Thomas Nkobi, Treasurer, ANC

Statement at the meeting of the Special Committee against Apartheid on the Day of Solidarity with South African Political Prisoners, 10 October 1980¹

It is with a deep sense of respect that I address the Committee today on behalf of the African National Congress of South Africa and, indeed, the entire struggling people of our country. Today marks a very important occasion for us, for it is a Day on which the world community pays a tribute to the dedication and courage of so many of our people languishing in the Fascist dungeons of the Pretoria militarist regime. It is a day on which we in the African National Congress dip our spears in salute to our brave warriors who, over the course of have demonstrated by mass and individual protests their total. Implacable rejection of the racist regime and all it stands for and their deep-seated commitment to achieve the liberation of our country and for peace, national emancipation and social progress.

The United Nations has, in declaring an international Day of Solidarity with South African Political Prisoners, once more demonstrated the magnificent contribution that progressive mankind is making in support of our struggle for freedom. World attention is again focused on the crimes of apartheid against humanity, the imprisonment of our leaders on Robben Island - Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg and countless others - and, indeed., the very nature of the regime that is ruling by the gun and the bullet is once more under the microscope.

The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 34/93 H of 12 12 December 1979, declared that freedom-fighters captured during the struggle for national liberation must be entitled to prisoner-of-war status in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions, once more demonstrating the concern and the support which this august body consistently provides for the fighting people of South Africa.

The African National Congress would like to emphasize that, in looking at the question of political prisoners in South Africa, the whole legal and judicial system cannot be ignored, for the courts, the laws and the entire judicial apparatus are an integral part of the State apparatus enforcing apartheid with severe brutality. The half million of our people in prison every day of the year for offences against such laws as the pass laws and influx control are there because of the application of apartheid laws enforced by apartheid courts and a judiciary that acts in the interests only of the State and not in the interests of the individual, justice or democracy. The ANC does not recognize and rejects in toto the laws, the courts and the judiciary of apartheid South Africa. The only laws that will govern South Africa will be those made by the people themselves in a liberated South Africa.

This question of the judiciary as an instrument of oppression cannot be separated from the innumerable laws resulting in arbitrary arrest, indefinite detentions and long-term prison sentences imposed on those of our people actively engaged in the war of liberation. Nowhere was that more in evidence than in the death sentence imposed on that gallant freedom-fighter James Mncedisi Mange, whose life was saved only by the tremendous and consistent protest campaigns of progressive mankind the world over, including the various bodies of the United Nations.

But we hear much talk of "reform" from the so-called enlightened policy of the former Defence Minister and now Prime Minister P. W. Botha and his generals in the army, as personified in the new Defence Minister General Magnus Malan. What does this mean in concrete terms?

The mounting success of the ANC and the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) and the people's victory in Zimbabwe were answered by P. W. Botha and Magnus Malan with the concept of "total strategy", which, they said,

"resulted in a situation which demanded the adoption of a total national strategy in all fields - military, psychological, technological, diplomatic, ideological and cultural. A primary objective is to prevent, through Western diplomatic action, the build-up of Marxist influence in neighbouring States. The defence force would be maintained in a state of alertness for the immediate support of police action within the country and in neighbouring States."

The Pretoria regime's concept of 'total strategy" involves an enormous increase in the expenditure of the armed forces. The defence budget increased to nearly 2,000 million rand in 1979-1980, indicating the extent of the country's militarization. It was no accident that Piet "Wapen" Botha, the former Minister of Defence; became Prime Minister. Some of the most significant political statements come from Magnus Malan, the former Army Chief and now the new Minister of Defence, who heads the generals in the corridors of power. The military is extending its grip on the country by placing army men in teaching posts in schools and colleges throughout rural areas and in Soweto. The top of the military structure is the State Security Council, which includes politicians and military and police chiefs.

No section of the population is spared, with the Bantustan tribal chiefs even being incorporated into the army territorial commands, members of the civilian force and commandos being used in combat operations for three months,, a time beyond their compulsory period of service, which is two years, and the permanent force being expanded and now comprising nearly one-,third of the total force. The regime has acknowledged that it is in a state of undeclared war and, by amendments in the 1977 Defence Act it has extended its wartime powers to cover existing conditions defined as "operations in defence of the Republic".

