STATEMENT AT THE PLENARY MEETING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

7 NOVEMBER 1979¹

On behalf of the African National Con­gress and in the name of the oppressed and struggling people of South Africa, Mr. President,² I thank you most sincerely for giving us the opportunity to express, through this august Assembly, to the international com­munity at large the views of the liberation movement of South Africa on the problem of apartheid. The African National Congress attaches a great deal of importance to this debate. We do so because we see dark clouds gathering over South Africa; without doubt these clouds announce an inevitable - if not imminent - storm. It has become urgent and imperative for the United Nations to muster the necessary political will in order effectively to use its power to minimize the now unavoidable loss of human life and the poisoning of race relations in Africa and the world.

This debate takes place at a time when the struggle for national liberation in South Africa has entered a crucial and perhaps decisive stage. The two opposing forces, one representing the oppressed and the other the oppressor, are on a collision course. A close, realistic and objective analysis of the situation will lead to the observation that the determination of the oppressed has reached unprecedented heights. They have resolved to pay the supreme sacrifice in order to achieve their long-­cherished sacred goal of breaking their chains of bond­age, joining the community of nations and having some of their duly chosen sons and daughters, of any race or colour, occupy the vacant seat before me. The same close, realistic and objective analysis will show that the Fascist intransigence of the oppressors has also reached unprecedented heights. Their determination to preserve the status quo in South Africa and the subcontinent as a whole, at all costs, is not in doubt.

We are encouraged, Sir, by the fact that such a crucial debate for the future of Africa and the world takes place under your presidency. Your country's role in the struggle for the total liberation of the African continent, which it has relentlessly played since its own independence, is well known and universally recog­nized. Your personal commitment and dedication to this noble cause, as well as the diplomatic skill you have always demonstrated in the discharge of your important duties as Chairman of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colo­nial Countries and Peoples, inspire us with the con­fidence that, under your guidance, this debate will be crowned with success. And for us, as well as for the justice-loving and peace-loving peoples of the world, success in this case means the adoption of decisions in­tended effectively to isolate and weaken the apart­heid regime, while strengthening the striking power of the liberation movement.

In one form or another, the South African prob­lem has been on the agenda of the United Nations since the inception of this august body, and during this period, it has been the object of endless condemnation. The resolutions adopted on this issue have been clear and unequivocal, particularly after the Sharpeville massacre and the regime's exclusion from the Com­monwealth, developments that preceded the formation of the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, which means the "Spear of the Nation". The apartheidsystem was condemned as a crime against humanity and as constituting a threat to peace and international security.

One can reasonably argue that after such a deter­mination - which the international community never had the opportunity to make in the case of the Hitlerite regime, the equally Fascist regime which none the less was crushed thanks to the collective effort of world Governments of all political and ideological persuasions - a firm basis had been created for similar collec­tive action by the United Nations. This proved not to have been the case. However, we were happy with the decision which we welcomed as being in response to the African National Congress's appeal for sanctions and which called on all Member States to sever cultural, diplomatic, political, economic and military relations with the Pretoria regime. This we welcomed as cor­responding to our desire to limit the international role in combating this common cancerous evil to supplement­ing our own efforts to ensure the fullest exercise of our right to self-determination. The major trading partners and traditional allies of the Pretoria regime whose multinational corporations reap super-profits, thanks to the semi-slave wages paid to black workers under apart­heid, did not only ignore this call; they progressively stepped up their economic and military involvement. And we have repeatedly witnessed the use of the veto by three permanent members of the Security Council, the United States of America, Great Britain and France. Even at this late hour, when there is mounting evidence not only that the apartheidsystem is a crime against humanity, but that its champions and allies are tenaciously bent on the repressive, aggressive and expan­sionist programme designed to perpetuate the plunder and exploitation for which apartheidis but an instru­ment, the traditional allies of this regime continue to buttress it while counselling patience and moderation to its victims at home and abroad.

When we talk of the menacing dark clouds, we mean the explosive situation that today obtains in South Africa and southern Africa. And in order that we may fully appreciate the gravity of the danger before us, it is important to recall that here we are faced with elements who are descendants of a people who left Europe before the industrial revolution and before the emancipation of slaves. We are dealing with a people whose doctrine of apartheidis based on the strong belief that their superiority is born of race and faith, a quality divinely given which cannot be transmitted to other races or ac­quired by them. "The black stinking dogs", as Jan van Riebeeck called the Africans, suffer from an inferiority, predestined and irreparable, which fixes their place in a society of white men. Economically, they have their place in the field and the kitchen; socially and politi­cally, they stand outside the circle of the rights and privileges of white men; even legally, they exist in an ambiguous region between law and the arbitrary will of their masters.

