STATEMENT AT THE 2059^TH MEETING OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

31 January 1978¹

Mr. President, we congratulate you most heartily on your assumption of the presidency during the month that marks the beginning of the International Anti-ApartheidYear.² That this Council meeting takes place under your guidance is of great importance to the Organiza­tion, for it was in your brotherly country, Nigeria, and under the chairmanship of Mr. Joseph Garba, the Com­missioner for External Affairs, that the international community took far-reaching decisions to further the advancement of the struggle against apartheid. To ensure the necessary follow-up and endorsement by the General Assembly of those decisions designed to complement the efforts of our people, whose struggle has entered a decisive and irreversible stage, the Commissioner for External Affairs joined us here in New York to present those decisions to the General Assembly.

This was not the first proof of your country's resolve to play an active role in the struggle for the total and real independence of our continent. This commitment was eloquently proved in 1975 by Nigeria's act of solidarity with the People's Republic of Angola when, acting in concert with other nations that love justice and freedom, Nigeria helped the Angolan people under the leadership of the Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola to stave off apartheidexpansionism. It is because of this brilliant record that, despite the highly orchestrated imperialist campaign, whose objective is now crystal clear, we remain convinced that Nigeria's muscle will always be harnessed to advance the African objectives in the whole of southern Africa. And it is for that reason that we are confident that, under your guidance, the Council's deliberations will be crowned with success in the form of decisions whose effect will be to further the isolation of the Pretoria regime and to strengthen the striking power of the liberation movement.

The African National Congress (ANC) attaches a great deal of importance to the resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its thirty-second session. The list also includes those draft resolutions vetoed by three permanent members of the Security Council as well as those unanimously adopted by the Council. Throughout the long history of our struggle, we have never been so confident of our victory. We have reached a stage that is characterized by the irreversible and ever-growing militancy and determination of our people to confront the apartheidmonster gun in hand and not to betray the active solidarity that progressive mankind the world over is increasingly lending us in support of our just struggle.

It is now common knowledge to all who follow the South African situation closely that Umkonto we Sizwe, the Spear of the Nation, the military wing of the ANC, is not only present and thriving in the thicket of the angry masses throughout the country but has begun to deal heavy blows against selected enemy targets. The Pretoria officials have been constrained repeatedly to admit this. The ANC's politico­-military organizational capacity continues to grow while the enemy's spy network has been considerably incapac­itated by the elimination of some key collaborators. This is coupled with the mounting of sophisticated forms of communication, such as the periodical leaflet bombs in the big cities. Such daring action, carried out under the noses of the fascist police and troops, has sown widespread panic in white community circles. The myth of the omnipresence of the fascist police and that of the stability of the apartheidsystem are beginning to crack, and statements by people like Jimmy Kruger, the so-called Minister of Justice, attributing the urban unrest to the ANC, which he describes as a wily snake, serve only to boost tremendously the morale of the oppressed and to break that of the oppressor white community and bring it to the lowest ebb. The growing number of white draft-dodgers who refuse to take uparms in defence of apartheidand prefer to leave the country testifies to that. On the other hand, the same can be said of the massive growth of ANC influence inside the country. The writing on the wall is becoming menacingly clear to the average white, including those hitherto blinded and deaf­ened as a result of the profits and comfort drawn from the sweat and blood of our people.

The worsening economic crisis resulting from spiralling inflation and unprecedented white unemployment operates in favour of the revolutionary situation obtaining in our country.

What of the awareness and unity of purpose at the mass level? the ANC is indeed proud of what it owes to its founding fathers, of what it has nurtured and consolidated through­out its long and problem-ridden history: that noble idea and objective of serving as a spearhead of a broad united front, today emerging as the powerful and invincible force at the service of our revolution. This will no doubt guide our people at this crucial period when they have reached the crossroads, as Gatsha Buthelezi said in The New York Times of yesterday.

The position taken by the so-called Asian and Col­oured communities, rejecting the regime's diabolic scheme of separate parliaments aimed against the ANC strategy based on a broad united front of all blacks as well as white democrats, clearly demonstrates the level of awareness of our people and their determination to close ranks and direct their combined striking power against the common enemy. They do so mindful of the ANC's steadily growing influence and strength inside and outside South Africa. What is more, they are aware of the ANC's fortitude and principles on the basis of the Freedom Charter which sets out the guidelines for a democratic State based on the will of all the people, and one that will secure to all their birthright, without distinction as to colour, race, sex or belief.

