18 November 19831
May I from the outset convey the warm greetings of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress and President Oliver Tambo and congratulate you, Sir, on your more than well-deserved election to the eminent office of President of the General Assembly.2
For the overwhelming majority of the oppressed so-called Coloured people, the people of Asian descent and the African indigenous people, who together constitute 80 per cent of the South African population and who have for decades waged a common fight against a common enemy for a common objective - a non-racial democratic society for all the South African people - the decision taken by the General Assembly on 15 November3 will go down in history as an exceptionally important landmark.
We thank the Group of African States and its Chairman, Mr. Koroma, of Sierra Leone, for the initiative taken. We also pay tribute to all the Member States for the historic position they took in one way or another and salute you, Mr. President, for the leadership you provided.
From this principled position and reminder that even at this critical moment the overwhelming majority of mankind is unswervingly behind them in the struggle for the eradication of apartheidin all its forms and manifestations, our people have once again drawn strength and courage that will certainly continue to rise with the dangers that lie ahead.
It is with a deep sense of elation that through you, Mr. President, and on behalf of the ANC, I seize this opportunity to congratulate our brother, Mr. Maitama-Sule of Nigeria,4 on his appointment to his new post as Minister of Information and National Guidance. His devotion to the fight for freedom, justice and peace is such that, while we regret his departure, we are comforted by the knowledge that he leaves us to continue the fight from another important front from where he will not only inform and guide the 80 million anti-apartheidNigerian people in their fight for national development and social progress in Nigeria, but also in their continued and deeper involvement in the fight against apartheid.
Next year marks the tenth anniversary of racist South Africa's suspension from this body5 - a decision taken after decades of this regime's defiance of numerous resolutions calling on it to abolish the tyranny of apartheidand permit the establishment of a non-racial democratic society in accordance with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As could have been expected, the Pretoria regime's instant reaction to the initiative of the Group of African States in sponsoring draft resolution A/38/L.15 and Add. 1 , adopted on 15 November, is very revealing. By declaring, in a statement made by the South African Minister for Foreign Affairs on 15 November, that the majority of those countries "do not know the meaning of democracy" and "have little knowledge and understanding of the United Nations Charter" and making the preposterous claim that its so-called "new constitution is entirely consistent with the promotion of the central principle of the Charter", the P. W. Botha regime has once again forwarded proof of the fact that it lives in the past and remains as adamantly hostile to the cause of black liberation today as its predecessors were to the emancipation of slavery in 1833 - the historic development they condemned as ungodly. Their statement also proves that the lofty ideals enshrined in the Charter have a different meaning to them and that there can never be a true meeting of the minds between them and those in this hall who truly subscribe to the principle of racial equality and non-racial democracy.
The facts before us are that the so-called new constitution does not deal with the fundamental issue confronting South Africa, namely, the need to transfer power from the minority to the entire population regardless of race. What we have witnessed these last few months and weeks has been a glaring example of the pattern of the apartheidpolitical process in which whites proposed, whites debated, whites differed, whites consulted and whites decided. However, we refuse to dignify the monstrous subject matter of the racist referendum with the term "new constitution" and a discussion of its provisions. For throughout history new constitutions have embodied the spirit of liberty and a new socio-economic order expressing the hard-won sovereignty of people liberated from bondage, whether such documents have been the products of passive resistance or armed struggle for national independence or social revolution.
But as the many speakers who have preceded us have stated, the racist regime's so-called constitutional proposals are designed precisely to restructure apartheidrule and racial tyranny, impede the emergence of universal suffrage, permanently strip the majority of its birthright to citizenship, foment internal conflict among the oppressed blacks and eliminate the possibility of true constitutional rights and due political process.
