South·Africa in Transition

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South·Africa in Transition POLITICS OF HOPE AND TERROR: South ·Africa in Transition Report on Violence in South Africa by an American Friends Service Committee Study Team November 1992 The American Friends Service Committee's concern over Southern Africa has grown out of over 60 years of relationships since the first visit by a representative of the organization. In 1982 the AFSC Board of Directors approved the release of a full length book, Challenge and Hope, as a statement of its views on South Africa. Since 1977 the AFSC has had a national Southern Africa educational program in its Peace Education Division. AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE 1501 Cherry Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 241-7000 AFSC REGIONAL OFFICES: Southeastern Region, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, 92 Piedmont Avenue, NE; Middle Atlantic Region, Baltimore, Maryland 21212, 4806 York Road; New England Region, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140, 2161 Massachusetts Avenue; Great Lakes Region, Chicago, Illinois 60605, 59 E. Van Buren Street, Suite 1400; North Central Region, Des Moines, Iowa 50312, 4211 Grand Avenue; New York Metropolitan Region, New York, New York 10003, 15 Rutherford Place; Pacific Southwest Region, Pasadena, California 91103, 980 N. Fair Oaks Avenue; Pacific Mountain Region, San Francisco, California 94121,2160 Lake Street; Pacific Northwest Region, Seattle, Washington 98105, 814 N.E. 40th Street. CONTENTS II THE AFSC DELEGATION 1 PREFACE III POLITICS OF HOPE AND TERROR: South Africa in Transition 1 THE BASIC VIOLENCE 2 ANALYZING THE VIOLENCE 5 THE HIDDEN HAND 7 RETALIATION 9 POLICE INVESTIGATIONS 11 LESSONS FROM THE BOIPATONG MASSACRE 12 HOMELAND VIOLENCE IN CISKEI AND KWAZULU 13 HOMELAND LEADERS BUTHELEZI AND GQOZO 16 CONCLUSION 19 RECOMMENDATIONS 20 ACRONYMS 21 TEAM INTERVIEWS AND MEETINGS 22 THE AFSC DELEGATION TO SOUTH AFRICA The American Friends Service Committee's Board of Directors approved a proposal in June 1992 for a delegation to visit South Africa to study the escalating violence there. Arrangements for the trip were made with the help of the South African Council of Churches, Border Council of Churches, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and members of the Religious Society of Friends in South Africa. The delegation of six people visited South Africa from October 1 to October 31, 1992. Delegation members spent almost a week in Johannesburg visiting area townships and Pretoria. Then they split into two teams. Team One drove to Durban, where they were headquartered for a week and visited Pietermaritzburg, Umlazi, Port Shepstone, Richmond, Ulundi, Ngwelezane and other villages and townships in Natal. Team Two remained in Johannesburg, before driving to Bophuthatswana, Mafeking/Mmabatho, Kroonstad, Welkom and Bloemfontein. The teams came together in Ciskei, just outside King William's Town, where they visited Bisho, East London, Mdantsane, Dimbaza, Alice, and a number of villages in the area. The reunited group then traveled to Cape Town. There they made visits to Nyanga and Mitchell's Plain. Team members drove 7,000 miles in two cars as they traveled throughout South Africa. They talked to church groups, civic associations, human rights and liberation organizations, police and government officials, Regional Dispute Resolution Committee members, violence-unrest monitors, labor unions, university professors, women's groups, community organizers, and grassroots people of all classes and persuasions. They saw the effects of the violence on people in a country where most citizens cannot count on police protection. Members of the delegation were: Sultana Alam -- Writer and United Nations consultant, whorecently spent two years in Malawi. Harry Amana - Professor ofJournalism at the University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member ofthe AFSC delegation to the Frontline Nations in 1977. Margaret Bacon - Author andformer AFSC staffmember, who visited So/lth Africa in 1964 as part ofthe U.S. South African Leadership Exchange Program. The AFSC Delegation to South Africa Edgar Lockwood - Minister andformer Washington Office on Africa, Executive Director. Served two years as APSe representative to Zimbabwe. Barredfrom South Africa since 1971 when he was an observer to two terrorist trials. They were accompanied by AFSC staff, Ken Martin, Associate Executive Secretary, and Tandi Gcabasche, Southern Africa Program Director in the Southeastern region ofthe United States. ii II PREFACE Contrary to media reports, apartheid is alive and well in South Africa. While the outward appearances are gone, the political essence of apartheid continues to govern matters of land, political representation and empowerment. Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu and their millions of black followers still have never voted. The bogus "homeland" structure is still intact, headed by fascist strongmen who carry such titles as "chief' and "general," and who, financed by Pretoria, control heavily armed police and militia that hinder the ability of government opponents to organize, assemble in public, or to demonstrate publicly their opposition to "homeland" governments. Only 30 percent of black South African children graduate from high school, compared to 90 percent of whites -- no wonder, since the government spends three times more on educa­ tion for white children. The South African Police and South African Defence Force still find it convenient to turn their heads the other way when "homeland" tyrants massacre unarmed demonstrators. People still die mysteriously in police custody. By October, 100 people had died in custody in South African jails during 1992. The cause of death most often reported by police is suicide. Land being redistributed today in South Africa is still based on the old 13 percent allotment for black South Africans under the Grand Apartheid scheme. And black South Africans still possess less than 9 percent of the land in their country. Apartheid is alive and well in South Africa The continuing wastefulness of this system, combined with the effects of divestments and the worldwide economic slump, has seriously undermined the South African economy. Unemployment nationwide is over 50 percent. Crime also continues to escalate, especially in Johannesburg and the townships. Mean~hile, the de Klerk administration continues to use the apartheid system for its own interests. In October, in an attempt to bypass criminal trials for government atrocities that might arise under a new government, de Klerk tried to get a general amnesty bill passed through the non-black tri-cameral legislature. When this failed, he then used the apartheid-designed scheme that allows him to bypass even this bogus legislative body -- he went directly to the President's Council, which passed the bill for him. Under the provisions of this new apartheid "law" no one in the police, military, intelligence or other government apparatus would have to answer, ever, to any atrocities they might have committed against the South African people. Preface In the meantime, South Africans, black and white, say the transition from the present stalemated political situation is crucial. Under the present constitution, only whites, "coloreds," and Asians can vote. The next election under the present apartheid constitu­ tion is scheduled to be held in late 1994. Failure to resolve the current impasse within the next 12 to 18 months would be, in the words of one South African official, "too disastrous to contemplate." Moreover, everyone in South Africa agrees, whatever government eventually comes to power, it will be unable to meet even the minimal expectations of the people. Still, at the Convention For a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and in bilater(j.l negotiations the de Klerk government continues in its attempts to force more and more compromises from the African National Congress (ANC) alliance, while political violence escalates. But there is an up-side. Life in South Africa goes on, and the spirit of the South African people is indomitable. In spite of the sad and angry circumstances in which we met people, there was much that was inspiring and hopeful in our contacts. People took time from their busy lives to meet with us, guide us, feed and house us, and let us see into the fabric of their lives. Time and again, we met with members of the Civics Association, grassroots organiza­ tions that developed as alternatives to the discredited government-imposed administrative structures in the townships. Members of these associations, overworked and underpro­ tected, bravely persist in trying to organize, mediate, negotiate, find resources, tend to needs and worry about the safety of their families and themselves. We listened to a group of older women from several organizations speak proudly of the long tradition of women's struggles in the liberation movement, and of their hopes and fears for their children, who were growing up in a world so much less structured than their own. We heard the voices of the youth themselves, impatient, idealistic, determined, hopeful, and we understood what a volatile mixture those feelings were. We listened to Afrikaners, who had made the long personal journey away from the teachings of their culture and their church and who were now actively seeking to speak to the white community about the inevitability and the morality of change. We moved among and in the company of a marvelous array of church people from a wide spectrum of religious communities as they ministered to their congregations, spoke out on the moral issues of the time, sought to prevent the escalation of violence and held up a vision of a better future. We joined them in prayer and celebration, and mourning. And we found, again and again, the presence of peace-makers. The churches, civics associations, UN monitors and Regional Dispute Resolution Committees all gave us hope for the present and the future of South Africa. iv Preface And among women, especially, we found hope in the fact that they are playing an . increasingly important role in South African organizations. This is happening in labor unions, church groups, political parties, among lawyers, doctors, social workers, violence monitors and in rural development projects.
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