13 December 1993
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
The road to political change in South Africa was long and arduous, and it was marked by enormous sacrifice and suffering. With the end of the Cold War, persistent international pressure, the stand-off between contending forces in South Africa, and the escalating and crippling human and financial costs of apartheid, it became clear to South African leaders, Black and White, that the only way out was through broad-based negotiations. With the encouragement and support of members of the United Nations and the international community, South Africans decided at long last to resolve their differences peacefully, setting in the process a remarkable example for other countries beset by political, ethnic and other forms of internal conflict.
Perhaps the most remarkable event in the process of peacefully negotiating an end to apartheid, occurred on 18th November - less than a month ago - when the leaders of the parties participating in the Multi-Party Negotiation Process ratified the agreement on a constitution for the transition in South Africa. Together with an electoral bill and the bills adopted in October to enact a Transitional Executive Council, an Independent Broadcast Authority and Independent Media and Election Commissions, the whole transition package was in place and could become operational. We have indeed truly reached the end of an era and, as Mr. Nelson Mandela earlier stated "are at the beginning of a new era".
The electoral bill provides the legal framework for the elections to be held on April 27, 1994 - South Africa's first free and fair elections. Following the elections, the interim constitution will come into effect. Under the Constitution for the transitional period, the National Parliament will consist of a 400-member National Assembly elected on the basis of proportional representation and of a 90-member Senate, which is to be elected by the nine provincial legislatures. The National Assembly will elect the President of the country. All South African voters will cast a single ballot for the party they choose to represent them in both a National Assembly and in the legislatures of the province where they reside. The full Parliament will serve both as an interim Parliament and as a Constituent Assembly mandated to draw up South Africa's permanent constitution.
A Government of National Unity is proposed to govern the country for five years, after which elections under the new permanent constitution will be held. Any party winning over 5 per cent of the popular vote in April 1994 is entitled to a seat in this interim cabinet.
The agreed interim constitution abolishes the "homelands" and divides the country into nine provinces, each with an elected provincial assembly. These assemblies will administer education, health, police and other services at the provincial level as well as elect the ten members that each province will have seated in the Senate of the National Parliament.
The interim constitution includes a Bill of Rights, which, inter alia, guarantees equality of race and gender; freedom of speech, assembly and movement; the right to vote; the right to fair trial; the right not to be exposed to torture and cruel or inhuman punishment; and the right of those dispossessed under apartheid to seek restitution. It also limits the President's power to declare a state of emergency.
There will also be an 11-member Constitutional Court appointed by the President to resolve any disputes or conflicts of interpretation of constitution between different levels of government, and to provide the ultimate guarantee that the rights of all South Africans enshrined in the constitution will be respected and protected.
On 29 January 1993, South Africa signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Political Rights of Women; and the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women.
This encouraging development reflects that there is already a broad-based agreement that in a new South Africa, human rights must be protected uniformly. We are convinced that an early accession by South Africa to the Covenants on Human Rights would provide further reassurance in this regard, and could facilitate the understanding and interpretation of the various provisions of the Bill of Rights now adopted.
Mr. President,
These are, undoubtedly, positive steps in the long road to freedom in South Africa. Nonetheless, there are reasons for caution and vigilance on the part of the international community. We know that the negotiating process has often been marred by an upsurge in political violence. There are still those in South Africa who openly threaten to derail the transition process. There are those who are unwilling to abide by the rules of the democratic process. Political violence has claimed 10,000 lives in the past three years alone. South Africa's first one-person one-vote is barely months away. Recent studies indicate that growing numbers of South Africans participating in the electoral process are likely to be intimidated. Operating under the supervision of the TEC, governing structures now have to assume without delay their full responsibilities to restrain the violence and to promote and protect the right of all South Africans to participate in the democratic process without intimidation. For peace, like freedom, is indivisible. It is beyond the pale and contingencies of short-term policies. To contain violence in volatile areas, much hope in South Africa rests on the establishment of a multi-party peacekeeping force. Although a broad agreement on the principle of such a force was achieved sometime ago, questions relating to integration and control of a joint force are still under negotiation.
