Building on The

wmm mmmsm BUILDING ON THE Towards a post-apartheid constitution IN THIS ISSUE Metal wage talks Militarisation • Apartheid death squads Editorial here is a sense in which government's closure of one newspaper, Tand threatened banning of a number of other publications, is justi fied. This is not because those publications are necessarily guilty of biased or inaccurate journalism, or even because they are in contravention of the over 100 statutes which limit what may be published. Rather, it is because any government which has as much to hide as South Africa's rulers must fear all but the most tame sections of the media. Nearly half of all the editions of Work In Progress produced over ten years were banned under the Publications Act. Yet not once was it suggested that inaccuracy or false information was the reason for banning. In warning Work In Progress that action against the magazine was being contemplated, Stoffel Botha claims to have looked at 24 articles contained in two editions of the magazine. Yet in not one case does he claim that information in an article was false. The conclusion is clear: publications like Work In Progress face closure or pre-publication censorship because of the accuracy of their reporting and analysis. • When an attorney-general declines to prosecute soldiers who kidnap, assault and threaten with death a political activist because the soldiers were acting in terms of emergency regulations; • when a head of state stops the trial of soldiers accused of murdering a Swapo member at a political meeting because they were 'suppressing terrorism'; • when the ministers of defence and law and order issue special instructions not to allow lawyers access to records necessary for legal action against members of the 'security forces'; • when policemen accept that it is legitimate to commit murder because they believe their victims are associated with the ANC; • when there are ongoing and well-substantiated allegations that police and army personnel are involved in supporting vigilante violence against anti-apartheid activists; • when a policeman on trial for his life refers to security police assassination of ANC activists in a foreign country and SADF support for destabilisation, as if they are common practices; • and when soldiers invade a foreign territory, attack civilian houses in the middle of the night, and burn the bodies of their victims; When these things occur, then the government of Botha, Malan and Vlok is justified in fearing what a competent media might publish. Work In Progress 53 - April/May 1988 ":':'• ><y 7T*ANC -.-*• •*•: - ifis..\ n the next few weeks the Afri pre-figured in ANC statei 10a itself and Ican National Congress will of the past two yean - democratic unveil the most comprehensive that the ANC favours a unitary> as a whole, and detailed picture ever of its non-federal, multi-party democ "and others emphasise vision for post-apartheid South racy with a mixed economy. that the resultant document will Africa. Other elements in the be no more than a guideline: After two years of extensive guidelines, say ANC officials in 'There were initial suggestions discussion within the banned or Lusaka, are intended to create a that we should produce a com- ganisation, officials plete constitution, in the ANC's legal but we argued that affairs department the drafting of such a last month put the document could only finishing touches to correctly be drawn this picture - draft up by elected repre guidelines for a post- BUILDING sentatives of all the apartheid South people of our African constitution. country - ideally sit These draw on the ting as a constituent experiences of more assembly*. than a dozen African ON THE The struggle countries and at least against apartheid will a dozen others as dis also affect conditions parate as Nicaragua under which a con- and Sweden, Cuba stitution is finally and Britain. drafted and im FREEDOM plemented, he adds. By mid-year, says 'And the nature of legal affairs depart the transfer of power ment head Zola from the apartheid Skweyiya, the docu regime to the ma ment will be sent for jority will obviously consideration to anti- CHARTER play a major part in apartheid defining the terms. organisations inside The African National Congress is about to release An armed seizure of the country. This, proposed guidelines for a post-apartheid power will bring with Skweyiya believes, constitution. DAVID NIDDRIE reports, ^—^— it different demands could set in motion a and requirements from those of process of debate not dissimilar legal and constitutional frame a negotiated hand-over, assum to that which led to die drafting work through which the aims ing that is possible. From all and concepts contained in the these perspectives, compiling a of the Freedom Charter in 1955. final constitution would be inap The guidelines, the ANC Freedom Charter can be propriate*. hopes, will then be discussed at realised. a seminar of anti-apartheid 'An obvious example is the organisations towards the end of Freedom Charter's third clause: Although die document con the year 'somewhere in the that die people shall share in the tains constitutional guidelines frontline states'. country's wealth', adds a senior rather than a comprehensive pic official. 