Strengthening the military/Police state

• Botha had been Minister of Defence for many years, he had good links with army generals, particularly the chief, General Malan
• He set up a state security council (SSC) in 1982, consisting of army generals and police chiefs - it had more influence over Botha than the politicians in his Cabinet
• SSC was supported by a system of local joint management centres, run by a local police chief or army brigadier - it was almost a parallel government
• Botha greatly increased the size of the armed forces - Since 1972 every South African male has had to do nine months of military service, Botha increased this period to two years and men could also do up to 720 days of additional service at regular intervals or times of emergency
• 200,000 schoolchildren went to regular camps run by the army and joined cadet forces
• By 1981 the South African Defence Force numbered over 250,000 in reserve
• There was a world boycott on selling arms to selling arms to South Africa, so it set up its own arms industry (called ARMSCOR), it made guns, tanks, rocket launchers and many other kinds of weapons - often using parts and machines supplied by countries willing to break the boycott
• Military spending rose 700 million rand in 1974 to 3,000 million rand by 1981