AMERICA'S LEADING MAGAZINE ON AFRICA Our good taste isn't just in our beer.

t the Adolph Qxirs radio show bringing news Company, our concern for for and about the Black good taste doesn't end with community. our beer. So watch for the high- By getting together with quality events and programs organizations like the Cleo Coors has in store for you. Parker Robinson Dance And the next time someone Ensemble, weYe helping to mentions the great taste of bring a refreshing taste of Coors, yoif 11 know theyVe Black American culture to reallv said a mouthful. an ever-larger audience. In fact, maybe youVe already noticed the Qx>rs name at top concerts, sporting events—even on a national ©1987 Adolph Coors Company, Golden Colorado 80401 MARCH-APRIL 1988 AMERICA'S VOLUME 33, NUMBER 2 LEADING MAGAZINE (BFRICfl ON AFRICA

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The Letters to the Editor African-American Institute 4 Chairman Update Randolph Nugent Editor: Andre Astrow 5 President Donald B. Easum South Africa Interview with the Reverend Frank Chikane 13 Publisher By Margaret A. Novicki Frank E. Ferrari Editor-in-Chief Commonwealth Margaret A. Novicki After Vancouver 17 BySirShridathRamphal Managing Editor Churches in Crisis Alana Lee Page 13 Britain Assistant Editor The Lady Has a Plan 20 Andre Astrow By Dems Herbsteln Acting Managing Editor United Nations Daphne Topouzis Interview with Brian Urquhart 23 Editorial Assistant By Margaret A. Novicki W. Labier Jones Media Art Director 27 Kenneth Jay Ross South Africa: Where Did the Story Go? By Danny Schechter Advertising Director Barbara Spence Remembering Percy Qoboza 32 Marionette, Inc. By Ameen Akhalwaya and Les Payne (718) 773-9869.756-9244 Interns U.S. Policy Joy Assefa A New UN Role? Interview with Howard Wolpe 35 Elizabeth Ferber Page 23 By Margaret A. Novicki Alexander Neff Lobbying Against Apartheid Judith Surkis By William Howard 40 Opinion Africa Report (ISSN 0001-9836). a non- Angola: War, Politics, and Famine partisan magazine of African affairs, is By Jeffrey Clark and}. Stephen Morrison 42 published bimonthly and is scheduled to appear at the beginning of each dale Western Europe period at 833 United Nations Plaza, New York. N.Y. 10017. Editorial corre- Putting Pressure on Parliaments spondence and advertising inquiries By Jan Nieo Scholten 45 should be addressed to Africa Report, at the above address. Subscription rales Individuals: U.S.A. $24, Canada Across the Continent $30, air rate overseas $48. Institutions: A Challenge to Action 48 U.S.A. $31, Canada $37, air rate over- By Julie Frederikse seas $55. Second-class poslage paid at Now York, N.Y. and at additional News "•"'" "--'— - 53 mailing offices. POSTMASTER: if this The People's Sanctions magazine is undeliverable. please Black-out Page 27 By Ernest Harsch send notice to Africa Report at the above address. Telephone: (212) 949- South Africa 5666 Copyright c 1988 by the African- 56 American Institute, Inc. A Boycott That Works By Caroline Allen U.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by FOUR STAR News Distributors, Inc., A Conversation with Piet Koornhof 59 3117 12th Street, Long Island City, New Vork 11106. By Margaret A, Novicki Interview with Tony Bloom 62 By Ameen Akhalwaya Zimbabwe United We Stand 66 Photo Credit: By Andrew Meldrum The cover photograph was taken in South Africa by W. Angola's Famine 69 Campbell Sygma. Books Ptige 42 To the Editor: Letters stirred international emotions. The media I cannot ignore and let pass by the ar- is full of explanations, some based on con- ticle "What Price Political Prisoners?" to the jecture and others intended to serve politi- Ganuary-February 1988) written by Rich- cal objectives. It is nonetheless regretta- ard Greenfield and full of fabrications, innu- ble that only a few are able to see beyond endoes, and misrepresentations to satisfy Editor the mirage and give proper explanations of hi.s personal war against the Somali gov- Moreover, as predicted, President Siad the measures that need to be taken. ernment—for which he once worked— had to bow to international pressure on In my view, drought and famine are nat- and to mislead your readers about Somalia. February 11 and commute the death sen- ural as much as they are man-made. One This article is the latest in a series he has tences to life or 24-year terms of imprison- can be sudden, creating an emergency sit- written in the same fashion with the same ment, to be served only in the case of the uation, while the other could be a product personal motivations. former vice president and foreign minis- of an interplay of a host of factors. Where In this article, as before, Greenfield ter, under house arrest. Yet according to this interplay of factors operate in a re- sensationalizes Somalia's economic diffi- Amnesty International, all the accused gressive direction affecting production, culties which are part of the conditions pre- were prisoners of conscience, innocent of subsistence agriculture—as is the case in vailing not only in most of Africa, but in any criminal offense. Moreover, at least Ethiopia—fails to shield the population Latin America and elsewhere. The Somali three prisoners were observed to be seri- from its combined effects. Unless remedial government is working hard to stimulate ously ill and letters smuggled out by oth- measures are taken with the longer view in its economy domestically—through sound ers, in my possession, make very credible mind, dependence on food aid becomes a agricultural incentives, budgetary and allegations of torture—naming names. chronic problem and thus underdevelop- monetary policies—and externally with The ambassador may opine about my ment a permanent feature. the cooperation of international organiza- motives, as he has of all who have spoken Cognizant of this fact, Ethiopia has pri- tions such as the IMF and the World Bank, out about the human rights situation in his marily chosen to tackle the root causes of as well as bilaterally with friendly govern- country, but that is irrelevant. Nor have I underdevelopment with a view to doing ments. ever made any secret of the fact that my away with the regressive forces by taking The people he listed as being impris- appointment as political adviser was arbi- such measures as land reform and imple- oned are not a news item, for their case is trarily and retrospectively terminated as a mentation of agrarian policy consistent well-known. Their arrest was not secret, consequence of my urging proper trials with the country's aspirations for acceler- the government having announced it over and humane treatment for political pris- ated development. Progress in this direc- the radio and published it in the newspa- oners. tion obviously requires time and arduous pers. Their trial is before the court which What is relevant is that so-called "pro- efforts. In addition to the challenges posed will pass judgments on the merits of evi- Western Somalia" is fast becoming a prison by underdevelopment, common to all de- dence submitted by the prosecutor and state. Today, hundreds of mostly young veloping countries, environmental degra- counter-arguments presented by the de- people languish in confinement solely on dation, adverse changes in climatic condi- fense lawyers. At the time that the court account of their political beliefs and clan tions, the arduous task of reorienting the date was established, the defendants were loyalties. To boast that such a situation is peasantry, and scarcity of development as- given the right to acquire their own law- "stable" is to mock every democratic sistance have been serious problems. yers. value. Sadly, my conclusions have been It is with this backdrop that Ethiopia's Somalia is one of the most stable coun- quite independently corroborated by other experiment at development must be tries in Africa. Its president is healthy and observers. See, for example, the report of viewed. Ethiopia's efforts have not been well, conducting government business the human rights committees of the Na- given a chance. For example, the three- normally and contrary to the wishes of en- tional Academy of Sciences and the Insti- year agricultural development strategy, emies of the Somali nation and their tute of Medicine, "Scientists and Human which already is in its second year, was agents. There is no "Somali succession cri- Rights in Somalia," published in Washing- launched with the objective of making the sis," as wistfully depicted by the writer. ton in January. country self-sufficient in food by the begin- Likewise, other allegations in the article ning of the next decade. While integrated are either misrepresentations or pure fic- Richard Greenfield measures were undertaken and about $1 tions and fantasies created by the author Oxford University billion allocated to assist selected surplus- who has lost, in my view, any credibility Centre for International producing districts, a severe lack of rain because of his blind crusade of a personal and Development Studies this year became the most crucial factor vendetta against the Somali government. To the Editor: hampering agricultural work. In spite of It is very unfortunate that Greenfield so this, however, and perhaps for less stated For a long time now, Africa Report has often finds magazines like yours to lend reasons, government policy is often criti- made appreciable efforts to report exten- themselves to be used for his ends. cized for generating the present crisis. sively on developments in Africa, including its intractable problems. If only, however, As indicated on several occasions in the Dr. Abdullahi A. Addou it could become more rigorous in its sifting past, natural catastrophe may be contained Ambassador of the Somali Democratic Re- of what is being promoted by some quar- through relief assistance. But the solution public ters to gain propaganda mileage, I assure to this chronic problem is to be found Washington, D.C. you, Africa Report will continue to be an through sustained development, obviously important source of information on mod- requiring development assistance from ex- The author replies: ern Africa. ternal sources. In terms of external devel- Unfortunately for the ambassador, two "On Famine's Brink" Qanuary-Febru- opment assistance, Ethiopia is the lowest days subsequent to the date of his letter, ary 1988) has indeed provided the latest beneficiary in Africa, receiving under $20 the prisoners in Somalia—with the striking spur for this reaction. The article correctly per head. That is why it becomes ex- exception of the president's clansmen— spells out that Ethiopia is again on the brink tremely essential for critics to also address were sentenced to death by firing squad of another famine. Alongside deeply-felt themselves to this fundamental problem. aftera brief, stage-managed trial. This, de- sympathies, questions are also being spite previous assurances, was closed to asked by all concerned as to the causes for Gebremedhin Hagos all except a few relatives still in the coun- the repeat of such a human tragedy barely Ethiopian Mission to the UN try. three years after the 1984-85 famine that New York

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 N THE NEWS

American human rights ments confiscated. They were only propaganda" against Kenya observers get some first- released following the intervention abroad. hand experience of the Slate Department and U.S. In recent years, Kenyan authori- The arrest of I wo prominent Embassy in Nairobi which had been ties have become highly sensitive American citizens in a Nairobi alerted by members of the press about criticism of the government's courtroom in mid-January has once corps after they had seen Special human rights record. During his In- again brought the human rights rec- Branch officers escort them out of dependence Day speech in Decem- ord of President Daniel arap Moi's the court room. ber, Moi denounced human rights- government under the microscope. The diplomatic incident caused organizations which "interfere with Judge Marvin Frankel, chairman of Moi to demote his powerful minis- our internal affairs." and singled the Board of the Lawyers Commit- ter of state in charge of internal se- out Amnesty members for special tee for Human Rights, and Robert curity, Justus oleTipis. One of Moi's treatment. "If any of them is found Kirschner. a forensic pathologist closest advisers. Tipis had publicly here, I will have him arrested. Am- with the American Association for defended (heir arrest, saying they nesty International, 1 say to hell." the Advancement of Science, were were found to be in possession o\' But as Frankcl told Africa Re- detained while attending an inquest incriminating documents, including port, Amnesty activists are not the into the death of businessman and a list of persons connected with sub- only ones who think that Kenya's rally driver Peter Njenga karanga. versive activities. human rights record leaves some- who died in police custody in Feb- thing to be desired. "While I was in ruary 1987. the cell. 1 heard a fair amount of cry- Karanja had been in seemingly ing and shrieking, and a lot of noises good health when he was detained that sounded like beatings. For a for questioning about his alleged while I thought it was the sound of link to the underground group Mwa- prisoners being beaten, and then 1 kenya. which is committed to over- decided, there you go again. But throwing the Moi government. But one of my cell mates says to me. you three weeks later, he died of know what that sound is? I said no. bruises, wounds, a ruptured intes- And he says, they're beatingthc pri- tine, and pneumonia while still in soners/' • police custody. Amnesty Interna- tional detailed his death in a July Savimbi goes to Hollywood 1987 report focusing on the physical Red Scorpion, an American film abuse of prisoners, political deten- loosely based on the life and times tions, and unfair trials in Kenya. of Angolan rebel leader Jonas Frankel and Kirschner were tak- Savimbi, is being filmed in (he occu- ing notes at the inquest when they pied territory of Namibia with mas- were wisked away and held incom- sive South African military assist- municado for seven hours at Nyayo Tipis: Paid the price for diplomatic tussle ance and the financial backing of the House, an interrogation center for Washington-based International the Special Branch. They were sub- He also accused ihe Americans of Freedom Foundation, according to jected to constant interrogation by breaking the law by taking notes in a report in The New York Times, different teams of officers and ac- court and entering the country un- Produced by foundation executive cused of being Amnesty representa- der false pretenses—a claim denied director Jack Abramoff who for- tives. One officer, recalled Frankel. by the U.S. Embassy. "What we merly headed Citizens of Amer- even tried to "bully me into admit- should not tolerate is for foreigners ica—the right-wing organization ting I was a spy. They questioned us who disguise themselves as tour- linked during the Irangate scandal about everything—why we were ists, businessmen, or journalists, to Col. Oliver North's scheme to butting into Kenya's business and who come to pry into our courts and channel funds to the contras—the spreading lies about them." take notes of the proceedings S8 million Hollywood epic stars Although Frankel and Kirschner thereof without prior accredita- Swedish muscleman Dolph Lund- were never physically abused, they tion," said Tipis. The government, gren and South African actor Ruben were denied food and water, were he added, is wary of foreigners Nthodi not permitted to contact the U.S. "who come in all manner of dis- The Namihian. the independent Embassy, ;ind had all their docu- guises only to orchestrate unfair weekly newspaper published in AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 Windhoek, reveals that Red Scor- burg, Tel Aviv, and London, has al- Qaddafy takes a shot at ice pion tells the tale of a Soviet agent— ways been willing to foot the bill for played by Lundgren—sent to assas- key right-wing causes. It is a leading hockey sinate "an African resistance supporter of South African-backed Ice hockey has never been the leader" named Sundata (Nthodi). Renamo rebels in Mozambique, and most popular of sports in the Libyan Predictably, Lundgren's character it has consistently opposed anti- desert, but it may just catch on now sees the light about "outside forces apartheid groups in South Africa. that Col. Muammar Qaddafy seems in Africa," and proceeds to defect Last year, for example, the founda- to have taken a special interest in to Sundata's camp which is fighting tion took out advertisements in The the game. to boot the Russians and Cubans Washington Times, condemning Af- Qaddafy recently saved a West out of the country. Said Abramoff, rican National Congress President German ice hockey learn from "The Cubans and Russians in the Oliver Tambo's visit to the U.S. bankruptcy by donating $900,000 to film arc not the good guys." As a thinly veiled propaganda ef- the financially strapped first divi- Not surprisingly. Abramoff has fort in support of Savimbi's Unita sion club of Iserlohn as part of a cu- received unprecedented coopera- forces in Angola. Red Scorpion has rious sport and cultural exchange tion from the South African mili- already attracted criticism from agreement whereby the owner. tary. Pretoria has not only supplied several anti-apartheid organiza- Heinz Weifenbach, agreed to adver- soldiers, tanks, jeeps, and trucks, tions. Explained Arthur Ashe, co- tise Qaddafy \ Green Book on the but also two active-duty army offi- chairman of Artists and Atheletes team's jerseys. The deal between cers to serve as consultants, and an Against Apartheid, "We would op- Weifenbach and the World Center impressive array of Soviet-made pose any participation by an Ameri- for the Studies of the Green Book, tanks and mortars captured in An- can, especially a black American, in however, created quite a stir in the gola. As a report pointed out in the a film project of which the South Af- West German media, and the Republikein, a conservative Afri- rican government is a part. If you hockey federation promptly refused kaans-language daily in Windhoek, have part of the South African army to let Iserlohn promote Qaddafy's "This is equipment that could not be as extras, it's hard to see the film as teachings. provided by the private sector. The anything less than an endorsement film makers are paying for this as- of South Africa's policies." Swapo sistance." official Theo-Ben Gurirab con- With the pro-apartheid Interna- curred. "We call upon friends of tional Freedom Foundation as a ma- Swapo to expose and condemn this jor financial backer, money is not an scheme by identifying those in- issue. The foundation, which has volved and by boycotting this film," offices in Washington. Johannes- he said. •

low-grade atomic waste to the Be- Tripoli link adds spice to lgian nuclear research center at German nuclear scandal Mol. where they were conditioned Libyan leader Col. Muammar and reprocessed. Inquiries into the Qaddafy, the West's favorite bogey- Nukem scandal, involving bribery man, has a knack for making head- and corruption worth at least $12.? lines. This time it's in West Ger- million, also revealed that the Ger- many, where the country's nuclear man company may have circum- industry is suffering through its vented U.S. import bans on South worst scandal in history. African uranium by transporting the Qaddafy: Called for icing the Green Book The scandal centers around Ger- materials through Europe and sub- many's main nuclear company—al- stituting documentation to conceal "We were astonished with what ready burdened with the unfortu- their origin. was said and written about the nate name of Nukem—which is sus- Some of the materials, including agreement between the World Cen- pected of having illegally shipped plutonium and other fissile atomic ter and the club." said Ibrahim Ab- weapons-grade nuclear materials to elements, were reportedly shipped durrahman Ibjad. the center's di- Libya and Pakistan in breach of the to Libya and Pakistan through the rector. "It is a cultural agreement 1970 nuclear non-proliferation German port of Lubeck. Although between two institutions, and we treaty. As a result, the West German subsequent investigations by the In- believe that it is through activities government has temporarily shut ternational Atomic Energy Agency like this that we will achieve free- down Nukem and promised a full- have failed to produce any proof of dom in the world." Added Weifen- scale investigation. this, concern remains over the dis- bach during a ceremonial visit to In recent years, Nukem and its appearance of two drums of highly Tripoli, "We're talking about what transport subsidiary, Transnuklear. fissile-enriched Uranium 235 which is possible in sport and culture be- is alleged to have transferred 2,400 seem to have vanished into thin tween the two countries. It's like nuclear barrels falsely labelled as air. • ping-pong diplomacy, eh'.'" •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 THE GAMBIA ZAIRE UGANDA Authorities in Banjul arrested 20 Former Interior Minister Etienne The military fortunes of Presi- people in late January for allegedly Tshisekedi wa Mulumba. a leading dent Yoweri Museveni's National plotting to topple President Dawda member of the opposition Union for Resistance Movement, which had Jawara's government with the help Democracy and Social Progress distinctly improved following the of two unnamed African countries. (UDPS), was arrested in mid-Janu- collapse of Alice Lakwena's Holy More than half of those arrested ary for illegally organizing the par- Spirit Movement in late December, were of Senegalese origin, but the ty's first major political rally since suffered a setback when rebels of majority have since been released 1983. President Mobutu Sese Se- the Uganda People's Front (UPF) on bail. Of the 10 people still being ko's security police broke up the abducted three cabinet ministers in held for questioning, six are Sene- meeting by detaining hundreds of eastern Uganda who had come to galese and the remainder are Gam- UDPS supporters and opening tire negotiate the government's am- bian nationals, with another 26 dis- on the crowd—leading to at least nesty bill with the dissidents. sidents reportedly still in hiding. three deaths and dozens of people UPF leader Peter Otai. defense Justice Minister Hassan Jallow, injured. minister under former President however, denied that there had Tshisekedi, who had just re- Milton Obote, said he wanted to been an actual attempt to overthrow turned to Kinshasa after a six- trade the ministers for rebel pris- the government, claiming instead month lobbying tourof the U.S. and oners, but that their eventual re- that the plot involved the recruit- Europe, was taken to Makala prison lease would depend on the outcome ment of dissidents for training in where he was reportedly tortured of a national peace conference in- two foreign countries. During a and charged with threatening inter- volving all interest groups. Mu- house raid in the capital, police ap- nal security. The government later seveni, however, has said that "bar- parently discovered compromising declared him medically unfit to an- gaining with Otai is absolutely out documents and a cassette contain- swer charges, and announced that of the question," and warned. "If ing detailed instructions about how he would undergo "psychiatric the ministers die while they are in the rebels were to travel from Ban- treatment." the hands of the rebels or if anything jul to an undisclosed country in or- happens to them, it will be for Otai der to receive appropriate military POLITICAL to answer, and we shall get him training. POINTERS wherever he is." TANZANIA TUNISIA SENEGAL Zanzibar! President Idris Adbul Libyan leader Col. Muammar As Dakar geared up for its presi- Wakil suspended his entire 18-man Qaddafy visited Tunis in early Feb- dential and legislative elections on cabinet and took control of the army ruary to mark a new era of coopera- February 28, the country's 16 oppo- in late January, claiming that a tion with his neighbor, following the sition parties—spearheaded by Ab- group of dissidents—including sev- restoration of diplomatic ties be- doulaye Wade's Democratic Party eral unnamed ministers—had been tween the two countries. Tunis had of Senegal (PDS»—stepped up their plotting to overthrow his semi-au- severed relations with Tripoli in attacks against President Abdou tonomous government and return September 1985 after Libya ex- Dioufs Socialist Party (PS). Zanzibar and its sister island, pelled 32,000 Tunisian workers and Opposition groups have focused Pemba, to Arab rule. For centuries, accused Qaddafy of fomenting sub- their criticism on the country's dis- the islands were closely linked to version in the region, but the latest mal economic performance, partic- the Arab world before the over- rapprochement should enable the ularly since the Diouf government throw of the Sultan in 1964. Libyan leader to emerge from his adopted an IMF-backed austerity Wakil, who is also vice-president diplomatic isolation and to endorse program, and called for the revision of Tanzania, said that responsibility the non-aggression pact signed by of the electoral code to avoid the for the army would be shifted away Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania in widespread vote-rigging that alleg- from his Pemban political rival. 1983. edly took place in the 1983 elec- Chief Minister Seif Shariff Ha- Evidently concerned by the thaw tions. Wade, who was credited that mad—a strong advocate of liberal in relations with Libya, British year with only 17 percent of the economic reform who recently lost Home Secretary Douglas Hurd popular vote, has demanded the ob- his seat on the central committee of promptly paid an official visit to Tu- ligatory use of the secret ballot, the Tanzania's Chama Cha Mapinduzi nisia in early January and an- presence of opposition party scruti- party in October. Hamad's demo- nounced the signing of several co- neers at all polling stations, and the tion is likely to heighten the political operation agreements, including presentation of identity cards be- rift between the old guard and those Britain's offer to train and equip Tu- fore voting, but Diouf has refused to pushing for greater economic liber- nisian security forces. Hurd also comply, promising only to "person- alization, as well as fuel allegations called for greater cooperation with ally guarantee" the fairness of the among Pembans that they suffer Tunisia in the fight against interna- election. from Zanzibari discrimination. tional terrorism.

