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i. d. a.j news notes

Published by the United States Committee of the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 February 1984 Telephone (617) 491-8343 : The Bloodiest

It is enough to study the gleaming, corpulent faces of the members Ciskei gained prominence in the South African and world press last of the Ciskei Cabinet, to look at their overstuffed vests and uneasy July, when the little band of brothers and colleagues pictured below be­ eyes, to get an idea of what these men are like. They are faces reminis­ gan to break up. A spray of machine-gun fire at the home of Foreign cent of banana republics where petty tyrants, propped up from the out­ Minister B.N. Pityi was followed by the quick return home from side, protect their shaky positions with brutality. And in fact, the tale of of , who had cut short a visit in order to take steps against events in the Ciskei is full of echoes of other corrupt and manipulated his enemies. , Lennox's brother and the head of a vast Cis­ states: palace intrigue, a bloated military, even a stadium where detain­ kei security empire, was demoted and then detained. In 1981 Charles ees are tortured, as in post-Allende Chile. Sebe had broken a record for repression among by detain­ The difference is that the Ciskei has not even the marginal respecta­ ing 318 people. Major-General Taillefer Minnaar, a white "security ad­ bility as a state that Thieu's Vietnam had, or Pinochet's Chile. It is an in­ viser" to the Ciskei and the head of the Mapasa Special Warfare Center, visible country, a legal fiction that nevertheless represses those under was also detained and referred to the Weskoppies Mental Hospital for its control more crudely and arbitrarily even than the South African observation. As more detentions followed-first 17 members of Cis­ which created it. kei's Combined Forces, then Namba Sebe, the bantustan's Minister of Incorporating the , 's biggest black Transport and another brother of Lennox-an alleged plot was revealed township after , the Ciskei is-together with the ­ whereby Lennox Sebe was to have been assassinated by a security-po­ one of the country's two "" for its Xhosa-speakingpeople.lts lice crossfire at a public youth rally. Sebe reorganized his security forces unemployment runs between 20 % and 25 % and its population den­ to give himself the direct control his brother had held, and appointed sity is five times that of South Africa as a whole. Infant mortality has himself President for Life. been estimated at over 50 %. Per capita income in the Ciskei is less than One side-effect of press coverage of the fraternal warfare was to $400, yet $50 million has been allocated by the South African govern­ draw attention to the repression that had been going on all along. In its ment to build its new "capital" of Bisho. In the resettlement area of brutality toward the trade union movement the Ciskei has put even its Tsweletswele 40 % of the children are malnourished and 10 % have South African masters to shame. Not long before the shakeup in the kwashiorkor, yet the Ciskei's "President for Life" Lennox Sebe drives a Ciskei "government," the President and Vice President of the South Mercedes-Benz and owns a $2.7 million Lear Jet. When it was discov­ African Allied Workers Union-Thozarnile Gqweta and Sisa Njikelana ered that the jet could not land on the grass airstrip at Bisho, the -were detained in the bantustan for alleged ANC activity. It was National Assembly quickly passed an airport modernization bill. continued on page 2

,J The Cabinet of the "Independent Republic of the Ciskei" CISKEI continued from page 1 impose its will on the Mdantsane community, but the resilience and strength of the community's resistance to him." Gqweta's eighth arrest without trial • Black homelands .r :",' I :' I Under these conditions the willingness to speak out of such public in three years, The target of harass- , /\ ~\., figures as Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, the Secretary General of the ..J". ~y' d 0 f I' )•., ment by Ciskei authorities an South African Catholic Bishops Conference, is even more heroic. After torture by , ; l.~'.; j~- criticizing the Ciskei to a group of students at Fort Hare University in Gqweta had suffered a breakdown 'l'_"SOUTH SWAZILAND November, he was detained and held incommunicado, his third deten­ which left him "no longer the same AFRICA' ' tion since 1976. Despite strong protests, he is still detained, and except man," according to friends. In late • for an interview with a BBC reporter, granted at the whim of Lennox 1981 his mother and uncle had died CISKEI ~ Sebe, nothing was heard from him until his appearance in court months in a fire in King Williams Town, 0 250 after his arrest. after which it was found that the L-_'------'-M--=~es"___ ~ Some might argue that the Ciskei is an aberration, that it does not re­ door of their home had been wired flect the intention of South African plans for "separate development." shut from the outside. Police opened fire on the crowd that attended Yet the South African government, apart from an occasional mild re­ the funeral, killing Gqweta's girlfriend Diliswa Roxiswa. In November buke, has shown no signs of displeasure with its puppet nation. The 1983 Ciskei authorities detained Gqweta yet again. Britain and the US Ciskei has cooperated on the main points desired by : it has ac­ had lodged strong protests over Ciskeian brutality only days before, cepted its nominal "" and it has made the most strenuous and this time even the South Africans seemed to feel their puppets had efforts to have itself accepted internationally as a real country. Lennox gone too far. Gqweta was released at once on orders from Pretoria, but Sebe was even the only leader of the ten bantustans to come out in South African Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha's public reaction to the favor of Prime Minister Botha's new Constitution, For the planners of protests themselves was bland. 