1961 is the year of Independence of South Africa and 1985 is the year in which a Partial State of Emergency was declared in South Africa.
The international community was putting a lot of pressure on South Africa. There were sanctions, and for example other African nations did not let SA use their airspace. There was also the 1976 Olympics Boycott, which was a protest to not banning a New Zealand team that toured SA- generally, SA was isolated in sports during that time.