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 AFRICAN OUTLOOK Conte moves quickly to stamp out the fire in Conakry President Lansana Conte, facing Signs of growing discontent in the and 17 civilians had been sentenced the most serious political challenge country and in particular, within the to death, but rumors persisted that to his government since the aborted army, had forced Conte to postpone Traore and Siaka Toure—nephew coup attempt by former Prime Min- at the last minute an official visit to of the former president and head of ister Diana Traore in July 1985, an- France in December. Instead. the notorious Camp Boiro where nounced a major cabinet reshuffle Conte toured the nation's garrisons thousands of Cuineans died—had in mid-January intended to appease to appease soldiers angered by low been killed soon after the coup at- some of his most outspoken critics pay and to subdue ethnic rivalries tempt. Said Conte. "Those who within the ruling Military Commit- emerging within the army. were seeking revenge took revenge. tee for National Redress (CMRN). Tensions in the barracks had I could not do anything about that." Coming only two weeks after the mounted after Conte admitted for In an effort to appease his critics, government was badly shaken by the first time that some of the plot- Conte promised to increase salaries violent student demonstrations ters of the abortive 1985 coup and for civil servants and the military by over price rises for basic commodi- officials of the former Sekou Toure 80 percent and announced that the ties, the long-awaited cabinet over- regime had been executed without late president's wife. Andree Toure, haul was engineered amid persist- trial. A government communique in and 60 other political detainees had ent rumors that a coup attempt May had disclosed that 20 soldiers Continued on next page against Conte was in the making. The most significant government change involved Maj. Keif alia Camara, Conte"s number-two and Thatcher leaves her mark in a whirlwind CMRN permanent secretary, who was demoted to a provincial post in tour of Kenya and Nigeria Kankan. near the Mali border. In Although British Prime Minister been marred by widespread reports recent months, Camara had gained Margaret Thatcher's winter safari to of torture, political detentions, and increasing influence within the gov- Kenya and Nigeria in early January unfair trials. ernment and was reported to have may have produced a lot of head- Instead, Thatcher praised Moi for established strong ties with dissatis- lines, in the end it led to few, if any, his "strong and decisive leadership fied elements in the army, spurring surprises. As expected, the thorny within a constitutional frame- Conte to effectively banish him issue of South African apartheid did work." and hailed his government's from the center of power. Two other get in the way from time to time, but support for the private sector. "It is powerful CMRN members were once the dust had cleared, the Brit- one of the besl stories there is to tell also demoted: Former Defense ish government left little doubt that in Africa," she said. "We admire Minister Lt.-Col. Sory Doumbouya her trip had been a resounding suc- your country's peace and stability, was transferred to the obscure post cess. Buoyed by the flag-waving policies which recognize the worth of resident-minister in charge of and enthusiasm of the Kenyans and of individual effort and personal en- Middle Guinea, while Lt-Col. heartened by the positive response deavor. . . and an economy in Oumar Barou was replaced as inte- of the Nigerian authorities. which private ownership and pri- rior minister and named governor of Thatcher returned to Britain to pro- vate industry have been encour- Conakry. mote both countries as models of aged." Conversely, former Foreign Min- African capitalism and democracy. Thatcher spent much of her ister Maj. Facine Toure—one of Thatchers visit to Africa—her three-day stay visiting metal work- Conte's harshest critics who had first to the continent since she at- shops, tanneries, sheep pens, and been banished to the Forest Region tended the 1979 Commonwealth tea estates outside of Nairobi, and in an earlier reshuffle—made an un- Summit in Lusaka—was potentially even brought some much needed expected comeback by being risky business given her highly un- British rain with her while inspect- named minister of transport and popular anti-sanctions line on South ing a self-help project in the arid public works. In addition, former Africa. But Kenya was hand-picked plains south of the capital among Inspector-General of the Armed as a safe bet. and President Daniel the nomadic Masai people. Wher- Forces Maj. Ali Sofani was pro- arap Moi obliged. Moi downplayed ever Thatcher went, Kenyan au- moted to the full position of minister differences with Thatcher over thorities gave her royal treatment of the interior and decentralization, apartheid and the British prime min- and it paid off. which will give him the political ister did her best to close her eyes to Thatcher announced that Britain clout to better deal with future dis- the Kenyan government's question- had cancelled $125 million worth of turbances. able human rights record, which has Continued on page 10

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 GUINEA. . .continued Compaore raises the stakes in Burkina been released from prison. The gov- When President Thomas Sankara died in a bloody coup in October and ernment later indicated that an addi- Capt. Blaise Compaore took over by forming a Popular Front government. tional number of unspecified pris- Burkina Faso suddenly found itself plunged into a state of disarray and oners would be "'progressively re- political uncertainty. But in recent weeks, the once-clouded political picture leased" over the coming months. has begun to crystallize as existing tensions have become more polarized— But when authorities announced particularly since the mid-December arrest of several leading members of a 78 percent increase in the cost o\' the opposition League for Communist Struggle-Reconstituted (ULC-R). petrol, it immediately triggered a Among those rounded up were Valere Some, former minister of higher price war for basic commodities education in the Sankara government, and Basile Guissou, former foreign that eventually led to violent affairs minister who was a close friend of the late president's. They are being clashes between large groups of stu- held, according to government sources, for allegedly having written and disseminated tracts calling for the overthrow of the Popular Front govern- ment. The ULC-R. however, has denied any involvement in tract-writing and distribution, condemning the "escalation of repression" against its members. The group has also demanded the immediate release of all political detainees, and called on militants to protest against "these anti-democratic acts." Reports have filtered out of Ouagadougou that both Some and Guissou have been severely tortured, the victims of hosing with freezing water and burning, but these allegations have not been confirmed. Government sources who deny that torture has been utilized, nonetheless do acknowl- edge that some physical mistreatment may have occurred by overzealous police officers. The detention of ULC-R members appears to have been sparked by the emergence of the first explicitly pro-Sankara opposition since the coup. Describing itself as the Democratic and Popular Union-Thomas Sankara (RDP), a clandestine group issued a communique in Ouagadougou announc- ing its decision to organize the "popular resistance that has not ceased to grow throughout the country." The group, which characterized the October coup as a "severe blow" to the Burkinabe revolution, called on the Com- paore government to meet several key demands in order to "begin the pro- cess of a return to democracy, and close one of the most sombre pages in our country's history." The RDP-Thomas Sankara has demanded an end to repressive measures, the release of all political prisoners, the publication of a full list of those who were killed in the coup, and a trial of those responsible for killing the late president and his companions. It has also proposed a conference of "all Conte: Facing growing tii political forces" in Burkina Faso to be held in a neutral place so as to help avoid a "fractricidal confrontation" and further bloodshed. dents and unemployed youths, and But the Compaore government, which remains politically insecure, has so security forces in the streets of Con- far chosen to keep its critics in detention. A group of 20 former ministers and akry. Within days, transportation government officials closely associated with Sankara have remained in and rent in the capital doubled or prison since the period immediately following the coup. They include former tripled, as did the price of staple cabinet ministers Ernest Ouedraogo, Fidele Toe, Abdul Salam Kabore, foods like rice, bread, and milk, Eugene Dondasse. Alain Koeffe, and Juste Tiemtore, as well Capt. Pierre forcing Conte to decree a return to Ouedraogo, the former head of the mass-based Committees for the Defense end of year prices and to denounce of the Revolution. the "economic saboteurs" who Very highly placed sources in Ouagadougou, however, have informed were intent on ruining the country. Africa Report that the above group, along with the U LC-R detainees will be The hike in the cost of living released by early March—a decision by the Popular Front which would be sparked off two days of protests by an important first step in its efforts to establish credibility in the eyes of many university students and urban Burkinabe people. youths who ransacked market stalls and pillaged shops in the Guinean tral market. When the demonstra- jured, but the government weath- capital. The army, using batons and tors reassembled on the university ered the storm by freezing the tear gas to disperse the demonstra- campus, police swooped in and ar- prices of basic commodities and tors, was called in after the rioters rested about 50 people. One person agreeing to improve students' living forced their way through police cor- was reportedly killed and an un- conditions and health facilities on dons to make their way to the cen- specified number of others were in- campus. •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 THATCHER. . .continued These token gifts, however, did scuffle broke out and Thatcher's not prevent Nigerian anti-apartheid press secretary. Bernard Ingham. loans, and that as a goodwill ges- demonstrators from condemning was hit in the stomach with a rifle ture, it would provide Kenya with her visit. Despite a government ban butt. No one else was hurt, how- an additional $35 million grant for on demonstrations, protestors gath- ever, and Thatcher subsequently balance of payments support. Brit- ered for her arrival at Lagos airport made light of the incident at a press ain, which has the largest foreign in- to burn a Union Jack, chant anti- conference reserved for British vestment stake in the country at British slogans, and wave placards journalists, apologizing. "I'm sorry more than $1 billion and makes use such as, "Go home Thatcher. You that some of you had difficulty get- of key naval facilities to guarantee are unwanted in Nigeria;1' ting in." its access to the strategically impor- "Thatcher, modern day Hitler;" But before returning to Britain, tant Indian Ocean, has made Kenya and "Maggie, nanny of the Boers' Thatcher could not resist having the the largest beneficiary of its over- empire." last word on South Africa. Al- seas aid to Africa. Said Thatcher, But it was during the final day of though her talks with Babangida "Kenya is the second largest recipi- her African tour in the northern Ni- centered primarily on economic is- ent—after India—of aid from Brit- gerian city of Kano that things sues, she claimed to have won the ain and you feel that every pound threatened to get out of hand. Prior argument over sanctions against spent here really does good for the to a spectacular ceremony orga- Pretoria—an allegation vehemently people o\' Kenya and. . . as an ex- nized by the Emir of Kano in her denied by the Nigeriangovcrnment. ample for the whole of Africa." honor, involving thousands of col- Said Thatcher confidently, even orfully dressed horsemen, acro- leaders of the frontline states now bats, and musicians, confusion "accept the validity of the argument within the ranks of the Nigerian se- against sanctions, because they curity forces caused them to lose know that if they impose sanctions, control of the crowd. As the prime it will harm their own people. We minister's entourage was trying to have won the argument and what make its way up the palace stairs, a we have now is the rhetoric." • Botha makes a move on Kudu gas field Recent reports that South Africa The massive gas reservoir, which has given Namibia's so-called Tran- lies off the mouth of the Orange sitional Government of National River just inside Namibian waters, Unity the green light to exploit the was originally discovered in 1974 potentially crucial Kudu offshore during drilling operations by Chev- gas field is a sure sign that President ron, the U.S.-based oil company. P.W. Botha's regime has no inten- Chevron's rights to the gas deposit tion of relinquishing control of the were subsequently bought by the occupied territory in the near fu- South West African Oil Exploration ture. According to the London- Corporation (Swacor), but for many based Namibia Communications years the South African govern- Centre, the Kudu gas field—which ment preferred It) treat the find as a is said to be the fifth largest in the well-kept secret. world and between 5-10 times as Babangida: Gets thumbs up from Thatcher South Africa, which has no natu- large as the South African gas field ral oil reserves of its own. appar- Her brief stopover in Nigeria had near Mossel Bay in Cape Prov- ently considered that exploitation its tense moments, but she also had ince—could supply Pretoria with of the gas field was not a financially kind words for President Ibrahim 30-65 percent of its fuel require- sound proposition, given Namibia's Babangida, whom she congratu- ments for the next 20 years. uncertain political status. But Swa- lated for having had the courage to Namibian Mining Minister An- kor's managing director. Piet van undertake a difficult structural ad- dreas Shipanga claims to have held Zyl. recently revealed that his gov- justment program, in many respects "intensive discussions" with sev- ernment had reassessed its position harsher than standard International eral companies in Britain who have and that a final evaluation of the Monetary Fund prescriptions. To shown a "keen interest" in the de- entire project had been officially ap- demonstrate her support for such velopment and exploitation of the proved. efforts, she promised that Britain gas field. However, he refrained A French offshore engineering would assist Nigeria in its military from disclosing the identity of these company, Forintcr. has already be- training program, and pledged an corporations, no doubt because of gun the exploratory work from of- additional $40 million worth of ex- the controversial implications of fices in Cape Town, putting in place port credits to help build an impor- doing business with the South Afri- a test drilling rig and platform to de- tant irrigation project. can-controlled territory. termine the size of the gas deposits.

10 AFRICA REPORT" March-April 1988 If (his second well indicates lhat gas formations correspond to those found by Chevron, invitations will Somali rights abuses on trial again be extended to international oil After a week-long public trial in early February. Somalia's national secu- companies to exploit the deposit rity court in Mogadishu sentenced former Vice President Brig.-Gen. Ismail and establish a shore-based liquid Ah Abokor, former foreign minister Omar Arteh Ghalib, and six others to fuel plant. death by firing squad for plotting to overthrow President Mohamed Siad There are a number of factors be- Bane's government six years ago. The special court found them guilty of hind South Africa's shift in strategy "forming and putting into operation a group that was aimed at causing chaos from the 1970s. The international oil It) the unity and security of the Somali nation." but Bane subsequently embargo, having gained momen- agreed to commute their sentences to life imprisonment following pressure tum, has made it more imperative from human rights organizations and the U.S. State Department. than ever for Pretoria to attain self- Amnesty International called the trial a "gross miscarriage of justice." sufficiency in its fuel requirements. pointing out that the diverse group of 20 politicians, army officers, scientists, An equally important consideration doctors, and businessmen had been denied a real opportunity to defend is that the amount of foreign cur- themselves in court. Several rights groups, including the New York-based rency saved would relieve the finan- Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, had requested permission to moni- cial strain the Botha government tor the trial, but the government chose to ignore their appeals. has experienced as a result of its Prior to the trial, a report entitled "Scientists and Human Rights in Soma- war against Swapo and the Angolan lia." published in Washington by the National Academy of Sciences and the government. Institute of Medicine, charged that many of Mogadishu's political prisoners The Kudu gas field would also en- were frequently tortured and mistreated. Members of a joint delegation, who able the apartheid regime to signifi- had gone to Somalia in October to monitor the country's human rights rec- cantly strengthen its grip over the ord, found that detainees were held in continuous solitary confinement, that occupied territory, while providing some had been physically abused, and that others had been refused medical South Africa with vast profits and treatment. thousands of jobs during a time of Authorities in Mogadishu refused to permit the American observers to economic recession. Other consid- visit the prisoners and denied their repeated requests to meet with Barre. but erations undoubtedly included the the delegation did succeed in gathering substantial information on the de- fall in the value of the rand, which tainees' status from other sources in the country. In particular, the delegates has made oil imports considerably documented the cases of 13 dissident scientists, engineers, and physicians more costly, and the fact that con- who they claim have been kept unjustly imprisoned for years, and called for verting gas into oil has become so their immediate and unconditional release. sophisticated in recent years that it Two of the U.S-educated intellectuals—architect Suleiman Nuh Ali and is now cheaper than the oil-from- professor Abdi Ismail Yunis—were among those condemned to death by the coal process which South Africa national security court. In a document smuggled to human rights organiza- has always relied on. tions, Ali alleged that he had been tortured by the Somali security police into Hxploitation of the Kudu gas signing a statement confessing that subversive materials had been found field, however, is a clear violation o\ during a search of his home in September 1982. the UN's Decree Number One for "I told them 1 was not a member to any organization. . . and that they go to the Protection of the Natural Re- hell." Ali wrote in a 28-page manuscript that has been authenticated by sources of Namibia, which pro- Amnesty International. "I was taken from my cell, handcuffed, blindfolded, hibits any exploitation of the territo- driven in a land cruiser and taken to a beach. There 1 was tortured very ry's raw materials until it has gained badly. Many nights were repeated until I was forced to sign anything they independence. Mining companies wanted." are already facing a renewed chal- Somalia's ambassador to the U.S.. Abdullahi Ahmed Addou. however, lenge to their operations in Namibia has categorically denied the allegation of torture. "'Whoever wrote that following the decision by the UN statement, I want to tell you it's not our character and our policy to torture Council for Namibia last July to ini- people. Of course, anyone can write and say 'I was tortured'." tiate legal proceedings against Had the U.S. fact-finding mission to Somalia been allowed to visit Ali and Urcnco. the Duteh-German-Brilish other political detainees, accounts of torture would have been easier to uranium processing consortium ac- verify. The delegation's report nonetheless contains extensive medical de- cused of processing uranium from scriptions provided by the Canadian Centre for Investigation and Prevention Namibia's large Rossing mine. The of Torture, detailing the examination of 36 recent emigres and confirming the trial, which is to be heard in the allegation of physical abuse in Somali prisons. Hague in March, will be scrutinized According to the State Department, there are between 300 and 500 politi- by other companies involved in pro- cal detainees in Somalia with at least 200 of them being held without charge, ducing or marketing the country's but the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights believes these figures to be minerals and, if successful, could much higher, for they "seriously underestimate the arrests that have become pave the way for further legal ac- a common feature of political life in Somalia." tion. •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 11 COTEd'IVOIRE MOZAMBIQUE MADAGASCAR Faced with a dramatic and pro- Despite grappling with an unre- President Didier Ratsiraka's gov- longed slide in the prices of cocoa lenting 12-year-old civil war and a ernment, which has been applying a and coffee—which account for 60 severe drought, Mozambique's rigid structural adjustment program percent of the country's export once bleak economic fortunes have to the letter for the past five years, earnings—President Felix greatly improved, according to Fi- has finally been rewarded for being Houphouet-Boigny has launched a nance Minister Abdul Magid Os- one of the IMF's star pupils. At a bitter attack against "'Western spec- man who is overseeing the second meeting in Paris in late January, a ulators" whom he claims are re- year of a tough IM F-sponsored eco- total of nine Western countries and sponsible for the continuing crisis in nomic recovery program. After suf- a dozen multilateral agencies the world commodities market. fering through an annual 8 percent pledged to supply Madagascar with Dutch and English speculators, he decline in GDP between 1980 and at least $700 million a year between said, talk of cocoa overproduction 1986, Mozambique rebounded with 1988-90, more than doubling the to keep prices down, while actively a 4 percent growth in GDP last year, funds provided at the last donors' encouraging new plantations in enabling Osman to predict that conference in April 1986. Asian countries. "with more Keynesian measures" The IMF's recipe, however, has Last year, plummeting prices al- ahead, the economy should grow by failed to stimulate the island's eco- ready forced Abidjan to inform dis- 6 percent in 1988. nomic growth, with the economy mayed creditors that it could no Under the tutelage of the IMF, expanding by only 0.8 percent in longer honor its $8.4 billion external the government has devalued the 1986 and by 2 percent last year debt, but renewed doubts over the metical by more than 400 percent, against an annual population in- effectiveness of the International slashed public spending, and crease of 3 percent. The massive in- Cocoa Organization (ICCO) agree- sharply increased producer prices jection of additional funds should ment have led the government to for farmers in an effort to wipe out lead to a growth in exports to help ask Western banks to link debt re- the black market and encourage pri- service Antananarivo's $3.2 billion payments to trends in commodity vate enterprise, external debt, but as the World prices. Bank has already acknowledged, BUSINESS per capita income will continue to fall until 1990—prolonging the BRIEFS steady impoverishment of much of RWANDA the population. Last year's virtual collapse in ANGOLA commodity prices for coffee and In an effort to rebuild the coun- MALAWI tea—Kigali's two main exports— try's war-shattered economy. Presi- has seriously clouded the country's dent Jose Eduardo dos Santos re- President-for-Life Hastings Ka- once bright economic future. De- cently announced the start of a muzu Banda's government is facing pendent upon coffee exports for 85 three-year economic and financial its worst threat of famine in nearly a percent of its annual foreign earn- restructuring program which is ex- decade, with some 200,000 tons of ings. President Juvenal Habyari- pected to improve productivity, maize needed before April to avoid mana's government was forced to purchasing power, and consump- the likelihood of widespread starva- cut its 1987 budget by 15 percent in tion levels by encouraging foreign tion. The acute maize shortage in a order to subsidize payments to cof- investment and private enterprise. country which has until recently fee producers, while dishing out Implementation of the wide-rang- been self-sufficient in food high- about $40 million to Rwandex, the ing reforms—including the selec- lights not only the problems of coffee exporter which buys the lo- tive privatization of the state sector, drought, crop pests, and the addi- cal crop. the ending of budget subsidies for tional burden of more than 370.000 Because Rwanda pays the high- loss-making parastatals, and the refugees from neighboring Mozam- est coffee producer prices in the re- eventual devaluation of the bique, but also exposes the failure gion, nearly a third of the average kwanza—should pave the way for of Banda's present agricultural pol- yearly coffee exports of 30,000 to IMF support and a rescheduling of icy. 40.000 tons are smuggled in from Angola's $4 billion external debt. In recent years, Banda has en- neighboring Burundi, Uganda, and Dos Santos, who formally applied couraged smallholders to plant a Zaire. About 8,000 tons of robusta for IMF membership last year, ac- greater quantity of tobacco to in- type coffee, for example, are annu- knowledged that "excessive ideo- crease export earnings, leading ally exported from Kigali—even logical zeal" had caused delays in farmers to use more land for cash though Rwanda has no such trees. debt rescheduling talks, but that ne- crops at the expense of maize, the But with the drastic fall in prices, gotiations with Western govern- country's staple food. As a result, widespread smuggling has become ments were now underway to help maize production, which already a costly embarrassment, causing resolve the debt problem—the fell by 4.5 percent in 1986, has con- the government to pay out a great "main obstacle" to Luanda's eco- tinued to do so with the onset of the deal more than it can afford. nomic recovery. drought.