'There are fewer shooting incidents in South Africa's "new dispensation," these things mean more than the Ciskei than in some European countries," he said. SAAWU had been large-scale cruelty and corruption that have marked the Sebe regime. banned in the Ciskei in October, under an order that made even the wearing of a SAAWU T-shirt illegal. By December itwas reported that Sources: ANC Weekly News Briefing Volume 7, Issues 27,31,48 and 51; lDAF News Gqweta was in hiding and that SAAWU's other officials were all in Notes Dec. '83; New York Times Magazine 9/25/83; Rand Daily Mail 10/28/83, 11/5183, detention, 11117/83; Sechaba May '83, Oct, '83, Dec. '83; Star Airmail Weekly 2120/84; Washing­ ton Post 11/11/83; Washington Times 11118183, SAAWU, whose 30,000 members are mostly residents of Mdan­ !sane, has had the misfortune to be a strong unregistered black union in a bantustan which has extreme ideas about the course of its develop­ As we go to press... ment and will tolerate no interference with them. Ciskei's Manpower Mini~ter Lent Maqoma, in calling for disciplinary training "along mili­ It was reported on March 9 that Father Smangaliso tary lines" for migrant workers, referred to those workers as the bantu­ Mkhatshwa had been released from detention. A regional court stan's "black gold." An armaments factory run by the so-called Ciskei ruled that the state had failed to make a case against him. Armaments Corporation or Ciskor opened in shortly before it was announced that an Israeli-owned factory would also be built in Dimbaza to manufacture underwear. Like , Ciskei has maintained close relations with Israel, hiring Israeli experts to encour­ Namibian Maneuvers age private investment, Lennox Sebe has travelled to Israel to negotiate arms sales, and his Lear Jet was rumored to have been owned by An Interview with Archbishop Trevor . When the Ciskei took part in an international tourist Huddleston exhibition in Israel the sign at its pavilion touted it as A DEMOCRACY The Most Reverend , the international President of DEDICATED TO THE QUALITY OF LIFE. At about the same time 23 young IDAp, gave the following interview on March 1, 1984, atthe endofhis bn'ef Ciskeian pilots left for Israel to be trained as the core of a Ciskei air visit to the Us. Before coming to Cambridge, Archbishop Huddleston had force. travelled to each ofthe Front-Line States ofSouthern Africa, speaking to The bantustan's most troubled business enterprise is now the Ciskei Presidents andForeign Ministers in allthe countries ofthe region about the Transport Company, 50% owned by the Ciskei's "government." [n politicalsituation. We askedhim to tell us what he had found regarding the July, when the Company saw fit to raise fares by 11 %, the response O"itical issue ofindependence for . was a nearly total bus boycott which forced it to sell a third ofits fleet of 650 buses and to layoff 330 employees. The price has been steeper for At the time ofthe Cape Verde meetings in January, there were reports the boycotters, though. Some workers have had to walk 20 miles a day that US, South African and Angolan officials were forging some sort of simply to reach the Central Station and catch a train to their jobs in East deal, part ofwhich wouldexclude SWAPO from negotiations overNamib­ London, and then to return at night. When a state of emergency was ian independence. Do you think these were accurate? declared and a curfew imposed, many of these walkers found them­ selves unable to abide by it. Seven hundred people were arrested in a Well, Isaw Sam Nujoma just over a week ago and I was also present one-week period for alleged curfew violations. The overflow from the at the big press conference he had at the House of Commons in Lon­ Ciskei's crowded prisons was taken to the Sisa DukasheStadium where don, and on both occasions when he was questioned about these nego­ vigilantes overseen by police and soldiers have attacked detainees with tiations he said, 'Thecondition on whichSWAPO is prepared to nego­ sabers, clubs and whips. Detainees have been crammed into small tiate is the response of the South Africans to the proposal for a cease­ changing rooms with no food or water, and forced to defecate on the fire. That is still on the table. But if they do not respond then the battle floor. Detainees have been tortured and some killed. Meanwhile police goes on, and we are continuing the battle. This is quite independent of reportedly shot and killed over 90 commuters who had attempted to what Angola and South Africa do because that's a separate issue, and board trains instead of buses. The Ciskei's public and private mortuar­ we have never agreed that an agreement between South Africa and ies overflowed until bodies were stacked on the floors-but the boy­ Angola is going to affect the struggle internally in Namibia," But he did cott has continued, month after month. In a report called Ruling with give me the impression very strongly that he believes the objective of the Whip: Report on the Violation ofHuman Rights in the Ciskei, Nicholas South Africa is to exclude SWAPO from the negotiations-in other Haysom of the University of the Witwatersrand's Center for Applied words to build up a relationship with the other groups in Namibia who Legal Studies said, "What is surprising about the developments in the oppose SWAPO and to try to bring about an agreement which would Ciskei is not so much the extent to which the Sebe regime has gone to in fact exclude SWAPO. continued on page 3 2 NAMIBIA continued from page 2 Southern Africa I think an interesting new development is the proposed release from prison of Toivo, which has just come through today. Who knows what's behind that? It came over the World Service of the BBC yester- ,-Jay that Toivo was removed from and taken back to News Calendar Namibia. And then later on, only this morning, it was announced that he was to be set free and that this was a result not ofSWAPO's repeated requests for his release but of one request from the anti-SWAPO December 1983 and January 1984 groups. It may be a way in which the wholeSouth African negotiations can be regarded in the West as something magnanimous and hopeful. It's impossible to tell at the moment. The following news items are based primarily on shortwave broadcasts by the So it could be an attempt to bolster the authority and image ofthe anti­ British Broadcasting Corporation (SBC!, the Voice of America (VOA), and RadioSouth Africa (RSA). South African and British newspapers are also used. Items are intended to SWAPO parties? supplement major news sourceS and are not exhaustive. Because radio reception is That's what I should guess it is, because it's been made clear that sometimes unclear, the spelling of all proper names cannot be guaranteed. Dates on those who proposed this release were not SWAPO but the others. So I items reflect date when event was reported. understand. Items relating to political trials and detentions appear in red.