All that, as well as the contradictions emerging in the bantustans like the Transkei, constitutes the scenario we find in the wake of the racist general elections at which the white community massively renewed Vorster's mandate to drown in blood the young and adult blacks who dare to challenge the status of bondage.

In the face of all that, as well as of the growing international isolation of the regime, Vorster and his henchmen have stepped up the reign of terror. It is at this juncture that I wish to draw the Council's attention to the imminent danger that scores of freedom fighters are facing in the prison cells throughout the country where they are detained, awaiting or under trial, accused of being members of the ANC. Whilst the killing of detainees in the cells and torture chambers continues unabated, the regime's hang­men are today poised for a big operation, following the cold-blooded murder of Steve Biko and the exoneration of his assassins.

In considering the appeal we are making, it is important to recall that, according to United Nations statistics published in the mid-1960s, South Africa was then responsible for 47 per cent of world executions. The abundant evidence of frame-ups and the coercion of witnesses clearly shows how determined the racist police and prosecutors are to hang all the freedom fighters who are facing trials. The revelations at Steve Biko's inquest serve as sufficient proof of what should be expected.

I turn now to the Pretoria trial. At the end of September 1977, the regime closed its case against 11 men and one woman accused of ANC organization and sabotage activities. The accused are: Mosima Gabriel Sexwale, 24 years; Naledi Tsiki, 21 years; Lele Jacob Motaung, 44 years; Simon Samuel Mohlanyaneng, 23 years; Elias Tieno Masinga, 24 years; Martin Mafefo Ramokgadi, 67 years; Joe Nzingo Ggabi, 48 years, whose 12-year imprisonment on Robben Island had recently terminated; Petrus Mampo­goane Nchabeleng, 50 years; Nelson Letsaba Diale, 41 years; Michael Mpandeni Ngubeni, 42 years; Jacob Seatlholo, 47 years; Paulina Mamagotla Mohale, 26 years.

Widely described as the most important political trial since Rivonia in 1964, it has been dubbed "the main machinery trial". Some of the accused are alleged to have been part of the central underground structure of the ANC at Johannesburg. After five days of giving evidence, Ian Rwaxa, the chief State witness, said he had been repeatedly assaulted by the security police while in detention before making a statement and that he had given untrue evidence to the court. He said he had been beaten and kicked until he bled from his nose and mouth, and that an attempt had been made to strangle him with a cloth. During that assault he had lost consciousness twice and, on recovery, had been threatened with death unless he co-operated. He had been shown Mosima Sexwale, one of the accused, lying naked, bound and shivering, in another cell; and had himself been forced to sleep naked, without blankets. He told the court of further assaults by the police and of seeing another of the accused, Lele Motaung, who could not sit because of pain in his buttocks. All this can be found in the Rand Daily Mail of 1 July 1977. Eventually he made a statement: "I wrote what the lieutenant told me to write" - he told the court. And when he asked the judge to make an order protecting him from the police, the latter said he had no powers to do that.

Later three men – Super Maloi, Matheson Morove and Billy Masethla – refused to give evidence and were gaoled for six months. Another witness, Newton Mosime, retracted the evidence he had given saying his original statement had been made after assaults in the Rustenburg police station. Alec Nchabeleng refused to give evidence against his father. All this was published in the Rand Daily Mail.

We could go on and on for hours, giving more and more astounding facts concerning this and dozens of other trials. Suffice it to say that the same thing happened at the trial of the Pietermaritzburg 10, who were sentenced on 25 July 1977 to terms ranging from seven years to life imprisonment, having been found guilty of charges related to the establishment of an escape route for the ANC recruits to leave the country, the recruiting of 43 persons for military training abroad, and communication with the ANC exiles.

By and large, the same goes for the Springs six, reported as being apparently ANC supporters and charged with offences arising from sabotage incidents and the explosion of a "bomb factory" in a Soweto house, the indictment alleging the discovery of a machine pistol, 10 blocks of TNT, 40 kilograms of explosives, plus hand grenades and bullets, and an ANC publication.

The list of such trials of ANC groups and individuals is very long. These gallant freedom fighters, who look to the Security Council for support, can be saved from hanging only by prompt action by the Council. They are waging a just struggle which has been endorsed as legitimate. They are held by a criminal regime and face execution for their part in spearheading the struggle which the Council has declared the special responsibility of the United Nations. We plead for a resolution demanding their immediate and unconditional release. And part of the action during this International Anti-ApartheidYear should take the form of campaigning for according prisoner-of-war status to the captured freedom fighters, whilst the regime's officials, emissaries, supporters and apologists should, in our view, be declared and treated as war criminals.

