198 Broadway * New York, NY. 10038 * (212) 962-1210 M William Howard, President Elizabeth Landis. Vice President v Jennifer Davis, Executive Director
ACTION ALERT August 21, 1990
STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN SOUTH AFRICA HALT SPONSORED AT ACKS ON DEMOCRATIC MOVCEMT
Armed followers of the government-backed Kwazulu bantustan chief Gatsha Buthelezi have triggered a bloodbath. During one 8 hour period last week, at least 111 people were brutally killed in attacks on residents in the Black townships around Johannes burg. Thousands have fled their homes as the death toll soars towards 300. Almost without exception the U.S. press has parroted South African government portrayals of the violence as tribal "faction fighting" between Zulu-speaking members of Buthelezi's Inkatha organization and Xhosa-speaking supporters of the African Nation al Congress. It is true that Inkatha has incited ethnic sentiment among isolated and impoverished Zulu migrant workers in the cities to win recruits for their gangs. But this "black-on-black violence" formulation ignores flagrant South African Police complicity with Inkatha violence against the liberation movement and Buthelezi's long alliance with the apart heid system.
South African journalists, church observers and other eye witnesses report the police are openly siding with Inkatha in the recent fighting--refusing to disarm Inkatha fighters, teargassing and arresting African National Congress supporters, even escort ing armed Buthelezi followers into battle. Police and army sup port for Buthelezi's bloody campaign against ANC followers in Natal Province has helped contribute to the loss of over 3,000 lives since 1987. ACOA Associate Director Jim Cason reported from South Africa today that during one Inkatha attack in Sebo keng, reporters saw South African Police singling out victims for assault. "To claim this is a Zulu tribal war with Xhosas or anyone else is simply disinformation," he writes. THE REAL CAUSE OF THE BLOODSHED IS POLITICAL.
Since Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February, support for Buthelezi among Zulu and non-Zulu speaking Black South Africans alike has plummeted. A June survey by a private polling agency, Market Research Africa, found that nationally:
Supporting African freedom and independence since 1953 - Established The Africa Fund. 1966 Entipathy toward Inkatha is only marginally smaller than that shown to the Conservative Party and the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging on the far Right of the political spectrum.= An April 1990 survey of urban areas, including Inkatha's purported Durban stronghold, found that only onepercent of respondents thought Buthelezi should lead the country compared to 58 percent for Mandela.
The collapse of political support for Inkatha has prompted Buthalezi and his backers in the white security forces to launch a bloody campaign for a seat at the negotiating table. They also hope that signs of Black disunity will weaken Mandela before negotiations begin. These objectives, combined with the failure of the de Klerk government to curtail police repression, abolish apartheid laws, and address the continuing crisis in Black educa tion, housing and poverty, are the real causes of the bloodshed sweeping the country.
The violence threatens to overwhelm the fragile search for a negotiated end to apartheid.
* Support the South African peoples' demand for the disarming of Inkatha vigilantes, repeal of the continuing State of Emergency in Natal and a judicial inquiry into security force complicity with Inkatha. * Demand that de Klerk prevent further police violence against anti-apartheid activists, end army and police backing for Inkatha attacks against the democratic movement, and halt government financial and political support for Buthelezi.
Write or Fax:
F.W. de Klerk James Baker State President Secretary of State Private Bag X213 The State Department Pretoria 0001, SA Washington, DC 20520 FAX: 011-27-12-323-1664 FAX: 202-647-4503