12 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 South Africa

Interview with the Reverend Frank Chikane

As Africa Report went to press, the South African government, in its latest crackdown on growing popular resistance, banned 17 organizations—including the United Democratic Front—and arrested several leading churchmen engaged in a peaceful protest. The general secretary of the South African Council of Churches analyzes the increasingly important role of the churches in the deepening crisis, appealing to the international community to assist before it is too late.

INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI

Africa Report: How do you see your mandate as general deal with the victims, or do we need to stop the victimizer? secretary of the South African Council of Churches at this After the Eminent Persons Group visit and after a number point in the struggle? of church leaders visited P. W. Botha after the state of emer- Chikane: My appointment was an extraordinary one. The gency was declared, it became very clear that it is the National church leaders searched for a general secretary for two years. Party which does not want to talk. People have gone to Lu- They were looking for a general secretary in relation to the saka and talked to the ANC and they are convinced that there nature of the mission the church in South Africa has to carr> is dialogue in Lusaka, but there is no dialogue in Pretoria. And out in a crisis situation—one this is the crisis the ordinary which had broken out into a church leader, who is no radi- real, visible type of war and cal whatsoever, is facing. confrontation between the My assignment is to assist forces of apartheid and those the church leadership in South of the people. I was called in Africa to look at ways and during this critical time when means of ministering to the we have to determine exactly victimizer, to actually stop the what the role of the church is. victimizer from continuing with The Council of Churches apartheid. The big question is and the churches affiliated to it what do we do? The under- have done a lot of good work. standing of the churches is that We spend millions of rands we need to resolve it around helping detainees and their the table, but we need to cre- families, organizing finance for ate the conditions for an the legal defense of those who around-the-table discussion, are on trial, those who get dis- and how do you do that? That placed and banned away from is the crisis we are facing. their homes, those who get at- Africa Report: So you ex- tacked by the system. That pect the churches to play a type of work is ministry to the more direct political role in try- victims of apartheid. But we ing to bring about the condi- have reached a critical point "We have a unique situation in South Africa where we are op- tions for around-the-table dis- pressed and tortured by Christians" with the govern- where the victiniizer is going cussions to extremes and we now have more victims than ever before. ment? The churches are beginning to say: Is our role just to try to Chikane: The church traditionally has tried to keep the two

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 13 [religion and politics] apart, but in the South African situation it has become impossible especially when Christians belonging to the same church are involved on both sides. We have a "My assignment is to assist the unique situation in South Africa where we are oppressed and church leadership in South Africa to tortured by Christians. It is Christians who are at war against look at ways and means of each other. Secondly, the Dutch Reformed Church white ministering to the victimizes to people developed a theology to justify apartheid. So the actually stop the victimizer from church has a direct responsibility. continuing with apartheid." The whole system affects the life of the church, and for that reason, church leaders have been forced to get involved. But it is also the crude, brutal way in which the National Party is the weak, poor, and victims in society. The powerful had trying to maintain apartheid which is moving even the ordinary usurped the religion and used it against the people for oppres- church leader to say he cannot stand aloof. It affects our sion. It was our responsibility as Christians to liberate the congregations, and we must step in and intervene. Gospel from the hands of the oppressor, and that has cost me For a national council of churches to declare the regime a lot in terms of finding myself in confrontation with the sys- illegitimate and say therefore that we are not bound to obey tem, getting detained many times, getting tortured, getting the unjust laws of the apartheid system, and that we will work suspended by my own church for one year because they felt I with alternative structures which are recognized by the peo- was involved in politics. ple—that is a very serious decision. It is not because the Then I became general secretary of the Institute for Con- church in South Africa has become radical or it has become textual Theology for about six years, where I developed this very different from an ordinary church, but it is forced by the theological understanding and assisted the churches in South circumstances to move in that direction. Africa to reflect theologically on the crisis. Thus we have the Africa Report: Is it not also the fact that given the nature of Kairos Document, the Evangelical Witness in South Africa, the apartheid system, which does not allow for the emergence which are influencing the thinking of the church, even if the of any other true leadership, that you as churchmen have to churches have not adopted those documents. Maybe it was play a leadership role? out of my witness and life experience that church leaders Chikane: If they go to Soweto and detain its leadership and thought they should get me to be general secretary at this some go underground and then the police go and evict people stage. from their homes, the only people available are the church. So Africa Report: You have said before that black theology is when people get into trouble, they phone Khotso House at the liberation theology. What is liberation theology's relevance to SACC and ask for assistance. We are bound to go in there and the South African situation? intervene. We feel it is part of our ministry. It is that vacuum Chikane: The Christian victims of the North who are in the that forces the church to move in and close the gap. South, basically the Third World, were forced to develop I've heard most of the church leaders, like Desmond Tutu, different models of theological perspectives because they re- say, "I'm just a caretaker leader. I'm not their leader. The alized that religion was used to oppress them. So it is not people's leaders are there and when they come back, I'll surprising that new models of theology are developing in the continue with my church." That is very clear in South Africa. Third World—liberation theology in Latin America, black the- There is no confusion of a church which thinks it's a liberation ology in South Africa, African theology in Africa—all of them movement. The church can't be a liberation movement on its are looking at the Bible from the perspective of the op- own and cannot take over the country as a church. It is the pressed. Is God with the oppressor or with the oppressed? Is people who have to take over the country. God a God of justice or injustice? Is God the God of the Africa Report: You said that it took two years before you powerful who victimize others or of the weak? were chosen as SACC general secretary, and that the choice Those questions force the victims to develop a different came out of this crisis situation. What is unique about your theological perception, a liberating form of theology. The ba- background that suits you for the position? sic message of the Bible is a call to freedom, a call to a kingdom Chikane: In the past, I was a member of a very conservative of God where there will be no injustices or oppression. It is a Pentacostal evangelical church in South Africa which doesn't call to salvation. It is difficult for oppressed people not to see any relationship between the political realities in the coun- detect the liberating theme in the Bible, which is not detected try and their form of spirituality. But because of the crisis we by those who see it from the point of view of the powerful. were facing in the country, I was forced as a black pastor to And for that reason, when we say this is a liberating theology, reanalyze that whole situation and it became very clear that then they say we must be Marxists or communists! there was no way that you could make people see sense in the The reality of the struggles in this world have been clouded Christian faith when it is Christians who are brutalizing them. I by ideological and religious conceptions. When they threaten needed to redefine what Christianity is, which is different us that the communists will stop us from having our faith, they from what the white racist minority is saying Christianity is. are using the question of faith for their own interests. For us, Through that process of reinterpreting the faith and the it is a question of justice, not whether one is in the East or the Bible, I became aware that the powerful and oppressors of West. If anyone proves to me that they are for justice, then this world have sabotaged that religious heritage, a religion of they are with us. This is the risk we run in South Africa that

14 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 the West, by supporting the apartheid regime, is doing a not going to stop it in South Africa unless they are given an disservice to its own cause. If they take sides with justice, the alternative. people of South Africa will welcome them. But if they take Africa Report: Do you see any positive sign that the govern- sides with the apartheid system, then they must not blame ment is taking up any kind of opening for this kind of discussion people of South Africa when they say that the West is our that would be able to create these conditions? enemy. Chikane: As it is now, there is no sign of hope, but I don't Africa Report: In the Lusaka Declaration, the SACC ac- believe that we need to wait for them to change so that we can cepted the inevitability of the armed struggle. Given that see some signs of hope. We need to force them. That reality churches have traditionally espoused non-violence, did that has dawned even on ordinary church leaders that those who indicate a shift in church policy? are in power brutalizing other people's lives need to be forced Chikane: Yes, there has been the adoption of a new position to abandon that power. It is for this reason that people called within the Council of Churches, moving away from condemn- for comprehensive, mandatory sanctions against South Africa ing those who resort to violence to saying we understand why because they believe it will weaken the economic base and you have resorted to violence. But that does not mean that we therefore the military base and therefore the government now are going to take up arms and be violent ourselves. What itself. And if it is weakened, the people who are engaged in we are saying is that given a situation where the whole army struggle will be able to put so much pressure on them without the army and the support of the West to fall back on that they are likely to have to give in. For me, it is a question of how you reduce the amount of loss of life and suffering before you reach that stage. If the international community intervenes, it will lessen the pain. But if it doesn't, the people of South Africa will still fight that system. It may take longer. Thousands will die. but in the end, they will have to give in. What we are asking is to do it now, so that we don't wait until too many people are dead, and then still come back and do the very thing that should have been done long, long ago. Africa Report: So you don't see events such as the release of Govan Mbeki as a sign of hope? Chikane: Forme, it was not much ofa sign of hope. What the government wants to do is to release Nelson Mandela without changing apartheid. That is the real issue. They released Govan Mbeki to test the waters whether they would not have difficulties both from the left and the right. But their concep- "Given a situation where the whole army and police are against tion is to release Mandela to accept the apartheid reality in you and you don't have an army or state to protect you, we which we are living. And I am saying it is not going to happen understand why you resort to arms to defend yourself" because the people of South Africa won't allow it. And there- and police are against you and you don't have an army or state fore, there isn't hope in that sense. to protect you, we understand why you resort to arms to If Botha wants to release Mandela, he must have guts defend yourself. We are nevertheless still committed to find- enough to face the reality that he will also have to relinquish ing ways and means of resolving this problem so that it be- power to the people of South Africa. 1 don't think the govern- comes unnecessary for the people to take up arms and fight ment lias reached that stage. That's why they don't want to go the system. The churches are moving away from moral pro- to the conference table because they will lose power if they nouncements to committing themselves to action. do. And that is the crisis P.W. is facing. Africa Report: What sort of action do you envisage? Africa Report: What is the role of the SACC in bringing Chikane: Creating the conditions which would be conducive together the various black movements inside South Africa— enough for people to sit around the table and resolve the UDF, Azapo, etc. ? Is the conflict between these groups exag- problem and have a ceasefire, stop the war and rule the coun- gerated? try on the basis of a just system. What the church needs to do Chikane: I have problems with people who want to see is to create the conditions. Once they are created, then the blacks in South Africa thinking alike-—a nation of people who people can take over and talk about the future. The church think alike. They have the right to think differently. They have can't prescribe what type of a future it should be. the right to form different organizations, like people in the It is that role which will give us the legitimacy to make moral West form different parties. What concerns us as a church is pronouncements. The ANC is saving to us, "Give us an alter- when that difference is expressed in a violent form. It is for native. We don't like fighting, we don't like killing people. We this reason that we have taken a resolution which commits us don't want anybody black or white to die, but give us an to working for an end to the violent confrontation between alternative." We would be hypocritical to say that we have no black political organizations. alternative, but we are saying stop it. Those black people are But I also think there is a misunderstanding of what this

AFRICA REPORT* March-April 1988 15 conflict is all about. The press tends to pick it up as black-on- everything that the system would like to hear—attack the black violence. I would like to refute that analysis because for ANC, communists, the UDF, the call for sanctions. For me, me, it is the violence between the system and the people. If a he is not a problem because you can't do much about it. policeman happens to be black and the children are black, and Africa Report: What is the future for South Africa's chil- they happen to clash and one dies in the process, it is not dren? black-on-black violence, it is the forces of apartheid fighting Chikane: We are going to pay heavily for the type of children with the people of South Africa. we are producing today because in South Africa we have a But what about UDF-Azapo, Azapo-Inkatha? My explana- situation where children are not given the chance to be chil- tion is that people should know that any sophisticated system, dren. They are forced to be adults and are forced to make faced with an upsurge of the masses in the country for justice, decisions which are meant for adults. That they have to make will use what they call counter-revolutionary methods of sup- such decisions as whether to write an exam because another pressing the resistance of the people. They use their intelli- student has been detained is a very serious ethical-moral gence network to create fragmentation within the opposition, decision to make. In a normal society, you don't subject small to create violence among those people. kids to a situation where they have to make such choices. I am a living example. In 1985, two days after I had been For that reason, I think we are going to pay heavily because released from prison, I was attacked and when I called the we are going to produce a community of people who got police, they came and said it was Azapo which attacked me. I completely uprooted and destabilized. We are going to face a said, "If it is Azapo, then you must bring the person into court community of people who, when they were children, were tomorrow." We have not seen that Azapo person up to now. forced into violent options of defending themselves, even at But if even an officer of government would say that in public, times using very crude methods. It is a very abnormal situa- then you know that they are part of a strategy of creating tion to have a kid of about 14 years engaged in battering a conflict among people. person to death in the streets. Whatever way the regime uses They have been seen backing up some of the factions, the it to show that it is this violence that made us declare the state vigilantes, Inkatha. That is public knowledge. They have of emergency, my argument is that that such conditions have armed some of the groups. They have put up hit squads and been created for a child to do that is the most serious. assassination units. If you don't want to be implicated as a Therefore we need to address the conditions so created government, you just set up an unofficial arm of the govern- because an ordinary child does not do that type of thing unless ment to do it. So we are not naive. We are fighting a very that person is a real psychiatric case. We are going to face the sophisticated system and it creates that type of violence. consequences of those children who have been completely Africa Report: How does Inkatha lit in in this analysis? Is it destabilized, dehumanized. I doubt there is a way in which we being used by the system? can avoid it. A lot of them have lost their schooling. Most of Chikane: I think that is public knowledge. Inkatha has been them are products of Bantu education anyway, which is not seen attacking the people backed up by military vehicles, with helpful. Apartheid has caused so much damage that even the police and army behind them. But the world likes what when we become free tomorrow, we are going to have to pay Gatsha is saying and tends to guarantee his future, and protect heavily for it. his interests. They want to believe that Inkatha is not a violent Africa Report: How do you see the next five years? organization when there is ample evidence of the violent way Chikane: I think there are two options. One is that if the in which Inkatha has been used. I believe those poor ordinary international community still has some tinge of morality to people are being used and it is for this reason that people in respond to our appeal, then in the next few years we might South Africa, even youngsters, have said that we must differ- find ourselves at a conference table where the problem of entiate between the people in Zululand and Inkatha. There is a South Africa is resolved. But if Thatcher and Reagan are going difference. That is a sophisticated way in which our people are to continue with the types of positions they are taking, then able to handle that type of dynamic. they are going to leave the people of South Africa to sort out Africa Report: What about Buthelezi himself? the problem on their own. Chikane: Gatsha Buthelezi is an adult. He has made his It may take more than five years, but they are going to do it political choices. I know that Desmond Tutu tried whatever he in the end. It will mean that there will be a bloody war in South could and still got into trouble with the chief and there were Africa, which might engulf the very people who didn't want to public statements made against Tutu. Since then, he couldn't be involved and assist in the resolution of the problem. And at do much about it. Buthelezi has chosen to be a leader of an that stage, it might not be easy to intervene. I've tried to apartheid homeland based on apartheid structures. He has appeal to people not to leave South Africans to go on that road. chosen to operate politically from that base. He has chosen There are some people in the West who say South Africa is not to be part of the ANC or of the labor movement of South still strong, it will continue for a long time. And I'm saying the Africa and has set up his own labor movement. It is very clear fact that they are strong is an indication that there is going to that the choice is an intelligent one. It is a conscious decision be a bloody confrontation, because for the people to develop on his part and everybody has the right to make his or her enough power to fight that system will mean that we are going choices. The people of South Africa see him as part and parcel to have a very violent war. We need to avoid that option and I of the system, employed by the system and running part of hope that people can see some light to assist us in avoiding the country according to the laws of that system, and saying it. •

16 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 Commonwealth After Vancouver

The Commonwealth Secretary-General outlines the achievements of the last conference in Vancouver in formulating a program of action on southern Africa. Despite Britain's continued opposition to sanctions, Sir Shridath Ramphal argues that the Commonwealth will piay an activist and united role in resolving the southern African crisis.

