STATEMENT AT THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES - LIBERATION MOVEMENT DIALOGUE, LUSAKA, MAY 5, 1987⁽¹⁾

The peoples of southern Africa are confronted with the daily reality of war. War means the killing of people, the deliberate act of taking human lives. It entails the planned and intentional destruction of the accumulated products of human labour. In their wake, all wars leave desolate landscape inhabited by orphans, by widows and widowers, by grief and pain.

Go anywhere in southern Africa today and if you have ears to hear, you will not miss the pitiful cries of the bereaved. You will not fail to see the motherless children nor the mothers and fathers whose offspring have ceased to be, mangled into a bloody pulp by the merciless machine of military conflict.

The Church has identified some of its major objectives with regard to Namibia, South Africa and our region as a whole as justice, peace and reconciliation. The African National Congress agrees fully with these goals. Indeed, we are proud to inscribe these noble aims on our own battle standards. We do so with the understanding that they are related and interconnected, the realisation of the one being dependent on the accomplishment of the other. Without justice there can be no peace; without a just peace, there can be no reconciliation.

The challenge that faces all of us is how to achieve justice, peace and reconciliation in our region in the shortest possible time. It is about this question that there are some disputes among us. It seems to us that these debates should be brought to some resolution sooner rather than later, because the danger exists that endless disputation can lead to inaction and therefore the perpetuation of evil. It is not without justification that it has been said that the moment of truth has come.

Let me state some fundamental positions of the ANC clearly and unequivocally. We are committed to the struggle to overthrow the racist Pretoria regime, the transfer of power to all the people under a system of one person one vote in a unitary South African State, the use of that popular power to abolish the apartheid system in its entirety and the rebuilding of our country on the basis of the nonracial and democratic perspectives spelt out in the Freedom Charter.

We have absolutely no doubt that what we have said represents and coincides with the views of the majority of the oppressed people of our country and an increasing number of our white compatriots. To our countrymen and women coming directly from South Africa, and to our friends from the rest of the world, I would like to say that this is the reality we all have to deal with, regardless of our likes and dislikes. What it demands of us is that we must take sides. It does not permit of equivocation.

It is true that, at home and abroad, there are some from among those who count themselves among the anti-apartheid forces who continue to express reservations about elements of the fundamental positions we have just stated. We do not believe that this in itself constitutes any cause for worry. It would be foolhardy of us to expect that each and every one of us should be of one mind about everything. However, we do expect that those who say they are opposed to the apartheid system should act and be seen to act against this system.

Those among us who seek complete oneness among the forces fighting against white minority rule should concentrate on ensuring that all the opposition forces are actually engaged in struggle against the common enemy. It is by united action that meaningful unity is achieved and consolidated. There can be no doubt in this hall about the fact of the engagement of the ANC and the mass democratic movement of our country in that struggle and the orientation of our strategies against the apartheid regime.

"Black on Black" Violence

Let me take this opportunity to reflect briefly on the question of so-called "black on black" violence and the supposed divisions among the oppressed people. It is perfectly clear to us that the overwhelming majority of our people are united in their determination and resolve to end the apartheid system. We do not have to inform this meeting about the numerous actions that our people have taken as a united force.

There are, however, some from among the oppressed who have elected to serve on the side of the oppressor, to make their own contribution to the perpetuation of racial tyranny. You know that the ANC has made strenuous efforts to mobilise all our people, both black and white, to join together in action against the Pretoria regime. At times, we have even gone against the strong feeling of the majority of our people to enter into dialogue with some of those who are manning the structures of the apartheid system. At the same time, we have called repeatedly to those who serve within the machinery of apartheid to terminate such service and to join the struggle for their own liberation.

It is clear that there are some who are refusing to listen - who, for one reason or another, find it right and proper to contribute to the commission of a crime against humanity. I do not think that it is expected that we should excuse them simply because they are black. By their actions they have defined themselves as part of the enemy of all humanity and must expect to be treated as such. To describe popular action against a black soldier as "black on black" violence is as misleading as it would be to describe similar action against a white soldier as "black on white" violence. The simple fact is that the democratic forces of our country, themselves nonracial in their essence, have to act against the apartheid system and those who maintain this system, whatever their colour...