The impasse in Namibia now seems to be the result ofSouth Africa of­ For more comprehensive news about political prisoners in Southern Africa, please fering a ceasefire to the Angolans but continuing to refuse SWAPO's offer see our bimonthly publication Focus. ofa ceasefire in Namibia. So the South Africans are trying to make it ap­ pear that SWAPO is violating a ceasefire that did not apply to them. Yes, when exactly the opposite is the case. Idid feel myself that Sam Nujoma was very deeply concerned about this, because of the West's 1 December attitude. West Germany-Following the visit of South African Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha, Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher said there remained ,"bstantial differences Do you think he's concerned that the international community might be between the two over the future of Namibia. Rejecting a call by the taken in? Green Party to break off economic relations with South Africa, Genscher said West Germany was opposed to but must maintain contact with South Africa if it Yes, that's exactly what he is wanted to change the system. Meanwhile the British Foreign Secretary said apartheid concerned about. A very right-wing was casting a longshadow over Britain's relationship with South Africa. Hesaid Britain would continue to support the UN arms embargoagainst South Africa and would con· Conservative MP questioned him and Hnue its sports sanctions and its refusal to assist South Africa's nuclear program. Botha was exceedingly rude, implying that will arrive in Britain on 2 December. Nujoma wasn't a genuine leader because Israel-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir ordered his Cabinet members not to main· he didn't attempt to consult his own tain contact with officials from South African "homelands" and not to help Israeli busi· people, meaning of course the anti­ nessmen who wanted to do business with them. Israeli police have been told to act SWAPO groups. He asked him, "When against persons claiming to be citizens of the homelands, whose leaders enter Israel as "tourists." Three weeks ago "President" Lennox Sebe of the Ciskei arrived for a tourist were you last in Namibia?" It's indicative exhibition in which his bantustan played a prominent role. of the attitude of the reactionary right South Africa-The Vice President of Azapo said the Azapo headquarters in Johannes· wing-but not only them, really. Sam Nujoma burg was raided by five white security policemen. The police claimed they needed no search warrant because they had received reports that Azapo was printing and distrib· There have actually been a couple ofconvictions lately ofmembers of uting pamphlets and posters advocating the boycott of local elections for blacks. They for atrocities in Namibia. I wonder ifthat's accidental or again confiscated some pamphlets and posters, saying they would turn them over to the part ofan attempt to show that the rule oflaw is operating in Namibia. local censorship board, and accused Azapo of being a racist organization which ex· c1uded whites. The Azapo official said only about 20 % of registered voters had voted I think everything is being done to dothatand Ithink ChesterCrock­ in the council elections, and that the candidates were government puppets and stooges. er has probably used that very strongly as an element in his efforts to [The BBC later reported a voter turnout in Soweto ranging from 2 % to 20 % in differ· get a negotiated settlement. The real motivation of South African ex­ ent areas.1 ternal policy is to getSouthAfrica back into the world community, and United Kingdom-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejected calls to intervene in Zimbabwe over the continued detention of three white Air Force officers, saying the everything else is secondary to that. That is why they're sosensitive to judicial system there was impeccable. divestment issues and everything else of that sort. It's not because United Nations-The General Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed five resolutions they're sensitive to the economic implications of divestment. Thatgoes condemning South Africa over the issue of Namibia. The Assembly urged the UN Se· for the sports boycott too. There's been a massive attempt to break curity Council to impose comprehensive sanctions on Pretoria to punish it for block· down the sports boycott with bribery and every other method they ing Namibia's independence. It also passed resolutions expressing support for can think of, but not because the sports boycott is going to affect them SWAPO and called for renewed UN sanctions. Contact Group members did not parti· cipate in the debate and abstained from voting. militarily or economically. It is affecting them more than anything else in their membership in the international community.

Afterhis release from prison, Herman 7bivoja 7bivo reaffirmedhis alle­ giance to SWAPO, ofwhich he was a founding member. He declared him­ Thanks for Your Support selfan "obedient servant" ofSWAPO, saying, 'tt does not matter who is We wish to thank all those who joined us on February kading. I am not concerned with position. "In an interview he saidhe had 28 to meet and listen to Trevor Huddleston, our Inter­ not wanted to be released before his fellow Namibian political prisoners. national President. Your generous support of our work to 7Oivo was convicted in 1968 in Pretoria with 33 other Namibians, who defend political prisoners and aid their families was were prosecuted in the first use ofthe South African Terrorism Act, which greaLly appreciated. We are grateful as well to the many was made retroactive in order to be usedagainst them. He saidconditions people who were unable to attend but who sent us on Robben Island hadbeen very bad, andthat he hadbeen placedin isola­ donations toward that work. tion for months at a time. 3 2 December Angola-An Angolan military commandersaid an army drive had cleared the prov­ ince near the Zambian border ofcounterrevolutionaries, with over60 rebels killed. He South Africa-Law and Order Minister Louis LeG range said five citizens of Zimbab­ said UNITA now had no fixed base in the east and was moving north along the Cuando we and Britain had been arrested for attempting to recruit South African mercenaries river. to overthrow the Seychelles government. South Africa-Four of the five men arrested by South African police for plotting a coup in the Seychelles were released, but the government said investigations werestill continuing and that the Attorney General would decide whether to prosecute the men. The plot was reportedly exposed by a private British investigator hired by the 3 December Seychelles government. South Africa-Prison authorities released British journalist David Rabkin, who was United Nations-Concluding its annual debate on South Africa, the General Assem­ sentenced to ten years in 1976 for furthering the aims of the South bly called for comprehensive sanctions against the country, including an oil embargo Party and the ANC. Rabkin's wife had been sentenced to one year in prison but was re­ as well as measures to strengthen the existing arms embargo, which African diplomats leased after a month and deported to Britain. The case of David Kitson, also convicted said Western countries were violating. The General Assembly authorized a special UN under the Internal Security Act, was also under review. commission to draft an international convention against apartheid in sports, to be taken up next year.