BY SIR SHRIDATH RAMPHAL

am sometimes asked why Common- gardless of color, to white people as well do with the Commonwealth itself as Iwealth summits are so preoccupied who resent what apartheid seeks to do with South Africa. with the question of southern Africa. through a racist philosophy that wrongly It is essential to remember this. Not For most people, the answer is self-evi- implicates them. being sensitive to it is a grievous omis- dent, but it might be worthwhile restat- Throughout the countries of the sion, and that omission has been a factor ing some fundamentals which have Commonwealth, therefore, whether in Commonwealth discussions. It is not rightly ensured that the Commonwealth their majority populations are black, possible to be true to the Common- has become a major actor in relation to brown, or white, or are themselves so wealth while being less than militant southern African issues. multiracial as to defy classification by against apartheid. In the evolution of Commonwealth leaders have consis- color, apartheid stirs deep passions. In policy—especially since the Nassau tently identified apartheid as the root the collectivity of the Commonwealth, summit—this basic truth has come to cause of the major problems throughout those passions are multiplied as apart- be more widely recognized. And it is the southern African region—problems heid is seen to also challenge the most this recognition that has helped the in the political, social, economic, and basic of its tenets. That is why in 1961 Commonwealth to come through con- alas, in the military sphere as well. At South Africa had to leave the Common- sistently not only with credibility but the heart of them all is apartheid. This is wealth. Apartheid was not compatible also with vitality renewed. reason enough for Commonwealth con- with Commonwealth membership. Just before setting out from London cern, but there are even deeper reasons Today, it cannot be compatible with to the Vancouver Commonwealth con- why apartheid so affronts the Common- Commonwealth acquiescence. The ference, I spoke with diplomatic and wealth as to be a major preoccupation. Commonwealth's response to apartheid Commonwealth writers in London The Commonwealth represents the is not merely a Commonwealth position about my expectations for the meeting. supremacy of community over other- on serious issues on the global agenda, it There has been so much media distor- ness and is the negation of both domin- is a statement about the Commonwealth tion of what happened at Vancouver— ion and racism. Apartheid is the embodi- as well. In part, at least, what the Com- not all of it the work of the media itself— ment of both. Minority white domina- monwealth has been saying and doing on that these prior intimations help to give tion is sustained by doctrines of racial apartheid ever since then has as much to a true perspective of the Common- superiority and systems designed to both reflect and entrench racial inequal- "It is essen- ity. tial that the Apartheid is the very antithesis of the Commonwealth keeps open fundamental values of the Common- the path of wealth and as such poses an inescapable negotiation challenge to governments and peoples pioneered by the Emi- throughout the Commonwealth. It is a nent Persons direct affront to all the Commonwealth's Group" non-white peoples and especially to neighboring black southern African states. But it is no less of an affront to decent people throughout the world re- Sir Shridath Ramphal is secretary-general of the Commonwealth.

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 17 wealth's real achievements at the meet- sons Group. And Commonwealth lead- South Africa and that their wider, ing. ers will not forget Namibia, which tighter, and more intensified application On southern Africa, this is what I should be our 50th member." must remain an essential part of the in- said: That is what I hoped would happen at ternational community's response to "On the political front, Common- the Vancouver Commonwealth confer- apartheid." wealth leaders will address the situation ence. Now let us look at what actually • A commitment to securing "a more in southern Africa, pursuing several ap- did happen. The principal conclusions of concerted application of a global sanc- proaches. One track will be what more the conference are contained in what tions program" including the "universal can be done by way of sanctions and has become known as the "Okanagan adoption of the measures now adopted otherwise to apply pressure on Pretoria Statement and Program of Action on by most Commonwealth and other to hasten the end of the evil system of Southern Africa." Lake Okanagan was countries including the United States apartheid and the establishment of gen- the venue of the retreat which forms and Nordic countries"—pending the ac- uine political freedom. A measure of dis- such an important part of each heads of ceptance by the international commu- agreement on sanctions persists; but no government meeting—an occasion nity as a whole "that comprehensive and one should believe that sanctions are 'off when the presidents, prime ministers, mandatory sanctions would be the the boil.' and their spouses are together in a re- quickest route to bring Pretoria to the "Like most of the U.S. Congress, laxed way, but an occasion which allows negotiating table." most Commonwealth countries will re- an opportunity for continuing the work • Evaluation "on a continuing basis [of] ject the view that economic sanctions, of the meeting. It was at the retreat that the application of sanctions in order to including disinvestment, have been inef- they reached their important conclu- assess their impact." fectual or simply hurt blacks. They will sions on southern Africa. • Initiation of "an expert study, drawing recall their earlier warnings that the ef- on independent sources, of South Afri- fect of sanctions will be diminished if ca's relationship with the international they are not applied universally and gen- financial system" with a view to "a bet- uinely—the fault lying not in sanctions "Commonwealth ter understanding of development and themselves but in their non-application leaders have possibilities in this sphere;" and, by all who can apply them. And they will consistently identified • In furtherance of commitments at underline black South Africa's insis- apartheid as the root Nassau, agreement to "continue to take tence, repeated time and again, that cause of the major further action (including sanctions) indi- what they look for essentially is an effec- problems throughout vidually and collectively as deemed ap- tive sanctions program. the southern African propriate in response to the situation as "There will, therefore, be a resolve it evolves until apartheid is dismantled." to continue on the path marked out at region." The sixth point from which Britain the London Review Meeting last Au- dissented is the establishment of the gust Nevertheless, I do not expect Commonwealth Committee of Foreign Commonwealth leaders to dwell on dif- The Okanagan Statement is a 33- Ministers on Southern Africa to provide ferences over sanctions against South point document of Commonwealth posi- high-level "impetus and guidance in fur- Africa. They can, at least for the tions on southern Africa of which 26 therance of the objectives" of the present, agree to disagree, as they constitute a program of action to assist Okanagan Statement and Program of reach for common ground in other areas the region. On 27 of these 33 points, Action. The committee, which will be of action toward shared objectives in there is unanimity. On six of them, Brit- chaired by the Secretary of State for southern Africa. ain does not concur. Five of these six External Affairs of Canada, will also in- "One such area, as important as sanc- relate to sanctions, the other to the clude the foreign ministers of Australia, tions, is what the Commonwealth must Committee of Foreign Ministers estab- Guyana, India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zam- do to respond to the plight of the front- lished under the Okanagan Statement. bia, and Zimbabwe. line states, including Mozambique This British abstention is of great signifi- I do not need to underline the signifi- (which is in the frontline of the frontline), cance—to Britain and to the rest of the cance of these agreements. Together, to enhance their security in the face of Commonwealth. There remains, how- they represent an evolution and a South Africa's de stabilization policies ever, a large measure of commitment strengthening of the Commonwealth's before the situation throughout the under the Okanagan Statement that is commitment to sanctions against South frontline countries deteriorates irre- common to all Commonwealth govern- Africa from Nassau through London and trievably. ments. now at Vancouver. The Okanagan "And in wider terms the overall situa- Let me deal first with the six points Statement speaks plainly of sanctions. It tion confirms how essential it is that the from which Britain, and Britain alone, no longer uses code-words like "mea- Commonwealth adheres to the objec- withheld its agreement. The five that sures". tives of the Nassau Accord and keeps relate to sanctions are as follows: The statement was based on the open the path of negotiation pioneered • The belief "that economic and other work of a committee of foreign minis- by the Commonwealth Eminent Per- sanctions have had a significant effect on ters established by Commonwealth

18 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 leaders after a constructive and non-ac- Commonwealth countries to South Afri- and lifting Pretoria's own "iron curtain" rimonious plenary session at Vancou- ca's neighbors to further strengthen of censorship. ver. The committee included the British their capacity to resist Pretoria's policy These unanimous conclusions—so foreign secretary, and its conclusions— of de stabilization and destruction. This closely following what we were seeking on sanctions as well as on other para- assistance—in which the international at Vancouver—represent a formidable graphs—were strengthened by the community as a whole must join—is de- practical response to the situation in heads of governments themselves signed both to advance disengagement southern Africa. The Commonwealth when they considered the report at the from the South African economy and to Committee of Foreign Ministers is a Okanagan retreat. provide for the frontline's security process of considerable importance in What is more, despite some media against South African aggression. helping to translate these commitments suggestions to the contrary, the agree- In even more specific terms, it in- into practical action, and can play a major ment to disagree with Britain on those cludes an enhanced program of coordi- role in the months ahead. six points was free of contention and nated Commonwealth assistance to the It should be no surprise, therefore, hostility on the part of the majority region and particularly to Mozambique, that most Commonwealth leaders leav- adopting the statement. Other Com- assistance directed to such key sectors ing Vancouver did so with the conviction monwealth leaders were so sure of the as transportation and communications, that the Commonwealth had responded way forward at Vancouver that they did embracing both their rehabilitation and in a manner worthy of its commitments not rind it difficult to agree to disagree physical protection, with priority atten- on the ending of apartheid and its partic- with Britain. They felt that Britain was tion to the Limpopo Line and the port of ular obligations to the frontline states wrong. They were sad about this, but as Maputo. It includes such related mat- bordering on South Africa. They have 47 of the 48 Commonwealth leaders ters as an examination of the question of no doubt of being on the right side of saw it—and as President Kaunda later transit rights of landlocked states of the history in tenns of the terrible blight on said to the press—they had to accept region—an issue of particular signifi- human civilization that apartheid consti- "Britain's right to be wrong." Through- cance to Lesotho. It includes a decision tutes. out the conference, both in the plenary to establish a special fund by which the Now we must turn our hand to imple- and during the retreat, they did so in an Commonwealth can provide technical menting the Vancouver program on exceptional manner. The British prime assistance to Mozambique. It includes a southern Africa; indeed, we have al- minister, in fact, complimented the process of consultation, on request, to ready begun to do so. At the beginning prime minister of Zimbabwe on the mea- enable Commonwealth countries in a of February, the Commonwealth Com- sured manner in which he had opened position to do so to contribute to the mittee of Foreign Ministers on South- the discussion on southern Africa. security needs of Mozambique and ern Africa held its first formal meeting at Such contentions as arose were to do other frontline states. Lusaka, following on the SADCC minis- with media briefings—responses to And beyond all this, the area of agree- terial meeting the previous week at media projections and to what many re- ment includes giving support to the vic- Arusha. The Special Fund for Mozam- garded as highly distorted media re- tims and opponents of apartheid within bique will be fully established and a ports. In fact, as more than one head of South Africa in educational training, in whole host of other decisions will begin government remarked, and as four humanitarian and legal assistance to de- to be implemented. found it necessary to protest at a joint tainees and their families, in increasing The Commonwealth needs to be ac- press conference, it became impossible support to the trade union movement, tivist as the situation in southern Africa to relate what was being said in the Brit- and to economic and social develop- continues to deteriorate. Even as I ish media with what was actually tran- ment. write, South African forces are 150 spiring in the conference. Tliis is a great As important as anything else, at Van- miles inside Angola waging war against pity and it is a lesson from which the couver the Commonwealth reiterated the government of this neighboring Commonwealth will need to draw im- its conviction that only through negotia- country—a clear act of aggression to portant conclusions for the future. tion can catastrophe in South Africa be which all too many in the international But what of some of the other 20 averted, and its belief that the "negotiat- community are prepared to turn a blind points of agreement—unanimous ing concept" of the Eminent Persons eye—so greatly do factors of race and agreement—on action against apart- Group remains as valid today as when ideology override our ethics and our in- heid? While Pretoria may have taken the group put it forward a year and a half ternationalism. comfort from Britain's stand against ago. In this context, Commonwealth But as the struggle against apartheid sanctions at Vancouver and even more leaders agreed to take advantage of any goes on, in South Africa itself and be- so from media glorification of it, they can opportunity to promote real internal dia- yond it, the Commonwealth's credibility take no comfort from the totality of what logue by increasing contacts with South must be sustained. It will be sustained was actually agreed. Africans of differing viewpoints and sup- by the resolute and assiduous imple- That area of agreement included such porting the opponents of apartheid mentation of the decisions at Vancou- important conclusions as the need to go through such arrangements as confer- ver, and especially of the Okanagan beyond the substantial and invaluable ences and visits, and giving high priority Statement and Program of Action on help already being provided by several to countering South African propaganda Southern Africa. G

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 19 Britain The Lady Although Margaret Thatcher continues to Has a Plan oppose economic sanctions against Pretoria, growing "domestic and international criticism of • her policy may be forcing her to launch her own southern African diplomatic initiative. The question is: Will South Africa listen?

"Of all the outsiders involved in the drama, Thatcher's role could be the most influential"

United Nations BY DENIS HERBSTEIN ngland's earliest woman of re- ago at school in that same eastern re- could follow suit. E nown was a 1st century AD free- gion of England might just have re- Now, as she sets in motion her long- dom tighter called Boadicea. Her hus- minded Margaret Thatcher to come to term strategy on South Africa, opti- band, king of the east coast Icenes, died the aid of the little guy. Certainly, the mists bebeve that if she cannot persuade and left his estate to be shared between Afghan mujahedin and the Falkland is- P.W. Botha to make "meaningful con- his two daughters and the music-loving landers have cause to thank her for gen- cessions, " no one can. Whether these emperor, Nero, in the hope of winning erous armed support. reforms will come anywhere near to sat- protection from the Romans. In southern Africa, on the other hand, isfying black aspirations remains one of Instead, the colonialists annexed the they will be running out of space for the the "x" factors in the ever-changing little kingdom and the peeved widow planting of pins on her effigy. The equation of peaceful progress. But the launched an armed struggle, in the pro- Swapo "freedom fighters" in Namibia lady has a plan and will see it through. cess massacring 70, (XX) of the enemy would be hard put to see any real differ- The cult of personality thrives in Brit- and their puppet Briton allies. The big ence between their plight and the cruel ain. Mrs. Thatcher is the most powerful legions had to be marched in to subdue occupation and broken promises visited peacetime prime minister this century, the recalcitrant province, retributions upon the Icenes, while the British prime her authority boosted by last year's re- were bloody, and the queen swallowed a minister's description of the African Na- election for a third term and by the dis- lethal dose of poison. tional Congress as a "typical terrorist array of her Labour, Liberal, and Social In retrospect, by the standards of organization" is perceived at best as out Democrat opponents. Powerful, yes, present-day Western prime ministers, of touch with black aspirations, and at and admired, but not popular. presidents, and chancellors, Boadicea worst, as a soft touch on apartheid. It is surprising how highly she is was nothing more than a "terrorist." Yet, of all the outsiders involved in the thought of abroad, how disliked at Yet, for generations of British school- drama, Thatcher's role could be the home. British Toryism used to be a children, this warrior heroine has been a most influential. She has become the pragmatic, day-to-day attention to prob- symbol of how one defends one's home spiritual leader of the anti-sanctionists, lems, but the Thatcher style is a pur- against daunting odds. to the extent that if she were to concede poseful counter-revolution against the The lesson she learned many years really biting measures against Pretoria, welfare state. Unshackling the economy Denis Herbstfin, a South African exile, is a jour- other waiverers—the Germans, Portu- has led her into a furious row over plans nalist and author living in London. He writes for guese, Mitterrand and/or Chirac, the to dismantle the National Health Ser- • The Independent, The Guardian, and West Af- rica magazine. White House, the Japanese even— vice, a justifiably much-loved institution.

20 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 This apparent indexible view of the a "voluntary ban" on new investments in the British won't have that cither. world can be misleading- Her dislike of South Africa, British companies are at Clearly, this "nyet, nyet" to sanctions sanctions nevertheless allowed her to the same time being advised by the De- will change nothing in South Africa. So, invoke trade restrictions against Libya. partment of Trade and Industry, a gov- observers believe, a Thatcher initiative Yet her fear of "terrorism," in light of ernment ministry, how to set up subsid- has been signalled. It entails a long- Britain's centuries-old connections with iaries there. The government agreed to term, not less than two-year strategy, Ireland, has given her a greater consist- stop official trade missions to South Af- and could involve a venture similar to ency than her allies in refusing to trade rica, but they still go out, under the aus- the Commonwealth "Eminent Persons guns for hostages. pices of the British Overseas Trade Group" whose findings and recommen- As for apartheid, she tells a journalist Board. Alan Clarke, the Minister for dations, brushed aside by Mrs. that it is "repulsive and detestable. . . a Trade, announced in November that Thatcher in 1986, are now said to be deep affront to human dignity and basic Britain had "done very well" by increas- more to her liking. human rights." She adds for good mea- ing exports to South Africa by 11 per- Her first step will be to win African, sure, "I know how strongly I would feel cent in the first nine months of last year. that is frontline states and Nigerian, if I were discriminated against because Another "voluntary ban" applies to backing. This would entail a more thor- of the color of my skin and 1 therefore the promotion of tourism, but more holi- ough visit to the continent than the last. understand the anger and frustrations daymakers than ever are enjoying Robert Mugabe, in particular, has to be felt by others." And yet she has used "sunny South Africa." The Brits are won over. The next biennial Common- the provocative verb "swamped" to de- beneritting with vult urine speed from wealth heads of government confab is in scribe the way the British were said to the American airline pull-out. The na- Kuala Lumpur in November 1989, feel about "immigrants," a code word tional carrier, British Airways, adver- where she would arrive with European for the country's 2 million blacks. tises in Johannesburg newspapers ad- Community—and the new man in the Yet, her track record on African ne- vising how to "catch a curved flight" to White House's—support for her non- or gotiation is a perfect one-out-of-one. 17 North .American destinations, with a minimal sanctions solution. The year she came into office, 1979, she "short stop" over in London. You get Meanwhile, inside the laager Ambas- set up the Lancaster House talks and the clever baseball connection? sador Renwick will be reminding Pik Bo- then presided over the independence of Bishop Trevor Huddleston, presi- tha of the insults his prime minister has Zimbabwe. Conservatives have a habit dent of the British Anti-Apartheid endured resisting sanctions. "Of of realizing the left's foreign policy aims Movement, says: "Britain has refused course, we wouldn't dream of telling in a way thai eludes the left. De Gaulle to enforce most of the measures which you what to do, but now might be the and Algeria, Kissinger and China, even it formally subscribes to and as a result right time for the following initiatives." Reagan and disarmament. The trip to has sent precisely the wrong signals to Penalties for non-compliance, rewards Kenya and Nigeria last December was Pretoria." The Movement has pub- for doing as you are told. It has been Thatcher's first appearance in Africa in lished a report entitled "Sanctions Begin called the "concept of conditionality." over seven years, though since the Ba- to Bite," which "explodes the myth ped- Not as simple as "Nelson Mandela re- hamas Commonwealth conference in dled by Thatcher and Co. that sanctions leased, easy credit from the world bank- 1985, she has found that South Africa are not working." ing system; the Group Areas Act abol- will not be swept under the carpet. There is little doubt that they have, ished, we buy all the coal you can dig," Black rebellion has become a way of with non-gold exports down markedly but you get the point. life in the Republic, but the West has for (except for the West Germans and Ital- Maybe the shock of American disin- the moment forgotten. Credit, if that be ians, who are buying cheap South Afri- vestment concentrates the mind. Brit- the word, must largely go to the state of can coal like mad). The argument about ain must be seen to achieve something emergency and the crippling clamp on their effect is complicated by the "leak" concrete before the Commonwealth will media reporting. The French philoso- element. But one tiling we do know touch it. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey pher would have said, "I am not on tele- about Rhodesia—so often used as an Howe will be doing the rounds rather vision, therefore 1 do not exist." The argument that sanctions don't work—if like Shultz and Shevardnadze, preparing partial success of the Congress's sanc- there is a will, they can be made water- an agreement that merely has to be dot- tions law and American industry's tight enough. ted and crossed by the warring factions. wholesale disinvestment process have Robin Renwick, British ambassador Then, a great conference, maybe in contributed to the feeling that enough to Pretoria, an old Rhodesia hand and a Harare, or once again on one of those has been done for the moment. But in long-time student of sanctions, has ad- neutral trains—the "blankes alleenlik/ Europe, the British government has mitted, "We were very successful in whites only" coach in South Africa, the staunched the widespread popular de- putting a virtual stop to British trade "non-whites" one in black Africa, though mand for action. There is a feeling that with Rhodesia, but were totally unsuc- where Nelson Mandela and Oliver little more can be offered for the next cessful in putting an end to the trade of Tambo would board is perhaps one of four years. other countries with Rhodesia." You the lesser problems in this majestic tap- But Britain has not even carried out might say then that a mandatory trade estry. And after its successful conclu- the limited measures agreed to. Despite embargo would be the answer, but no. sion, who would dance the first fox-trot

