South African agriculture in the 1980s

During the 1980s South Africa witnessed a number of political changes and some political and economic instability. The new constitution in 1983 gave birth to the tricameral parliamentary system and the concepts of “own and general affairs”. The violent uprisings during 1985/86 led to a state of emergency and the intensification of economic sanctions in the mid-1980s. The agricultural sector itself was not in any way excluded from the “ups” and “downs” of change which took place during the 1980s into the 1990s.