South Africa and Namibia
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TWENTY YEARS OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICA PROJECT The year 1987 marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Southern Africa Project. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law established the Project in 1967 in response to requests for assistance in cases involving human rights in South Africa and Namibia. These early contacts with the anti-apartheid movement in Southern Africa reinforced the perception that the domestic struggle for civil rights is inextricably linked to the struggle for human rights in other parts of the world. The Southern Africa Project soon became a major and important part of the Lawyers' Committee. In the 20 years of its existence, the Project has helped thousands of victims of apartheid and funded numerous landmark decisions that served as a judicial check on some of the abuses of apartheid. In essence, the Project seeks • to ensure that defendants in political trials in South Africa and Namibia receive the necessary resources for their defense and a competent attorney of their own choice; • to initiate or intervene through legal proceedings in this country to deter actions that are supportive of South Africa's policy of apartheid, when such actions violate U.s. law; and • to serve as a resource for those concerned with the erosion of the rule of law in South Africa and that government's de"nial of basic human rights. These goals are consistent with the original mandate of the Lawyers' Committee, which was created in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy invited a group of prominent lawyers to the White House and implored them to lend their professional skills and support to the struggle for racial equality. Since its inception, the Lawyers' Committee has engaged the support and active involvement of eminent members of the legal profession including past presidents of the American Bar Association, former U.s. Attorneys General and law school deans-in civil rights work aimed at eradicating discrimination based on race, creed, color or sex. The Southern Africa Project similarly depends on the support, the understanding and the volunteerism of the legal community in the United States for the continuing success of its program. On the cover: Students protesting the banning of 17 major organizations in South Africa ZiemenskilAFRAPIX 1988 SOUTHERN AFRICA PROJECT ANNUAL REPORT SOUTH AFRICA 1987: CHOKING INTERNAL RESISTANCE WILLIAM L. ROBINSON GAY J. MCDOUGALL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN AFRICA PROJECT LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW 1400 'EYE' STREET, N.W. SUITE 400 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005 (202) 371-1212 Southern Africa Project Annual Report SOUTH AFRICA 1987: CHOKING INTERNAL RESISTANCE Photo Credits: AFRAPIXIIMPACT VISUALS; AFRAPIX, Johannesburg, S.A.; Susan Farmer, The Washington Post for the Symposium on Detention of Children Design/Coordination: John Bell Copyright, 1988, by the Southern Africa Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law ISSN 0887-8706 Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents Introduction: Repression, Reform and Co-optation 4 South Africa Targets Its Children............. ................................................ 8 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in Defense ofChildren in Detention A Permanent State of Emergency. ........................................................... 14 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in Assisting Political Detainees Community Resistance: The People Shall Govern............... ........................ 18 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in Support ofCommunity Protests Labor Asserts Its Power in South Africa and Namibia. ................................. 22 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in Support ofTrade Union Rights State Violence by Surrogates: Right-wing Vigilantes. ................................... 26 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project to Combat Government-sponsored Vigilante Attacks South Africa: A Nation at War. .............................................................. 30 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in Defense ofPeople Charged with Contravening the Security Laws Namibia: Africa's Last Colony 34 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project for Human Rights in Namibia The United States and South Africa: Breaking the Ties. ................................ 38 The Work ofthe Southern Africa Project in the United States 1987 Financial Statement...................................................................... 41 Grants and Contributions. .................................................................... 42 Administration and Oversight 43 Acknowledgements 43 Members of the Board of Directors and..... ............................................... 44 The Board of Trustees INTRODUCTION: REPRESSION, REFORM AND CO-OPTATION A South African government heli compromised his ideals in accepting To many anti-apartheid activists it copter shuttled a dignified gray release from a life sentence for sabo looked like the beginning of govern haired man to an hour-long consulta tage and treason. After 23 years in jail, ment capitulation to their funda tion with Nelson Mandela. Then, he had insisted on an unconditional mental demands: release of political after jetting him to Port Elizabeth, the release, refusing to renounce violence prisoners, unbanning the ANC and Bureau of Information arranged a and demanding that he return not to ending the State of Emergency. high level press conference and gave his official "homeland," the Transkei, Mbeki is regarded, along with Walter him full coverage on South African but to his previous home in politically Sisulu and Nelson Mandela, as one television before checking him into active New Brighton township outside of the giant figures of the liberation the Holiday Inn for the night. It was Port Elizabeth. struggle. One of the masterminds of November 5, 1987. In front of the microphones a black political action throughout the Another government puppet? defiant Mbeki proclaimed, "1 am a 1940s and 50s, Mbeki galvanized the Hardly. Govan Mbeki, former African member of the African National Eastern Cape into a stronghold of National Congress (ANC) National Congress. The ideas for which I went resistance. "We receive him with joy Chairman and Secretary of the South to jail and for which the ANC stands, and renewed determination," the African Communist Party, had not I still embrace." ANC declared. It went on, however, to predict that he was leaving Robben Island for the "prison house of South Africa." Indeed, freedom still eludes Mbeki. A rally organized to welcome his Govan Mbeki addresses a return was banned only hours before press conference upon his its start. The Southern Africa Project release from prison after financed an unsuccessful challenge to 23 years this banning order before the Su preme Court of South Africa (South Eastern Cape Local Division). Subse quently, security police prohibited eight further meetings and rallies scheduled for Mbeki in which crowds as large as 100,000 were anticipated. By the end of December the govern ment served Mbeki with a restriction order confining him to the Port Elizabeth magisterial district and barring him from talking to reporters. As a "listed" person he may not be quoted in the South African news media. The government had hoped that by freeing this ailing, 77 year old activist into quiet retirement it would gain credibility as pursuing serious change. Mbeki's staunch militancy and the unpredicted enthusiasm of his supporters, however, forced the government to retreat, exposing the shallowness of its policies. The South Africa into which Mbeki returned was in tunnoil. Struggling to maintain white privilege, the government in 1987 adopted a tri partite approach: repression, refonn and co-optation. 4 Repression Refonn In desperation, the regime groped onslaught" against South Africa, the Creating a facade of reform is a key to regain lost control of rebellious system is headed by a State Security tactic to divert both domestic and black townships and countryside. Council at cabinet level. Below it are 13 international pressure. Boasting of a The Minister of Law and Order, inter-departmental committees of mandate from the May whites-only Adriaan Vlok, conceded the need for government, 12 Joint Management election, President P. W. Botha is strong-arm tactics by admitting, "The Centers (}MC's), 60 sub-JMC's and 448 instituting "betterment schemes" in climate of revolution is still boiling mini-JMC's. All meet regularly to share black residential areas. The creation just underneath ... one small spark security information about potential of a black middle class would serve can set it alight again." The extension local unrest. Rent and consumer boy as a buffer between the poverty of the State of Emergency on June 11, cotts, community services and all stricken majority and the privileged 1987, closed loopholes in an already aspects of school life are now defined white minority. tight legislative web of restrictions. as "security" concerns. The JMC com On one level it is a victory for the Stringent restrictions on the news mittees formulate strategies and contin people-their protests forced redress media shielded from the world's view gency plans to contain any crisis, of genuine grievances. The invest the government's attempts to annihi giving the military extraordinary ment in long-absent basic amenities, late by force new community powers without accountability to the however, is intended to substitute for controlled social structures in the public. significant political