10 October 1978
I thank you for your invitation to come and address you on the question of South African political prisoners. I myself am a member of the African National Congress, the principal liberation movement of Africa. I bring you greetings from the African National Congress and the struggling people of South Africa. Today, ironically enough, Mr. Vorster is being inaugurated as President of the racist regime. We, black people of South Africa, do not recognize Mr. Vorster as our President.
Two of my fellow comrades and I were arrested on 17 April 1963 at a time when the notorious 90-day law was going through the racist parliament. Hence we had to appear in court within 72 hours of our arrest. On the first day of our arrest we were tortured by the racist police. Electric shocks were applied to us; wet canvas bags were put over our heads and we were strangled; rubber batons were used on the soles of our feet. They also played what they called rugby with us. They went on to hang one of my fellow comrades, Abdulhai Jassat, out of the window from the sixth floor of the building and threatened to drop him if he did not talk. While we were appearing in court the notorious 90 days became law, which now gave the racist regime the right to hold our people indefinitely in solitary confinement. Since then more detention clauses have come into being, the 180-day clause, the Terrorism Act, and so forth. Thousands of our comrades have been detained under those laws.
Immediately after the introduction of the 90 days in 1973 the first of our comrades was killed in detention. Since then the toll has gone on and on without stop. Added to this, the South African regime has one of the highest execution rates in the world. According to United Nations figures, over 50 per cent of the world's executions take place in South Africa.
I will stop here on the question of detention and death in detention. On Robben Island the brutality of the regime continues. I have spent 10 years on the notorious island from 1963 to 1973. In the early stages, from 1963 to 1970, open brutality and atrocities were committed on us. Mass assaults were common. Some of us were buried neck-deep in the sand the whole day long, while others were handcuffed to the ceiling and suspended with their toes barely touching the ground. I myself received four strokes with the cane.
The political prisoners have constantly fought the Prisons Department. In 1965 we went on a five-day hunger strike. From then on there has never been a year that passed without some campaign or other against the Department, demanding unconditional release of political prisoners, demanding that we be recognized as political prisoners, demanding the improvement of conditions in prison.
I was released from prison in 1973 but was immediately put under house arrest in Johannesburg - from one prison to another.
Over and above our campaigns in prison, the support of the international community and the progressive world, the United Nations Committee against Apartheid and other United Nations bodies, the solidarity movements, the International Red Cross and many other organizations and individuals, have played a very important role in the effort to try to bring about a change in prison conditions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these organizations and individuals for the part that they have played. I would like these organizationns and individuals to redouble their efforts for the support of the political prisoners, the struggling people of South Africa and the African National Congress.
The fighting spirit of the members of the African National Congress and the South West Africa People's Organization in prison has always been the very best. As political prisoners we are very proud of being on the island. We have demanded nothing short of unconditional release from prison so that we too can play our role in building a new and a free South Africa, where race, colour, sex or creed will not matter.
The last time the racist regime executed a political prisoner was in 1965. But now once again it intends to execute a young patriot, a member of the African National Congress, Solomon Mahlangu. Mahlangu is a symbol of the revolutionary black youth of South Africa, the youth who have joined together with all sections of the oppressed people under the leadership of the African National Congress to fight for a free and a democratic South Africa, free from. all exploitation. We call upon the international community, upon all democracy-loving people, to demand that Vorster, Botha and their gang stop the execution of this patriot. He is a prisoner of war and must be treated under the relevant Geneva Conventions. The African National Congress calls upon the world to support its struggle against the racist regime. We call upon this Organization to impose economic sanctions, cultural and sports boycotts and an arms embargo on the regime. We, the people of South Africa, cannot and will not accept anything short of that.
Some Western countries talk in terms of a code of conduct, and yet these very same countries are the ones that are helping to uphold the regime. We once again demand that these Western countries withdraw all foreign investments from South Africa. They cannot beautify apartheid and expect us to accept it. We want the total overthrow of the regime. We want the total overthrow of colonialism and imperialism. The African National Congress has embarked on an armed struggle and our cadres have already been involved in armed combat with the racist police. The racist Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police recently had to admit that the African National Congress was a threat to their regime. We will stop only when the people take power into their hands in South Africa so that we can have a free and a democratic society there.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to the forces the world over that have supported our struggle and the movement as a whole. I would like also to take this opportunity to offer our full support and solidarity with the just struggle which our comrades in arms, the peoples of Namibia, Zimbabwe and occupied Palestine under the leadership of SWAPO, the Patriotic Front and the Palestine Liberation Movement are waging.