'The charter itself does ture of post-apartheid South From slogans to realisation not say how that will happen. Africa, the several dozen papers The ANC's draft document is Pan of the reason for examining delivered to an ANC internal unlikely to be published before future constitutional options is seminar on the subject in die the major components of die in to make it possible - to take the first week of March reportedly ternal opposition have seen and idea past the slogans and to filled in many of die gaps. commented on it wards realisation'. But key elements of the Despite the priority ANC No breaks with the Charter ANC's draft constitutional gui leadership has given to the pro The guidelines involve no major delines have already been cess of gaining consensus both breaks with the Freedom Work In Progress 3 The ANC Charter, although they incor countries governed federally - demand a younger man. And so porate some elements not among them the US, Nigeria far, at least publicly, no single, included in 1955 (among them and Czechoslovakia (where they unchallenged candidate has the right to strike, the exclusion spent a week last year). They emerged - partially because of of which has long been a source came away convinced of the the organisation's emphasis on of criticism). necessity to retain unitary gov collective leadership. Not surprisingly, the gui ernment. The ANC sees The next stratum of demo delines envisage a non-racial, federalism as a possible way of cratically elected representation democratic and unitary post- weakening the ability of a will, logically, be in a national apartheid South Africa. democratically-elected govern parliament. A single, non-racial Reflecting the ANC's overrid ment to control the pace and national parliament lies at the ing commitment to rid South direction of change. heart of the political demands of Africa of its racist heritage, the It is not yet clear whether the the ANC and its allies. guidelines envisage a complete guidelines will be sufficiently But there is within the ANC a ban on all institutions organising detailed to give preference to an strong dislike for the exercise of or structured on racial lines. executive presidency over a popular political participation 'Obviously the National Party prime ministerial system, but only through voting in infre would have no place in that so there appears to be consensus quent elections for a candidate ciety', says Skweyiya. within the ANC in favour of the who then departs for a distant It is not yet clear where this former. 'We must remember national parliament. leaves organisations such as In - that almost the whole of Africa So the guidelines lay much katha. Officials in Lusaka did has opted for that system. In emphasis on third-tier repre not comment specifically on (immediate post-colonial) coun sentation in powerful, although Chief Oatsha Buthelezi's Zulu- tries in need of visible and real not fully-autonomous, local based organisation, although symbols of national unity, an government structures. 'In the constitutional committee secre executive president can play a GDR (East Germany) local tary ZN 'Job' Jobodwana said: powerful role', says Skweyiya. authorities have substantial con 'We see parties like Inkatha and If this is the path chosen, the trol over many areas of industry the bantustan parties as contri presidency of post-apartheid and exercise a large amount of buting nothing. Their tribal, autonomy. Local authorities ethnic base will act against the South Africa is likely to be a di therefore impact directly on whole concept of a united, rectly-elected post - closer to people's everyday lives', adds democratic South Africa'. that of the US and France than Skweyiya. South Africa's current system. It would require far greater But a number of factors favour What he envisages is a form of naivety than the ANC has dem a more collective leadership devolution which will incorpor onstrated over the past decades structure. There is, firstly, the ate the advantages of federal to believe that closing down In tradition within the ANC itself rule (with easier and more direct katha would destroy the tribal over its 23 years of illegality. access to the corridors of chauvinism that the organisation While Tambo has, particularly power) while avoiding the re has succeeded in constructing in the last few years, increasing gionalism which often develops around itself. That, however, is ly acquired a more as a result. a matter of practical legal im clearly-perceived presidential plementation rather than for stature, the leadership remains Education and the economy constitutional guidelines - the strongly collective.

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