7 December Mozambique-Mozambique radio said two South African refugees were seriously Rogues' Gallery injured when a house in a Maputo suburb was destroyed by a bomb. Five people in Maputo were also injured in a bomb blast which damaged the Information Office of the ANC. South African authorities claimed responsibility for the latter attack, saying In this issue we depart from a convention of printing photos only of the office was used as a base for planning terrorism. The ANCsaid two men who were political prisoners or of men and women who have worked for the cause sleeping in the house when the bomb went off had suffered serious burns. of justice in Southern Africa. With the exception of Sam Nujoma and of Dieter and Ruth Gerhardt, we are showing you the other side this time: US and South African generals, Cabinet Ministers and other officials, as well as the South African-funded "leaders" of the bantustans. We feel 8 December that it is sometimes valuable to be reminded of these faces as well. France-French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson said that France was not drop­ ping out of the Contact Group, nor did it think the Groupshould be dissolved. Thestate­ ment reversed his earlier announcement that France was leaving the Group because it had completed its mission. However, Cheysson said that with the current impasse on 4 December Namibia, there was nothing for the Group to do. South Africa-A powerful bomb ripped through a building in hous­ contin~ed South Africa-Some members of the Bakwena tribe to resist their forced ing the Department of Cooperation and Development, which deals with black affairs. removal from the Mogopa township in the western . The tribe bought its The ANC claimed responsibility for the blast. A guard suffered burns on his hands as a land inl91-j with a deed signed by the then Minister of Native Affairs. Since then they result of a fire caused by the bomb. had developed it using their own resources, and had built houses and a church and drilled bore holes for water. Their proposed new homes consist ofa few tin shacks with South Africa-A religious service was held for the release of the Rev_ Smangaliso no running water. Mkhatshwa, the General Secretary of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference, who had been detained in the Ciskei for several weeks. A spokesperson for the Con­ ference said Mkhatshwa had been in the forefront of opposition to the South African South Africa-Dr. Nthato Motlana, the chair of the Soweto Committee of Ten, said system as illegal, heretical and wrong, but that he had never been involved in violent Soweto's 90% boycott of local council elections was testimony to the political matur­ activity_ He said no one knew anything about Mkhatshwa's condition because no one ity of the people of Soweto. He said the people had shown that they were not inter­ had been allowed to see him, but that the Ciskei had a terrible reputation for torturing ested in dummy councils aimed at keeping out of national political life. and mistreating political prisoners. The government had mounted a high-powered propaganda campaign to encourage voting. Ephraim Tshabalala, a wealthy businessman who once offered to buy the entire township of Soweto, was expected to become Soweto's new "mayor." 9 December Seychelles-The Seychelles government issued a statementsaying its security forces South Africa-Matthews Tabane Ntshiwa, a black factory worker, was sentenced to had been closely monitoring the activities of opponents of the socialist government. It four years in prison with eight months suspended under the Internal Security Act for said the coup plot recently uncovered by South African police had been instigated by owning and usingan aluminum cup with pro-ANC political slogans crudely engraved British residents acting on behalf of the MPR [Mouvement pour la Resistance]. Former on it. The judge said that if the worker had not used the cup in the presence of other Seychelles President james Manchem was reported to have contacted businessmen in workers he would not have been found guilty. The slogans included, "Release Nelson Hong Kong and Europe seeking funds to overthrow the government. Mandela" and "P.W., we want our land back." Swaziland-Eleven people including three members of the Swazi royal family were Italy-South African For­ arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the Queen Regent. [Six more suspects eign Minister "Pik" Botha held appeared in court on charges of high treason on 14 December.1 talks in Rome with US Assist­ South Africa-Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha said reports of attempts to bring about ant Secretary of State for Afri­ high-level talks between South Africa and Mozambique were based on speculation. can Affairs Chester Crocker. He said South Africa did not engage in secret actions and had always supported discus­ Botha said various topics were sions with its neighbors, if these neighbors did not allow their territories to be used as discussed, including South Af­ bases of terrorism and subversion. The Portuguese Foreign Minister recently denied rica's relations with its neigh­ the same persistent reports, according to which the Mozambique and South African bors and the Namibian and Foreign Ministers would meet in the Cape Verde islands to prepare the way for an Angolan situations. eventual bilateral summit. Chester Crocker with "Pik" Botha South Africa-RSA reported that South African police arrested an ANC "terrorist" in Soweto and confiscated hand grenades and explosives of Russian origin. Police said 6 December occupants of the building opened fire during the arrest and that a woman was injured Namibia-A member of Koevoet, the elite South African counterinsurgency unit, and a man taken into custody_ was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in for killing a civilian, the first time such a sentence had been passed against a security force member. The man, who had earlier worked for UNITA in southern Angola, said he did not remember 12 December how many people he had killed. Psychiatrists testified that he had been brainwashed Lesotho-A PAC spokesperson said nine PAC members had left Lesotho for Mozam­ into believing that human life had no value. The killing reportedly took place in Ovam­ bique following a South African warning to the Lesotho government. The spokesper­ boland last january. Another Koevoet member was given 12 years for rape, attempted son said the nine planned to settle elsewhere in Africa. Their expulsion was demanded murder, and armed robbery. by South Africa on the grounds that they threatened South African security. 4 13 December South Africa-The International Press Institute criticized South Africa severely for its prohibitions on freedom of the press. The Institute said that 60% of South African Mozambique-Three truck drivers were injured after their convoy was ambushed editors had either been charged or threatened with prosecution. by the M R. The trucks were carrying goods from Zimbabwe to Malawi along a 12S-mile stretch crossing Mozambique's central province. Similar ambushes last year forced truck drivers to use the longer 1000-mile route through Zambia. 19 December South Africa-Mothers were serving prison sentences of up to five months for being 14 December in the illegally. These black women had gone there to better their eco­ nomic situation or to live with their husbands. Police and Administration Board offi­ South Afn"ca-A BBC-TV reporter was granted a half-hour interview with Father cials have constantly raided their shantytown. burned blankets and plastic shelters, Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, who was being held in detention in the Ciskei bantustan. The confiscated possessions, and teargassed and even shot at them. Those still refusing to interview took place in a Ciskei prison with a prison officer and policemen present. move are imprisoned or forcibly moved to theCiskei and Transkei. Earlier this year 13 Mkhatshwa said he was unable to speak frankly in such circumstances. Mkhatshwa children were left dying in the bush after their mothers were arrested. said, "[ haven't been beaten up-that much at least," and said he had no idea how long he would be in detention or whether he would be brought to trial. Meanwhile Ciskei authorities said a state of emergency declared last August in Mdantsane had been eased, but some restrictions remained. 20 December Swaziland-South Africa's Foreign Minister and Mozambique's Defense Minister. Minister of Economics and one other Mozambican official met in Swaziland. Mozam­ TRIALS AND DETENTIONS bican President Samora Machel said the talks focused on security issues and were in­ ARE CONTINUING! tended to work out a modus vivendi. Machel said onecould not choose one's neighbors Over the years IDAF has paid for the legal defense of and that South Africa was as troublesome to Mozambique as Mozambique was to them. Diplomatic observers said the expected agreement would involve Mozambique more than 10,000 prisoners accused of political "crimes," at curtailing the ANC while South Africa would withdraw its support for the MNR. a cost of over nine million dollars. It has also provided Machel said Mozambique would not recognize apartheid nor the bantustans, and said humanitarian aid for the families of tens of thousands of there were no ANC bases in Mozambique. political detainees. Please help us in this work by mailing a contribution to USA-Citing budgetary cutbacks. the Africa director of the Agency for Intemational Development said the US had reduced its aid for Zimbabwe from $7S million to $40 lOAF, PO. Box 17, Cambridge, MA 02238. All contribu­ million. The official conceded that the US had had political differences with Zimbabwe tions are tax-deductible. over its refusal to support certain UN resolutions. Zimbabwe's Legal Affairs Minister Eddison Zvobgosaid Zimbabwe was not a banana republic that would blindly support US policies.

