24 November 19781
It is with great pleasure, Mr. President, that I extend to you greetings and congratulations on behalf of the National Executive Committee of the ANC and express our conviction that under your guidance, thanks to your diplomatic experience and commitment to the cause of justice, the deliberations of this session of the General Assembly will be crowned with success.2
In five years' time - in 1984, to be exact-Africa will be commemorating one of the saddest and most challenging chapters in the history of the human race. It will be the one hundredth anniversary of the Berlin Conference, when some Western Powers met and carved up the map of Africa to satisfy their imperialist ambitions. I remind members of the Assembly of that event not only because the problem of apartheidis part of the monumental injustice which ensued, but also because those who oppose the measures being proposed today for the solution of that problem are the same countries that met in Berlin; they are the same countries that for centuries have engaged in the unbridled plunder and exploitation of the riches of the African continent and are determined to perpetuate the status quo in southern Africa.
For South Africa the years from 1870 to 1894 were most tragic years. It was during that period that Britain launched a series of wars which eventually led to the subjugation of the various chiefdoms and kingdoms into the present-day South Africa. And in 1910 our people were handed over as a present to the white-settler State then known as the Union of South Africa. The same strategy was carried out in Rhodesia, and after the First World War the people of Namibia were handed over by the Western Powers - by Britain, to be exact - to the misrule of South Africa. In return, South Africa would continue to send a booty of diamond and gold to the city of London and to Fort Knox.
It is therefore crystal clear that the roots of apartheidare to be found in colonialism and capitalist exploitation.
We remind the representatives here of that historic event because this debate takes place during the International Anti-Apartheid Year – something that has been hailed as proof of the international community's determination to intensify the campaign for the isolation and the weakening of the apartheidregime. And yet the events that have taken place recently in southern Africa and in some Western capitals, particularly Washington, raise the question whether or not the collaboration between some of these Western Powers and the Pretoria-Salisbury racist regimes has reached the stage of an unholy alliance.
The dominant feature, which is cause for the gravest alarm, is the ever-growing intransigence and the frantic arms race, as well as full-scale war preparations, of the racist regimes, undoubtedly encouraged by the persistent diplomatic, economic and military and nuclear collaboration by some Western Powers. The list is very long. However, the major and most incriminating factors are the cancellation of the much publicized United Nations-supervised elections in Namibia and Zimbabwe and the stepping up of the Pretoria-Salisbury programme to install puppet regimes and to impose a neo-colonialist solution in those Territories. The invasion of Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana and the savage killing of refugees, including women and children, are part of the grand design to rob the peoples' struggle, led by the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO]and the Patriotic Front, of imminent victory .
The Salisbury-Pretoria axis dreads the SWAPO-Patriotic Front victory that will lead to the genuine independence of Namibia and Zimbabwe and the inevitable explosion of the powder keg on which the South African regime is sitting.
Smith's visit to Washington and an invitation reported to have been extended to Botha by President Carter make us ask the following questions. Is the United States a friend or a foe of the people of southern Africa in their fight for self-determination? Are the United States and the other four Western Security Council members friends or foes of the Pretoria regime? The answer to those important questions lies in the manner in which they vote on draft resolutions put forward in the Security Council, such as those on mandatory sanctions and an oil embargo against South Africa. It depends on how they have always voted, each time the Security Council has considered an arms embargo. It depends on their attitude and position towards the stand taken by those seeking to make Security Council resolution 418 (1977),3 adopted last year, effective by closing the existing loop-holes - and the fact that loopholes do exist is shown by the recent case of arms smuggling through third-party countries. It depends on what the Foreign Ministers of these countries said in reply to Botha's statement about "the ideals for which the West stands, especially the democratic principles of individual and political freedom, which are as dear to us as they are to you" .
Did the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Cyrus Vance, or any of the Ministers of the countries that are part of the community of nations that has declared apartheida crime against humanity challenge that statement? We know what Botha said on that occasion and what he continues to say about South Africa's not being bothered by the possibility of economic sanctions, while assuring his racist supporters of continued supplies from the West despite the possible economic sanctions, as in the case of the arms embargo. When Botha says South Africa is part of the free world and reminds the five Powers of how it fought together with them, not only to preserve democratic ideals, but actively to oppose communism, what is the answer? The answer to this lies in the role of the Western transnational corporations, which continue to concentrate heavy investments in South Africa in the most technologically advanced sectors producing transport and electronic equipment and heavy machinery and other products such as chemicals and oil. It is unnecessary to stress that these sectors have important strategic significance because the Pretoria Fascist regime concentrates on using the most modern military equipment to supplement its limited manpower.
The traditional policy has always been to exclude blacks from the Army because it is feared they constitute a potential fifth column. The Pretoria regime has also tried to automate skilled civilian jobs in order to keep blacks out of critical posts while freeing whites for other roles, including military work. Equipment supplied by United States firms - in particular computers and sophisticated transport and electrical goods - has helped the regime to achieve these aims. Many of the products of United States subsidiaries and affiliates in South Africa, such as oil, are of direct significance to the military programmes of the racist regime. There is a fast-growing, intimate integration of United States and other Western multinational corporations into South Africa's military-industrial complex.