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 21 with Maggie at the "Black Rule" ball in the way she would like the world to be. of South AJrica some time ago, there the Pretoria city hall? A favorite is the redoubtable Helen has been a constructive response. The To be sure, Britain has more realistic, Suzman, whose strictures against sanc- corporation's World Service, with new, down-to-earth aims. The so-called tions she is wont to quote. But Suzman powerful transmitters, now beams into "Lawson Doctrine" (for the Chancellor comes from the very Johannesburg the Republic on short wave thorough of the Exchequer) aims to spread the background which depends on digging southern Alrican news programs which gospel of Britain's economic miracle to things out of the ground and selling them should put the fantasies of the South Af- the Third World. Briefly, this amounts abroad. Sanctions would be more dam- rican Broadcasting Corporation into to cutting through the bureaucracy that aging to them than to the ordinary Afri- perspective. has stifled so much initiative. In South kaner. Besides, her Progressive Fed- In the last resort, however, Pretoria Africa, that bureaucracy is called apart- eral Party, timorously moderate though is pleased with the Thatcher perform- heid. it is, is falling apart. ance. The whites have granted her su- British business, through the medium Which leaves Gatsha Buthelezi, chief perstar status. Two examples show of the powerful semi-official trade asso- of the Zulu Inkatha movement. The why. More than a hundred Labour-con- ciation, UKSATA, is being encouraged British have long had a weakness for trolled local authorities, large cities like to focus on a black middle-class as a bar- noble tribesmen. They admired the Sheffield and Glasgow among them, run rier against and a magnet for the radi- Hausa in Nigeria—Kaduna was their fa- their own sanctions campaign, selling off cals. It has been called variously "trickle vorite city. The Ghanaian Ashanti of their stocks in "apartheid" companies down," "crumbs from the white man's Golden Stool fame intrigued Victorian and refusing to buy South African prod- table," and (pace Ian Smith of UI)I fame) and Edwardian England. And ever since ucts. The cumulative effect has been "the whites will rule for 1,UO() years." they slapped the Welch Fusiliers in the substantial. Now the conservatives are A stepped-up program of educational eye at Isandhlwana in 1878, the Zulus legislating to stop all that idealistic aid will be provided. Research shows have held a special place in British drivel. The bans will themselves be that more than 85 percent of the British hearts. Buthelezi is indeed a force to be banned. companies operating in South Africa pay reckoned with, disruptive though it is to The other case is the government's blacks wages below the level of the Uni- the liberation struggle. But will be- refusal to intervene on behalf of political versity of South Africa's "National Aver- friending him make British policy in the prisoners, most recently the "Shar- age Supplemented Living Level." Republic more acceptable to white or peville Six," who lost their appeal Back to the "Plan." Timing is of the black? against the death penalty in December. essence, for if elections are held in As for the Brits, opinion polls show In some cases, Washington, Bonn, and South Africa before those scheduled in more of them favoring a boycott than Paris have all made their voices heard, 1992, the conservatives and neo-Nazi not. Many refuse to buy South African leaving London as the hangman's sole parties now threatening to inherit the goods in the supermarkets and clothing friend. mantle of the pure white Afrikaner will stores. The opposition parties in Parlia- So what is to be done? As long as trumpet these concessions across the ment, who represent some 60 percent Mrs. Thatcher is around, very little. veld. Even without this heavy breath- of the country, all want tougher mea- Hers, she knows, is the best way of ing, President Botha cannot make any sures, at least on the American scale. protecting British interests. But the en- concession likely to release the white Leader of the opposition Neil Kinnock ergy she puts into undermining sanc- man's grip on power. regularly castigates his opposite num- tions could equally be directed the oppo- Can Thatchf really believe that this ber as "an ally of apartheid," but until he site way: a dramatic turn around, minority is about to defy the lessons of moves into Downing Street, that's brought about by the realization that history and roll over obediently onto its about it. The leading churches—Angli- British interests are not best protected back? No South African, white or black, can, Methodist, and Catholic—-are pro- by buttering up Botha. does. Botha hasn't even relinquished sanctions, with the voice of Desmond Then her formidable powers could be Namibia, and that's quite an easy one. Tutu a persuasive factor. directed at whipping the world into line, On the left side of the pincer, the Afri- The national press, in particular the cutting air links, requiring visas of South can National Congress has set its sights mass circulation and Sunday papers, African visitors, telling the White House more loftily on the ultimate target of with their South African holdings, are to get the Saudis to stop supplying one-person, one-vote and the people's wary of change. Proprietors of left-of- apartheid's oil, closing down the entire rule that would ensue. Which is not to center journals, Robert Maxwell (the world's trade, investment, and the say that the abolition of apartheid and Mirror group) and Tiny Rowland of transfer of technology, even emptying the restoration of human rights are not Lonrho's Observer, are tainted—the lat- the embassy in London's Trafalgar important. But while Mrs. Thatcher ter increased his ownership of the West- Square in which stands Admiral Nelson, goes on about black capitalism, the cara- ern Platinum mine in the Transvaal from after whom Mandela was named. van has moved on. One of her problems 50 to 1(X) percent after the "voluntary" Blacks would suffer in South Africa, but is that she has no comfortable allies in investment ban. don't they now, in the townships of South Africa. She is not new in seeking As for the BBC, whose television Pietermaritzburg and the squatter friends in her own image, who reflect staffer, Michael Buerk, was kicked out camps of Cape Town? •

22 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 United Nations Interview with Brian Urquhart

The time may be ripe for a new, joint international initiative on southern Africa within the UN framework, says its undersecretary-general for special political affairs from 1974-86. Brian Urquhart offers concrete proposals on how the new U.S.-Soviet relationship might be put to the test in resolving the region's conflicts.

INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI

"We must get away from the notion that we are fighting the Cold War in southern Africa"

Africa Report: The South African issue seems to have re- Foremost among the things to tackle would be the difficult treated again to the back-burner of international conscious- situation of the frontline states and the major disasters in ness, perhaps due to a lack of real leadership on the mutter Angola and Mozambique, which are all part of this problem. within the international community. How can we begin to reverse the economic dependence of the Urquhart: It is very striking, isn't it? frontline states on South Africa? That is something that would Africa Report: It apj)ears that no new or creative initiatives make a qualitative change in the situation. are coming out of the international community at any level. In One way to start would be to look at what the conditions for the absence of strong international leadership, should the effective international action in southern Africa really are. One United Nations play that role, as apartheid clearly constitutes is that we actually have a consensus in the outside world. We a threat to international peace and security? must get away from the notion that we are fighting the Cold Urquhart: One of the troubles here is that people tend to try War in southern Africa. The Soviet Union has recently made a to divide up the issue into compartments. One compartment series of very interesting statements on southern Africa, in- is apartheid, one compartment is Namibia, another is the cluding their ideas on apartheid, their notion that it is time for destabilization activities in the frontline states, another is the joint U.S.-Soviet initiatives, the statement that they don't situation in Angola, and so on. If the governments really want wish to gain any unilateral advantage out of this area. Why not to do something about this—and after all, they have all voted try these statements out? Southern Africa might be a very for the basic decisions on both apartheid and Namibia—they good place to try out the new position of the Gorbachev are going to have to develop an international strategy which leadership on international affairs. We talk about regional con- takes account of all the aspects of a very complex problem. If flicts as a potential source of danger for the future peace of the they don't do that, everybody tends to get played off against world. Why not take a really anguishing regional conilict situa- everybody else. tion like southern Africa and try a new approach? What has There was a time when there was a great emphasis on anybody got to lose? sanctions against South Africa. That was fine as some sort of a The strategy would have to have a number of main points. threat and signal and as a sign of awareness that there was a One would be the redressing of the economic balance, a reo- terrible problem. But if people believe that they have sent this pening of the vital communications and trade arteries which signal and then go off and occupy themselves with other prob- will make it possible for the frontline states to develop. An- lems in other parts of the world, it is almost as bad as if they other would be a major effort to assist them to compose their hadn't done it at all! The international community has to try to interna! differences, particularly in Angola. If the international think of strategies which will actually do something about community was to take a single position, it should be much these problems. easier to reach some accommodation.

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 23 to me the most reasonable, pragmatic, and least liable to "Southern Africa might be a very fanciful and self-defeating efforts. Southern Africa should pro- vide the opportunity for an experiment in what we hope is good place to try out the new going to be the trend of the future—an effort to enhance the position of the Gorbachev UN's capacity for dealing with regional conflicts. leadership on international affairs. Africa Report: Over the last year, the UN has been credited for the activist role it played in the Gulf War—getting both the U.S. and Soviet Union to endorse a cease-fire. Any parallel Then if South Africa says it has to maintain forces in Nami- with southern Africa? bia because of the danger of the Cubans, let's ask ourselves Urquhart: This is certainly a step in the right direction, but it why the Cubans are in Angola in the first place and look at the is only one step. We're still a very long way from the kind of means by which this vicious circle can be cut. There may be real consensus which would make important decisions a prac- practical possibilities. For example, there is the demilitarized tical reality, which would constitute a showing of some kind of zone idea on the Namibia-Angola border, which was being real international authority. I don't think there is any problem negotiated about in the early 1980s. And it would help us to more difficult than the apartheid problem, but there are a get back to an unanimous international position on the future number of things you could do in the other aspects of the of Namibia. Maybe there is a need for some sort of interna- problem which are important in themselves. Why should Mo- tional observation on the Namibia-Angola border or for the zambique or Angola, having fought so hard for their indepen- situation in Mozambique. The aim should be to get away from dence, now be allowed to become international basket cases? destabilize tion and economic and social disorder—as an es- Why should the other frontline states, who have made great sential first step. efforts to be helpful, constructive, and sensible about Namibia Africa Report: It would seem that the only way one could and other problems, be condemned to suffer? develop that international consensus would be within the UN It would be helpful to get back to the sort of concentration framework. 1 don't see it being done on a bilateral basis. on some of these problems like Namibia that we had in the late Urquhart: The UN works best when it combines the multila- 1970s, for example, the effort led by the Western Contact teral and bilateral. But if UN action is to be effective, it de- Group to try to make UN resolutions a reality. It got some of pends on unanimous support for a general strategy. An effec- the way, but not far enough. I think you need that kind of effort tive plan may also entail a considerable outlay of resources and again, but quite who's going to do it, I don't know. money. I think the frontline states richly deserve that kind of Africa Report: Within the UN context, who would be able to response from the international community. Of all the groups get this process going in terms of laying out proposals and of governments that 1 have ever dealt with, they have seemed trying to achieve an international consensus? Would not such an initiative have to be put forth by someone like the UN secretary-general? Urquhart: Obviously, the frontline states themselves would have to initiate any forms of international action that affects them directly. You can't impose things on them, whether the effort goes through the secretary-general or something like the old Contact Group. It would be interesting to see if the five permanent members of the Security Council could get to- gether on the situation in southern Africa. They have all voted for the basic decisions. But 1 don't know whether that will happen. I hope so, because southern Africa is one of the world's conflict areas where a realistic, good, imaginative strategy and a real international consensus could have an enormous effect. Africa Report: In terms of the strategy on the ground, you would foresee a demilitarized zone between Namibia and An- gola? Urquhart: I merely gave that as an example. You can think of lots of examples of things that could be done. That would have to be thought out. Hut if the problem from the South African side is that they are afraid of attacks by Swapo from bases in Angola and therefore go surging into Angola itself and also support Unita, why not try to make a practical international arrangement which will alleviate such fears? Why are the Cubans in Angola? Clearly because the Angolan government Britain and the U.S. veto: "It seems unlikely that the Security Council will vote sanctions. Nevertheless, they are an important feels threatened from a number of quarters. If it is believed signal and symbol" that the Cubans are an obstacle to progress on other matters,

24 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 J K Isaac/Uniled Nations

UN peace-keeping forces in Lebanon: "Maybe there is a need for international observation on the Namibia-Angola border or in Mozam- bique" why not address the reason why they are there? I don't know approach. That part of the Charter was very much a retro- why the international momentum has died down so much on spective idea of how the world community ought to have dealt these problems. Do you? with Hitler and Mussolini—how to deal with aggressors. Africa Report: In the U.S., it seems the anti-apartheid mo- We're not reaUy talking about anything like that in southern mentum built up until sanctions were passed and then dissi- Africa. It is a far more complex situation. Effective measures pated again. to deal with it should be aimed at fundamentally changing the Urquhart: That is the problem with this particular kind of context of the problem. measure. It's very praiseworthy in its own way, but it's the It might have a very considerable effect, for example, if it same with important United Nations resolutions. People go were far less easy for South Africa to destabilize countries like through the four or five-month process of producing a resolu- Angola and Mozambique, which is now possible partly be- tion and tend to believe that that is the end of the process. The cause there is a large split in the outside world in the way passing of a resolution in the Security Council should be the we view what is happening in southern Africa. Supposing beginning of the process—the point when governments Angola could become a stable and relatively prosperous coun- should really gel together and decide how they are going to go try and was no longer the site of both foreign incursions and a on. If they can't do that, the resolution looks nice on paper, but civil war, all encouraged from the outside. Supposing you it's not necessarily very significant. could stabilize Mozambique. Supposing you could get the On southern Africa, obviously the frontline states have to Benguela railroad open again, and have the Beira corridor be intimately concerned with what happens and their sensibili- reinforced and rehabilitated. This would be a much more ties have to be considered. After that, you have to look for the healthy situation in wliich to try to persuade South Africa that kind of coalition wliich will try to develop realistic courses of Namibia has to be independent. 1 don't know what the effect action for the international community. 1 don't know who can would be on the problems inside South Africa, but it might do that at the present time. conceivably send a very strong message. Africa Report: Does the Security Council have any teeth at Africa Report: Couldn't you define South Africa as an ag- all or is international consensus such a dead concept that to gressor in the region and hence have a case for applying UN expect it to be able to do anything on southern Africa is enforcement actions? pointless? Urquhart: Enforcement actions are not just military actions. Urquhart: The great difference between the United Nations They include sanctions, breaking off of relations, all sorts of and the Ixague of Nations was originally supposed to be that economic tilings. But it seems to me that such actions would the UN had teeth. What was meant by that was that the be all the more convincing in the context of a surrounding Security Council and the Military Staff Committee would have group of African states that aren't economically so tied in with the capacity to mobilize all sorts of pressures, including mili- South Africa. I don't see military enforcement as a possible tary enforcement action, under the auspices of the five per- option. Of course, if the idea of a demilitarized zone came up manent members, the great powers that won the second again, then at the very least you would have to have military world war. Unfortunately, the five permanent members soon observers to monitor it. got divorced. Maybe now they are patching tilings up after 42 Africa Report: Wouldn't that be called for in southern Angola years, although one doesn't want to be too optimistic on that and ultimately in Namibia? score. Urquhart: Under the plan that was evolved under resolution But I don't believe that situations such as the one in south- 435, there is a very large peace-keeping element, about ern Africa are susceptible to this rather simple enforcement 7,500, involved in the transitional phase of elections for a

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 25 constituent assembly and so on. But such measures have to in South Africa do something about apartheid, then you have be seen in the context of an overall objective and strategy, and to think about what context would be the most favorable to they also very much depend upon what the governments those developments. Certainly a total shambles in Angola is themselves actually want. It's important to look at the prob- not favorable to the independence of Namibia, because it is a lems of the region as being in one way or another related, in constant excuse to hang onto Namibia. If Angola was a peace- which case you've got to have some overall idea of how to ful, developing, potentially rich country, it would be very hard tackle them. Otherwise, efforts tend to be wasted or manipu- to make this argument. So you've got to find the way to move lated. forward, instead of moving backwards into chaos. Africa Report: So such an initiative should come from the Africa Report: Should we move on and abandon trying to get frontline states. sanctions passed in the Security Council, given that the U.S. Urquhart: They would have to be a very important part of has even opposed the same measures that are the law of the any kind of planning. Hut a great deal also depends on how land? much the rest of the world is prepared to devote its energies Urquhart: It seems unlikely that the Security Council will to this kind of thing. This is a terribly important issue that vote sanctions for one reason or another that we all know too tends to go out of fashion for long periods of time. That seems well. Nonetheless, they are unquestionably an important sig- to me to be wrong. nal and symbol, however effective or ineffective they might Africa Report: The suggestions you've raised are very good prove to be. Personally, I also wonder, given the state of mind ideas, but who takes the actual leadership for this? The U.S. of the people we are dealing with, whether psychologically won't, Britain won't, so again does not the responsibility fall this is necessarily the right way to go. It would be wise to look back on the UN? for ways to bring about a change in the basic context of the Urquhart: I would like to think that something could be done situation which might conceivably bring about genuine about it. In the present situation, the UN would need a very changes in attitude and intention. Africa Report: Do you think that resolution 435 is irrelevant at this point? "Maybe there is a need for Urquhart: No, I don't think it's irrelevant. Resolution 435 is a international observation on the kind of a standard. It's up there on the hill, and the intention is Namibia-Angola border or in to rally to it. When we finally get there, it may be possible to Mozambique. The aim should be to simplify this procedure, who knows? Until there is something get away from destabilization and better, it is essential to hang onto 435. As a statement of economic and social disorder—as intention, it's very important. What we've got to think about is how to get to the point where we can implement it. the necessary first step." Africa Report: Maybe a two-track strategy would be best: first changing the context by creating a DMZ on the ground solid commitment not only of intention, but of support of all and strengthening the frontline stales, and second, trying to kinds by the five permanent members and other important maintain diplomatic pressure through sanctions and other en- members. You can have the best ideas in the world, but you've forcement measures. got to have a constituency to back them. I personally don't see Urquhart: It seems to me very important to get genuinely any reason why you couldn't do it. This is something that unanimous declarations of intent so that we can get away from people basically agree on. This is where things have gone this whole business of mixed motivations. What is essential is badly wrong in recent years. There have been efforts to deal the perception that everybody on the outside is together in with one or more symptoms of the problem without any real trying to do something in a sensible way about this problem. attempt to get an agreed approach to the whole tiling. More attention should be paid to what the Soviet Union has Africa Report: Can you envision the U.S. and Soviet Union been saving the last six months on the subject. I don't see agreeing to this basic strategy? Can that consensus be devel- what could be lost by putting these statements to the test. oped in practical terms? This is one regional conflict area where a really intelligent, far- Urquhart: If they can start agreeing on matters as close to sighted policy could produce historic results. their hearts as intercontinental ballistic missiles, and if what is Africa Report: Has the UN had any successes in the south- likely to trigger off the ultimate disaster might be some com- ern African scenario thus far, or has it been held hostage to the pletely unforeseen chain of events in a regional conflict, I don't big powers? see why they can't. Why don't they test out the new relation- Urquhart: Keeping the issues of Namibia and apartheid alive ship and see if they can do it? Who would lose? Why should the is important, and I don't know how it would have been done people of Angola and Mozambique have to pick up the bill for without the UN. But as far as practical results are concerned, historical developments which have extraordinarily little to do I don't think the UN so far has done too well. That's why I with them? hope that we might enter into a new chapter where we've got I hope the problems of southern Africa are not going to go a different idea of using the UN, where there is a benevolent, on getting sidetracked. If you are really worried about the strategic consensus on how to deal with an immensely com- issue of Namibia in and of itself, or about the future develop- plex problem in all its different parts, but with one central ment of the frontline states, or about trying to help everybody thrust. U

26 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 Media South Africa: Where Did the Story Go?