South Africa-Aubrey , who was accused of attempting to explode a bomb UnitedNations - TheSecuri ty Council censu red South Africa over its mi Ii ta.ry opera­ in October outside the City Hall where Prime Minister Botha was tions in Angola and endorsed Angola's right to financial compensation. The Council giving a speech, pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Internal Security Act. How· also called on South Africa to withdraw its troops from Angola. All the Security Coun­ ever, the magistrate entered pleas of not guilty to six counts, because he was not satis· cil members voted for the resolution except for the US, which abstained. fied that the suspect intended to commit the crime. The magistrate did not immediately enter a plea on the seventh charge of possessing a hidden arms cache. Ngcobo has ad· mitted causing explosions at the College Road SupremeCourt in Pietermaritzburgand of attempting to blow up three electricity pylons on the outskirts of thecity. Hesaid he 22 December had decided against bombing the City Hall because too many people would have been hurt, and that a policeman detained him after he had made this decision. Zimbabwe-Three white Air Force officers who had been acquitted of sabotage charges in Zimbabwe and then redetained, were released from detention. The officers were given a week to wind up their affairs in Zimbabwe before being deported. 15 December South Africa-Legislation was introduced to extend the waiting period for South African citizenship from two to five Namlbia-Twenty·four detainees were released, including three who three weeks years. Minister of Defense and Internal Af­ ago sought a court order to prevent police from abusing them while they were detained. fairs Minister F. W. deKlerk said the move was aimed at curb­ The 24 alleged that they had been tortured, beaten with planks across the buttocks, ing the evasion of military service by immigrants qualified for given electric shocks and forced to sign statements. The Namibian police claimed they citizenship. Under the new law, all immigrants between the were the target of a campaign aimed at discrediting them for detaining SWAPO sup­ ages of lS and 2S whodid not wish to become South African porters. citizens after the lapse of the five-year period would automat­ ically lose their permanent residence rights. Magnus Malan 16 December 23 December South Africa-Police announced that five whites, including two women, had been Lesotho-South African and Lesotho authorities met to discuss allegations of a plot detained as a result of the investigation of the Carl Niehaus treason case. by South African-based rebels to invade Lesotho. . United Nations-The Angolan government and SWAPO's UN representative dis­ missed as an unacceptable ploy the offer of South African Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha to begin a trial military disengagement in Angola on 31 January. 25 December Mozambique-At least 40 people were killed and 20 wounded on Christmas Day while they were travelling by bus in northern Mozambique. The guerrillas forced the South Africa-Two reporters of a Xhosa weekly were detained after being summoned passengers out of the bus, made them take off their clothing, then lined up the passen­ with their editors to the office of Ciskei leader Lennox Sebe. Sebe castigated the report­ gers and shot them. A Portuguese priest in a nearby church interrupted his Mass to run ers for publishing articles critical of his "government." The editor of the paper said he to assist the wounded. There were increasing reports of peasants pursuing, mutilating would continue publishing the weekly, which is nearly 100 years old. It was believed and killing the rebels. When guerrillas give themselves up they now seek the protec­ that Sebe was embarrassed by some questions asked by the reporters, such as why tion of the army for fear of being killed or mistreated by ordinary civilians. Sebe's brother Charles had been given preferential treatment while in prison.