As widespread bannings and detentions increased, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 418 (1977) on 4 November 1977 imposing an embargo on arms sales to Pretoria. The Western Powers vetoed a draft resolution placing an embargo on nuclear collaboration and the supply of civilian goods of potential military use to South Africa. In December of that year, the General Assembly passed 14 resolutions condemning apartheid and calling for sweeping military and economic sanctions. Nevertheless, South Africa recently exploded a nuclear device, and the threat to world peace is clearly outlined in the statement made by Deputy Defence Minister Coetsee, when he said:

“As a country with a nuclear capability it would be very stupid not to use it if nuclear weapons were needed..."

In terms of the United Nations resolutions and by the general consensus of the progressive world, white South Africa stands condemned as being an illegitimate minority racist regime whose armed forces have grown into a monstrous octopus spreading its tentacles over the whole of southern Africa, prepared to plunge Africa and the whole world into a holocaust in order to defend its white privilege.

The political mask of the total strategy of apartheid South Africa purports to be designed to win the hearts and minds of the black people. Having robbed Africans of their natural birthright, the right to national self-determination and citizenship in their ancestral land, the regime now seeks to recruit them to fight for the protection of the white man’s life and property. Since African nationalism - the concept of one single, all-embracing nation - is diametrically opposed to the Pretoria schemes of perpetual subordination of blacks, an attempt has been made to substitute tribal nationalism. Africans must not be allowed to think of themselves as blacks or Africans, but are given identity as ethnic communities - Xhosas, Tswanas, Zulus, Vendas, Shangaans, Swazis, Pedis, Sothos, Coloureds or Indians. This device is incorporated in the total strategy concept under the projected President's Council for whites, Coloureds, Indians and Chinese only, appointed by the regime itself applying the familiar divide-and-rule system. The aim is to split the Coloured and Indian from the African, an attempt that has been totally rejected by the people and that will prove to be incapable of seeing the light of day, like so many other proposals abandoned over the last few months - the Black People's Council, the Coloured Persons Council, and so on.

Despite fine words extensively reported in the Western news media with regard to "Reform," the oppressed people can only ask one question: what reform? Botha has not changed his unqualified rejection of democratic solutions. On the contrary, on 9 March of this year he undertook to maintain white domination, saying that his party would "defend the white man's political rights, culture and his right to self-determination," the same policy we know as baaskap. At the recent National Party Congress in Port Elizabeth, the aggressive nature of the regime was again emphasized when Botha said:

"South Africa's forces have never been used to their fullest power, and in order to maintain stability the Government will not hesitate to use them. If this happens, people must not complain if they get hurt."

One key ingredient in Botha's policy of defence of white heritage is his proposed "constellation of Southern African States," by which the regime wants to link up with other States, meaning not only Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola and Zaire, but also Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Kwa Zulu, and so forth. One of the main intentions is to try to surround South Africa with puppet States linked to its regime by military, political and economic ties which will take the place of the old buffer States represented by Mozambique and Angola under Portuguese occupation and Zimbabwe before the people's victory. It is precisely because of their liberation and of the independence of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland that this proposal is being put forward. The deep-seated resentment of Africans everywhere to the vicious system of racial discrimination, national oppression and economic exploitation that constitute apartheid has always ensured the failure of the regime's attempts to fool the people of Africa into thinking that apartheid is either acceptable or has been dismantled. In fact, a mask is being fitted to try to hide its true nature from the world. But no concessions can be worthwhile or acceptable to our people. We fight for and most certainly will achieve, full political and economic power in our land, liberated South Africa.

The roles of the private sector, foreign capital and the multinational corporations are also integrally involved in the Botha strategy for national salvation. Industry is expected to play its role in the economic development of the rural areas and Bantustans that agree to form part of this constellation of States, in order to ensure that the economy is tied ever more tightly to the strings of Pretoria. South Africa, owing in part to the increasing value of gold, has a reported growth rate of 10 per cent for the first half of this year - the highest in the world - and company super-profits have increased in some instances by between 80 per cent and. 102 per cent - and this in a time of the direst poverty amongst our people, with malnutrition in both rural and urban areas, amongst both adults and children, and when unemployment is estimated at well over 2 million. The regime needs to find an outlet for its surplus capital and manufactured goods. The constellation is to provide such an outlet in the form of a huge common market dominated by South African industrial might and financed by Western agencies, which are themselves partners in the profits of apartheid. Thus international capital is harnessed in support of the total strategy of the militarist Pretoria regime.

