17 NOVEMBER 19871
First, I must join those who have preceded me in extending sincere condolences to the Government and people of Niger following the untimely death of President Seyni Kountche.
On behalf of the African National Congress and in the name of our National Executive Committee, headed by Comrade President Oliver Tambo, who deeply regrets his inability to be with us here today, I wish to congratulate Mr. Peter Florin2 on his unanimous election as President of the forty-second session of the General Assembly. The ANC is forever appreciative of the place the German Democratic Republic continues to occupy and the crucial role it plays in the international fight for the eradication of apartheid.
I also wish to express our appreciation to Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his tireless efforts in the cause of humanity and particularly his commitment to the independence of Namibia and the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa.
The indefatigable Joseph Garba, Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, has given a truly analytical and objective report on the situation in South Africa, thereby effectively preparing the ground for what we hope will prove to have been a lively debate leading to action-oriented decisions. The Special Committee against Apartheid must be highly commended for the invaluable contribution that it continues to make in the international campaign for the total isolation of racist South Africa and the eradication of apartheid. We must also say a word of welcome to Mr. Satirios Mussouris, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Centre against Apartheid, whom we assure of our full co-operation in the action-packed days ahead.
Like our counterparts in other parts of Africa and the world, who have known colonial or semi-colonial, alien or racial domination, we, the oppressed people of South Africa, have never ceased to yearn for, dream of and strive for freedom. Though the intensity of our struggle has tended to ebb and flow, there have occurred crucial junctures at which years have been the equivalent of decades in terms of the ground covered by the resistance movement. The period under review has been a momentous one in South Africa, ever since September 1984, when the white minority regime moved its troops into the black townships in an attempt to crush the popular resistance to apartheid. It has been a period marked by the relentless mass resistance that reached its peak in the wake of the birth of the United Democratic Front (UDF), formed in 1983 to oppose the bogus constitutional dispensation - that vain attempt to co-opt the so-called Coloureds and Asians for use as second-class allies in the perpetuation of white supremacy.
It will be recalled that when the UDF was launched it called for the participation in the resistance of the working people. The UDF expressed faith “in the leadership of the working class in the democratic struggle for freedom”. It also resolved to strengthen the unity between genuine trade unions and freedom-loving people in the struggle for human rights. The inauguration of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) at the end of December 1985 was therefore a major development in the current phase of our struggle. It meant that the most militant sector of our people had accepted the UDF's challenge. As is known to all, in spite of increased repression, harassment and intimidation, COSATU has launched and endorsed several strikes, including the recent ones of 20,000 postal workers and 360,000 mine workers. We share the view, expressed today by many friends and foes, that the South African situation will never be the same again after this tremendous show of working-class power, which has the potential of immensely increasing the capacity of the resistance movement.
The undaunted spirit and determination of the oppressed people of South Africa has manifested itself repeatedly and in various forms, including the refusal of black youth to be muzzled by the draconian laws and repression of the second state of emergency declared in June 1986. In this connection, it should be noted that the banning of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) - the powerful student voice since the 1976 Soweto uprising - has backfired, because in its place our valiant youth, on 1 March 1987, at the height of the second state of emergency, launched the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO). This is clear testimony that the state of emergency has failed to suppress our struggle. The welding together of the black youth, who constitute the cutting edge of the resistance movement and the future of our country, has been another milestone whose potential in the strengthening of the democratic movement's capacity cannot be overestimated. The adoption of the Freedom Charter by that powerful organization, whose membership is over half a million, was another watershed. The same may soon be true of another giant federation, that of women, recently formed as an underground organization at the height of the state of emergency.
It is also important to note that the African National Congress has developed a capacity to integrate such local struggles as the rent boycott into the framework of the broader national liberation struggle. It is against this background that the armed action of our military wing - Umkhonto we Sizwe - recently reported, on Magnus Malan's own admission in Parliament, to have increased by 300 per cent – must be seen.
The most important development during the period under review is certainly the political successes scored by the mass democratic movement in general and by the ANC in its campaign to isolate the Pretoria regime at home and abroad. Delegations of white institutions and groups that have defied the Pretoria regime and undertaken trips to hold consultations with the ANC in Harare and Lusaka have increased significantly this year. They now include the 61 mainly Afrikaner intellectuals, artists, writers and other opinion makers, whose meeting with an ANC delegation in Dakar has been welcomed in various capitals and by many inter-State organizations as an important development. The ANC intends to continue on this path for the purpose of reaching out to and encouraging large numbers of white compatriots to distance themselves from P.W. Botha’s laager mentality, embrace the Dakar spirit and participate in one way or another in the struggle for majority rule in a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it – black and white.
These consultations have been held with a variety of groups and have yielded varying but encouraging results. We must reiterate our position that these are not intended as negotiations or beginnings of talks: they are but part of the ANC campaign of mobilization intended to isolate the Pretoria regime at home and strengthen the position of the democratic movement committed to a non-racial democracy in a united South Africa. The Dakar group’s acceptance of certain important positions, including the principle of one person, one vote and the historical reasons for armed struggle, is indeed an important milestone.