Zambia-The ANC took responsibility for bombings in Johannesburg and 26 December yesterday. Two of the three blasts in Durban occurred outside an SADF office. An Angola-The deputy Foreign Minister said the current sustained ground and air at­ ANC statement said the attacks shattered the myth of the invincibility of the Pretoria tack by South Africa was aimed at the town of Kassinga about l30 miles inside regime. They showed the ANCs determination to intensify its armed struggle and to Angolan territory. He said the invading force included three motorized brigades, four demonstrate conclusively that ANCcombat units were based within South Africa and artillery detachments and 100 aircraft, which had bombed economic installations and not operating from neighboring countries. schools. A Defense Ministry communique said that on 24 December South African 5 aircraft carried out bombing raids on the towns of Cahama, Kassinga, Cuvelai and received university level passes, The President of the National Education Union said Mulondo. South African chief of staff General denied claims that the low results showed that the system of segregated education in South Africa was civilian targets had been hit and that two Mirage jet fighters had been shot down over meant to keep the Africans in their place. Black education was intended to keep the Cahama. He said seven companies of SWAPO guerrillas were attempting to infiltrate pass rates low so that blacks would remain in lower-paid jobs. Namibia. 29 December Angola-UNITA announced it would turn over all its foreign captives to the Red 6 January Cross as a goodwill gesture, except for 20 Czechs, whom it wanted to exchange for pris­ South Africa-The British Medical Association resigned from the World Medical oners held by the Angolan government. Twenty-six, twelve of them children, were re­ Association in protest against its decision to readmit South Africa. South Africa was leased, and four Portuguese families remained in Angola until they could reunite with suspended after the Medical Association of South Africa failed to give satisfactory relatives who became separated from the main group of hostages. The Czech captives answers to professional and ethical issues posed by apartheid. In particular it failed to were reportedly in low spirits and suffering from various minor illnesses. Meanwhile a investigate the role of doctors who had examined the black leader Steve shortly new UNITA offensive in the east caused a wave ofat least 1700 Angolan refugees into before he died in police custody in 1977. Zambia. United Nations-The UN General Assembly passed a compromise proposal calling Namibia-At a press conference, South African chief of on the Security Council to reconvene and consider more effective measures if South staff General Constand Viljoen displayed an aerial map of Africa did not withdraw its troops from Angola. The language was agreed upon after what he said was SWAPO's main headquarters outside two days of negotiations during which the African states agreed to remove any men­ ~. Lubango, which his planes had bombed. Viljoen said the tion of specific sanctions from the draft. The US and Britain abstained from voting, planes had been fired upon by SAM-8 and SAM-'? missiles, while all other Council members supported it. and he showed reporters the head of one missile which he said had lodged in the tail of an Impala reconnaissance t',~ aircraft without detonating. SWAPO and the Angolan 7 January government denied the area hit contained a SWAPO base Zimbabwe-The Zimbabwean government protested to South Africa over the arrest and said there were no Namibians or anti-aircraft and severe beating by South African police of the Zimbabwean trade representative at installations there. The OAU meanwhile condemned Cor-stand Viljoen a roadblock in the northern Transvaal. Zimbabwe demanded that those responsible South Africa's "wanton killing of civilians." for the attack be punished. 30 December South Africa-Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha said talks could take place between South Afnca-Fonner Commodore SWAPO and the South African-appointed Administrator-General of Namibia, Dr. was sentenced to life Willie van Niekerk. The two sides had never met before, although both attended an imprisonment for treason and his wife abortive conference in Geneva three years ago. Ruth sentenced to six years in an espi­ onage trial held in camera at the Supreme Court. Gerhardt, the 9 January former commander of the Simons· Mozambique-Following last month's meeting in Swaziland, South Africa and Mo­ town naval base, had passed military zambique agreed to set up four working parties to examine questions of security, eco­ information to the Soviet Union via nomic cooperation and tourism. Correspondents said it was assumed that Mozambique dn unnamed country. Ruth Gerhardt would be expected to stop giving sanctuary to ANC guerrillas, in exchange for an end had acted as a courier by carrying in­ to South African support for the MNR. formation to and from locations in Europe and Madagascar. A sophisti­ cated electronic surveillance station known dS Silvennine is located in a 10 January hollowed-out mountain behind South Africa-Stanley Uys, the London editor of a group of South African news­ Simorlstown, and it was thought Ger­ papers, said South Africa was trying to force its immediate black neighbors into agree­ hardt might have revealed details of ments of so-called friendship and cooperation by using a combination of military and this installation. A senior KGB opera­ economic pressure. He pointed to the vulnerability of Lesotho, whose migrant work­ tive, Mikhail Vasilyevich Nikolaev, ers earn over 40 % of Lesotho's GNP in South African mines, Lesotho's Information was arrested by the Swiss intelligence Minister said recently, "Once we submit on one issue, you can take a duster and wipe service just before Christmas when he Lesotho off the map, because one demand will follow the other." attempted to make a regular contact Ruth Gerhardt Dieter Gerhardt Angola-In a statement from Luanda, SWAPO said it hoped South Africa was seri­ with Ruth Gerhardt. ous in saying that its "colonial governor" in Namibia would meet SWAPO in direct United Nations-In a report to the General Assernbly, Secretary General Javier Perez talks. SWAPO also said it hoped the new talks would not be a repeat of the 1981 de Cuellar admitted failure in his efforts to break the deadlock over the Namibian Geneva talks, when South Africa tried to turn the conference into a public relations issue. charade. The statement said SWAPO would not interfere in the composition of the South African delegation but that the talks should deal only with the issue of a cease­ 2 January fire, Angola-The Angolan Defense Minister said South Africa was no longer using con­ ventional weapons but had been employing toxi( gas against Angolan troops and fir­ ing a ISS-mm. cannon which could be fitted with nuclear weapons, 11 January Israel-An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson denied allegations made by a Mo­ zambican army officer that Israel was training MNR rebels fighting in Mozambique, South Africa-A village of 300 ethnic Swazis was refusing to heed a government order that they move to the kaNgwane bantustan by midnight tonight. A removal 4 January squad from the African Affairs Department had been camped on the outskirts of the village since last November. Some families had been offered RlOO apiece if they South Africa-The Coloured Labor Party reversed earlier pledges to support a refer­ moved by today, but refused because of the lack of facilities and jobs in the bantustan. endum among the Coloured population to decide whether to accept the new Consti­ tution.lnstead it has resolved to ask the government to go ahead with elections for the UnitedNations-The UN Secretary General said Angola had reponed that there had Coloured chamber of the new . The party apparently opted been no signs of South African withdrawal from Angola. South African military offi­ against a referendum for fear that would reject the Constitution. The Labor daIs had said they were withdrawing on 9 January after a month-long drive, but De­ Party also rejected the conscription of Coloureds into the armed forces, saying Col­ fense Minister Magnus Malan said South African forces would strike again if neces­ oureds would defend the country only when all its people were given full citizenship sary, regardless of the consequences. A South African spokesperson said South Afri­ rights. can troops killed 324 members of a combined SWAPO-Cuban-Angolan force in a four-day running battle. South African commanders had been surprised at an aggres­ South Africa-South African police shot and killed a man they described as an ANC sive tank attack against them and at the level of the fighting which followed. guerrilla. Phillip Maseko, 24, who was killed in exchange of gunfire in a Johannesburg township, was said to be associated with the ANC members whoexploded a car bomb in Pretoria last May. 12 January 5 January USA-A report published by the Quakers accused the US Administration of allow­ South Africa-The Department of Education and Training announced that only ing more military technology to be exported to South Africa in the past three years 50 % of 73,821 black students taking matriculation exams passed them, and only 11 % than in the previous 30. Items such as codingdevices and navigation equipment worth 6 $28 million had been licensed for export in violation of the UN embargo on the sale of man, then repeatedly whipped, kicked and punched him. One farmer held the man military equipment to South Africa. The report also accused the British, French, and while the other used a device intended to castrate sheep on the man's sexual organs. Belgian governments of selling military materials to South Africa. The vidim was discovered beside a nearby road by a policeman who took him to a hospital, where the injured organs had to be removed because of gangrene.