The African National Congress cannot accept the argument that by investing directly in our oppression, overseas investors will somehow be able to release us from the tyranny of apartheid. Economic and other forms of collaboration do not liberalize the apartheid economy and its military power, but rather strengthen it. Therefore, the main guilt for the crimes committed against our people must be laid squarely to the Western Powers and the multinational corporations which have placed profit above human life and which value their selfish interests above human aspirations. Investments pour into South Africa because of apartheid and not despite it. The various apartheid laws ensure that the average rate of return on capital is the highest in the world. It is estimated to be 50 per cent higher than the world average.

The tasks of the African National Congress and its allies are to achieve the total liberation of our country and to establish a people's Government which would ensure peace, social progress and national emancipation, and they are clearly outlined in our basic programme, the Freedom Charter. The twenty-fifth anniversary of its adoption is being celebrated this year. The total strategy of Botha-Malan has not achieved its objective of turning back the South African people's struggle, nor is it able to do so. The struggling people of South Africa know that there is no power that can withstand our organized force. Despite constant, savage repression, we have demonstrated how - at all levels of work and in all fields - our people are mobilizing and confronting the enemy as never before.

Our gathering here today to mark the international Day of Solidarity with South African Political Prisoners has a special significance. This day, 11 October 1980, will mark the high point in a year which has witnessed unprecedented solidarity with our leaders and militants incarcerated in the prisons of the apartheid regime. This action in their support has taken both a national and an international form.

The campaign for the unconditional release of all South African political prisoners cannot be seen in isolation from the mounting mass political and armed struggle that is raging across our country. All work that is carried out for the release of our patriots is regarded as an integral part of the struggle for national and social emancipation in South Africa. The surge of action in solidarity in this area of international work and the need for this to be further intensified must therefore be seen in relation to the current level of resistance by our people against the fascist Botha-Malan regime.

It would be true to say that today more than at any other time in our history the apartheid State is facing sustained, united and organized resistance at every level and by all sections of the oppressed and democratic forces of South Africa. This is evidenced in the ongoing school boycotts, strike actions, rent protests and bus boycotts. In fact, our people are organizing to fight apartheid in every conceivable way. These mass struggles are complemented by the heroic actions of our People's Army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, whose daring and brilliant attack on the SASOL oil-from-coal plants in June of this year finally destroyed any myth of invincibility propounded by the racist regime.

We feel it necessary to emphasize and attempt to portray more fully to those outside our country the extent of political consciousness among the broad masses and their support for the ANC and its allies. This recent report of the funeral of a member of the Soweto Committee of Ten, the Reverend Mr. Mayathula, allows us to convey to the Committee today the spirit of our people:

"A spokesman for the Mayathula family said that the ANC had expressed its deepest sympathy with the family, next of kin, comrades, colleagues and all the black people of South Africa. Pamphlets of the banned ANC and the South African Communist Party were distributed during the funeral… The ANC pamphlet contained a message to the people of South Africasaid to have been written by gaoled ANC leader Nelson Mandela… The introduction to the message was written by Mr. Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC. The Congress of South African Students and the Azanian Students Organization also issued a joint pamphlet [which said] that as a guide to the political direction of the future, Mr. Mayathula had referred to the Freedom Charter as the most democratic document detailing the demands of the people... All along the route to Avalon Cemetary, [over 2,000] mourners chanted revolutionary songs in praise of Mr. Mayathula, Nelson Mandela and black leaders in exile…”

The nation-wide campaign for the release of Nelson Mandela and all political prisoners which has gripped our country during 1980, the year of the Freedom Charter, has united all sections of our people in mass and militant struggle. For them, Nelson Mandela is a living symbol of our struggle for a genuine non-racial and democratic South Africa. His name and his organization are, for the vast majority of our people synonymous with their most fundamental aspirations. This is why the campaign has been taken up by the broadest spectrum of the population: political, religious, cultural, sporting; youth and student organizations. This is why so many have faced arrest, detention and police harassment in order to popularize the campaign.

We feel bound to emphasize here today that the international Free Mandela Campaign, which has been intensified in response to the action inside the country, is of critical importance in terms of both its impact on our fighting people and its effect on the criminal apartheid regime. Let us recall the words of Comrade Nelson Mandela, which reached his people when he was still underground evading capture by the police:

"I have chosen this course which is more difficult and which entails more risk and hardship... I shall fight the Government side by side with you, inch by inch and mile by mile, until victory is won,"

In pledging ourselves to intensify this campaign we should always be conscious of the sacrifices made and the examples set by those South African patriots imprisoned by the apartheid regime.

