The future prospects for the protection of human rights in South Africa*

Abstract

It must by now be obvious to every intelligence, I presume, hat the winds of change which have been sweeping across the continent of Africa over the last two decades, are presently also raging south of the Limpopo. Ever since Mr Harold Macmillan, the then prime minister of the United Kingdom, in his historic address of 3 February 1960 to the South African parliament, directed our attention to the political significance of the prevail­ ing tide of national consciousness of the African peoples, the while man in Africa has felt the increasing chill of the side- elïects of those winds so accurately predicted by him. Not only have we seen our western allies turning their backs on the White regime of South Africa, but on the domestic scene we have also experienced the murmurs of the African breeze and the unrest and even violence which signified an impatient urge on the part of the less privileged sections of the South African population for a better deal in what is their fatherland too.