In this hall and all over the world, as in the African circles in South Africa, the overwhelming majority has rightly not bothered to seek to understand the regime's rationale for excluding the indigenous African people in what it boastfully describes in its 15 November statement as "the central principle of the Charter which proclaims the right of all peoples to self-determination". A few months ago, in response to this question, the regime's Minister of Constitutional Affairs said that "the Africans are not adequately developed to comprehend the complex democratic process", thereby reminding us of Afrikaner Professor de Kiewiet's description of his kinsmen's beliefs that "their superiority was born of race and faith, a quality divinely given which could not be transmitted or acquired by them" - meaning the blacks. Yes, this is the rationale for forcibly removing millions of African people from their urban and rural dwelling-places and herding them to the barren, poverty-stricken "homelands" and having them stripped of South African citizenship while the qualification for naturalization for white immigrants is reduced from five to two years, all in the bid to make South Africa a white man's country in which the blacks can only remain as migrant and temporary sojourners for the exclusive purpose of ministering to the needs of the whites.
And again, as a number of speakers have stressed, this becomes a step in the right direction only to those who share the late racist Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom's argument that "if the franchise is to be extended to the non-Europeans, and if the non-Europeans are given representation and the vote and the non-Europeans are developed on the same basis as the Europeans, how can the Europeans remain baas?... Our view is that in every sphere, the Europeans must retain the right to rule the country". This position of the 1950s we find later renewed and reiterated by racist Prime Minister B. J. Vorster when, speaking at a meeting in Durban on 13 March 1970, he said: "South African nationhood is for whites only". This argument is now being earnestly followed up by P. W. Botha, who has been honest enough to tell the world that his friends in Washington are wrong in suggesting that he has a hidden agenda that might lead to some so-called power-sharing involving the Africans and has repeatedly gone further to restate his firm opposition to one man, one vote in South Africa.
The other question that remains is what has brought about the change in the declared position of placing the so-called Coloureds under apartheidand repatriating the people of Indian descent, as was always officially stated by Botha's predecessors, the self-confessed Nazi disciples and architects of apartheid, whose policies Botha continues to implement, albeit in a camouflaged form.
It is the progress made by the ANC in the unification of all the patriotic forces comprising the so-called Coloureds and people of Asian descent under its leadership and on the basis of the Freedom Charter, adopted on 26 June 1955, which declares:
"That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people;
"…
"That only a democratic State, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief".
This document remains to this day the incontestable vehicle for the establishment of a non-racial democratic society.
Finding the classic method of divide and rule no longer effective in the face of the truly non-racial strategy that extends to involving white democrats who identify with the black people and accept the leadership of the ANC, the regime has resorted to these heinous moves to split this fighting alliance.
It is the menacing problem of the shortage of white military manpower resulting from its continued illegal occupation of Namibia, the occupation of parts of Angola, and the low-keyed but widespread war situation in South Africa itself, as well as the repeated and intended future Beirut and Grenada types of invasions of independent African countries. It is precisely for this reason that the Pretoria regime intends to co-opt the so-called Coloureds and the people of Asian descent in order to make them liable for compulsory military conscription, as P. W. Botha wasted no time in admitting in a statement made immediately after the racist referendum. Botha's assertion that it will not be long before the so-called Coloured people and those of Asian descent are conscripted into the oppressive apartheidarmy can be taken to mean that the regime intends to deploy them for internal repression and external aggression against African States.
The Pretoria regime's future plan is to bring the racially constituted and racially segregated Parliament into association with the bantustans in the form of a so-called constellation of States, for which new titles are being touted, such as Confederation or Consociation. At the same time, the illegal occupation of Namibia continues and the aggression against and destabilization of independent African States are being stepped up so that these too can be cowed into becoming client States of apartheidbantustans beyond the borders.