American media coverage of the South African crisis has diminished in both quantity and quality since the press restrictions under the state of emergency. This Africa Report exclusive examines why and what can be done about it, talking with the editors and journalists who make the news.

BY DANNY SCHECHTER On average, the Americans inter- news stories on South Africa; in August with research by ANDRE ASTROW viewed tended to have a more sanguine 1985, several hundred. A survey of and DAPHNE TOPOUZIS view of the problem than the South Afri- newspaper clips tells the same story. n the night after Thanksgiving cans. The editors of prominent Ameri- No one disputes that South Africa's OCBS News viewers may have can newspapers defended their cover- emergency regulations have had an ef- been startled to see a few minutes of an age as adequate. TV journalists tended fect in limiting coverage of unrest, par- evening news report about apartheid to be a bit more unhappy because of ticularly those dramatic confrontations devoted to the pulsating beat of black their need for visual images and their between the army and the community in American rappers chanting "A. K- problems getting the stories they do file the townships. The dominant pre-emer- R.l.C.A/'inamusic video about south- on the air. gency news frame of rebellion, if not ern Africa. Correspondent Bruce Mor- But South Africans opposed to apart- open warfare, has vanished. ton cited the song, along with other anti- heid and activists who support them in In August 1985, the three net- apartheid films and albums, as evidence this country are far more dissatisfied, works—ABC, CBS, and NBC—ran 60 that the entertainment industry seems arguing that the American media has South Africa stories between them. In to be doing more to raise awareness been essentially complicit in Pretoria's November, after the first month of the about the issue than the news media. media restrictions. One conclusion was press restrictions, there were only 20. Where lias the apartheid story gone? undebatable: There has been less cov- At that time, the violence had not Is it being covered less because less is erage of South Africa overall, especially abated. A month later, ABC's principal happening? Has the international press since the various press bans went into news anchor, Peter Jennings, acknowl- packed up and moved on? Or has South effect starting in late 1985. edged that the restrictions had Africa's press ban been so successful "worked." Marc Kusnetz, foreign news that coverage has been effectively cur- producer for NBC's nightly news re- tailed? Could the American media be do- 'The dominant cently echoed the same theme: "Has ing more? pre-emergency news the censorsliip been effective? Sure it These questions raise important is- frame of rebellion, if has. Is that even a question?" sues about the politics and practices of not open warfare, has There is no doubt that media cover- news coverage. To explore them, Af- vanished." age of the violence fueled protests over- rica Report surveyed South Africa cov- seas, including calls for disinvestment erage in major American newspapers and sanctions. Media attention turned and reviewed Vanderbilt University's Using my own non-scientific "bath- the battle inside South Africa into a TV News Index and Abstracts, looked room scale test," I weighed the TV global cause, one which was forcing at what the "alternative press" in South News Index and Abstracts on South Af- Pretoria to consider reforms, however Africa covers that we may not, and rica from July-October 1985, a time of modest. Predictably, the .South African spoke with editors and correspondents, intense unrest, comparing it with the government's response—given the in the U.S. and South Africa. same period in 1987, a period of continu- nature of that government and the way Danny Sciwehter is a television network news pro- ing labor unrest which included the it sees its interests—was to clamp ducer who has written about southern Africa tor strike in the gold mines. There is a down on coverage, so as to drive "the 20years. Research /or this arthie was conducted by Afrit") Report assistant editor Andre Astrow three-pound difference. In August pictures," particularly vivid white-cops- and acting managing editor Daphne Topouzis. 1987, there were 102 citations of TV beating-black-kids pictures, off the air.

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 27 Pretoria's press regulations appear some coverage is better than none, and has affected the prospects of tougher calculated to keep the media off balance: that to leave would be to do voluntarily sanctions legislation. They are deliberately vague, calculated what the South African authorities want. "Congressional aides on both sides of to impose caution, restraint, self-cen- Cohen, however, has not backed down. the issue agree that curtailed press cov- sorship. New York Times foreign editor "The idea deserves an open and hon- erage from South Africa has already Joseph Lelyveld, who won a Pulitzer est debate," he told me in February been an important, if not decisive, factor Prize for his book about South Africa, from his post in Iowa where he was di- in this year's debate," says the newslet- told us "the press clampdown has had recting the network's political coverage. ter. The House of Representatives Sub- some success." "Nothing really has changed. The story committee on Africa is planning to hold "But there is no formal censorship is not being seen. By staving there, the hearings on the media black-out. system. I don't think we have ever sub- public thinks we are covering the Most news people agree that an is- mitted a line of copy. It's a system of story—but we're not. That's the dirty sue's popularity or lack of it should not self-censorship. They lay down guide- little secret that journalists don't want to affect coverage, but that handful of lines and the correspondents have to discuss." news producers who assign stories and decide how close they want to come to Many American journalists we spoke decide what runs are undeniably influ- those guidelines. Some use the govern- with will discuss the issue, but tend to enced by what is hot and what isn't. The ment's pressure of close scrutiny as an place the blame on a lack of commitment New Republic's weekly "Zeitgeist" excuse for not doing a hell of a lot." at the network level, which in turn, is column, which charts issues as if they Adds Paul van Slambruck, interna- justified because of a perceived lack of were on a best-seller list, offers a good tional news editor of The Christian Sci- interest by the public. Martha Teichner, illustration of the way news stories tend ence Monitor. "The burden of proof is on the CBS correspondent in South Africa, to flame in and out of media fashion. you. There are a bunch of laws and if you told us, "Half the problem is in South Apartheid hasn't "made" the list for a break them, you'll be prosecuted." Africa, and half is in the interest in the long time. CBS senior producer Richard Cohen, U.S. Right now, our news organizations News organizations are also bureau- formerly Dan Rather's foreign pro- pay lip service to being interested in cratic institutions where issues need South Africa, and certainly claim they "champions" in decision-making circles are interested in the analytical stories. or they are given little priority. ABC's "Those journalists who But they are not making air. They are Ken Walker told a Nieman Foundation have been ousted seem simply being eclipsed by other events." conference on South Africa and news to have been ejected as NBC's bureau chief in South Africa, censorship last April that the U.S. news 'examples' for domestic Heather Allan, seems more upbeat media is guilty of a failure of will and a political reasons—to about her network's productivity. Of failure of nerve. 150 stories shot in 1987, she says, 80 He says that Nightline's celebrated assuage the hard-right percent were aired. That is a good bat- 1985 programs from South Africa fol- critics of the ruling ting average, but it is not clear how lowed years of lobbying by black em- National Party—rather many were shown on the premiere ployees and the growth of the Free than for specifically news shows, and how many in early South Africa Movement. He said Preto- cited infractions." morning slots or less watched weekend ria only granted Nightline visas after 60 news times. Minutes carried a Morley Safer report "You do not see violence on TV every considered flattering by the govern- ducer, says: "They've spun a web night from South Africa," Allan says. ment there. It expected a repeat per- around us," of the ban prohibiting direct "So in that respect, the government has formance. coverage of security personnel and all been successful. But we are doing three Walker believes that the news media "unrest." "They've kept us from cover- stories a week, and more in-depth." doesn't care about the South Africa ing the story because of the fear that by Those "in-depth" stories though don't story and the coverage reflects that. He breaking the rules, we'll get tossed seem to have the power of the earlier believes that the absence of regular out." coverage, in the same way that nothing black network correspondents in the Cohen's response was to pen an op- NBC has done about the miserable fam- field—none have ever been assigned to ed article asking the networks to "seri- ine in Mozambique has equalled the im- South Africa—is another indicator of an ously consider" pulling out of South Af- pact of its first footage out of Ethiopia. unwillingness to challenge the system. rica. "We play an insidious game of video There seems to be a clear link be- One South African journalist I spoke appeasement with the government," he tween air time allotted a story and public with (who asked to remain anonymous) wrote in The New York Times. "Walk up interest—remove the former and you said a reporter's political openness is as to the line. Don't cross it. Show as much reduce the latter. When viewers don't important as racial sensitivity. "South as you think you can get away with, see the story, legislators and policy- Africa is viewed as one of us, as a West- never more." His pull-out proposal, makers don't hear about the issue. Ac- ern democracy, and the correspondents however, was not a popular one among cording to 'The Washington Report on Af- operate as if it was one," he said angrily. journalists who generally contend that rica, the lack of news media coverage "Western reporters cover South Africa

28 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 'Apartheid hasn't made' the best-seller list for a long time" from the point of view of the people who script was modified somewhat to avoid was given twice as much space. run it, not from the point of view of the provoking a confrontation. Angry anti-apartheid demonstrators people who suffer it." For one of the cliildren interviewed. marched outside CBS on the day of the the CBS exposure may have triggered a young man's funeral protesting the lack ;in hard-hitting journalists cover confrontation, a fatal one. Eighteen- of coverage and demanding a public CSouth Africa? Brian Ellis, who year-old Godfrey Dhlomo's story of be- statement by CBS itself. They called on produced the outspoken CBS documen- ing tortured by police while in detention CBS and the rest of the networks to do tary, "Children of Apartheid," with Wal- was featured in the report. On January more about the issue. Only CBS's local ter Cronkite, says it is difficult to work 24, Dhlomo was found shot to death station in New York covered their pro- there "but not impossible." "There is a shortly after being questioned by police. test. The written press did not. certain amount of risk to bending or His funeral on February 6 was de- After Dhlomo's death, the Johannes- working outside the restrictions, but it scribed in The New York Times as "one burg Star carried a report listing more can be done." of the most emotional and politically than 20 incidents of similar unexplained Ellis t

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 29 Americans who are being kept in the dark. Why?" Part of the reason one hears over and over again is that if American journalists challenge the government's press regu- lations, they will be tossed out. Yet those who have been ousted—print "Nightline's cele- journalists primarily—seem to have brated 1985 pro- grams from been ejected as "examples" for domes- South Africa fol- tic political reasons—to assuage the lowed years of hiird-right critics of the ruling National lobbying by black employees and Party, rather than for specifically cited the Free South infractions. Africa Move- New York Times editor Lelyveld said ment" that the ouster of correspondent Alan regional coverage, although the paper ters in Luanda reported Angolan mili- Cowell and the refusal to accredit his does not plan to open a bureau in tary sources as saying that the town in replacement. Serge Schmemann, was Harare. question had not been overrun. not attributed to what The Times wrote, For the first time in years, front-page A tendency to take Unita claims at only that it was writing too much. Critics stories appeared from the frontline face value is mirrored inside South Af- say it was not doing enough. states with correspondents Serge Sch- rica by the American media's lack of se- ABC's Walker links the lack of video memann stopping in Maputo and James rious monitoring of South Africa's alter- footage available to TV news also to the Brooke writing from Angola. That cov- native press. That media has a reputa- fear of expulsion. Yet he asserts that the erage has continued sporadically. tion for being the best informed about same fear is not present in Eastern bloc Brooke was able to tour the war zones the state of the liberation movements, countries where government restric- in southern Angola in late 1987, while the people in detention, and the suffer- tions are routinely challenged, and Sheila Rule reported from Mozam- ing in the black community. The same where expulsion is often a badge of bique's shattered provinces. news organizations which continually honor. CBS's Cohen seconds this point. Yet curiously, news of South African seek out refusniks and their samizdat "We smuggle pictures out of the wilder- troops fighting alongside Unita in Angola publications in the Soviet orbit seem to ness of Afghanistan. We could do the only followed an uncharacteristic admis- steer clear of regular contact with South same in South Africa." sion by the South African military. Ear- Africa's alternative press. Anti-apartheid activists question lier claims by the Angolan government "There is not consistent day-to-day news organizations who cite a lack of to that effect appear to have been dis- contact with the alternative press," ad- video footage as reason for reduced missed as propaganda. Likewise, re- mits CBS's Martha Teiclmer. Heather coverage, pointing out that there are ports in the British press of a mutiny in Allan of NBC says the same: "We are well-known alternative sources of video Angola by black South African soldiers not in close contact, but we use them as inside South Africa—footage shot by in- were hard to find in the U.S. media. interview subjects if we need their com- dependent crews whose work is distrib- Angola coverage often appears ments." The Washington Post's foreign uted by such agencies as Afravision, skewed by a cold war frame. U.S. sup- editor, Michael Getler, also says: "I which covers demonstrations, union port for Unita has been justified by the meetings, and other dissident activity. administration with the same arguments Afravision's London-based distribu- that support aid to the Nicaraguan con- tors tell me that they have a hard time tras. A January 27, 1988 Washington "Pretoria's press selling their stuff to the American net- Post dispatch by William Claiborne from regulations appear works unless a story is on the wires or Johannesburg was most revealing. The calculated to keep the has lots of action. ABC, forexample. did story reported a claim by Unita of a key media off balance: run excerpts from an Afravision inter- victory inside southern Angola. The They are deliberately view with Govan Mbeki, the ANC source was a Unita representative in vague, calculated to leader released from prison, but such Washington whose statements made up impose caution, interactions are rare. the first 10 paragraphs of the story. restraint, These alternative media outlets also The Post also checked with the Pen- define "the story" somewhat more tagon which would not fully confirm it. self-censorship." broadly than most American journalists. That was played in paragraph seven. They see it in regional terms, as a The South African presence in Angola southern African story, not just a South only surfaced in paragraph twelve as a don't see the alternative press." Africa one. It apparently took the expul- claim by the Angolan government which Are newspapers such as The Sowe- sion of a Times reporter inside South the South Africans, a paragraph later, tan. New Nation, or Weekly Mail readin Africa to prompt The Times to add more would not respond to. A day later, Keu- the TV newsrooms? It does not appear

30 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 that their viewpoint exerts much influ- Times correspondent. "It's awfully its journalists' access to what most ence over the analysis pursued by tough to be a foreign correspondent in American officials are doing and saying. American reporters. your own country," he says. "It's hard Not many media outlets can make the For example, a February 4, 198H to see the stories as your audience same kind of claim as that of The Moni- NBC news report by Mike Boetcher on needs to see them." tor's Van Slambruck: "The kind of cover- conditions in neighboring Mozambique John F. Burns, a former Times re- age we were doing two years ago is the began, "People are dying as a result of a porter in South Africa, was dispatched same kind of coverage we had five years Marxist-Leninist government, a to fill in for Battersby during a recent ago is the same kind of coverage we drought, and a civil war." "Nowhere in vacation. "Bums is the first staff corres- have now," he says. the report do they mention who is be- pondent we've been able to get a visa "We're looking at South Africa as a hind the civil war," argued Josh Mamis. for," Lelyveld explains. Briefly in the page one possibility every single associate editor of Africa News, an news himself for getting in trouble and day. . . it requires much more cunning American independent press service. then for being tossed out of a country— and ingenuity on the part of the writer to "There was no mention that South Af- China, not South Africa—Bums' orien- get at stories, to give them a dynamic rica is behind Renamo which is carrying tation seems to particularly crystallize and some life so they don't begin to out horrible atrocities against the popu- what critics find lacking. sound like features. And that's a tougher lace. " "For Burns, the story seems to be brand of journalism." South Africa's alternative media re- upbeat, one of apartheid withering In South Africa, the critics contend ports regularly on the destabilization away," says the Africa Fund's Cason. that as the going got tough, the tough policy its government is carrying out in "The headline one day is "South African got going—away from challenging the the frontline states—they see it as the Blacks Moving to White Areas,' and the regulations, away from the story itself. dominant issue—yet recent news re- next is 'A Non-White Gets a Finger on At the time the regulations were im- ports on NBC and in The New York the Lever of Power.' Burns spent his posed, there was a lot of heady talk Times and The Washin0on Post down- time writing about housing bias eroding, about news organizations sustaining a play and minimize the South African the anguish of Afrikaners, blacks going commitment to South Africa reporting. role. The British press is not similarly to amusement parks with whites, and Peter Jennings denounced South Afri- inclined. On January 14, the London how racial divisions are forgotten during ca's news policy on the air. Writing in Guardian Weekly headlined a report a carnival in Cape Town. All of this in a The New York Times, Anthony Lewis, from Maputo: "Mozambique blames country that is a virtual racial dictator- who has probably done more than any Pretoria for wrecking health care." ship!" single .American journalist to keep the If Mozambique has not received the To be fair, Bums did not only file fea- information flow going, said that the play it deserves, Namibia has been all tures. A long takeout on "black versus press ban won't work. but ignored, except when the South Af- black violence" did describe the political "This is a test for American journal- rican military runs its annual press tour, nature of the fighting between Gatsha ism, but also for the public," he opined prompting a flurry of similar articles. Buthelezi's Inkatha movement and the on December 10, 1985. "It will influence When 4,000 black miners went on strike multi-racial anti-apartheid activists of future editorial judgment if the results last year, the story received scant at- the United Democratic Front. How- show that people aren't interested un- tention. Yet inside Windhoek, The ever, Burns did not investigate external less they see shocking pictures, or if Namibian, a professionally edited support for Inkatha nor did his articles they show they can't be hoodwinked by weekly, had all the details available. include any reference to government the blackout and understand its pur- American newspapers can't use a regulations limiting press coverage. pose. " lack of video footage as an excuse. In That practice seems to have been Have we passed or failed the test? In fact, they make no excuses and reveal dropped, although the restrictions ha- this election year, when even candidate little self-criticism. Michael detler of ven't been. Jesse Jackson doesn't list South Africa in The Washington Post has said liis news- At least two American papers devote a mass mailing as one of his principal paper has been able to report every- considerably more space to the South issues, apartheid seems to "have gone thing of significance in South Africa. Africa issue. The Wushin0on Times, a away," to use a TV term about stories Nothing major was missed, he claims. conservative outlet owned by the Rev. assignment editors are hot on one min- Joe Lelyveld of The Times, who was Sun Myung Mmm, carries more stories ute and cool the next. The story is on himself ousted from South Africa in on the regi( in than The Washington Post, the back burner. A few overseas re- 1966 but returned for a second stint a but most of them reflect hard-right bi- porters have been tossed out of South decade later, is disappointed because ases and support for Unita, Renamo, Africa, but others carry on, business as the newspaper has not been able to as- and critics of the ANC. usual. In the "beloved" country, brave sign a full-time correspondent of its The Christum Science Monitor, on the black editors like Zwelakhe Sisulu rot in choice. Instead, the paper has hired a other hand, features extensive cover- prison, while his newspaper is threat- white South African journalist, John Bat- age, including a recent piece—not seen ened with official reprisals again and tersby, who may not, Lelyveld con- elsewhere—on a press ban imposed by again. How many Americans even know cedes, have the proper distance to be a the U. S. Embassy in Pretoria which lim- his name? D

