Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto

Date: 31 Aug 1979
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Premier P.W. Botha became the first South African prime minister to visit Soweto. His visit included talks with the Soweto Community Council during which he promised that Soweto debts, totalling some R9m. would be written off. He told surprised residents of Soweto and of the independent 'homelands', which he also visited in time, "we are all South Africans". These visits were part of his 'Total Strategy' plan and policy of abolishing 'petty' apartheid. Botha envisaged the removal of some apartheid regulations, while entrenching 'grand' apartheid.

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How we know this

01Kalley, J. A. et al (1999). Southern African Political History: A Chronology of Key Political Events from Independence to Mid-1997, Greenwood: London, p. 450.
02Reader's Digest. (1988). Illustrated History of South Africa: the real story, New York: Reader's Digest Association, pp. 453 & 456.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012394

South African History Online (2011) 'Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012394 (Accessed: 23 July 2026).

South African History Online, Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012394, (accessed 23 July 2026).

"Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012394. Accessed 23 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Prime Minister Botha visits Soweto." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012394.