14 January Zimbabwe-On a visit to Africa, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the President of 22 January the British Anti·Apartheid Movement. said Britain had evaded the UN embargo on South Afnca-The UDF launched a new anti-apartheid campaign aimed at collecting South Africa by supplying sophisticated equipment for South Africa to attack its a million signatures to present to the South African government. The petition drive neighbors, especially Angola. He said that without this sort of equipmentSouth Africa would demonstrate that the people's resistance to apartheid continued and that sup­ could not use the tactics itdid to invade its neighbors. Huddleston recently blamed the port for the UDF's policy was growing. US for the rising violence in Southern Africa, saying its policy of"constructive engage­ ment" had emboldened South Africa. United Nations-The Security Council adopted a resolution calling on South Africa 23 January to spare the life of Malisela Benjamin Moloise, an alleged ANC member accused of South Africa-Over 50,000 pensioners recently resettled in the kwaZulu bantustan shooting a policeman. David Ndaba, the ANC observer at the UN, said Moloise was in faced a bleak future because kwaZulu government funds meant to provide them with fact not an ANC member but had been framed by the government after a failed at­ pensions were exhausted. Their only recourse was to wait until April when South tempt to use him as a state witness in the trial of jerry Mosololi. Simon Mogoerane, Africa provided kwaZulu with its annual budget. The women's organiza· and Marcus Mothaung, three ANC members who were executed last year. Ndabasaid tion said blame for the shortfall lay with Pretoria, and that allowances for pensioners !:he policeman had been killed because of his involvement in the arrest. torture, and were lowered artificially by striking the names of pensioners who could not appear at imprisonment of ANC cadres, but that Moloise had had nothing to do with it. kwaZulu government offices because of ill health. Swaziland-Nineteen black South Africans arrived in Mozambique from Swazi­ land following a Swazi crackdown on South African refugees, especially ANC memo 17 January bers. The 19 had been held for a month without explanation and '14 others were still South Africa-Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi threatened to being held under poor conditions in a detention camp. Two of these said they had discontinue the grants and bursaries of students who criti· valid South African papers and had only been in Swaziland to attend a concert on 17 cized him, his Inkatha movement, or the kwaZulu govern­ December. South African detainees had at first been held at a refugee reception center mer:t. At a meeting of 200 students at the kwaZulu capital of run by the UN High Commission for Refugees, but they were moved because UN per­ U1undi, the students were subjected to an l8-hour interroga­ sonnel would not leHheSwazis keep them under armed guard. Detainees claimed that tion session and questioned about their political views. They for the first week at the new camp the men were not allowed visitors even from the were then made to sign an agreement not to publicly or pri­ High Commission and that several older men had been denied their medicine for high vately criticize Buthelezi, members of his Cabinet or of In· blood pressure and diabetes. katha. The UDF and leading academics denounced the action as a negation of academic freedom. Gatsha Buthelezi Australia-Australian Foreign Minister Bill Hayden announced that his country 24 January would open talks with the superpowers on limiting arms in the Indian Ocean. In an up­ South Africa-Trade unionists; economists, and protest or­ coming tour Hayden planned to visit Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Maur· ganizations were shocked by the government's decision to itius. He criticized human rights violations in South Africa, citing in particular the con­ raise the General Sales Tax from five to six percent. Black Sash tinued detention of Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa in the Ciskei. said that at least basic foodstuffs should have been exempted. USA-Speaking at a debate between Democratic Presidential candidates, Walter The Secretary General of SAAWU said workers would have Mondale supported moves to ban the importation of krugerrands, prevent further US no alternative but to resort to strikes to oppose the move. investment in South Africa, and to extend the embargo on military supplies. Mondale Defending the tax hike, Finance Minister Owen Horwood said if progress was not made in eliminating apartheid the US should consider cancel­ said the South African economy was in its most critical state ling landing rights for South African airlines. Gary Hartspoke in favor of "all-out eco­ since the Great Depression. nomic sanctions" against South Africa unless it agreed to enforce fair labor practices. Angola-Reports by the Portuguese news agency lent weight to the belief that reo George McGovern attacked the US linkage of the issue of Cuban troops in Angola cent secret talks in the Cape Verde islands had involved three-way discussions be· with Namibian independence; saying the Cubans were in Angola because of South tween US, Angolan and South African representatives. The unconfirmed reports sug· African aggression. gested a deal had been struck whereby the US would recognize the Angolan govern­ ment in return for the repatriation of Cuban troops in Angola. The US would also cease its support of UNITA. A demilitarized zone would be established along the Angola·Namibia border, and SWAPO would be excluded from negotiations over in· 18 January dependence. South Africa-Thousands of workers in the multinational explosives and chemical Namibia-Delegates to a multiparty conference on the future of Namibia (boycotted company AECl went on strike, paralyzing four plants in different parts of the country. by SWAPO) expressed concern at the continued failure ofSouth Africa and Angola to Thestrike began when 5000 workers at theTransvaal plant in Modderfontein downed establish peace in the territory. They said that with deaths, detentions, maiming, and their tools in support of higher wages, and the number of striking workers grew to destrudion of property, government had become virtually impossible. 8600 with the participation of plants in the Cape and provinces. The General Secretary of the South African Chemical Workers Union said the strike was only de· cided upon after all other methods had been exhausted. The strike was the first legal nationwide work stoppage initiated by a black trade union. 25 January Chana-Ghanaian leader jerry Rawlings called for the establishment of a pan-Afri­ South Africa-Bombs were thrown at the homes of Soweto "mayor" Ephraim Tsha· can volunteer force to reinforce the struggle against South Africa. Speaking at a meet· balala and two City Council members, who were chosen in an election boycotted by ing of the Defense Commission of the OAU, Rawlings said his country was prepared nearly 90 % of Soweto residents. to contribute a contingent to such a force.