Mr. President,
It is necessary for the international community to acknowledge that the establishment of the Transitional Executive Council is the first step in representative government with persons of all races in South Africa now participating in a national governing body. This historic victory is to the credit of all South Africans and to their seasoned and dedicated leadership, black and white. The wisdom and resilience they have shown in the process, have rightly been acknowledged on 15 October this year, when the Nobel Peace Committee awarded jointly to Mr. Mandela and Mr. de Klerk the Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of their visionary leadership and outstanding role in bringing the peace process forward. The award was actually presented at very impressive ceremonies in Oslo on December 10, 1993.
Some of the credit goes also to the international community which acted over the years with a determination and unity of purpose almost unique in the history of our Organisation. The issue of apartheid was first brought before it nearly four decades ago. By taking a principled stand in support of the South African people in their struggle for equality of rights and opportunities for all without which there can be no justice or freedom, the Organisation has lived up to the noble objectives of its Charter and of the Declaration of Human Rights. It could be said that the Organisation had, in the case of South Africa, for the first time given expression to the concept that gross and persistent violations of human rights go beyond the exclusive jurisdiction of the individual state and are a matter of legitimate concern to the international community. Recently, the decisions and activities of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General have demonstrated once more the significance of the international contribution to the process of peaceful settlement in South Africa.
Mr. President,
In a recent appearance at the United Nations Headquarters, Mr. Nelson Mandela called on the international community, from this very rostrum, to end economic sanctions against South Africa. On the recommendation of the Organisation of African Unity, this Assembly decided on 8 October to remove all prohibitions or restrictions on economic relations with South Africa and its nationals, and that the oil embargo should cease to have effect as of the date the Transitional Executive Council became operational. That has now happened. Last week, on December 8, 1993, the Transitional Executive Council held its first formal meeting. The Commonwealth, the European Community, and many individual governments, state and local authorities also responded swiftly in support of Mr. Mandela's appeal by removing bans and other restrictive measures. Many governments have now moved to open, resume or expand a diplomatic presence in South Africa in a process of normalisation facilitated through relations with the new, non-racial and democratic structures now in place.
Mr. President,
I believe it is time to start looking at the enormous tasks that will face the new Government of National Unity when it comes into being hopefully in May 1994. First among the immediate post-apartheid problems will be to begin addressing the high expectations of the majority of South Africans for a better life. It will be very difficult for the new government to deliver at the speed and on the scale expected of it. Restructuring the economy of a country is a slow and difficult process.
The Interim Government of National Unity that will emerge must be given the chance and the means to consolidate the foundations of the new, non-racial constitutional order and launch the country on a path of sustained growth and development. South Africa, reconciled with itself, has the makings of an economic power house. Members of the international community which have done so much, individually and collectively, to help bring about the demise of apartheid, cannot stop half-way in their support of the new South Africa where the stakes are enormous not only for South Africa and the Southern African region, but also for Africa as a whole and the world at large. It is hoped that this session of the General Assembly will adopt resolutions which will facilitate the continuation of the transition and the consolidation of a new non-racial and democratic South Africa, and which will reflect a will to assist the Government of National Unity in bringing tangible change in the conditions of the majority of South Africans. There is no time to lose in starting the reconstruction.
Some steps have already been taken. Following Mr. Mandela's appeal at the United Nations, both he and Mr. de Klerk embarked on a world-wide tour, to encourage institutional investors and corporate executives, bankers, and pension fund trustees to invest and trade in the country.
A number of foreign banks, in response to a joint plea endorsed by the main political parties and groups in South Africa, have agreed to reschedule a $5 billion debt which had been due for repayment by the end of the year. The deal which will run until 2001, will enable foreign creditors to convert debt into investment, using the financial rand as an additional incentive.
Who can forget that, in 1985, it was the foreign banks' decision to recall short-term loans that precipitated a liquidity crisis in South Africa and planted, as a prominent Afrikaner politician put it, a last nail in the coffin of apartheid?
Similarly, we are encouraged by reports that the parties involved in the process have agreed on the contents of a letter of intent to accompany an application to the IMF for an $800 million loan that would offset South Africa's export losses caused by the drought in the region. We are also encouraged by reports that the World Bank is prepared to contribute long-term development assistance as soon as detailed projects have been worked out and studied.
