Tricameral parliament essay

The Tricameral Parliament. Introduction. The Tricameral Parliament, a three-tiered assembly that presided over the last decade of Apartheid, was inaugurated to allow for parliamentary representation for Coloureds and Indians in one of three separate chambers, a supposed reform and improvement of Apartheid-era Whites-only representation.

Analysts have seen the ‘reform’ process as a move from the politics of control to a politics of co-option. The Tricameral Parliament was a reform imposed from above, and existed for about 11 years, in a manner many characterised as farcical. It was dissolved when a new interim constitution came into effect which abolished Apartheid legislation.

The Indian and Coloured chambers of the Tricameral Parliament suffered from a crisis of credibility, with election boycotts leading to notoriously low turnouts (the 1984 elections achieved only a 16.2% turnout). Elected officials in these houses were sometimes scorned for participating in the apartheid system.

Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which had a large majority in the white chamber. For all intents and purposes, Botha held nearly all governing power in the nation. The constitution made no provision for the representation of Black South Africans.