Those companies do not stop at heavy investment in the most technologically advanced sectors in South Africa. They go further and use the country as a base from which they export throughout the region. In many cases they have developed raw material sources in other southern African countries in co-operation with South Africa and private interests.
The Western Powers have made a good deal of motion in southern Africa, but there has been no movement. The so-called peaceful resolution of the conflict in southern Africa is no nearer. The white settlers are as intransigent as ever. This is because the Western Powers base their entire strategy on the preservation of South Africa. It need hardly be said that the scope and volume of the Western interests are immense. South Africa is but a branch plant of British, American and other Western firms. It is in fact but an imperialist outpost on that continent. A recent study in the United States Congress has revealed that more than half the United States Senators have shares in the gold and diamond mines of South Africa. Examine any of the prospectuses of the major firms in South Africa and you will see that most of the English "Sirs" and "Lords" are directors of the major South African companies.
David Owen, the British Foreign Secretary, has openly admitted that the British Government takes a negative attitude to the imposition of sanctions on South Africa. In a statement he made recently, he said: "We are not in a position to allow ourselves such a luxury”. Apart from the economic and political considerations, the imperialist policy of alliance with the racist regimes in southern Africa is determined by military and strategic issues.
South Africa is being made an important part of NATO's strategic plans for the Indian Ocean. It is this knowledge that explains South Africa's intransigence. Ian Smith's illegal regime was supplied with oil by a British oil company for 11 years.
This brings us to a point at which we wish to commend the Special Committee against Apartheid - andI refer here to the presentation of two reports, - and to state that it is no wonder that in some circles there is a growing concern that the current upsurge in Iran may bring about a situation that may stop the flow of oil to South Africa.
The imperialist Powers are not interested either in bringing down Ian Smith or in arranging for elections in Namibia. Their interest in these regimes makes that impossible. What the Western Powers are attempting to do is to prevent the further spreading of the liberation struggle in South Africa. They want to prevent the coming into power in Namibia and Zimbabwe of the national patriotic forces led by SWAPO and the Patriotic Front, which would lead those countries to genuine independence and social and economic progress.
Listen to what Mr. Brzezinski, the Special Adviser on National Security to President Carter, has said about South Africa:
"What we are trying to do is to encourage a process of change which will oppose what otherwise looks like a rather apocalyptic alternative. We are trying to get the South Africans to rethink the historical destiny of their own country so that through change that society can survive. "
We have already pointed out that the entire Western strategy is based on cooperation with South Africa, whose stability the West considers a "must". In the meantime, South Africa since 15 June 1976 has experienced a continuing crisis. Almost daily the regime makes announcements about increased infiltration and action by the forces of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the spear of the nation, which is the military wing of the ANC. They make announcements about actions in the northern Transvaal and along the borders with Swaziland. The regime also admits to the discovery of arms caches in the urban complex around Johannesburg, in Natal and around the Durban-Pinetown urban complex. Our movement has improved and strengthened its underground infrastructure. Umkhonto we Sizwe has improved its capacity to initiate and sustain armed activities inside the country. This is no idle boast designed to stimulate the enthusiasm of representatives here. The racist regime daily admits that this year alone its forces have been constantly engaged in clashes with the forces of the ANC. Just last week, on 13 November, a unit of Umkhonto engaged the South African forces, which, in spite of mobilizing helicopter-borne crews, have not been able to track down the ANC forces. This follows the armed clashes announced in August.
The ANC would like to declare to the entire world that the momentum of the armed struggle in South Africa is in the ascendant, and very soon our forces, like those of the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe and SWAPO in Namibia, are going to be active throughout the length and breadth of South Africa.
The ANC is encouraged by the positions that have been adopted by this body, recognizing as legitimate all forms of struggle, including armed struggle, for the seizure of power by the people and the creation of a democratic State in South Africa.
We call upon the peoples of the world to monitor carefully the designs of certain circles in the West, circles that are trying to prepare public opinion for eventual intervention in support of the apartheidregime in South Africa. Recently, a scheme to supply arms to South Africa, involving the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada and the island of Antigua, was exposed in this country. These countries have recently voted in favour of the arms embargo against South Africa and yet they allow their soil to be used for a nefarious trafficking in arms to South Africa.
Up to now nothing has been done to punish the perpetrators of this criminal act, nor has anything been done to the oil companies or the officials in the British Government who encouraged sanctions-busting. The ANC calls upon these nations to put an end to this duplicity and to adhere to the letter and spirit of Security Council resolution 418 (1977). We also call on them to stop blocking the efforts of the international community aimed at facilitating the struggle by imposing all-embracing sanctions under Chapter VII. Finally, we warmly welcome the proposal made by the representative of Madagascar calling on the United Nations to draft and adopt a declaration on active solidarity with the oppressed peoples of South Africa and their liberation movement, in their just struggle against apartheidand in the creation of a democratic State.
We maintain that this would be in keeping with the ideals embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.
1. United Nations document A/33/PV.58