The world-wide consensus on the application of sanctions as the only peaceful means of compelling racist South Africa to end apartheid has further strengthened and broadened last year by the conclusions of the Eminent Persons Group and the World Conference [against Racist South Africa] held in Paris in June 1986. Effect has been given to it by the Nordic countries through the trade embargo by Denmark, Sweden and Finland against racist South Africa. It has compelled the European Common Market member States to embark on some kind of first step in the same direction, despite the continued intransigence of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany. In October last year it was given a strong shot in the arm by the adoption in the United States of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, 1986 – an important victory over the policy of constructive engagement. We must never tire of thanking the anti-apartheid movement throughout the world, including the American people and their anti-apartheid elected officials. Their relentless efforts have made them active allies of the struggling people in South Africa and Namibia.
The latest opinion polls showing that two-thirds of South African blacks support the idea of sanctions, and the positions recently taken by the UDF, COSATU, SAYCO and the South African Council of Churches in support of sanctions, make nonsense of the often repeated argument by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan that comprehensive sanctions would hurt the blacks. It was the blacks through their organization, the ANC, who first called for sanctions, as early as 1959, fully mindful that they would result in the loss of some jobs for both black and white workers, but would also effectively weaken the Pretoria regime, thereby complementing our struggle.
"Every trade agreement, every new investment and every bank loan is a brick in the wall for our survival", said John Balthazar Vorster in 1972.
All we are saying to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Ronald Reagan is that their countries should actively pull out those bricks and weaken the wall of apartheid, which must be brought down and replaced by a non-racial democracy. We must again reiterate our position that continued refusal by those Governments to make common cause with the rest of the international community is clearly a prescription for violence, as it deprives the embattled and oppressed people of South Africa of their only remaining option for peaceful change in South Africa.
It is interesting that President Ronald Reagan, in his report to Congress – pursuant to section 501 of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, 1986 - correctly observed that the state of emergency in South Africa had not been repealed, but instead the earlier decree had been tightened; press restrictions had been tightened and an increasing number of journalists, including Americans, had been expelled; Nelson Mandela and other key political prisoners had not been released, but instead the number of political prisoners, including a large number of minors, detained by the Government had increased. He also observed that no clear and credible plan had been devised for negotiating a future political system involving all the people equally in South Africa, and that many legitimate representatives of the majority were still banned, in hiding or in detention. He also said that the Government of South Africa had not ended its military and paramilitary activities aimed at neighbouring States.
Bearing in mind the correct observations made by the President of the United States of America regarding the current situation in South Africa, we condemn the abuse of the veto by the United States and the United Kingdom and the position taken by the Federal Republic of Germany during the month of February. In our view that action was hostile to the interests of the oppressed people of South Africa and contrary to the letter and spirit of the United States Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, 1986. That Act called for the imposition of additional sanctions in the absence of significant progress leading to the end of apartheid and the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa. Therefore, in our opinion, the Administration of the United States of America stands in violation of a Congressional Act empowering and mandating appropriate action to the full extent of the law. That Act also called upon the Secretary of State to convene an international conference on multilateral sanctions against South Africa, and to have the United States representative at the United Nations take an initiative leading to the imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions.
The African National Congress is not alone in holding the view that the situation in South Africa has further deteriorated this year. This viewpoint is shared by many inter-State organizations including the United Nations, as well as by the Commonwealth leaders, who stated at their recent meeting that:
"the crisis engendered in the region by apartheid has seriously deteriorated... Repressive measures resulting in more suffering and loss of life have been intensified within South Africa, and the toll taken by acts of war and destruction directed against South Africa's neighbours in an attempt to sustain and defend apartheid has continued to rise."3
We have in, addition recently witnessed the latest confirmation of the white supremacy doctrine: the whites-only election, the imposition of states of emergency, the increased detention of our compatriots and, in particular, the hideous and wanton detention and torture of hundreds of our children; and the press censorship intended to hide the regime's evil from the South African community in general.
The combined impact of the internal and external pressures on the Pretoria regime reached an unprecedented level early this year. In characterizing this period we can safely speak of a psychological threshold having been crossed in South Africa. On the side of the oppressed, our people cast aside fear of death and, like their brethren in Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia, put their lives on the line for freedom. On the side of the oppressor, he admitted to himself that he had lost the strategic initiative, which has passed into the hands of the people, and that he can no longer rule by himself and in the old way. We are talking of the irreversible process now seen by friend and foe as leading to the inevitable demise of the apartheid system.
In a deceptive attempt to stem the tide of mass resistance at home, as well as international pressure and sanctions, the Pretoria regime has embarked on a two-pronged approach. One was articulated a few years ago by Magnus Malan, the regime’s Defence Minister, who admitted that, despite its military might, the regime could not win in the mainly psychological warfare waged by the ANC. On that occasion he stressed the need for the regime’s campaign being 80 per cent political and designed to win the hearts and minds of the people, and only 20 per cent military. It is in pursuance of this campaign that P.W. Botha has publicly declared his regime’s policy of co-opting “moderate blacks” with whom he intends to share power.