19 January 26 January Namibia-White farmers in central Namibia reported the presence of five SWAPO Mozambique-Twelve Soviet technicians captured with a group of 24 more than guerrillas. Security forces said the guerrillas were last seen yesterday along the demar· five months ago were freed by the MNR. An MNR spokesperson in Lisbon said the cation line dividing the white farming region from the livestock zone occupied by technicians were released in Malawi following dired negotiations between the MNR Ovambo and Kavango tribespeople. Security forces blamed SWAPO for two recent and Moscow. South African Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha said South Africa had inter· bomb attacks in Ovambo province, in which three telephone pylons were destroyed vened to obtain the release of the hostages. and a factory badly damaged. IOn 22 january South African military sources said four SWAPO guerrillas had been killed in northern Namibia after a brief skirmish.] South Africa-Two petrol bombs were thrown at the home of the chair of the Com· mittee ofTen, which has been leadingan eight· month bus boycottin East London. The Committee's leader said the bombs failed to explode but that he found a note outside 20 January his home saying his house would be burned if he did not call off the boycott. Similar South Africa-Two white farmers were accused in court of attacking, torturing and adions had been threatened against other Committee members. castrating a black man they found on their land. While searching for the owners of South Africa-US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker dogs that had bitten their sheep, the two farmers came across a black stranger who ig· met with South African Foreign Minister "Pik" Botha in Cape Town at the start of nored their demands for identification. The farmers allegedly chased and caught the Crocker's African tour. After visiting Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia Crocker 7 was to proceed to Europe for meetings with Contact Group members. RSA said it was expected that Crocker would give top priority to the South African offer of an Angolan ceasefire. Acronyms and Abbreviations ANC-African National Congress AWB-Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or Afrikaner Resistance Movement, a group of radical right-wing 27 January extremists. USA-Democratic Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson said the US should stop its Azapo-Azanian People's Organization economic and political support for South Africa. Jackson strongly condemned the US BCM-Black Consciousness Movement policy of linking the Cuban troop presence with Namibian independence and said it BCP-Basutoland Congress Party was timethe USput Africa onaparwith Europe in its foreign policy. He contrasted the Broederbond-a politically powerful secret society of right-wing Constitutional proposals-plans for a new South African Constitution which would create an Executive Presi­ US position on martial law in Poland with its conciliatory position on apartheid. dent with extensive powers and also establish two chambers of Parliament for Coloureds and Asians. Contact Group-the Western mediating group on Namibian independence, made up of the US. France, UK, West Germany and Canada aTA-Democratic Turnhalle Alliance 28 January tEC-European Economic Community South Africa-A new Indian political party called Solidarity was launched in Durban fLS-Front-Line States: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and has called for elections under the new Constitution. The chair of the party said the roSA TU-Federation of South African Trade Unions Constitution was not the best but that to boycott it would besterile, unproductive and Frelimo-Mozambique Liberation Front, the ruling party useless. HNP-Herstigte Nasionale Party. an extreme right-wing /MF -International Monetary Fund UA -. the military wing of the exiled BCP 30 January MVR-Mozambique National Resistance South Africa-An organization of black journalists was split at its meeting in East MPLA -Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the ruling party London over a resolution calling for the group to admit both black and white journal· J"twASA -Media Workers Association of South Africa. a black trade union NIS-Nationallntelligence Service ISouth Africal ists and to affiliate with the UDF. Delegates from Natal and the Transvaal strongly Q4U-Organization of African Unity opposed the resolution, and the southern Transvaal delegation left the organization to PAC-Pan-Africanist Congress form their own association. PFP-Progressive Federal Party, the official South African opposition party South Africa-An SADF lieutenant who deserted theSADF was officially cashiered S4A WU-South African Allied Workers Union by a court, which ruled that he needed psychotherapy because he had deserted the S4CC-South African Council of Churches army for family rather than for opposition to apartheid as he had claimed. Meanwhile S4DCC-Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference the Minister for Manpower announced that a board had been formed to consider ap­ S4DF-South African Defense Force SWAPO- People's Organization plications from those with religious objections to serving in the anny. iN/TA -National Union for the Total Independence of Angola iN Resolution 435-a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Namibia and the withdrawal of South African troops. The UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG). which would include UN peace­ 31 January keeping troops, would be stationed in Namibia in preparation for elections to be held under UN supervision. LbVTAC-UN Transition Assistance Group, a group proposed by UN Resolution 435 which would be Angola-An official of the Angolan Information Office in London said the four de­ stationed in Namibia during a seven-month period to precede independence. mands laid down by the Angolan government remained the immediate implementa­ Z4NU-Zimbabwe African National Union. the ruling party tion of UN Resolution 435, the cessation of South African aggression against Angola, Z4PU-Zimbabwe African People's Union the withdrawal of all South African troops from Angola, and an end to South African opra-Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army. the military wing of ZAPU support for UNITA. He said there was no indication that South Africa had given State One South African rand (RI.OO) equals approximately 92' Department official Chester Crocker assurances that these conditions would be met. P.W. Botha yesterday announced an Angolan ceasefire, saying South Africa had re­ ceived certain assurances of its own from the US. These were thought to refer to pledges by Angola, SWAPO and the Cubans to show restraint during the ceasefire period.

JDAF News is published bimonthly by the United States Committee of the lOAF has three objectives: International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. President: PeterJ. Gomes, Vice President: Mia Adjali, Women's (1) to aid, defend and rehabilitate the victims of unjust legislation and oppressive Committee Chair: Nancy Randolph, Executive Director: Kenneth N. Carstens. and arbitrary procedures, News Notes Editor: Geoffrey Wisner (2) to support their families and dependents, Contributors for this Issue: Kenneth Carstens, Trevor Huddleston, Geoffrey Wisner (3) to keep the conscience of the world alive to the issues at stake. Photos: Sechaba, Star Airmail Weekly, South African Ministry of Information. I

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