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 31 Union of Black Journalists to articulate lined its report: "The end of Percy's He was at odds with most of his black their demands. World." Qoboza and colleague Aggrey colleagues over his strong opposition to At 77K World, Percy Qoboza could Klaaste were thrown into jail, where economic sanctions and disinvestment they were held without trial for nearly and his endorsement of liberal institu- six and eight months respectively. tions such as the Urban Foundation, Qoboza returned to edit Post Trans- which was created to get the white pri- "When Qoboza was vaal mid Sunday Post, which, though vate sector involved in black housing. stung, he was at his launched by the Argus company to re- But Qoboza, at the behest of senior best. He didn't believe place The World and Weekend World, colleagues on Post Transvaal, endorsed were in reality the same as the two the launching of the Free Mandela Cam- in intellectual banned newspapers. But his career in paign in 1980, triggering unprecedented sophistry. Using earthy South African journalism became a little local and international demands for the language, he retaliated more checkered after that. release of political prisoners. Some un- by going for the In 1980, he went to the United States ionists remained at loggerheads with jugular." as a guest editor of the Washington Star. him, regarding him as part of their While he was away, members of the "problem" with management. black Media Workers' Association of Despite his human shortcomings and South Africa went on national strike. eccentricities, we still loved Percy Qo- have taken the easy way out, main- Hardest hit was Percy's Post Trans- boza. His "Percy's Pitch" column in The tained the crime-sport formula, and vaal, which didn't publish within the le- World and "Percy's Itch" in City Press reaped the glamorous rewards of head- gally required period. The government contained some outstanding examples ing a mass-circulation paper. Instead, he closed it down, and made it clear that of writing from the gut. When Percy Qo- rose magnificently to the occasion. the paper would have been banned in boza was stung, he was at his best. He He was the right man at the right any case because its offices had become didn't believe in intellectual sophistry. time; the champion of black journalists "an African National Congress nest." Using earthy language, he retaliated by had found a position of power. He rele- Qoboza then became a public rela- going for the jugular. gated sports and crime to their rightful tions consultant, associate editor of City A classic example was his televised place and promoted politics instead. In- Press (started by Dntm magazine pow-wow on Ted Koppel's Nightline spired by him, black journalists showed owner Jim Bailey and then sold to die program a couple of years ago with an what they knew they were capable of pro-government Nasionale Pers in what Afrikaner journalist who was rationaliz- when Soweto erupted on June 16, 1976. was described as a marriage between ing the government's violent actions. With the townships out of bounds to Afrikaner and black nationalism) in Qoboza sailed into him in strong lan- white journalists, the news was re- 1984, and finally the paper's editor the guage. The next day, many of Ms de- ported by courageous black journalists. following year. tractors in the black press phoned to Some white editors such as Louw at the Many black journalists had a topsy- congratulate him. Rand Daily Mail, who maintained his turvy relationship with Percy Qoboza. predecessor's tradition of allowing They accused liini of being a showman blacks to have their say within the law, who took credit for tilings he didn't do. permitted many of the eyewitness re- He was credited with having launched "He was the right man ports to be published, knowing full well the Soweto Committee of Ten at 77;

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 33 IJ or did certain tilings. But such was the or notification to their editors or rela- tained, to the end, his habit of ferreting charisma of the man that we all re- tives, hi September 1976, the knock out the truth and publishing it. mained in touch with him, we could still came on Qoboza's door. Police took liim In recent years, the South African share a joke and argue with him, and from liis home in the wee hours. Tele- government has grown quite accom- almost without exception in Johannes- grams from this country and Europe in- plished at the brutal business of choking burg, we genuinely mourn his passing at quiring about the editor's detention per- the truth. Stringent press restrictions such a young age. suaded the government, then new to have just about turned the volume off. Hamba kahte, go well, Percy. Black this kind of spotlight, to release him. The world is not likely to learn the full journalists in particular, and South Af- A year later, during a government dimensions of the slaughter there be- rica in general, owe you much for your crackdown on truth-telling. The World cause truth has been declared contra- contribution to justice. Even Gandhi and was permanently shut down, costing its band. Martin Luther King would approve. • owners some $5 million. Qoboza was jailed, without charge, for five and a half months. "He willed himself to BY LES PAYNE After the government shut down The write the truth, and World, Qoboza started another Johan- thus set himself up as hen I met Percy Qoboza that nesburg daily called 77K7-7>S/. But in Jan- the enemy of the state. Wfirst time, the legendary editor uary 1980, the government closed it Despite the pressure was hall-reclining on his couch, inter- down as well. Five African reporters at viewing the student leader of the So- The Post, like dozens of their col- and the brutality, weto uprising who had a price tag on his leagues, were "banned," a special South Qoboza maintained, to head. African contribution to state terror the end, his habit of It was 1976, and Qoboza, as all good against its citizens. ferreting out the truth journalists should, was working near Ihe Under the banning order, the re- and publishing it." horns of the big story. This one was porters were restricted to their homes bloody and had put South Africa on the from dusk to dawn; they were not al- front pages of the globe. Qoboza had lowed to meet with more than two other The World, or any other paper quite spent a year at Harvard as a Nieman persons; they were not allowed to make like it, exists no longer. Journalists, for- Fellow and had returned as editor of The any public statements to the media; eign and domestic, have been neutral- World, a white-owned, black-oriented they were not allowed to take any job, ized. Qoboza took a job as associate edi- daily. The newspaper offered the best including sweeping the floor, at a news- tor of City Press in Johannesburg. His attainable version of the Boers' crack- paper; and without government permis- staff was closely watched. His reporters down on the majority. sion, they were not allowed Lo attend have been detained, banned, and im- He was an irritant to the government, relatives' funerals, any social function, prisoned for practicing their craft. and then he became a menace. The or even Sunday church services. "Like 1977, it is difficult lo pinpoint Worlds stories appeared nowhere else, A few years ago, in my living room, the real casualty figures [those the gov- from sources the police most wanted. Qoboza joked about liis detention with ernment kills and wounds] because of Qoboza regularly ran stories about po- other African journalists. "It was dull as how the information is controlled by au- lice killing African children in the hell in there, man," Percy said. "The thorities, " Qoboza told me a while back. streets, mass arrests, deaths in deten- chaps outside would bring me fruit and The fires rage on. .African students, are tion, midnight police raids, the brutal melons that they had injected with being gunned down with bullets of rub- Boer regime gone rabid. Scotch." ber and lead. So, too, are gold miners, Under any oppressive regime, truth Qoboza was one of the most coura- youths, the aged, and other innocents is the first throat cut. As soon as the geous—and persecuted—journalists in caught out on the street. headknocking got serious, foreign jour- the world. He was never fully allowed to By enforcing a policy of "consensus nalists were banned from Soweto and all ply his craft in the Boers' republic. The journalism," Qoboza said, the govern- other black townships. Many resorted Boers outlawed a free press, free as- ment "meant that the press should in- to The World for their news accounts. sembly, the right to vote, free speech, dulge in 'positive1 reporting as opposed The enterprising Qoboza's reporters, and all the other trinkets of democ- to 'negative' reporting." He said, "The who lived in the wretched ghettoes, racy—for which President Ronald South African newsman must [con- couldn't be banned from them. The gov- Reagan attacks others but not the clude] that the government expects ernment did the next worst tiling. Boers. nothing from him short of total and un- At one point, the police arrested 11 Suffering was Qoboza's birthright wavering lovalty." World reporters, detaining some of when he entered screaming and black in Qoboza gave his loyalty and liis life to them up to nine months without charges South Africa. He willed himself to write ferreting out the truth. Last week, after the truth, and thus set himself up as the a heart attack at age 50, he died and was Lrs Payne is assistant managing editor o/News- enemy of the- state. Despite the pres- buried in the troubled, indifferent day, fivm which this article is reprinted with per- mission- Copyright <: 1988 by Newsday. sure and the brutalitv, Qoboza main- ground of Soweto. •

34 AFRICA REPORT. March-April 1988 BYAMEENAKHALWAYA

riday, January 15 was the 59th an- Fniversary of the birth of slain American civil rights leader Martin Luther King. January 30 was the 40th anniversary' of Mahatma Gandhi's as- sassination. January 18 was the 50th birthday of Percy Qoboza. It was also the day on which he died. Although there was no direct link be- tween the three people, these January events are recalled because Percy Qo- boza's heroes were King, in particular, and Gandhi—champions of non-violent resistance. Of course, Qoboza's achievements were not on a par with those of his heroes. But Percy Petre Tshikidiso Qoboza will stand out as a man who played a crucial role in chang- ing the face of South African journalism. Over the past 30 years, white South African editors, such as Laurence Gan- dar and Raymond Louw of the Rand Daily Mail and Joel Mervis of The Sun- day Times, have quite rightly become legends for their crusading and/or pio- neering journalism. Had they been black, they would have been tagged "ad- vocacy" or "activist" journalists. Such labels didn't bother Percy Qoboza. Starting as a junior reporter on The World and Weekend World (aimed at black readers) some 25 years ago, he became the daily news editor in 1968. In 1974, he was appointed The World's edi- "Percy Qoboza will stand out as a man who played a crucial role in changing the face of South African journalism" tor, and later was awarded the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard. At that time, black editors on white- owned newspapers were editors more in name than fact. Whites really edited Remembering those papers, although some black edi- tors were courageous and able journal- ists who did try to take their rightful Percy Qoboza place at the helm. Such newspapers usually stuck to a formula of having sen- sational crime and soccer stories on The journalism world mourns the passing of one of the their front pages. Black journalists were utterly frustrated. pioneers of the black South African media. A South On white newspapers, they were African and an American journalist who knew Percy rarely allowed to indulge in serious ana- Qoboza over the years recall the man and his lytical writing, much less to express achievements in the fight to give black writers a voice. their communities' aspirations. So, in- spired by the Steve Biko-led Black Con- sciousness Movement, they formed the Ameen Akhalwaya, a 1982 Nieman Fellow, is editor of The Indicator in Johannesburg.

32 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 U.S. Policy

Interview with Howard Wolpe

As chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa over two Reagan terms, Congressman Howard Wolpe provides an assessment of the record of both the administration and the Congress in shaping American policy in southern Africa. He also outlines the new congressional agenda for applying further pressure on Pretoria and assisting the frontline states.

INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI

Africa Report: What is your assessment of the mood in and we also intend to try to press for additional economic and Congress at this point on South Africa? Has the momentum diplomatic pressure on South Africa. Notwithstanding the which oiliroinated in the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 dissi- fairly weak and modest nature of the sanctions which were pated-'' imposed, the South Africans have finally acknowledged that Wolpe: The issue of South Africa at the monitmt is less salient the withdrawal of capital and the declining confidence of inves- and less visible in large measure because of the absence of tors in the South African economy has had some major impact media coverage of developments inside South Africa. But I upon slowing the rate of economic growth, forcing the regime don't believe that there has now to begin to undertake ma- been any modification of con- jor economic reform. They are gressional feelings on the sub- trying to figure out new ways ject of apartheid or on the im- of injecting new capital into the portance of maintaining a very economy, they are talking aggressive posture toward about a total restructuring of dealing with this incredibly re- their economic program—all a pressive regime. I anticipate testimony to the major eco- that there will be new sane- nomic pressure that the re- lions legislation that will move gime has experienced as a con- through the Congress this sequence of economic deterio- year. While South Africa may ration internally and the not be on the front burner of sanctions effort internation- congressional consciousness, ally. when the issue is actually pre- Africa Report: So you main- sented on the House floor, we tain that sanctions remain the will see continuing significant most important route to bring support for a much stronger about change? sanctions effort. Wolpe: Yes, I think it is all the Africa Report: So you intend more important that the sanc- to push for stronger sanctions tions effort and the diplomatic as opposed to stricter enforce- •One of my proudest moments came when the Congress, on a effort be accelerated at this ment of the present measures. totally bipartisan basis, succeeded in overriding the president's point. There is nothing that we Wolpe: We are going to be do- veto of the sanctions legislation" could do that could be more de- ing both. We are going to try to close loopholes in the current structive to the process of change than to signal an acceptance sanctions as they have been enforced by the administration, of the status quo, either by the U.S. or by the international

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 35 community generally. Anything that we do that conveys a am very optimistic that a successor administration in the U. S., sense of economic normalcy or an acceptance of continued and it is only a matter of months now, will have a very different economic linkages with the regime will serve to delay the time view of what needs to be done with respect to American policy when the Afrikaners will accept the inevitable, namely the toward South Africa. Beyond that, I still remain hopeful that necessity of abandoning apartheid and sitting down to negoti- even this administration will take new initiatives as it becomes ate a new political order with the authentic leadership of the increasingly clear that South African aggression is unabated black majority. That is an invitation for the prolongation of the within the region itself. struggle, for much greater violence and bloodshed. I think South African operations right now inside Angola, particu- that would be tragic. larly in the context of the recent Angolan-American diplomacy Africa Report: In the diplomatic arena, who should take the and the very clear indications of Angolan acceptance of the leadership role? In the U.S., given that it is an election year, it withdrawal of the Cuban troops, ought to be cause for addi- is not likely that much will happen between now and the end of tional American pressure on South Africa, even by this admin- the Reagan presidency. istration. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but Wolpe: I have a somewhat different view. Clearly, this ad- my hope is that this administration, if it is really serious about ministration will do only that which is minimally required, but I achieving a settlement in Namibia and withdrawal of Cuban

New York, 1987: "It was the grassroots campaign nationally that transformed the political environment and made it possible for the Congress to set a new course with respect to South Africa"

36 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 troops from Angola, must recognize that the bottom line will then turned to the Chinese, was an avowed Maoist, then have to be South African cooperation with that process. shifted his focus to South Africa, which for the last several Secondly, I would also hope that even this administration years has provided most of his support. The only tiling that is may rethink the utilization of its veto in the UN to block United consistent about Jonas Savimbi is that there is always a perfect Nations acceptance of the sanctions that the U. S. has already correlation between his ideology of the moment and his put in place. That action alone without anything else would source of funding! have a major impact on the regime and on the international Africa Report: The State Department has hailed as a break- anti-apartheid movement. Beyond that, it may again fall to the through the Angolan agreement to withdraw all Cuban troops, Congress to provide the leadersliip in these areas and we but the Angolans say tliis is contingent on stopping aid to intend to do as much as we possibly can. Savimbi from South Africa and the U. S. Is there any legislative There is also growing evidence of continuing, very strong action that can be taken to stop aid to Savimbi? anti-apartheid sentiment in many of the European countries Wolpe: There are some efforts in process to try to minimally and in Japan. In Scandinavia, France, even within Germany shift the debate from a covert program to a more open discus- and Britain, there are very strong domestic pressures for a sion of what American policy toward Angola should be. I don't strengthened campaign against the South African regime, and know how far that debate will go this year in Congress. There so we will continue to have conversations with our friends in are a lot of other issues competing for congressional attentic >n, these areas and do everything we can to broaden their in- but there is a very strong feeling both in the House and Senate volvement. that we ought to think very carefully about what we are doing Africa Report: Are there any congressional initiatives there. planned on the issue of Namibia? Wolpe: The Angolan-American diplomacy that has been in "There is nothing that we could do process the last several weeks has reawakened some real interest and focus on the Namibia question. It is dear that the that would be more destructive to Angolan diplomacy is linked to the independence of Namibia. the process of change than to signal As we discuss the sanctions effort, we intend to constantly an acceptance of the status quo, make clear that it is not only South Africa's internal policies either by the U.S. or by the that are at issue here, but also its continued illegal occupation international community of Namibia and continued aggression against neighboring generally." states that also require very significant international re- sponse. The most tragic element of current American policy that My hope is that the administration itself, in light of the new needs to be reassessed is our continued open/covert relation- diplomatic developments, will do as it has done in the case of ship with I Jnita, which haS been rationalized on the basis of our Afghanistan and recognize the necessity of now helping to anti-communist commitments and American strategic inter- facilitate the removal of Cuban troops. There is no way that ests in seeing an end to the Cuban presence in Angola. Yet the we are going to see a removal of Cuban troops by intensifying policy has had the perverse consequence of leading to an military pressure on Angola. All that will do is expand that increase in the number of Cuban troops inside Angola and to troop commitment and prolong the conflict. the Angolan government's increased dependence upon the Africa Report: The emergency situation in Angola and Mo- Cubans and their Soviet advisers, which runs directly con- zambique is worsening all the time. What is your view of the trary to American goals. administration's response to these countries' emergency Moreover, it has reinforced the perception that the U.S. is needs? Is it totally tied up in politics? now a military ally of South Africa and has become party to Wolpe: The administration has responded very well in the South African aggression against Angola and the neighboring case of Mozambique and I only wish it would pursue the states. I cannot think of anything that is more counterproduc- insight it has developed with respect to the Mozambican situa- tive to American interests in southern Africa than that kind of tion in the Angolan case as well. In the case of Mozambique, de facto complicity and alliance with South Africa. It is as the administration has come to recognize that its government though the Soviet Union had written our script! is doing everything it can to reduce its dependence on the Even more extraordinary is to see the continuation of this Soviet Union and to strengthen its ties to the Western econo- effort in assisting Savirnbi in the midst of a diplomatic process mies, and has taken initiatives to try and assist the Mozambi- in which the Angolans have made explicit their willingness to cans economically in their effort at resisting the destabilizing remove all Cuban troops. It would be amusing if it were not so activities of the South African government. tragic to see the way in which the far-right wing of the U.S. We are not doing enough, but the limitations are far more has been manipulated by Jonas Savimbi and how they have the consequence of our basic overall limitation on resources at become trapped by their own labels. I am sure that there are this moment than they are a policy perspective of the U.S. some people in the U. S. who really believe that he is an anti- Whereas we are putting more emergency assistance into Mo- communist freedom fighter. And yet Savimbi is one of the zambique, I don't think we are doing enough in Angola with most opportunistic individuals on the African continent! This is respect to the emergency food situation. My hope is that as a man who first traveled to the Soviet Union for assistance, we have done in other cases, we will be able to transcend the

