The NP, ANC, Inkatha and other parties in South Africa, 1975-1985

The NP and Inkatha's relations with both parliamentary and extra­ parliamentary groupings during the decade 1975-1985 created a hiatus in terms of their aims and strategies. This crippled the evolvement of consensus politics in South Africa. The NP and Inkatha had unfavourable relations with the extra­ parliamentary political formations, particularly the ANC. Their relations with both the NP and Inkatha in terms of their aims and strategies were marked by what one may convoke "timorous digressions." Most of them referred to the NP Government as illegitimate while viewing Inkatha as perpetrating political tribalism which to them was the greatest enemy of African freedom. By 1985 this intricate structure of political groupings and different aims and strategies, characterized a divided South Africa.