The Presidential Years

Established in the mid-eighties under the State Security Council (SSC), the National Security Management System (NSMS) extended across government and from national to local level. It co-ordinated all aspects of state policy and action with the goal of repressing resistance and imposing limited reform. The SSC supplanted the Cabinet as the centre of executive and policy decision-making until the NSMS was dismantled in 1993 by FW De Klerk and the SSC became an advisory committee.