21 March 1994
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Today we honour the memory of the 69 peaceful demonstrators who were massacred at Sharpeville in South Africa 34 years ago. This day also serves as an opportunity to rededicate ourselves and redouble the efforts of the international community to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. This is of utmost importance since we are witnessing in many parts of the world several barbaric abuses and violations of human rights rooted in racial or ethnic hatred. The total eradication of the worst form of racial discrimination - apartheid in South Africa - will be an outstanding event in the history of mankind and will set a much-needed example for the whole world.
Today we are on the eve of the emergence of a new society in South Africa - a society in which all South Africans, irrespective of their race, can see the prospects of living in harmony as equal citizens of a democratic country. We, in the Special Committee against Apartheid, are proud that our Committee, which over the years played a leading role in mobilising international opinion against apartheid, has also been able to contribute to the positive changes taking place in South Africa.
A small high-level delegation of the Special Committee has only recently returned from a fact-finding mission to South Africa aimed at updating our appreciation of events there and holding consultations with a wide spectrum of opinion in the country. The mission took its members to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, East London and Port Elizabeth. The members of the mission had, inter alia, an opportunity to follow the proceedings in the Transitional Executive Council, which was set up to supervise Government policies in crucial areas in the period leading up to the elections. We were impressed by the seriousness, thoroughness and skill with which business of the TEC was conducted and handled by its members, which in our view augurs well for a future government of national unity.
The mission also attended the parliamentary session at which further amendments to the interim constitution were presented. Members of the delegation were given a full and detailed brief by the Chairman and several members of the Independent Electoral Commission, and they also met with the Chairman of the Goldstone Commission and the National Peace Secretariat. Detailed briefings were also provided by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, and by the leaders of the observer teams of the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Organisation of African States. In Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth, UNOMSA representatives provided further briefings on the situation in their respective areas of responsibility and meetings were held with representatives of the local peace structures. With particular reference to voter education, the delegation met with representatives of leading non-governmental organisations in that field: Independent Forum on Electoral Education, Matla Trust and Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa. These organisations have been doing an outstanding work and will, no doubt, continue and further expand this very essential aspect of free and fair elections.
This also is true in the case of the structures for promoting the Peace Accord in South Africa and all those parties, groups and individuals representing them who, in an often very adverse environment, keep up the work of the peace committees. While it may be true that in certain particularly difficult areas, the main parties involved in rivalry or conflict may be using the peace committees as platforms for electioneering or even absent themselves from them, in most cases the patient work of peace committee workers and participants continues to alleviate tensions and conflict. The sum total of the activities of those actively involved in the peace structures has contributed to saving lives and promoting a climate conducive to free and fair elections.
The mission was equally impressed by the commitment and confidence of the members of the Independent Electoral Commission whose daunting task it is, now only five weeks from the election dates, to organise and provide the logistics for the election, set up the more than 9,000 polling stations and counting centres, monitor the elections, ensure the protection and security of voters and others involved and the securing of the polls, and provide voter information and education to an electorate, the majority of which has never before been allowed to participate in a democratic process and to cast their votes.
Excellencies and Distinguished Delegates,
Permit me to commend the excellent work being carried out in this respect by UNOMSA under its original and expanded mandate. UNOMSA, under the able leadership of Mr. Brahimi and Ms. Angela King, is getting fully prepared for the huge task of observing the arrangements for electioneering as well as the actual conduct of the elections. It is also prepared to co-ordinate the activities in that regard of all observers sent by international organisations and national governments. We are confident that the presence, organisation and commitment of UNOMSA and its staff would be an absolutely essential factor in helping to achieve successful democratic elections in South Africa.
I referred earlier to the amendments to the interim constitution and the Electoral Act presented to and adopted by South African parliament while our mission was in South Africa. We commend the political wisdom and flexibility demonstrated by the main participants in the Multiparty Negotiating Council, who have bent over backwards to encourage those who have chosen to put themselves outside that framework to join the electoral process.
Recently some parties which have until now chosen not to participate in procedures available to them, have suggested that the elections be postponed. We do not presume to give advice to the parties in South Africa, which have themselves so successfully developed a process for political negotiation and problem solving. But we cannot fail to register our worry that a possible postponement of the elections, may cause further confusion and resentment among those millions of South Africans who have never been allowed to vote before, and further aggravate tension, violence and loss of life, without alleviating the tension and violence that may accompany the elections regardless of when they are held. It is also important to know that the financial and human resources which are now being pulled together by the international community to assist the South Africans in their first fully democratic elections are not limitless. The elections will allow those who claim that they have a large support, to show their strength at the polls. The democratic process would also allow those parties, which fear that they will not fare well at the polls, to remain in the system and negotiate further areas of concern to them in the new Parliament. We urge that this democratic process be allowed to play itself out and wish to add that there can be no understanding or support from the international community for those who, fearing defeat at the polls, darkly threaten those who wish to exercise their right to vote with violence and intimidation. Let there be no misunderstanding about that.
The international community takes justifiable pride in its role and commitment so far toward the attainment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa. It is, nevertheless, important to point out that, as the socio-economic dimensions of South Africa's transition are moving into focus, the international community should begin to address seriously and urgently the requirements of the disadvantaged sectors of the South African society. Immense material, financial and other assistance will be needed in the areas of human resources development and employment, health and housing. The majority of the people of South Africa would want the international community not to abandon them after the elections in April 1994. They want the international community to work with them creatively and generously in the enormous task of reconstruction after apartheid is dead and buried.
The Special Committee against Apartheid strongly supports the view that it is the moral responsibility of the international community to continue to fully assist the South African people in their long road to building a harmonious and prosperous nation and thus enhance the prospects for peace, progress and stability not only in that country but in the sub-region and the African continent as a whole.
Excellencies and Distinguished Delegates,
This may well be the last time that we shall be holding this solemn meeting set aside as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. By the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Special Committee hopes to be able to submit a final report to the General Assembly proudly stamped "Mission Accomplished". If all goes well and there are sound reasons for believing that it will, that obnoxious system of institutionalised racism, apartheid, would have been eradicated in South Africa. While the Special Committee against Apartheid is proud of its contribution to such a befitting burial for apartheid in South Africa, the international community must realise that as far as the total elimination of racial discrimination in the world is concerned, the struggle continues.