The other approach of the campaign derives from the regime’s loyalty to all the tenets of apartheid, including the doctrine that whites are inherently superior to blacks, that apartheid enjoys divine inspiration and that, as the representative of white, Christian and Western civilization, racist South Africa is the bulwark against the spread of communist influence in Africa.
The origins of this strategy can be traced to P.W. Botha's policy statement during the May whites-only elections, when he declared the need to crush the ANC and the extra-parliamentary organizations before co-opting "moderate blacks” with whom to share power. This campaign has taken the form of abduction of ANC cadres, such as Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim and Priscilla Nyanda from the Kingdom of Swaziland. It has taken the form of assassination of 13 ANC cadres and leaders, including Cassius Make, the late National Executive Committee member. It has also taken the form, revealed at the recent trial in London, of the plan to kidnap 15 ANC leaders, including Comrade President Oliver Tambo. At the same time, the regime continues to spend millions of dollars in the propaganda campaign to discredit the ANC, while promoting the ever-growing number of bogus groups being groomed for co-option.
That is indeed further proof that the Botha regime has neither the desire nor the intention to engage in any peaceful negotiations. On the contrary, everything it does is directed at the destruction of the national liberation movement, the suppression of the democratic movement and the entrenchment and perpetuation of the apartheid system of white domination. It is conducting a determined campaign to eliminate the ANC and the democratic movement.
We call on the United Nations and the entire international community to meet this challenge by lending appropriate political support to the ANC, which enjoys unparalleled authority in the country today. Attempts to co-opt bantustan and other puppets towards a neo-apartheid solution must be defeated.
The conflict in our country is between the forces of national liberation and democracy on the one hand, and those of racism and reaction on the other. Any negotiations would have to be conducted by those two forces, as represented by their various organizational formations. It is in this context that we call on the international community to join the ANC in rejecting, without qualification, the proposed National Statutory Council, which the Botha regime seeks to establish through legislation to be enacted by the apartheid parliament and on the basis of the constitution which the General Assembly and the Security Council have declared null and void. The National Statutory Council seeks to entrench and legitimize the very structures of apartheid that our struggle seeks to abolish.
The position of the ANC on negotiations is clearly stated in the 9 October statement of the National Executive Committee, which states, inter alia, that:
“Once more we would like to reaffirm that the ANC and the masses of our people as a whole are ready and willing to enter into genuine negotiations provided they are aimed at the transformation of our country into a united and non-racial democracy.”
However, in viewing the Pretoria regime’s record exemplified by non-compliance with the Nkomati Accord, the Lusaka Agreement and the Security Council resolution 435 (1978), our statement further declares:
“Our region is fully conversant with the treacherous and deceitful nature of the apartheid regime. Taking this experience into account, we insist that before any negotiations take place the apartheid regime would have to demonstrate its seriousness by implementing various measures to create a climate conducive to such negotiations. These would include the unconditional release of all political prisoners, detainees, all captured freedom fighters and prisoners of war, as well as the cessation of all political trials. The state of emergency would have to be lifted, the army and the police withdrawn from the townships and confined to their barracks. Similarly, all repressive legislation and all laws empowering the regime to limit freedom of assembly, speech, the press and so on, would have to be repealed. Among these would be the Riotous Assemblies, the Native Administration, the General Laws Amendment, the Unlawful Organizations, the Internal Security and similar Acts and regulations.
"We take this opportunity once more to reaffirm that the African National Congress is opposed to any secret negotiations. We firmly believe that the people themselves must participate in shaping their destiny and would therefore have to be involved in any process of negotiations."
In this context, the release of Govan Mbeki must be welcomed as an important development and victory not only for the South African patriots but also for the justice-loving peoples of the world in general, whose relentless campaign for the unconditional release of all the South African political prisoners can no longer be ignored by the already isolated Pretoria regime. However, in order to have it serve as a catalyst for meaningful change, it must be followed immediately by the equally unconditional release of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and all other political prisoners and detainees, including children.
As we meet here today, racist South Africa's full-scale invasion of the People's Republic of Angola continues with savage intensity. Pretoria's arrogance and desperate move to secure the Reagan Administration's active participation in this anti-African act, has been underscored by P.W. Botha's reported visit to southern Angola. There can be no bigger challenge to the United Nations and the international community in general; they must take immediate and appropriate action against the Pretoria regime. The repeated massacres committed by the RENAMO armed bandits in Mozambique, who have killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood,call for equally urgent action.
I take this opportunity to confirm that the African National Congress, in co-operation with the Party and Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, will be holding an international conference in Arusha from 1 to 4 December 1987. The theme of the conference is "The peoples of the world against apartheid and for the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa", and we hope that it will, among other things, address the issue of sanctions.
Our organisation thanks the Special Committee against Apartheid and all who have helped to fund this project, and it appeals to those who have not yet contributed to do so.
At this juncture and in keeping with the numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and the overwhelming support of the international community, we call upon the Assembly once again to urge the Security Council to convene immediately in order to adopt comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against South Africa under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
1. United Nations document A/42/PV.72