Fortypercenters, plural noun

Forms:
Also with small initial.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Named for the approximately 40% of White South Africans who are English-speaking.
The Fortypercenters: An organization founded in 1978 with the aim of promoting the interests of the English-speaking sector of the White population of South Africa.
1979 G. Baragwanath in Sunday Times 8 Apr. 9It is high time the English start sticking up for themselves...The ‘Fortypercenters’ is not anti-Afrikaans. We simply want..a fair share...English speakers hold only five per cent of the top jobs in the public service.
1979 D. Alexander in Sunday Times 15 Apr. 11The forty-percenters..operate quite openly as a watchdog and pressure group to push for a bigger say for the English in running South Africa.
1979 Daily Dispatch 14 June 2The Fortypercenters..‘oppose all attempts to put the overriding stamp of one section of the population on the character of the nation...We object to the activities of the Broederbond, such as its attempts to Afrikanerise English-speaking schoolchildren’.
1981 Sunday Times 14 June 6The reduced English-speaking support for the National Party..was partly due..to the sustained campaign by the anti-Broederbond group, the Fortypercenters.
1985 L. Du Buisson in Avenue May 36Alexander threw the full weight of his Forty Percenters behind an energetic letter-writing campaign, openly advocating secession as the only road to social justice for English speakers.
The Fortypercenters:An organization founded in 1978 with the aim of promoting the interests of the English-speaking sector of the White population of South Africa.
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English
formal, adjectiveadj.FOSATU, nounn.
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