We all have a stake in the outcome of the South African process of normalisation. It is not unreasonable for the international community, having supported the oppressed in South Africa for so long, to expect that their leaders now set aside the language of ethnic and other forms of sterile divisiveness which erstwhile apartheid advocates so wrong-headedly tried to promote, and that they transcend their differences and build a common future by continuing to pursue inclusive solutions through negotiations with all parties concerned. The culture of consultation and negotiation across old barriers that has developed in South Africa over the last three years is, in fact, a source of inspiration, hope and reassurance that political leaders representing the diversity of South Africa's people will be able to shape the future of their country not with rifles and spears but with patient dialogue, tolerance and a rational understanding of what their interdependence means for their own longer term interests.
The international community can only supplement their efforts by supporting and encouraging their resolve and bringing material assistance to facilitate the transition to a free and equitable society.
Mr. President,
The time has come for the United Nations to initiate, and co-ordinate among its offices and agencies, a process of detailed planning of programmes of socio-economic assistance, particularly in the areas of human resource development, employment, health and housing, and to ensure also that these programmes are co-ordinated with other international agencies and with legitimate non-racial structures in South Africa.
Perhaps, the immediate concern to all those assembled here and indeed, the concern of most South Africans, is to see to it that free and fair elections take place next spring with an adequate presence of international observers. Following my consultations in South Africa in March this year with a broad spectrum of high-ranking representatives of major parties, civic, religious, business, labour, media as well as non-governmental leaders, I suggested, inter alia that the United Nations begin examining immediately the requirements as to functions and capabilities of international electoral observers in South Africa, and that consideration should to given to the fact that for the effective monitoring of the elections process as a whole, deployment would need to begin several months in advance of the actual elections. Now that the Transitional Executive Council has become operational and the Independent Electoral Commission is in place, there is an urgent need for consultations with these two bodies and with the Security Council with regard to the assistance which the United Nations and the international community could provide in the electoral process. I am pleased in this connection to note that the Secretary-General in consultation with the Security Council has already started preparations for the complex and sensitive tasks involved.
I hope that these recommendations and others contained in the report of the Special Committee will receive the consensus by which the United Nations has, in the last four years, supported the peaceful process of eliminating apartheid in South Africa.
As Mr. Mandela stated in his landmark address in this hall last September, it is important that the vast network of non-governmental organisations with which the United Nations has maintained a close co-operation for decades should, with the ushering of a new era, shift the focus of their activities to consolidating democratic change and to development-related activities. Last August, the Special Committee sponsored a consultative meeting with non-governmental and community-based organisations focusing on the needs of rural and township communities in South Africa and on the role of international and local non-governmental organisations in helping to meet those needs. The meeting, which took place in Geneva, was attended by some 65 participants, including a number of non-governmental and community-based organisations from South Africa participating for the first time.
The Special Committee also co-sponsored an historic symposium on Political Tolerance in Cape Town last July. The symposium, which was attended by prominent South African editors, journalists and other opinion-makers, was organised together with two highly respected and independent South African non-governmental organisations, the Institute for a Democratic Alternative in South Africa (IDASA) and the Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (MPD).
The Special Committee is currently preparing a seminar in London, originally planned for this month, but now postponed to January, to provide an international perspective on policy priorities of the new South Africa in the first few years of a non-racial and democratic government.
I would be remiss in my duties if I did not pay tribute to the outstanding work done over the years by United Nations Educational and Training Programme for Southern Africa, under the inspired and wise chairmanship of Ambassador Martin Huslid of Norway, and by the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa under the able and enlightened chairmanship of Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden. Together they have provided much needed educational and training assistance to large numbers of disadvantaged South Africans, and equally needed humanitarian and legal assistance to victims of apartheid. The Special Committee would like to appeal to the international community to contribute to these assistance programmes in this period of transition.
Mr. President,
We now stand on the threshold of a new era in South Africa that is full of promises but also fraught with uncertainty and danger. While it is the South Africans themselves who must bring the process of peaceful political change to a successful end, they need the continued moral and material support of the international community at this crucial time.
Let us not forget that their goal - a non-racial, non-sexist democracy - is also the goal that the international community has unanimously agreed to support in South Africa. It is my hope and prayer that developments in South Africa will make it possible for the 48th session of the General Assembly to be the last to debate this agenda item in its present form and for the Special Committee against Apartheid to be able to present a final report to the General Assembly, soon after the conclusion of the first non-racial democratic election in South Africa in 1994, which could be proudly stamped "Mission Accomplished".