Mr. Chairman,
The Honourable Didymus Mutasa, Speaker of the Zimbabwe Parliament,
Your Excellencies, Ministers and members of the Diplomatic Corps.
Distinguished Parliamentarians from Western Europe and southern Africa,
Comrades, ladies and gentlemen,
First of all I would like to thank our dear friends, the Honourable Didymus Mutasa and Jan Nico Scholten, President of AWEPAA, for inviting us to participate in this second part of this conference which is discussing "Southern Africa's Future: Europe's Role". We were together in Lusaka only a few days ago discussing what needs to be done to expedite the liberation of Namibia and South Africa.
It is proper and fitting that we should also attend to that other important question facing the peoples of our region - the issue of development. This is an issue in which the African National Congress and the struggling people of our country are deeply interested. It is clearly also a critical front in the overall struggle against the evil system of apartheid. Every victory we score on this front is a blow against racism. Every step forward in the struggle to improve the lives of the peoples of the independent States of our region, to reduce their dependence on apartheid South Africa, brings nearer the liberation of the peoples of Namibia and South Africa.
We would like to take this opportunity to pay homage to the farsighted leaders of our region who, eight years ago, decided to establish the Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). This has not only become an important instrument in the struggle against underdevelopment, but also a source of pride which reinforces the confidence of the peoples of our region in their ability to shape their destiny together, in solidarity with one another and as equals, and a successful expression of the exercise of the right to self-determination.
We were deeply moved by the words of welcome extended to us all by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Comrade Robert Mugabe. We extend our thanks to him, the Speaker of the Zimbabwe Parliament and the Government and people of this country for the friendly and fraternal manner in which they have received us as well as the excellent conditions they have created to ensure the success of this important conference.
(1)Action against Apartheid (AWEPAA) and the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Impoverishment of Black Majority
Those of us who come from southern Africa know the true meaning of mass abject poverty. We have all seen with our eyes and perhaps experienced personally what it means to go without food and to wake up from sleep that had been tormented by nightmares deriving both from hunger and the knowledge that the new day was as much without hope as the last. We have seen the frightened and pleading eyes of both the young and the old, reduced almost to an animal condition by want and deprivation. We are familiar with the tragic spectacle of children, mothers and fathers rummaging through refuse heaps in search of morsels of food that had been thrown away because they were no longer wanted.
Stomachs distended to the point of bursting: eyes protruding sightless from deep sockets; legs so thin you wonder how they manage to support a body that is itself covered by scabs and festering sores: all this the result of manmade conditions that condemn millions to a life of hunger, homelessness, disease, ignorance and absence of protection from cold, heat, rain and the parching winds of the winter's end.
When we speak thus, we talk of the South African and Namibian child who is a victim of malnutrition and kwashiokor because the robber barons of the glittering city of Johannesburg and the well-fed white politicians that make policy in the beautiful city of the ironically named Cape of Good Hope have decreed that this should be so. We talk of the Angolan and Mozambican child who cannot grow up healthy in mind and body and mature into adulthood, because the robber barons of the obscenely opulent city of Johannesburg and the immaculate generals of the flower-spangled city of Pretoria have decreed that this should be so.
Within South Africa, the apartheid economic system is predicated on the impoverishment of the black majority and the enrichment of the white minority. Sitting at the top of the pile are huge corporations owned by a handful of immensely wealthy white businessmen whose purpose in life is further to enrich themselves without any regard whatsoever for the welfare of the masses of our people. Continuously in search of profits, they seek the domination not only of South Africa but of the rest of southern Africa as well.
Liberation, Development and Defence
The notion advanced by the Pretoria regime in the past, of a so-called constellation of southern African States had, among other things, the objective of ensuring this economic domination of our region as a whole. Big capital and the apartheid State had the aim, which they have not abandoned, to replicate throughout southern Africa the mercilessly exploitative economic relations they have imposed on our country and people.
The hostility of the apartheid regime to SADCC derives from this and reflects Pretoria's determination to ensure that the independent States of our region do not succeed to reduce their dependence on racist South Africa. In keeping with this, the Botha regime would like to ensure that the rest of our region continues to rely on the South African railways and harbours for the movement of its imports and exports. We must therefore expect that this regime will continue to view as inimical to its interests the development or reopening of the various rail routes that link the countries of our region to the sea, including the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Line, the Beira Corridor and the Benguela Railroad.