The pretext given that the ANC has bases there has no validity whatsoever. In fact, the statement by the regime's own Chief of the Defence Force, Magnus Malan, when campaigning for the extension of the draft age from 35 to 65 years for whites and for the so-called winning of the hearts and minds of the blacks, makes this point when he says, "the ANC is not waging a border war but area psychological warfare”. Our bases are amongst the people of South Africa in the urban and rural areas and throughout the length and breadth of our country, which we are determined to liberate. It was from these bases that our armed combatants struck twice at the Koeberg nuclear-power station, one thousand miles from any border; it was from these bases that we hit Voortrekkerhoogte, the regime's military headquarters on the outskirts of Pretoria; and it is from there that we are hitting hard targets all over the country, such as police stations, oil-from-coal plants, electric power stations, and the regime's Air Force Headquarters in Pretoria. In any event, the regime's big-lie technique aimed at justifying barbaric acts such as the Lesotho invasion and the massacre of defenceless men, women and children, is exposed by its own act of twice invading Seychelles, where the ANC does not even have an office, refugees, students or children.
After committing one flagrant act of aggression after another against independent African States, the regime has the effrontery to propose a so-called nonaggression pact with them. Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia - to mention but a few - not one of these States has sent a single soldier to fire a single shot in South African territory. Yet, Pretoria is constantly sending its assassination squads, commandos, war planes and submarines to murder ANC leaders, commit massacres, and violate the airspace of its neighbours, thereby exacting a terrible price in blood.
No people in the world long for peace more than the oppressed people of South Africa, who have always lived under the tyrannical rule of violence, and no organization has worked more patiently for a peaceful solution than the ANC. But the massacres to which our people have been subjected, the refusal to let them participate in any democratic process, the tribal fragmentation of our motherland into bantustans whose tribal armies are to be set against the liberation efforts, the forced removal and denationalization of millions of black people, the daily hangings of our people, reaching a level of 129 in 1980 alone, the continued imprisonment of our leaders such as Nelson Mandela, the prohibition of public meetings, the muzzling of activists and leaders at present exiled or under house arrest in remote areas, the frantic war preparations and full-scale militarization, the gigantic campaign to isolate the ANC through massive dissemination of forged printed matter purporting to be by the ANC and espousing intentions to kill men, women and children and strengthen the ruthless apparatus of the police state - all this has taught us one thing, namely, the apartheidregime and its policies are the obstacle to peace, security and stability in southern Africa and to liberty, justice, peace and prosperity in South Africa itself. As resolution 38/11, adopted by the Assembly on 15 November, declared, "only the total eradication of apartheidand the establishment of a non-racial democratic society based on majority rule, through the full and free exercise of adult suffrage by all the people in a united and non-fragmented South Africa, can lead to a just and lasting solution of the explosive situation in South Africa".
By itself, the Pretoria regime, whose policy of apartheidstands universally condemned as a crime against humanity and a threat to world peace and international security, could not afford to defy the international community by escalating this crime, to commit endless breaches of the peace against independent African countries, to continue its illegal occupation of Namibia, to occupy part of Angola, to wage an undeclared war of economic and armed aggression to destabilize and topple independent African countries, to legislate to arrogate to itself the right to intervene in all African countries and publicly to pressure, intimidate and blackmail African countries to evict the ANC and enter into so-called anti-terrorist agreements with it.
While we call on all Member States to join in paying a glowing tribute to the independent countries of southern Africa for the sacrifice they are daily making in resisting these pressures, we strongly condemn those Western countries, especially the United States and Israel, that are continuing their economic, military and nuclear collaboration with the Pretoria regime.
The position taken by the Reagan Administration in embracing the Pretoria regime, whose policy of apartheidis not just the offshoot of fascism but is based on Fascist legislative measures, such as the one imposing exclusive citizenship and others which are but photocopies of Nazi laws, calls for strong condemnation. Almost 100 years ago, the Berlin Conference carved our beloved continent into colonial and personal belongings; but it is no exaggeration to say that since the Second World War the most calamitous development, which today poses the most serious threat to the African continent, is the Pretoria-Washington axis publicly announced by President Reagan shortly after he took office.