In considering the action to take in the face of these brutalities, the Council should take into account the fact that, whereas violence against the black population has always been part of the South African way of life, the orgy of violence now going on in the prison cells is unprece­dented. Hundreds of political suspects are systematically and savagely tortured. And although physical assaults remain part of the interrogators' arsenal, long periods of solitary confinement, deprivation of food and sleep and various combinations of physical and psychological torture have become prevalent. Detainees are kept in dark cells for months, in total isolation and at the mercy of the Security Branch. At times they are questioned continuously for several days, denied any rest, threatened with death, forced to do exhausting exercises, to stand on bricks or crouch on imaginary chairs, until mind and body become too tired to distinguish between illusion and reality. And, of course, nobody has the right of access to detainees or to informa­tion, even confirmation of detention. People just disappear. Such provisions are described by one official, Brigadier J. J. Swanepoel, as a "mighty weapon". Van den Bergh, the head of BOSS, the Bureau of State Security - a co-detainee of John Vorster during the Second World War – hails these Draconian measures as “making available to them legislation which did away with hampering restrictions”. He said that in 1971; the situation has since worsened, to a point beyond description.

On the statement delivered before the Council by Mr. Donald Woods we have so much to say, but we prefer to say little because we would have wished a dialogue with Mr. Woods.

Perhaps it was naive of us to have looked forward to Mr. Woods' using the opportunity denied to our movement by the regime to endorse publicly and convey in clear and unambiguous terms to the South African public the position of the United Nations, which is committed to the regime's total isolation and support of the liberation movement for the overthrow of apartheidand the seizure of power by the people. Instead, Mr. Woods spoke of his plea to present the real case for the real South Africa - ­insinuating, in a way, that what has been going on all these years has not been the presentation of the real case for the real South Africa, the role played by the liberation movement and other forces, all of you here included.

I choose to say little because one risks misinterpreting Mr. Woods to the point of seeing his so-called real case of moral force as aimed at negating the position of the United Nations against apartheid.

In regard to what Mr. Woods says about the moral force to bring change, we wish to point out that the ANC cannot be faulted in the use of passive resistance. It gives first place to no one but itself in the pursuit of this method of struggle, which indeed it pursued up to 1960. It was in the face of fascist violence that the ANC, which had opted for this form of struggle as a tactic, came to the painful decision to close this chapter. Mr. Woods would do well to recall the role played by Chief Albert Luthuli - a role so important that he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Woods will recall also that the launching of Umkonto we Sizwe -  ­the Spear of the Nation - on 16 December 1961 was the result of a unanimous decision by the ANC leadership, including Luthuli, who had arrived back in South Africa on 15 December, following the 12 December Nobel award ceremony at Oslo. The following day South Africa vibrated under the explosion of bombs. That was the ANC reply to the international community: that the decision it had taken was irreversible.

the ANC is at ease in pointing out some of these reservations concerning the role of Mr. Woods because he is one of many white democrats who have found a political home under the umbrella of the liberation movement at large. But we do not understand some of his positions.

On the question of the draft resolutions before the Council our position is well known. On arriving in New York, we were expecting that the Council would be presented with a case that conformed with the expectations of the international community and the struggling people of South Africa, that is, that one draft resolution on the oil embargo against the Pretoria regime and one on economic sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter would be presented and considered.

This leads me to the question of the veto, because so far we have had no evidence that the Western Powers have abandoned their traditional habit of vetoing such draft resolutions and leaving some of us wondering whether this is not a systematic defence of the apartheidsystem, which has now become an integral part of international imperialism.

Paradoxical as this might sound, we have now taken the position of welcoming these vetoes because the veto helps to clarify the position by unmasking the false friend and identifying the enemy of the African cause. It also helps to clarify the position at the mass level in those countries that have a record of protecting the apartheidregime. It facilitates our task in mobilizing the mass support of the people, our natural allies, in all those countries, because in the final analysis it is the people of those countries who will help their leaders play a role aimed at ridding the world of the scourge of apartheid, which threatens peace and international security. Without con­stant pressure from the people, those who are convinced as to the urgency of a change of attitude are left in a weak position. We have, however, accepted the proposal that the two draft resolutions I have mentioned should be presented some time in March in order to meet the Western countries half way and to give them the opportunity to vote in favour of limited resolutions including one which takes the form of a measure calling for the cessation of new investments. In this respect, I am happy to have received assurance that the African Group will present the two draft resolutions some time in March.