A special cabinet committee to investigate the constitutional position of Africans outside the bantustans was established in February 1983. Since then the Cabinet Committee has had several meetings. Initially they appear to have been held only to discuss a procedure for its work, partly on the basis of consultation with bantustan leaders. Only in October 1984 did the committee hear evidence for the first time.
By January, the government had acknowledged the failure of the Cabinet Committee to find any support outside the ranks of the bantustan leaders and local councillors. In the light of this failure the government was discussing the possibility of setting up a 'negotiating forum' to give Africans 'a greater say in political reform'. This was regarded by some observers as preparing for the introduction of a fourth chamber for Africans in the segregated parliament, an option already clearly rejected by organisations most representative of popular forces.
Statements by senior government figures have made clear that the plans of the regime do not deviate from basic apartheid principles. Speaking at the first session of the new parliament in September the President gave a commitment to devising new constitutional structures for Africans outside the bantustans, but insisted that they would be within the framework of 'self-determination' over 'own affairs'.
The nature of the institutions to be established is still unclear, and there are indications of divisions within the government. One scheme, said to have been discussed for some time within the Department of Co-operation and Development, is for local authorities outside the bantustans to act as agents for bantustan authorities in the provision of services such as pensions and welfare services. The second scheme, said to have support in 'influential' government circles, is to confer 'city-state' status on major African urban areas. Such authorities would finance and provide their own services. They would be linked into a national structure (referred to in one report as a 'National Council for Urban Blacks'), linked in turn to bantustans.