Apartheid Regime is Source of Violence

We who have been the victims of violence for centuries know its true meaning. Our own experience has taught us to hate violence. It was to terminate the violence against our people, which is inherent in white minority domination, that the ANC was formed. We are committed to the building of a political order based on government by consent and not coercion, to end once and for all the practice of the use of force to order relations among people.

For almost fifty years and even under the extreme provocation of the apartheid system, we resisted the temptation to resort to armed struggle. We proclaimed and followed a policy of nonviolence despite the fact that, even then, political demonstrations were met with extreme violence resulting in many deaths. In recognition of his services to the cause of nonviolence and as a tribute to the humanism of our people who refused to be provoked into abandoning the policy of nonviolence, the late Chief Albert Luthuli was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the end, decades of nonviolent resistance earned us a banning order. It is well to bear in mind that the ANC was declared an illegal organisation almost two years before we resorted to armed struggle. The apartheid regime decreed that to resist oppression in any way was illegal. We are in the same situation today. The overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands who have been killed, imprisoned and detained in South Africa have never carried arms. Their only crime is that they dared to stand up to oppose racial tyranny, and that, by violent means.

The apartheid regime left us no choice but to take up arms. In the same way, Nazism left the people of Europe and the world no choice but to fight. In earlier times, the people of the United States were the first in the Americas to resort to armed struggle in the face of what they considered to be an unrelenting tyranny. There can be no justice in the attempt to force us to lay down arms and thus, in fact, to surrender. Furthermore, to blame us for the violence imposed on us by the apartheid regime is to add insult to injury.

It is perfectly clear that the source of violence throughout our region is the apartheid regime. To end that violence, we have to bring the apartheid system to an end. We have been forced to wage armed struggle precisely to achieve this objective. To terminate that struggle would have one effect, and one effect only - the further perpetuation of the apartheid system. This is a result which surely none of us desires.

We would also like to make the point here that to the best of our knowledge the Christian Church has never been pacifist. We understand very well the determination of the Church continuously to seek a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in South Africa, Namibia and in southern Africa as a whole. However, it cannot be correct that the concept of a just war should be applied selectively and that the reaction of the oppressed to the violence of the apartheid State should be equated to the deliberate State terrorism of the Pretoria regime.

Allies in the Struggle

As our struggle has intensified and the crisis of the apartheid system deepened, we have been confronted with a growing deluge of questions about ourselves. Sometimes it has felt as though we were being subjected to the intense scrutiny of an examination room. We appreciate that this is because of the general realisation that victory is in sight, and that therefore there is a genuine desire to know what the future holds in store, a future in which the ANC will necessarily play an important part. But we should honestly say that sometimes some of this probing is used as a reason or an excuse to avoid taking action against the apartheid system. The probing requires of us to give a number of assurances about various matters to encourage people to oppose the apartheid system. Of course we do not accept this line of reasoning and shall continuously urge everybody to join in the struggle and thereby to place themselves in a position to help determine both the course of the struggle and its outcome.

One of the questions that is raised with considerable persistence is the one of our relations with the South African Communist Party and the Socialist countries, especially the Soviet Union. From the outset we must state it clearly that we consider all these forces as firm and reliable allies in the common struggle for the liberation of our country and people. Instead of being criticised and denounced for involving themselves in the struggle against apartheid, they should rather be congratulated as should people of other political persuasions, such as Social Democrats and Liberals who have also joined in the fight against white minority domination.

Ours is a national liberation movement which contains within it different philosophical tendencies but all of which adhere to a common resolve to bring about a united, democratic and nonracial South Africa on the basis of the Freedom Charter. The absolute imperative for the greatest possible unity of all our people in the struggle for liberation demands that we defend and advance this character of our movement. As in the past, we shall resist all attempts to inject any anti-religious notions into our midst. Indeed, proceeding on the basis of old traditions within our movement, we are in the process of establishing an interfaith chaplaincy within the movement to ensure that all members of all faiths have ready access to such religious counselling and assistance as they may require.

As for the South African Communist Party, this is an independent political formation with which the ANC maintains the best of relations on the basis of a common commitment to act as allies in the struggle against apartheid. We see nothing wrong or sinister about that as we saw nothing wrong or sinister about the alliance formed by the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union to wage a common struggle against Nazism.