We are dealing with a people who strongly believe they are God's chosen people who are to rule over the inferior black races. The situation which obtained when Angola and Mozambique were under Portuguese domi­nation and served as a protective belt around South Africa was for those people ideal and in keeping with what they believed to have been a predestined state of affairs. And for them the collapse of the Portuguese colonial empire, which upset their strategy for the preservation of what they believed to have been the divinely inspired status quo, must be reversed. For it is in their eyes as ungodly as was the practice of freeing slaves in South Africa in the wake of the emancipation of slavery - a development that led to the Great Trek.

The unfolding programme of repression, aggres­sion and expansionism by the apartheid regime must be seen against this background. And in this programme the members of that regime are encouraged by the continued collaboration of some Western countries which they see as partners and allies because of their common superiority born of race and faith, as they believe. And to all this should be added their doctrinal links with the Hitlerite regime during the last world war.

How then does the regime's programme of so­-called reforms fit into this pattern? Vorster, the former Prime Minister of the Pretoria Fascist regime, answers this question clearly when, in one of his statements, he advocates flexibility in the tactics adopted at a given time with unyielding firmness on the strategy and supreme objectives. Realizing that the volcano on which they are sitting is threatening to erupt, as the events of Soweto have proved, the regime has embarked on meas­ures which, in their totality, constitute a much more in­sidious and sophisticated instrument of oppression since they are projected as reforms, when in fact they are in­tended to divide and weaken the African people and perpetuate the domination of the blacks. For example, the so-called relaxation of labour laws provides for the registration of black unions in order to ensure stricter control. Membership in those unions provides no rights enshrined in the law and they remain dependent on the exemption granted by the regime's minister.

And this makes the position of the black unions worse, because, once registered, they cannot take part in activities considered political in terms of the law. The rest of these so-called reforms of a cosmetic character, such as the 99-year lease for houses in Soweto, the in­tegration of five-star hotels and of some theatres, is part of the programme to create a black elite to serve as a buffer force against the liberation movement.

This is a vain attempt to divert the attention of the people from the basic economic and political issues, in order to diffuse the revolutionary situation obtaining in the country. The wide publicity given to these measures at home and abroad is also intended to give the impres­sion of liberalism while the regime is engaged in the programme of full-scale repression, war preparations and aggression against the neighbouring States. What is more, the rapid deterioration of the living conditions of the blacks, as shown by the spiralling infantile mortality rate, the unemployment figure which has reached 2.5 million, the mass removals of the African people from their birth-places, and so on, gives the lie to this highly orchestrated campaign.

We have deemed it necessary to speak today be­fore any ally or apologist of the Pretoria regime or well-­meaning opponent of apartheiddares to insult our il­lustrious leaders, like Nelson Mandela and others who are languishing in gaol where they are serving life im­prisonment, and the scores of patriots like Solomon Mahlangu and Steve Biko who have been executed on the gallows or assassinated in detention, by suggesting that they made these sacrifices to share bath-rooms, theatres and restaurants with whites, or to marry them.

The problem of apartheidis not simply one of racial discrimination as was the case, and perhaps con­tinues to be, in certain countries like the United States. The difference between the situation in the United States and South Africa is not just that the racists break the federal law in the former case while the racists make the laws in the latter. But in addition, and as the report of the Special Committee says, in South Africa apartheid is institutionalized racism, plunder and exploitation. And nothing short of the fundamental transformation of the system will satisfy the oppressed people of South Africa. The objectives of our struggle are clearly defined in the Freedom Charter, whose twenty-fifth anniversary we hope will be observed throughout the world on 26 June 1980 by the adoption of measures aimed at effectively isolating the apartheidregime. The paramount objectives for which our people are daily laying down their lives include the restoration and the transfer to the people as a whole of land, the natural wealth of the country, the mineral resources beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industries, and the end of exploitation of man by man.

At his trial in 1963 and before being sentenced to life imprisonment together with other colleagues, such as Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg, Nelson Mandela said:

"The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices - submit or fight. That time has come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom”.

These words eloquently underscore the analyses and decisions adopted by the African National Congress in response to the regime's increasing repression and aggression and massacres when it became clear that non-­violence had proved as futile as it would have been had it been tried in the struggle against the Hitlerite regime.

The "Spear of the Nation", formed on 16 Decem­ber 1961, when it announced its existence by the launch­ing of a protracted campaign of sabotage, has con­siderably stepped up its programme of armed action, despite the extraordinarily difficult conditions obtaining in the country. It draws its membership not only from the African people but also from the Asian and the so-called Coloured people. Armed action has become fre­quent both in the countryside and urban areas. The armed struggle waged by the African National Congress patriots for the establishment of a democratic State based on the will of all the South African people, secur­ing to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief, has been endorsed as legitimate by the United Nations.

