Statement by Alfred Nzo, Secretary General of the African National Congress of South Africa, Lusaka, February 20th, 1980.
Recent events have made it abundantly clear that the apartheid regime of South Africa is preparing for renewed attacks against the frontline states. For this purpose all manner of deceptive fabrications have been concocted and broadcast to the world seeking to justify these impending acts of aggression.
Over the last few days the Pretoria regime has put out two such fabrications. The first was that it had captured a cache of arms in the northern part of the South African province of Natal close to the border with Mozambique. The second was that some ten guerrillas had robbed and burnt down a shop in the same area and kidnapped the owner for military training.
Both stories contained the suggestion that the African National Congress, acting together with the FPLM, the Mozambican Defence Force, was responsible for these supposed activities. These alleged guerrillas were even obliging enough to abandon the shop-owner along the way for him happily to be found by the South African Police to whom he could explain that a combined unit of our forces and those of Mozambique were responsible for gutting his store and abducting him.
The fact of the matter is that both these incidents were deliberately set up by the Botha regime to give a basis for its false claim that Mozambique is directly and indirectly involved in military operations against the Apartheid state. In the instance of the raid on the shop it is our belief that Pretoria used a unit of mercenaries selected from a large group whose base and training camp is located at St. Lucia, 150 KM south of the Mozambican border.
These are mercenaries who ran away from Mozambique after that country's independence and who have since been 24 trained armed and used by Pretoria to carry out acts of terrorism against the Mozambican Government.
The whole world knows that our liberation forces are hitting at the enemy in the very heart of South Africa, operating from within the country. The number of police and para-military personnel killed or injured in Johannesburg and Pretoria in battles with or as a result of attacks by our forces in the recent past, gives a lie to the pretences of the enemy that we are invading South Africa from Mozambique or any other neighbouring country for that matter.
The source of aggression throughout Southern Africa is Apartheid South Africa. It is not and has never been Mozambique. The deployment over the last few days of the racist South African army on the Natal-Mozambique border is itself ample proof of the aggressive intentions of the Botha regime against peace-loving Mozambique .
So long as white minority rule exists in South Africa, so long will our people, under the leadership of the ANC, continue to step up armed struggle to overthrow and destroy this system and establish a democratic order.
The new situation created by Pretoria with regard to Mozambique once more emphasises the need for us to succeed in this struggle sooner rather than later, to remove the Apartheid fountainhead of aggression so that a genuine and lasting peace can reign throughout Southern Africa.
The National Executive Committee of the ANC calls on the world community urgentlv to launch a vigorous campaign around the important watchwords - 'HANDS OFF MOZAMBIQUE'. We further call on the world community to give maximum assistance to the ANC for us to discharge our responsibilities, in the interests of inter- national peace and security and the liberty of our people.
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES! VICTORY IS CERTAIN!