The African National Congress is very interested to see the Soviet Union and the United States act together to help bring a speedy end to the system of apartheid. We are not in the least interested that elements of the East-West conflict should be introduced into our situation. It would therefore help a great deal if the same spirit that inspired both East and West in the struggle against Hitler Germany should once more prevail, enabling the great Powers to act in concert, with the common objective of seeing South Africa transformed into a nonracial, non-aligned and peaceful entity.

It is however, also obvious that for all this to happen the United States Administration would have to abandon its policy of constructive engagement, cease supporting such bandit formations as UNITA and firmly and squarely take the side of those who fight for democracy in our country and not those who are committing atrocities daily to maintain the racist system of white minority rule. We are certain that those of our friends who come from the United States who are present here will help us to effect this turnabout in United States policy, hard though it may be. We extend the appeal also to those delegates that come from the other major Western countries.

The 1985 Programme of Action

What we are asking you to support is a future with which you should find no problem. We are appealing to you to support us in the struggle to turn South Africa into a democratic country, wherein all will have the right to vote and to be elected to all organs of government and wherein all individual rights to speech, assembly, religion, culture, the press, the inviolability of the family and so on, will be guaranteed.

We are asking you to help us reach the moment quickly when it will be possible for our people to attend to the question of the people raising their standards of living through their own labours and with your assistance, in conditions of freedom and peace. This demands action against apartheid now.

The December 1985 Harare meeting of Church leaders took important decisions concerning a programme of action to help expedite the process of the liberation of South Africa and Namibia. At that moment, the Church leaders said: "We gathered here, commit ourselves to the implementation of the Harare Declaration as a matter of urgency". Eighteen months on, both the ANC and SWAPO and indeed the peoples of our region, are interested to know what the results of that commitment have been.

Indeed we feel that there is little we can add, if anything at all, to that programme of action. This is particularly so in the light of earlier decisions of the WCC and the more recent resolutions of its Central Committee. Therefore the questions that remain to be answered are: what has the Church, within and outside South Africa, done to promote the campaign for comprehensive and mandatory sanctions? What has been done to support the "South African movements working for the liberation of the country", to use the language of the Declaration? And what of the implementation of Security Council Resolution 435 on Namibia?

Events in South and southern Africa since this Declaration was adopted have led to a further deterioration of the situation. This emphasises the correctness of the urgency with which the church leaders approached the question of taking action against apartheid. The need for action has never been greater than it is now. This meeting provides us with the opportunity to speak frankly to one another about such progress and problems as we may have achieved or encountered, to elaborate strategies for joint action and to look into the question of ways and means of ensuring that our resolutions are translated into reality.

Struggle will Intensify

The perspective ahead of us within South Africa is one of a political and military struggle that will continue to intensify. The state of emergency imposed in June last year not only failed to break the will of the people, it also did not succeed to destroy the organised structures of the democratic movement of our country. Neither the armed occupation of the townships, the establishment of so-called Joint Management Centres nor the sponsoring of vigilante groups, neither the continuing murder of our people nor external aggression could turn back the tide of liberation which has engulfed the apartheid system.

The white elections, due to be held tomorrow, will solve nothing. To reaffirm the continuation of white minority rule at this stage, by holding those racist elections, is to throw a challenge to the voteless majority to take all necessary action to ensure that these elections are the last of their kind.

This electoral process lacks all legitimacy and its results are entirely of no consequence to the central question of South African politics, that of the transfer of power to the people. White South Africans must, in increasing numbers, also act in favour of a united, democratic and nonracial South Africa and reject unequivocally the so-called tricameral parliament and all institutions and "resolutions" based on the system of apartheid in all its elements.

Responsibility of the Church

The African National Congress has a long history of association with the Church. Our founders were churchmen and women. Throughout our 75 years that link has never been broken. As we enter the final stages of our struggle, we believe that you, too, have a responsibility to contribute to the maximum to remove a regime which offends the very principles on which the Church itself was founded.

Our brothers and sisters from home in particular must know that we shall continue to knock on the door of the Church to ask for the fullest involvement of the Church in all aspects of the struggle. The millions of our people who are making such enormous sacrifices can expect no less from a Church which is made up in the main of the poor and the oppressed and which should identify itself with these downtrodden masses.

The struggle demands sacrifice from all of us. To end the apartheid crime against humanity we must move together in unity.

1. ¹ From: ANC pamphlet, South Africa at the Crossroads:

Speeches Delivered in May 1987 by President Tambo to Business International, The Canon Collins Memorial Lecture and to the World Council of Churches, 1987.