The number of political trials going on in the various parts of the country can be seen as the barometer of the steadily escalating struggle for na­tional liberation. The most important is the Pieter­maritzburg one, in which 12 members of the African National Congress are charged with high treason and 43 alternate counts under the Terrorism Act. Judgement on this case will be delivered on 15 November 1979. The accused have contested the legitimacy of the racist court which has ruled that the trial be held in camera, osten­sibly for the protection of informer witnesses.

We propose urgent action by the Security Council to save these patriots from the gallows of a regime that is already responsible for over 50 per cent of executions throughout the world. We also propose the intensifica­tion of the world campaign for the unconditional release of political prisoners as well as the according of prisoner-of-war status to all captured freedom fighters.

We welcome with satisfaction the realization by the United Nations that nonviolence against the apartheidregime has proved futile as it would have been - as I already said - in the case of the world struggle against the Hitlerite regime from which the architects and cur­rent champions of apartheiddrew and continue to draw inspiration and example. It was no doubt in recognition of this fact that in 1976 the General Assembly went beyond the pious condemnation of apartheidand recognized the legitimacy of the struggle [resolution31/6-I] in all forms, including armed struggle, for the seizure of power by the people in South Africa.

Similarly, the position taken by the General Assembly, in declaring that the problem of apartheidis the special responsibility of the United Nations, creates the basis for the formation of an international alliance against the system condemned as constituting a threat to peace and international security. And yet some Western countries have continued their policy of stepping up economic, military and nuclear collaboration with this regime, as well as their diplomatic protection through the use of the veto, to frustrate the international effort aimed at the application of Chapter VII of the Charter. There could be no better way to demonstrate the unholy alliance which is frequently claimed by the Pretoria regime in its usual pronouncement that it is the in­dispensable ally of Western interests in Africa and the southern hemisphere.

The active support given to the apartheidregime by the United States, Great Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel and other Western coun­tries must be stopped before it is too late to avoid a situation that will provoke a third world war. Develop­ments in South Africa prove that this is not an exag­gerated statement.

The South African white civilian population is to­day the world's most heavily armed. The regime is armed to the teeth and has built up the strongest arsenal in the southern hemisphere. Equipped with more than 100 licences which enable it to manufacture genocidal weapons on the spot, it continues further to strengthen its strong arsenal. It has arrogated to itself the right to intervene militarily in all African countries. In its pro­gramme designed to perpetuate and further entrench the white minority settler domination, it has created a for­midable basis, the key element of which is the militariza­tion of the entire South African society. Its ever-­increasing military budget has this year reached the figure of 3 billion rand. It has accelerated the pro­gramme of bantustanization which, amongst other things, is intended to create strategic hamlets and tribal armies to be used as buffer forces against the liberation movement. The ever-increasing black unemployment rate, which has now reached 2.5 million, is being ex­ploited to recruit the Africans and the so-called Col­oureds into the army, whilst the Indians are being recruited into the navy.

The media have not only been muzzled but have been subjected to strict State control in order to create an atmosphere of war. The African teachers who resigned in the wake of the Soweto uprising have been replaced by white armed military personnel at the African schools in the towns and the countryside. The regime has stepped up its threats and acts of aggression against the independent African countries. Together with some Latin American countries, it has joined a secret military pact - SATO, that is, the South Atlantic Treaty Organi­zation - which is to link up with some forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]in the so­-called defence of the Cape sea route.

The regime's threat to intervene militarily in Zim­babwe to ensure the entrenchment and recognition of the Smith-Muzorewa regime further underlines its deter­mination to install in Zimbabwe and Namibia puppet regimes, supportive of its political and military pro­gramme and hostile to the liberation movement. It has stepped up its military support of Savimbi as part of its aggressive programme against Angola. But perhaps the most ominous development is marked by the regime's recent detonation of an atomic device. On this issue, we wish to place full responsibility for this grave situation on those countries which have always assisted by their policy of nuclear collaboration the South African regime - meaning the United States, the Federal Repub­lic of Germany, France and Israel. We call for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to impose comprehen­sive sanctions under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Meanwhile, we appeal to Member States seriously to consider the proposals adopted at the thirty­-third ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, held at Monrovia from 6 to 20 July 1979, and at the Sixth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Havana from 3 to 9 September 1979, and those that call for separate and collective punitive measures against those countries which persist in their policy of collaboration with the South African regime.

On our part, we wish to make one thing clear: nothing on earth will deter the oppressed people of South Africa from pursuing their just and legitimate struggle; nothing, not even the atomic bomb. As the French philosopher, Victor Hugo, said: "There is one thing that is more powerful than the strongest armies of the world, and that is the idea whose time has come". The time has indeed come for liberation in southern Africa and in South Africa itself. Victory may be delayed, but it is certain.

 A luta continua.