Special flights: Special flights: The GDR and liberation movements in Southern Africa Hans Georg Schleicher and Illona Schleicher Special Flights to Southern Africa Special Flights to Southern Africa Hans-Georg Schleicher & Ilona Schleicher // SAPES BOOKS HARARE AFRICA z SOUTHERN AFRICA REGIONAL INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES (SARIPS) SAPES TRUST SOUTHERN AFRICA SPECIALISED STUDIES SERIES Series Editor: Ibbo Mandaza Titles in the Series The Land Question in Zimbabwe, 1995, Sam Moyo The Political Economy of Botswana in SADC, 1995, Balefi Tsie Women Teachers Under Apartheid, 1997, Shirley Sebakwane (Mahlase) Labour and Migration in Southern Africa, 1998, Lloyd M. Sach ikonye (ed.) Special Flights to Southern Africa, 1998, Hans-Georg and Ilona Schleicher First Published 1998 by SAPPHO P.O. Box MP 1005 Mount Pleasant Harare Zimbabwe ©SAPES Trust 1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Typesetting by Southern Africa Printing and Publishing House (SAPPHO) (Pvt.) Ltd., ISBN 1-77905-071-2 Cover design: J.P. Studio CONTENTS Acknowledgements Foreword List of abbreviations INT RO D UC T IO N ............................................................................................. I PART O NE: South Africa ................................................................... 7 Solidarity in difficult times: The GDR and the ANC in the 1960s The sanctions discussion in the GDR ................................................. 10 Conflict between foreign policy and foreign trade aims Trade unions, the cold war and the boycott movement Criticism by ANC and SACP The international sanctions debate heats up The boycott decision 1963, problems of its implementation The GDR's trading interests in South Africa The boycott of South African sports Solidarity during the Rivonia trial and for Abram Fischer .............. 27 Centralistic structure versus grassroots movement Aims and progress of the solidarity campaign Exposing cooperation between Bonn and Pretoria International cooperation during the Rivonia trial Solidarity tor Abram Fischer Propaganda, armed struggle, and the long way home for ANC and SACP .............................................................................. 50 Sechaba The African Communist Political and armed struggle: The GDR's position Military, intelligence and security training in the GDR N otes ..................................................................................................... 66 PART TWO: Zimbabwe. A special chapter in the CDR's Africa policy Prologue: Fifty flights from Luanda to Lusaka .............................. 79 Initial contacts with ZAPU ZAPU as perceived by the GDR in the early 1960s GDR and ZANU: The "Chinese issue" Solidarity against UDI ......................................................................... 101 Political and material support for ZAPU GDR's attitude towards armed struggle Crisis and consolidation: cooperation with ZAPU 1969-1975 Cooperation in the heat of the struggle (1976-1980) ......................... 118 A new quality in relations with ZAPU The ZAPU-ZANU dilemma of the GDR From Lancaster House to independence Epilogue: The new beginning .............................................................. 139 N otes ...................................................................................................... 145 PART THREE: Namibia ..................................................................... 163 Traditions of solidarity The UN Namibia plan and GDR solidarity with SWAPO ................ 168 GDR and resolution 435: From reservations to support Top-level decision on cooperation with SWAPO Material support for SW APO ............................................................. 182 The structure of "material solidarity" Capabilities and constraints of material solidarity Aid for SWAPO's camps and workshops Care for the wounded in Berlin-Buch: "Jacob Morenga" Ward 303 Cooperation in Education and training: Namibians in the GDR .... 198 Vocational training: Experiences in the Rostock sea port Berlin, Stassfurt, Cuanza Sul: Assistance in pullic education Support for the armed struggle .......................................................... 211 From paramilitary equipment to arms and ammunition Intensified cooperation in the "non-civilian" field Party relations between SED and SW APO ....................................... 215 SWAPO students in Rostock Discussions on Namibia's future The implementation of resolution 435 ................................................ "New thinking" in GDR's African policy Motives for the participation in the UN independence process GDR's involvement with the implementation of resolution 435 Notes ................................................................................... 2 . 234 Appendix ........................................................................... 247 Selected bibliography Archival Sources and unpublished Documents ............................ 249 Interview s ..................................................................................... 250 Books and Articles ........................................................................ 251 Yearbooks, Documents, Reference books ...................... 257 Index .................................................................................. 261 Acknowledgements We entered into this venture mainly due to the encouragement we received from old and new friends in Southern Africa. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Zimbabwean Minister Nathan Shamuyarira in particular who initiated this book and lent his support to us right from the beginning. Without the financial assistance firom Solidaritaetsdienst- international e.V., Berlin, the completion of the manuscript in English would have been impossible. Its sincere interest in dealing with its own history and the adherence to the values of international solidarity was expressed by supporting the authors in various ways. SAPES Trust and The Southern Africa Printing and Publishing House showed great interest in the volume. We are grateful for the confidence placed in us by Dr Ibbo Mandaza and his colleagues. We would not have managed to present this piece of work in such a short space of time without the professional assistance and advise from the staff of the FederalArchives (Sti/lung Archiv der Pa'erien und Massenorganisationen der DDR (Berlin) and Adteilungen Potsdam). Knowledge from the files become much more lively in combination with the personal experiences of people actively involved in the relations between GDR and liberation movements in Southern Africa. Thanks to all our African and German friends and partners who readily agreed to be interviewed. Last but not least, we would like to extent our thanks to the translators. Brigitte and Karlheinz Ringleb, and their colleague Kathrine Vanovitch not only for the translation but also for the critical comments on the manuscript. Foreword Marking South African Freedom Day, South Africa's embassy in Bonn invited friends of their country, for the most part representatives of nongovernmental organisations, for a seminar in late April 1996 to muster support for "the second phase of the struggle: attaining sustainable growth in South Africa". Dr Eid- Simon, a member of the Greens elected to the German parliament, was asked to address the gathering on behalf of the German guests. Recalling the long struggle waged by German opponents of apartheid. she noted that "white South Africans had man\, friends in Germany who were more powerful than the fi'iends of black South Africans." This remark made me to comment, applauded by the seminar participants, that I had lived in a German state to which this did not apply. The GDR had supported the ANC's struggle politically and materially, rejecting apartheid on grounds of principle, and not least because of the bitter experience with German fascism. Any attempt to review and interpret history called for a differentiated approach, I appealed. This book sets out to achieve just that. The authors examine the GDR's relations with liberation movements in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, which are today the governing political forces in their countries. They examine this in the light of their own intensive research, drawing on archival material, interviews with Germans and Africans who were involved, and their own experiences. With this exercise, they are rectifying the frequently superficial and one-sided pictures which the GDR, and also its adversaries in the West, used to paint in the Cold War period. Support for liberation organisations in the above-named countries was, from the outset, chiefly organised by the Solidarity Committee of the GDR which was founded in 1960. The Committee was subject, in its policy, to decisions by the Socialist Unity Party, the country's ruling party. Solidarity project operations were financed from funds donated by trade unions, political parties, mass organisations and individuals. These funds at times exceeded 100 million GDR marks a year. The objectives of the projects were closely linked to the government "anti- imperialist" foreign policy. This influence, combined with the fact that the Solidarity Committee virtually held a monopoly on raising resources and providing assistance to Third World recipients and that moral and political pressure