24 July 19851
I come here today to impress upon you, and through you upon the international community, the seriousness of the situation in South Africa at the present time. I cannot begin to describe what has been happening in South Africa since the declaration of a state of emergency last Saturday. I must say, however, that even before the formal and official declaration in the townships, our people were experiencing a reign of terror conducted by the South African police and the South African Defence Force that was equivalent to a state of emergency. Even before Saturday, an unofficial curfew was in operation in our townships and many of our people were shot at and killed when they moved around after dark. Even before the state of emergency, many people were detained without trial, arrested without cause, tortured in the gaols and shot like dogs on the streets of our nation. Even before Saturday, we knew of the death squads that were roaming our streets and receiving uncommon protection from the police and the South African Government. These are the well-known facts that disturb us about South Africa.
In the last few months, more than 10,000 people have been detained without trial; of those, some have been released, some have been charged with treason, while others have simply disappeared. We do not know what has happened to those who have disappeared. A pattern is emerging, however, that has persuaded us that what we are seeing is a systematic assassination of the middle level of leadership, not only of the United Democratic Front (UDF), but of other organizations as well.
We do not know exactly who these people are, although we have raised critical questions about the disappearances and deaths of certain leaders in South Africa which have not been answered satisfactorily by the South African Government or by its police.
Last Saturday we buried four leaders from the Cradock area of the Eastern Cape: Mr. Matthew Goniwe, Mr. Fort Calata, Mr. Sparrow Mkhonto and Mr. Fidelo Mhlawuli. UDF has asked some very pertinent questions concerning their deaths. It is well known that no one knew about the meeting that was held in Port Elizabeth on that fateful night and that no one knew the exact time of departure of Mr. Goniwe and the others, except the UDF executives who attended the meeting and those people in Cradock with whom Mr. Goniwe had talked on the telephone. No one knew, except those with sophisticated listening devices who had tapped the UDF telephone and who, therefore, knew the exact time of departure. Mr. Goniwe, at the moment that he left, had assured his friends that he would stop the car only for uniformed police and for no one else. We know that on the night that he left, there was a police road-block on the road between Port Elizabeth and Cradock.
Our question is: who killed our four brothers? UDF is clear. The people in the townships are clear. I believe, therefore, that those who are responsible for the murder of Mr. Goniwe, Mr. Calata, Mr. Mkhonto and Mr. Mhlawuli can only be the South African police. Up to now, the police have not responded to any of the questions asked by UDF, nor have the Minister for Law and Order or the Minister for Justice. They have left the statements to the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs.
These are the things that are happening in South Africa at the moment. We are concerned about death squads that can operate with so much protection in South Africa. We are concerned about a situation in which young children can be detained or even murdered by the police, such as young Johannes Porter, who was 12 years old and was stopped by the police while he was returning home with his uncle and beaten to death. Two days later his mother was told that he was no longer alive. No one has been called to account. There is no talk that the South African Government will investigate the circumstances of this boy's death. No one from the South African Government has indicated that justice will be sought for those who have done these deeds. And now we have a state of emergency.
We are very much afraid that the South African Government and the police will use the state of emergency as a legal blanket to cover a multitude of sins and misdeeds in South Africa. If the South African Government is willing to release the names of 441 people who have been detained, it is safe to say that many more have been detained. If the media mentions that about nine people have died since last Sunday, it is safe to think that many more have died. We know that the township of Duduza has been completely closed off by the police. There has been no information about that terrible situation. We believe that the South African Government has lost complete control of the situation and is now resorting to more and more violence and more and more legalized terrorism of our people in an attempt to stop the movement towards freedom in South Africa.
Now is not the time for the international community to make another statement about the situation in my country. We do not need another declaration on the abhorrence of apartheid. The black people of South Africa must be forgiven if they look rather cynically upon the statement of Britain's Foreign Minister that apartheid is bad and that the situation is so terrible, when Britain is not willing to take any concrete action to motivate the South African Government to change its mind on these fundamental issues. We must be forgiven if we respond with anger to the statement of the Reagan Administration and its request that the South African Government should, in a state of emergency, respect the human rights of black people. If the South African Government has a Constitution in which the human rights of South Africa's black people are denied under so-called normal circumstances, how will that Government even begin to respect our human rights in a situation where they have declared a state of emergency?
We believe that it will now be legal to continue the relentless butchery of our people without accountability to the Government, the public or the international community. We therefore say to the international community that no effort must be spared to put pressure on the South African Government in order to bring that Government to the point where it will have no choice but to begin to negotiate with the authentic leaders of South Africa's oppressed people.
Despite the fact that there is a law against calling for economic pressure, the South African Council of Churches, on 29 June, called for economic pressure on South Africa. By a vast majority, the Conference of the South African Council of Churches adopted a resolution calling for the application of economic pressure on and sanctions against the South African Government because we believe that it is a peaceful means of bringing pressure to bear on the South African Government to begin to bring about the changes that our country so desperately needs.
We ask the international community to heed the call of those people who have risked treason, who have risked gaol, who have risked persecution in South Africa to make this call. The United Nations will be in a unique position tomorrow, when the Security Council meets, to impress upon the hearts of those who will meet in these chambers the desire of South Africa's black population. Although the situation will undoubtedly become much more difficult, although the South African Government will, without any doubt, unleash more and more violence upon our defenseless people, the determination of South Africa's people to be free will not be deterred or undermined. Even though we move from funeral to funeral and from graveside to graveside, each funeral serves as an inspiration to our people to continue the struggle for justice, liberation and genuine peace in South Africa.
We ask the international community to join us in our struggle now. If we do not exert the necessary pressure on South Africa at this moment in history, we may have lost a golden opportunity to diminish the violence in South Africa, to contain the terror that has been unleashed on our people and to bring about the changes without which South Africa as a country will not survive.
As I leave you, I wish to impress upon you that tomorrow will be an opportunity to join the Government of France and those other Western Governments that have taken meaningful steps in this hour of crisis to tell the South African population and the South African Government, in particular, that the patience of the world with apartheid has run out. You will not impress the South African Government with yet another statement, yet another condemnation. Nor, I am afraid, will you impress South Africa's suffering black population. But you will come to our aid genuinely if you take action that will make a difference in South Africa right now. That is what we ask of you.
No pressure now means no movement at all. No movement at all now will mean that you side with those who oppress our people in South Africa, despite your lofty words. If those words are not accompanied by action, you will once again find yourself on that side.
I hope that you will rise to this occasion and that, from this meeting and the meeting tomorrow, action will be taken that will make a meaningful difference to the lives of those who suffer and those who continue to struggle. We will continue our struggle and we will not give up until the day that black people in South Africa can walk tall and free in a land that they can once again call their own.
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