Plans by the regime to conscript additional categories of Africans for national service with effect from 1 January 1979 have been met with widespread hostility and have further alienated the black majority from the "internal settlement".
According to an announcement on 19 October by the Joint Minister for Manpower Mr. Rowan Cronje, all African men between the ages of 18 and 25 who have completed two or more years at high school will now also be liable for call-up. The period of national service for all race groups is to be reduced from 18 to 12 months at the same time. (The official announcement some days later, however, that Africans must register by 1 December 1978 for call up next year, referred to Africans who had completed three years of secondary education, plus those who had signed apprenticeship contracts).
According to regime spokesmen, up to 25,000 Africans will be immediately eligible. In practice, it is highly unlikely that the regime will be able to coerce or persuade more than a fraction of the relevant age group to join up. Black University students at the University of Rhodesia, in particular, have staged vigorous protests and declared their defiance of the plan "even under force of death".
