringing together representatives of every major ethnic and political grouping in the country with the goal of drafting a new constitution for a non-racial South Africa. 3 Perhaps most important, a new Transitional Executive Council has been organized" to govern South Africa until April 1994, when nation-wide multi-racial elections are to be held, 5 the first such election in the history of the country.

Notwithstanding these and related events in South Africa, a question remains as to whether the ruling National Party has moved South Africa down the road to substantive and permanent reform. Many times in the past, particularly as a result of international criticism, the government of South Africa has stated its intention to grant equal rights for both blacks and whites, only to repudiate its position after international attention dissipated. One of the better known instances of this deception was the promulgation, in 1986, of the Restoration of South African Citizenship Act ("Restoration Act" or "Act"). The stated purpose of the Act was to restore South African citizenship to residents of the four "independent" homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei,' status which was lost when Pretoria declared the states independent.

This Article examines the Restoration Act from both historical and legal perspectives. The first section of the Article reviews the historical background to the Act. Section II of the Article analyzes the terms of the Restoration Act itself. The final section of the Article addresses the question of whether the language of the Act actually provides a basis for effectuating its stated purpose - the restoration of South African citizenship to those deprived of that status by the imposed independence of the TBVC states. The Article concludes that the Restoration Act serves as an illustration of both the sophisticated methodology employed by the South African government to persuade the international community that it was serious about reform and why the stated reformist objectives of the present government, which allegedly seek nothing short of reshaping the South African socio-political system, must be viewed with circumspection.

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