Needless to say, the racists also expect that the more economically dependent free Africa is on South Africa, the easier it would be for these countries to submit to Pretoria's political and military domination, precisely to ensure the continuation of the apartheid system within South Africa. Consequently, it should be clear that the questions of the economic independence and progress of the liberated countries of our region cannot be separated from the struggle for the emancipation of the peoples of Namibia and South Africa.
In this regard, we need to emphasise the point also that the development and defence of our region are inextricably bound together. South African aggression against the independent States of our region is an established reality. Some of the targets of this aggression are precisely those elements in the social and economic infrastructure which the rest of the world is assisting the SADCC countries to build. It would therefore seem only natural that that which has been constructed at enormous cost has to be defended against those who do not want to see the peoples of our region develop, namely the Pretoria regime.
Assistance and Sanctions
The southern African parliamentarians present here will undoubtedly inform their counterparts from Western Europe of the extent of destruction sustained by the independent countries of our region as a result of Pretoria's continuing campaign of aggression and destabilisation. Beyond the statistics lies a tragic story of human suffering of massive proportions. Merely to meet the current needs of the millions who have borne the brunt of Pretoria's criminal policies requires enormous resources. To help develop our region so that it actually reduces its dependence on racist South Africa obviously necessitates the transfer of resources on a scale which recognises the special needs of the peoples of southern Africa which derive from the political situation in our region.
There is need also to reiterate the point that the peoples of southern Africa have firmly rejected the attempt of some major Western powers to set against each other the demand for sanctions against apartheid South Africa and the need to provide development assistance to the independent States of our region. This is clearly an attempt to avoid the imposition of sanctions which all of us present here recognise as an important weapon in the struggle to end the apartheid system and therefore eliminate the source of violence, war and instability in southern Africa.
As we said when this conference sat in Lusaka last week, the ANC and the masses of our people are determined to continue and intensify the political and armed struggle for the destruction of the apartheid system and the transformation of South Africa into a united, democratic and nonracial country. The counteroffensive of the apartheid regime aimed at ensuring its survival and the perpetuation of the racist system of white minority domination will not succeed to stop our advance towards liberation. <P> <P> <P> As the distinguished West European parliamentarians who were in Lusaka will have heard from the representatives of the mass democratic movement who came from within South Africa, the very fact of this counteroffensive is an admission on the part of the Pretoria regime that all previous efforts to suppress our struggle have failed. The determination of our people to continue the struggle and to liberate themselves remains unchanged. Indeed, the more the Pretoria regime carries out its policy of terror and repression against our movement, the rest of the democratic forces of our country and the people as a whole, the more pressing the need becomes to get rid of the criminal apartheid regime once and for all.
From previous experience and in the context of the aggressive stance of this regime, we must expect that as the struggle within South Africa and Namibia continues and escalates, the harder the Pretoria regime will try to export the conflict within our two countries into the rest of the region. Therefore we can assume that in the coming period, the development and defence needs of the Frontline and other States will increase as a direct consequence of the intensification of the struggle in South Africa and Namibia.
We are pleased and honoured that the West European parliamentarians have been able to visit and stay with us for a week. I am certain that during your stay you will have come to understand even better the situation in our region and the concerns and requirements of our peoples. We count you as among our steadfast allies and will continue to rely on you to act together with us and all other anti-apartheid forces to escalate the offensive against the apartheid regime for the victory of the democratic struggle in South Africa, for the independence of Namibia and peace throughout our region.
Our request to you is that you continue to inform the peoples of Western Europe about the situation in southern Africa, to arouse the conscience of the peoples against the apartheid crime against humanity. We ask that you continue the struggle for the imposition of comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against apartheid South Africa. We appeal to you further to mobilise for the development and defence of the Frontline and other independent States of our region. We are greatly encouraged by the knowledge that you will attend to all these tasks with a determination born of your commitment to freedom, justice, development and peace in southern Africa.