According to press reports, the Prime Minister of the apartheid regime in South Africa, Balthazar John Vorster, and the Chief Minister of the bantustan administration in the Transkei, "Paramount Chief" Kaiser Matanzima, signed agreements on 17 September as a prelude to the "independence" of Transkei on 26 October.
As Chairman of the Special Committee against apartheid, I wish to declare that the agreements between these two men can have no validity. They are not agreements for the granting of the right of self-determination or independence to the African people, but a fraud perpetrated by the racist rulers and the government-appointed chiefs who act as their accomplices.
The sham "independence" of the Transkei is a step in the implementation of the diabolical scheme of the apartheid regime to deprive the African people -- who constitute 70 per cent of the population of South Africa -- of their rights of citizenship by relegating them to seven or eight bantustans to be established in 200 scattered reserves covering less than 13 per cent of the area of the country.
In the case of Transkei, the regime has decreed that not only the 1.7 million residents of the territory, but more than a million people of Xhosa origin in the rest of South Africa will become "citizens" of this phantom State on 26 October. The white Parliament in Cape Town has already enacted a law depriving all the people of Transkeian origin of citizenship. There is no parallel for this mass deprivation of citizenship except in Nazi Germany.
The African people have always fought against the manoeuvres of the apartheid regime to divide them arbitrarily into so-called ethnic groups, and establish bantustans as reservoirs of labour, and appropriate the rest of South Africa, whose economy has been built by the African labour for the ruling white minority.
The regime, however, proceeded to impose the bantustan scheme by resorting to brutal repression. Already six million people have been forcibly moved from their homes, and millions more are due to be moved.
In 1960, after the banning of the African National Congress of South Africa and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, the South African regime instituted a reign of terror in the Transkei under Proclamation 400 which provides for indefinite detention without trial. That Proclamation still remains in force.
While the leaders of the African people were imprisoned or forced into exile, the regime instituted so-called "self-government" in the Transkei in 1963. Despite banning of meetings and other acts of repression, the people voted against the supporters of bantustans led by Chief Kaiser Matanzima. But the so-called "legislative assembly" was stacked with a majority of government-appointed chiefs who elected him as Chief Minister. The regime made him a "paramount chief" in recognition of his services to the regime and his betrayal of the aspirations of the African people.
The "independence" which Vorster has now arranged with Matanzima does not in any way represent the will of the African people.
The Transkei, which consists of three isolated pieces of land, is not economically viable. Most of the able-bodied men in the territory are obliged to go to the white-owned mines, factories and farms in the rest of South Africa to find employment. The "independent" Transkei will remain totally dependent on South Africa.
Kaiser Matanzima has already declared that he would continue to enforce Proclamation 400 after "independence". He has assured investors that no African trade unions would be allowed in the territory. In July - August the entire leadership of the Transkei Democratic Party was detained for opposing "independence": the party was thus prevented from contesting the elections on 29 September. (The "parliament" of Transkei is to be composed of 75 elected members and 75 appointed chiefs.) Hundreds of African students have been arrested for opposing "independence" and Matanzima has threatened to deport anyone opposing independence.
The United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and the Conference of Non-aligned Countries have denounced bantustans and called on all States to refrain from recognition of Transkei's sham "independence". This position has been supported by the World Council of Churches and numerous non-governmental organizations.
Any recognition of the Transkei, and any dealings with the authorities in the Transkei, would constitute a hostile act against the oppressed people of South Africa and, indeed, against the United Nations which has declared special responsibility for them.
On behalf of the Special Committee against apartheid, I invite all States which have not yet done so to declare categorically that they will refrain from any form of recognition to the Transkei.
I appeal to all governments and organizations to observe 26 October 1976 as a day of solidarity with the peoples of South Africa and Namibia in their struggle against bantustans and for the territorial integrity of their nations.
The destiny of South Africa shall be determined, not by the illegitimate racist regime and its accomplices among tribal chiefs, but by the people of South Africa and their genuine representatives -- above all, the leaders of the liberation movement who are now in prison and in exile or underground in South Africa.