31 August 1979
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.
References
Kalley, J. A. et al (1999). Southern African Political History: A Chronology of Key Political Events from Independence to Mid-1997, Greenwood: London, p. 450.|
Reader's Digest. (1988). Illustrated History of South Africa: the real story, New York: Reader's Digest Association, pp. 453 & 456.