A lot has happened since then. Matola in Mozambique was attacked, and then came the attack on and occupation of parts of Angola; the attempted repeal of the Clark Amendment prohibiting covert action by the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]in Angola; the continued occupation of Namibia; the linkage of Namibia's independence with the withdrawal of the Cuban forces from Angola; the assassination of ANC leaders and activists; the loan by the IMF to help the regime subsidize its wars of repression and aggression; the secret visits and discussions between Pentagon officials and the regime's high-ranking military intelligence officers; the visit to South Africa by the head of the CIA; the extremely negative voting pattern on the anti-apartheidresolutions before the General Assembly and the vetoes in the Security Council; statements offering to reward the African countries that befriend South Africa and threatening to punish and even topple those that assist the ANC and the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO];the holding of hearings in South Africa and Washington allegedly to investigate the ANC-SWAPO relations with Cuba, the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic; the granting of permission to seven United States-based transnational corporations to provide $50 million worth of technical and maintenance service to racist South Africa's nuclear plants. The list is long and includes a series of violations of the arms embargo, the branding of the liberation movements as terrorist and the subjecting of SWAPO and the ANC to harassment on the question of visas, as well as demands to inspect our books and files.
On its part, the Pretoria regime has been encouraged towards increased intransigence and repression in Namibia and South Africa itself and even more brazen belligerence and aggression beyond its borders, to the point of publicly invoking the Monroe Doctrine.
Current developments in the United States and around the world continue to vindicate the position of the ANC that, once informed of the criminality of apartheid, the broad masses of the people come out in support of, and exert pressure on their Governments to join in, the international fight for the eradication of this inhuman system. We take this opportunity to commend the athletes and artists who have turned down lucrative fees and refused to play or perform in racist South Africa. We commend the Governments, the anti-apartheidand solidarity groups, the civic organizations and the national and international organizations as well as individual men and women whose efforts in support of the struggle against apartheidin general and to strengthen the campaign for the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela and all other South African political prisoners have taken the following forms: the establishment of close bilateral relations with and the opening of offices of the ANC; the granting of financial and material support to and the provision of scholarships for anti-apartheidstudent refugees; the honouring of the South African political prisoners through the naming of public places after them; and the conferring of honorary degrees on and the granting of freedom of capital and other cities to Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners.
The recently announced position taken by the Government of Australia in favour of a sports and cultural boycott and its invitation to the ANC and SWAPO to open offices in Melbourne are the latest of the ever-increasing examples of positive positions taken by some Western countries - positions we welcome as the beginning of the process that should lead to the total isolation of the Pretoria regime and full support for the international fight waged against apartheidby all the countries of the world, regardless of their racial, political, religious and ideological affiliations.
In expressing our appreciation to the Government of Australia, we wish to extend our gratitude again to all the countries - especially African, non-aligned, Scandinavian and socialist - that, in differing degrees, have always lent and continue to lend active support to the ANC and whose efforts in the mass political mobilization and armed struggle led to the decision taken by the Seventh Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held in New Delhi last March, commending the ANC as the vanguard of the national liberation movement in South Africa.
Despite the much-vaunted military might and the repressive and oppressive character of the now desperate apartheidregime, which continues to enjoy the full collaboration of the Reagan Administration and the Governments of other Western countries, especially Israel, we are confident that victory over the minority racist rule in South Africa is inevitable. We have no illusions, however. We know that the struggle will be long and bloody. There is growing international support; yet it is still grossly inadequate. The long-awaited imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions against the apartheidregime, in particular, would immensely help to shorten the duration of this struggle and reduce the loss of human life.
We appeal to all Member States to include in the agendas of their bilateral relations with the three Western members of the Security Council the need for them to abandon their protection of racist South Africa through the abuse of the veto power - an act that makes them accomplices in all the crimes committed by the Pretoria regime against the peoples of Namibia, South Africa, southern Africa and, indeed, the world.
We wish to declare solemnly from this rostrum that the ANC, for its part, will relentlessly pursue this struggle until final victory. In doing so, we pay a tribute to the valiant people of Namibia who, under the leadership of SWAPO, their sole authentic representative, are waging a heroic struggle which, for some years now, has had a direct positive effect on our struggle. Now that we have embarked on the intensification of this, our common struggle against the common enemy and for a common objective, we are confident that victory is certain.
1. United Nations document A/38/PV.63