This issue of FOCUS documents government plans and actions regarding the forced incorporation of various areas (Moutse, Botshabelo, Peelton, Leeuwfontein, Braklaagte) into South African bantustans during 1988-1989. It details community resistance, legal challenges, forced removals, police and vigilante violence, states of emergency, and the response of civil society organizations. The report includes references to contemporary press coverage and provides context on the humanitarian and political implications of these events.

Issue 43 provides in-depth coverage of labour repression in South Africa, including mass strikes, police violence, dockworker and miner disputes, and the suppression of the General Workers Union. It documents political trials of ANC members, including those of Barbara Hogan, Alan Fine, and others, with graphic accounts of torture. The issue includes updates on detentions and preventive detention under the new Internal Security Act, the massacre at Oshikuku (Namibia), SWAPO activities, and constitutional reforms aimed at entrenching apartheid. A full list of political detainees and those who died in custody since 1963 is also included.