To mark 11 October we should be conscious of our responsibility to remind the international community, and more especially those countries which continue, in defiance of the United Nations and democratic and progressive forces world to buttress and support the Botha regime, of the conditions daily endured by political prisoners in South Africa.

This year has again witnessed massive and bloody repression by the apartheid regime. Since April 1980 nearly 500 people have been detained while thousands of young people have been subjected to police harassment, brutality and arrest. It is conservatively estimated that more than 60  people have been shot by the racist police this year. The youngest victim was Belinda More, a 17-month-old baby who was shot through the head as she lay in her corrugated iron home in Cape Town; At the same time institutionalized torture remains a daily practice of the notorious security police, as has been evidenced in numerous political trials. One recent case is that of Thandi Modise who is facing charges connected with his membership of the ANC and its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. Pregnant while in detention, she has since told the court of the brutal assaults upon her, assaults which nearly led to both her death and that of her unborn child.

There are more than 500 political prisoners in South Africa, over 50 of them being leaders and combatants in the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) held by the apartheid regime through its illegal occupation of Namibia. It is now more than 16 years since our leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia trial. This year Comrade Govan Mbeki, an outstanding leader of his people, marked his seventieth birthday on the island where along with Mandela, Sisulu, Mhlaba, Kathrada, Motsoledi and others he has been incarcerated for life.

The racist regime denies it holds any political prisoners, but in reality these prisoners are held with one aim in mind: to attempt to demoralize them as human beings and as fighters for freedom. Public opinion should always be reminded that in South Africa political prisoners receive no remission of sentence or parole; a life sentence means precisely that. For years subjected to the most appalling conditions, our comrades have waged a relentless struggle to be accorded their rights as political prisoners. This heroic spirit remains a primary inspiration of those fighting to support the campaign for their release. The message that comes to us from behind the prison walls is always that the struggle continues and victory is certain.

We are aware that as the struggle intensifies in South Africa the demands made on the international community in this vital area of work in solidarity will obviously increase. Already the intensification of the armed struggle has meant that the call for recognition of captured freedom fighters as prisoners of war, according to the Geneva Conventions, has become a priority. The magnificent campaigns in defence of Comrades Solomon Mahlangu and James Mange are testimony to the fact that the international democratic and progressive forces have responded to this task. There is no doubt that the principle of prisoner-of-war status will remain a priority issue for all those concerned to see an end to repression and murder in South Africa. The current trial of nine ANC cadres in Pretoria on charges of high treason and under the Terrorism Act is a case in point.

We must be prepared for more death sentences to be passed by the Fascist regime. We must be on the alert for many more such trials and ensure that as campaigns are waged around them the nature of so-called justice in South Africa is exposed. Let us spread the message of those on trial and in prison throughout the world. The words of James Mange and his fellow combatants come to mind:

“Apartheid is high treason"

“Apartheid is a crime against humanity"

and "Never on our knees".

The people's victory in Zimbabwe, together with the support of progressive mankind, was the real guarantor of the release of so many prisoners of war and political prisoners in that country, including our own Umkhonto we Sizwe combatants, who had spent many years in Smith's dungeons.

The centre of struggle is now firmly focused on both Namibia and South Africa. It is only the people's victory in our countries that will ensure an end to the torture, brutality and hardship we now endure.

To achieve this victory calls for great sacrifices on the part of our people - sacrifices which we are ready to make. But the world community, too, has a crucial role to play. The African National Congress calls upon progressive mankind to intensify the all-round political, military, social and economic isolation of the Fascist regime; step up the campaign for the granting of prisoner-of-war status to all captured freedom fighters under the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions; demand the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela and all other South African political prisoners - a priority task for all solidarity organizations; provide increased support for the people of Namibia and their organization, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) ; put an end to the abuse of their veto powers by some Western countries; and provide unqualified support for the people of South Africa through their real representative, the African National Congress of South Africa.

Once more we should like to place on record our sincere appreciation to the Committee for the opportunity to address it here today. The invitation which it extended to us demonstrates the solidarity and concern felt by progressive mankind. The work of the special unit against apartheid is greatly appreciated by the people of South Africa. In taking up the demands which I have enumerated, together we shall rid the world of the scourge of Fascist South Africa and achieve our liberation in the manner so aptly expressed by Nelson Mandela in his message smuggled from Robben Island:

"Between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of armed struggle we shall crush white racist minority rule."

Forward to a people's government. Amandla ngawethu. Maatla ke a rona.