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 37 politics of the situation to try to keep some people alive. gress, on a totally bipartisan basis, succeeded in overriding Africa Report: What is the status of American assistance to the president's veto of the sanctions legislation. It was enor- the Southern African Development Coordination Conference mously important not only for the message that we were (SAI)CO? attempting to convey to South Africa, but also in terms of this Wolpe: That is one of the success stories on the congres- country—we were saying what we were as a people. To have sional end. This year, we were very successful both in the Dick Lugar, then the Republican chairman of the Senate For- continuing resolution of the appropriations for 1988 and also in eign Relations Committee, and Nancy Kassebaum, then the the two-year foreign aid authorization, where we were able to Republican chairman of the Africa subcommittee of the Sen- increase the overall allocation for the entire African continent ate, joining with House Democratic leaders in generating the by almost $100 million, even within the context of an overall overwhelming vote to override the president's veto—that lower number lor the foreign aid function in the budget. As a piece of that overall increase for the African continent, there is "We could have been far more effective in a $50 million earmark for this next year for SADCC. So we are facilitating the process of change beginning to meet our responsibilities to SADCC, to recog- inside South Africa and in advancing nize the critical importance of seeing that SADCC is success- American interests in the region" ful in facilitating regional economic development. The other thing that was significant in terms of what hap- pened in Congress is that we were able to fend off a lot of and- SADCC amendments that would have restricted in one way or another funds going to SADCC, to Mozambique, and so on. I was delighted to have a number of key people who histori- cally have not been all that involved come to recognize the importance of SADCC and the counterproductive nature of the Mozambique-bashing, for example, that has characterized earlier debates. People like Congressmen Jack Murtha, Dave McCurdy, and Amo Houghton were very helpful in working with the Africa subcommittee and resisting what could have been some very destructive amendments. Africa Report: Having been cliairman of the Africa subcom- mittee through two Reagan terms, could you give your overall assessment of its southern African policy? What have they done right? Wolpe: I have had fundamental disagreements with the ad- ministration's approach to South Africa from the very begin- ning. The disagreements have been heavily focused on tacti- cal considerations, where I thought that the decision to link the issue of Namibian independence to Cuban troop with- drawal in Angola actually compromised our ability to achieve either objective. A diplomatic approach would have been far more helpful and the administration could have achieved both was very' significant. The Congress played a very important goals in a much earlier time. I also think that the constructive role in supporting SADCC, and in trying to rationalize the engagement policy has had the major effect of reinforcing the administration's approach to the African continent, to reshape more intransigent elements of the South African government and redirect the balance of economic versus military assist- to pursue much more repressive policies and widen bloodshed ance. and violence. It has been terribly counterproductive. On the negative side, the biggest failure of Congress was At the same time, the administration has done some things when we repealed the Clark amendment and provided the right. Its approach to Mozambique has been right on target. I opening for the openly acknowledged covert program for think it has been generally supportive of SADCC and has Savimbi. That was a terrible mistake and my suspicion is that recognized its importance both in policy terms and in dollar many people who helped make that happen now regret that resources. It also made a very significant and important deci- decision. In more general terms, there has been such an sion when it decided to open up a public dialogue with the absence of constructive, positive leadership from the adminis- African National Congress. Unfortunately, some of the other tration that it has fallen to the Congress to move into that initiatives it has taken have compromised the success and vacuum and play the role of redirecting and franiing American effectiveness of what has been positive in its policy. policy. Africa Report: What kind of scorecard would you give Con- A few years ago, Africa was not even a subject that was gress over the same period? discussed in national debates or within the Congress. Now it is Wolpe: One of my proudest moments since I have been in very much a part of the overall foreign policy dialogue that is Congress—almost a decade now—came when the Con- taking place inside the Congress and across this country. I

38 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 think we will id as we move closer to November that the prepared to make it clear in South Africa that there will be issue of Souti Africa and of southern African policy will be significant costs attached to the failure to achieve certain spe- much more a .••art of the presidential debates and consider- cific policy objectives. As long as the South Africans know in ations than ttav have been historically. It is very unusual for advance that this administration will do everything it can to the Congress ti1 successfully oppose any presidential foreign guarantee the continuance of apartheid, then it compromises policy initiative, so the fact that we were able to do so on what we in Congress have been attempting to achieve. That is southern Africa i one of the most significant achievements of number one—I would like to see a more clear and consistent the Congress in the past several years. approach to the South African regime. One other pout that ought to be mentioned is that Con- Secondly, 1 would like to see an end to our covert opera- gress is on the verge of implementing a very new approach to tions in Angola and I would like to see a real focus on the combined objectives of Namibian independence and the re- moval of Cuban troops from Angola, which I think is within reach if we really make clear to South Africa the seriousness with which we regard those objectives. Thirdly, 1 would like to see an expansion of our commitment to SADCC. We must help strengthen the neighboring south- ern African states so that they can reduce their dependence and vulnerability with respect to South Africa. That is impor- tant not only in terms of the struggle against apartheid, but also in and of itself to see that these countries can develop an effective, regional integrated economic framework. We also need to broaden the dialogue with all the groups that are struggling for liberation inside South Africa and Nami- bia. 1 would like to see that be a much more public, continuous effort, and I would like to see us expand our own commit- ments to multilateral assistance to the development process not only in southern Africa, but throughout the African conti- nent. Africa Report: Is there anything else you would like to say ? Wolpe: Yes, there is one thing. In this day and age, it is often said that average citizens don't have much impact on national decisions, domestic or foreign policy questions. What has happened with respect to southern African policy and specifi- cally South African policy is testimony to the enormous power that individual citizens can exercise, even on foreign policy issues. It was in fact the grassroots campaign nationally— ranging from everything from divestment efforts on cam- puses and within local governments to the non-violent civil disobedience campaigns to the more generalized broadening African development. We have been working on this initiative of the debate within the church community as well as within for many years and we have even secured administration the campuses across this country—that really transformed concurrence on the concept of an African development fund, the political environment and made it possible lor the Con- which is the first time there has been an acceptance of an gress to set a new course with respect to our approach to allocation of economic development funds on a regional basis. South Africa. It was a classic instance of where grassroots Now my hope is that we can get the Senate to act on the mobilization made the difference in American foreign policy. foreign aid authorization which contains the reworking of the We need to remember tliat down the road because we are entire AID program as it relates to the African continent to going to need again to maintain that kind of grassroots effort to achieve a much more cost-effective approach to economic galvanize the American political process if we are going to be development in Africa. successful in our Africa policy across the board. In the final Africa Report: If you could design the policy agenda on analysis, the American people are way ahead of national insti- South and southern Africa for the new administration, what tutions as it relates to the issue of South Africa and sou them would be the essential components? Africa. Americans see South Africa out of our own tragic Wolpe: Had the administration been working with the Con- experience with racial conflict and are really committed to gress rather than at crosspurposes with the Congress with trying to make a difference in South Africa and making certain respect to our approach to South Africa, we could have been that the U.S. does not remain an accomplice to apartheid. So far more effective in facilitating the process of change inside there is a lot that those who are involved in the anti-apartheid South Africa and in advancing American interests in the re- movement can take pride in having acliieved up to tliis gion. 1 don't think our diplomacy can be credible if we are not point. •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 39 Lobbying Against U.S. Policy Apartheid Having provided the backbone for the grassroots campaign which culminated in the passage of national sanctions legislation, American lobbying organizations are looking to new strategies to move the anti-apartheid effort forward in this election year.

BY WILLIAM HOWARD

handful of organizations, gener- the country, and focusing on other re- Aally working with small, dedicated gional issues such as fighting aid to the staffs and minuscule budgets, have Unita rebels in Angola and urging more managed to hold their own in a fight help for the government of Mozam- against a host of major corporations who bique. have the considerable power of many Still at the local level, Knight said that conservative members of Congress be- while working to introduce municipal hind them. and state laws in areas where no such Not unlike some modern fiction writ- legislation exists, the groups are seek- ten in the mold of David and Goliath, the ing to persuade local governments that battleground is the effort to end apart- have proven sympathetic to their efforts heid in South Africa, and the combat- to strengthen laws, thus imposing selec- ants, a select number of lobbying groups tive purcha^ rules on quasi-govern- "TransAfrica is focusing on the presiden- ranged against a corporate world anx- tial campaign, hoping to help elect a can- mental agenos and other bodies and ious to maintain its profits and preroga- didate whose South African policy will forcing them to forgo purchase of goods tives. match its own" with South Africa, content. With campus protests to force trust- specific barriers. Obviously we can't win The normal me

40 AFRICA REPORT* March-April 1988 Generally they ask us for it, and they campaign, Smith said, "Six of the top 20 global sanctions," the group's ultimate work on a personal basis to sway their pension funds in the country are in- objective. colleagues in Congress," she said. In volved in sponsoring shareholder reso- "There are very serious limits to any the House of Representatives, Wilson lutions. " real impact than any bilateral policy can said, there is an "increasingly diverse While the efforts of his organization have," Robinson said, explaining his corps of sponsors of legislation in the and others "cover every company that group's strategy for arriving at global house, Democrat and Republican, black would have business in South Africa," sanctions. "An important step is to have and white." Smith said, "the focus is on companies the U.S. show leadership in bringing its This, she felt, was because her tliat are active in strategic sectors," like allies and partners to impose sanctions group, which was founded by a large banking or petrochemicals, to name together." "This is not an action, we number of predominantly Protestant two. understand, that the Congress can take, church groups working together to "at- "The climate for American corpora- the president must carry it out," Robin- tack the root causes" of misery and op- tions doing business in South Africa is pression in southern Africa, had been successful in mobilizing church mem- bers in specific congressional districts to express their concerns locally. Like other activists and lobbyists, Wilson expressed the belief that the perceived lull in public protests and other actions that brought the anti- im COLCOLLECTORL S apartheid issue into the living rooms of .. .. • Hi J America was merely a cyclical matter. "Some momentum got lost, partly out of wm the media's complicity in the South Afri- can press ban," she said. Citing examples of what she said •' T8 were the failures of the mainstream American press to cover South Africa >»*- thoroughly, she said, "Many journalists report on the situation in Namibia only by interviewing South African journal- ists." Others, she said, had failed to cover the continuing crisis in South Af- rica, "not reporting the truth because they are afraid of what the South African reaction will be." "If Nicaragua seals off the press like South Africa, my God, we "The perceived lull in public protests that brought the anti-apartheid issue into the living 1 will land the Marines. But South Africa rooms of America is merely a cyclical matter' does it and nobody makes a peep," she not looking up," Smith said. "Virtually With this in mind, TransAfrica is foc- added. every major company, if not making using its energies on the presidential Tim Smith, director of the Interfaith plans to withdraw, is continuing to eval- campaign underway, hoping to help Center on Corporate Responsibility uate the situation and is working on con- elect a candidate whose South African (ICCR), a New York-based church or- tingency plans for withdrawal. If any- policy will match its own. "We have es- ganization, denies that there has been thing, there has been an increase in tablished a report card for each of the any loss in momentum at all, saying, pressure, but as for coverage, it is not in candidates on the issue of South Africa," "Virtually every major company that still the big newspapers as much at Robinson said. does business in South Africa is receiv- present." he added. With a view to affecting the issue of ing a shareholder resolution this year At TransAfrica, the black American the presidential campaign, TransAfrica asking them to cut ties, including an end lobby for Africa and the Caribbean, the has been running print and television ad- to licensing arrangements." present focus is on U.S. electoral poli- vertisements on sanctions-related is- As its name implies, the ICCK con- tics. TransAfrica's director, Randall Ro- sues in primary states. To get a favor- centrates on forcing U.S. corporations binson, explained, "There is a near- able policy, he said, "We will have to to reduce or eliminate their involvement term and a long-term objective. The elect a Democratic president, and en- in South Africa, primarily through share- near-term is to firm up the sanctions we sure that the Democratic president holder resolutions, but also through sit- already have, with the understanding takes it seriously and makes global sanc- in type protests at corporate offices. that the South African government will tions a political priority in his first Surveying the results of the corporate not capitulate to anything less than term." •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 41 BY JEFFREY CLARK and J. STEPHEN MORRISON Angola: War, Opinion ngolan society, particularly its Apeasantry, is seriously imperiled. A highly internationalized 12-year civil Politics, and Famine war has created widespread human suf- fering that bears frightening resem- As the war grinds on, a worsening food emergency is blance to the reckless devastation that threatening the lives of thousands of Angolans. While the Renamo has wrought inside Mozam- Angolan government and the donor community devise a bique. Almost one-third of Angola's pop- strategy to provide relief to the population, an appropriate ulation—2.7 million people—has either American humanitarian response is hostage to domestic been displaced or severely affected, political considerations. while 400,000 Angolan refugees have fled to surrounding countries, state farms and its neglect of the peas- egy employed by Renamo in Mozam- A delegation of six congressional ant sector; and South Africa's repeated bique, with similarly devastating ef- staffers, representing the House Select military incursions inside Angola, esti- fects. Committee on Hunger, the House Sub- mated by the UN to have cost Angola's Land mines laid along fields and roads committee on Africa, and individual economy $12 billion since 1980. South have made cultivation impossible in House and Senate members, visited Africa's disruption of Cunene province large areas, uprooted fanning popula- Angola from January 14-21. Issues of alone accounts for over 100,000 dis- tions, and created the world's largest greatest concern included food and non- placed persons. number of amputees (exceeding food emergency needs, the status of Recently, however, the decline in liv- 20,000). Last year, a single ICRC facil- government and international relief ing standards of Angola's rural society ity in Huambo fitted 900 persons with agency operations, the war's impact on has accelerated. In 1985 and again in prosthetic devices. Clinics, schools, agricultural production and distribution, 1987, the Angolan government grain storage facilities, and other infra- the government's emergent economic launched offensives, supported by structure essential to a functioning rural reform program, and its recent diplo- large-scale Soviet and Cuban assist- life have been systematically destroyed matic initiatives. ance, against Unita's redoubt in the by Unita guerrillas. The delegation met with numerous southeastern corner of Cuando Cu- As in Mozambique, relief assistance representatives of the Angolan govern- bango province. In each instance. South and the international and local personnel ment and various UN and European do- Africa invaded Angolan territory with who administer it have become targets. nor agencies active in-country. Detailed major commitments of troops, aircraft, Food convoys are able to travel along briefings were provided by officials of heavy artillery, and armored equip- the three major routes leading from the Internationa] Committee of the Red ment. coastal ports inland only sporadically and Cross (ICKC), Catholic and Methodist Beginning late last year. South Africa when accompanied by heavy military es- Church-affiliated relief agencies, and expanded its attacks to record propor- corts. .Scores of clearly designated relief ambassadors of several Western and Af- tions, moving several hundred miles vehicles have been destroyed, their rican nations. The group traveled to a north of the Namibian border. By mid- drivers killed or injured. displaced persons camp east of Luanda January of this year, the strategic garri- Nor are international airlifts immune. and to Huambo in the central highlands, son at Cuito Cuanavale was under sus- The ICRC, which operates a highly ef- where it toured a hospital, an orphan- tained siege, prompting the entry into fective, self-contained program that age, and an artificial limb centre. Angola of an additional 5,(XX) seasoned brings relief to over 100,000 peasants in Cuban troops and the evacuation of sev- remote areas of the central highlands, The Emergency eral thousand civilians. suspended these activities after its C- The emergency has germinated over Secondly, since 1984, Unita has at- 130 Hercules was destroyed in-flight on several years due to several factors: the tempted to project itself throughout the October 14, killing eight persons. After- war's massive absorption of national re- central, eastern, and northern sectors wards, Unita repeatedly failed to pro- sources; the low priority the Angolan of Angola. These are areas where Un- vide assurances of unconditional respect government has assigned the state sec- ita's power stems not from effective for the ICRC's efforts, necessary be- retariat responsible for managing disas- control of or sanctuary among the local fore it could resume operations. {It is ter relief (SEAS); the government's population, but from its ability to desta- reported that Unita did finally provide failed experiment with centrally planned bilize—when fueled by South African such an assurance in mid-February, and (and since late 1985, American) military that ICRC flights will begin again in late Jeffrey Clark is staff director of the U.S. House of assistance. The most disturbing aspect February.) Representatives Select Committee on Hunger and J. Stephen Morrison is a staff member tij the of Unita's campaign, confirmed in dis- The UN and others now estimate that House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa. cussions with a variety of non-Angolan a minimum of 600,000-700, (MX) peas- The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the positions of the re- sources, is the degree to which it in- ants have been displaced. Wholly de- spective committees. creasingly resembles the brutal strat- pendent upon emergency assistance.

42 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 ute goods outside the port cities. The Bita displaced person camp visited by the delegation, barely 21 miles east of Luanda, had erratic, inadequate food de- liveries. Convoys from Luanda to the far east of Moxico province, where donor offi- cials emphasize there is the highest risk of starvation, can take five months. Air- lifts into these areas, the only alterna- tive, are astronomical in cost, under- funded by donors, and when dependent upon by the Angolan government air fleet, compete against the military.

Toward a Government Strategy In 1987, the government took sev- eral steps to demonstrate the height- ened priority it assigns to the emer- gency, especially regarding the impera- tive to reorganize internally and to collaborate productively with the UN, donor governments, and private inter- national agencies. Immediately following a government appeal in November, a UN team visited Angola, traveling extensively and con- sulting closely with government offi- cials. By the end of last year, the team "It is women and children whose lives are most threatened—they constitute 80 percent of had drafted a comprehensive study that the rural displaced" provides an informed, mutually ac- they mostly dwell in a network of inse- nation's originally weak health infra- cepted basis for the 1988 relief pro- cure camps. Moreover, a growing pro- structure remains, an open invitation to gram—to be organized around a UN do- portion of the remaining rural popula- epidemics of the sort seen last spring nor appeal in the spring. It specifies An- tion—difficult to estimate precisely be- when a cholera outbreak in Luanda left gola's emergency needs, food and non- cause of the war—is in need of l,l(K)dead. food, and includes a candid, critical supplementary food and medical assist- Angola has had an annual emergency analysis of the weaknesses of SEAS and ance. food deficit in excess of 255,000 metric the priority areas for foreign technical Because of the relative safety they tons for the past two years. Observers assistance. provide, Angola's cities have swelled; 2 expect that at least 250,000 metric tons The study also emphasizes how criti- million urban residents are severely af- of food aid will be required for the crop cal it is that the government appoint a fected and require emergency assist- year beginning April 1. Virtually all do- high-r;mking official, preferably a mem- ance. Luanda, with a population of mestic production (not likely to be more ber of the Politburo, to direct the inter- 300,0IXt in 1975, now numbers 1.5 mil- than 340,000 metric tons) will go toward ministerial council responsible for coor- lion, with 500,000 recent destitute ar- subsistence consumption in the coun- dinating relief activities. Such a move rivals. Another 500,000 destitute are tryside. would heighten donor confidence that found on the outskirts of Angola's other Over $40 million of non-food relief, access to transport and storage facili- cities and towns. The urban center of including trucks, chartered aircraft, lo- ties, and military protection for convoys the central highlands, Huambo, has gistical support, blankets, clothing, will be forthcoming. grown from 50,000 in the mid-1970s to medicines, seeds, and other necessi- Donors in Luanda expect that this 350,000. ties, will continue to be required. In step, which is fundamental to the under- It is women and children whose lives 1987, while international donors did standing forged between the govern- are most threatened—they constitute meet food shortfalls, their response to ment and the UN, is near. It would fol- 80 percent of the rural displaced. Infant non-f(K)d requirements lagged by ap- low naturally upon last September's ap- mortality, as in Mozambique, is among proximately $20 million. This, com- pointment of a key Politburo member to the highest in the world—-among chil- pounded by security problems and the direct the relief program in the central dren under five, 325-375 deaths per persistent weakness of SEAS, has plateau, the most populous and fertile 1,000, according to Unicef. Little of the made it exceedingly difficult to distrib- area of Angola. By November, rebef

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 43 convoys serving that region (from Lo- South Africa to comply with the terms of there any evidence that the U.S. has bito to Huambo) had tripled. an accord, a second major obstacle to taken steps to pressure Unita or South These changes also fit within Ango- progress is continued U.S. covert as- Africa to cease the inhumane practices la's foreign policy goal of opening to the sistance to Unita and doubts regarding that are truly behind this emergency. West and moving toward a more genu- Assistant Secretary Crocker's ability to Notwithstanding the administration's ine non-aligned status. Last year, fol- bargain that assistance away as part of a willingness to struggle with the vast hu- lowing its entry into the Lome Conven- regional settlement. man needs of similarly difficult settings tion, Angola began a sweeping eco- Our Western allies, especially the Eu- like Mozambique and Ethiopia, the of- nomic reform program, a preliminary ropean Community, Italy, and Sweden, ten-stated principle of the Reagan ad- step in its bid for IMF and World Bank have mobilized quickly, in league with ministration that "a hungry child knows membership. Collective farms have UN agencies, the ICKC, and the Ango- no politics" is yet to be applied in An- been broken up, while in the secure lan government, to answer Angola's gola. The victims of the escalating southwest region, agricultural experi- emergency needs. The U. S. in contrast emergency face conditions considerably mentation has advanced. Supported by minimizes the emergency, while citing worse than is acknowledged by Wash- price incentives, liberalized marketing the weakness and confusion of the An- ington, so too are there more people at structures, and an inflow of consumer golan government as justification for risk than is understood. goods and agricultural inputs—under U. S. inaction, a logic not applied in other The Angolan government is taking the direction, as in the central plateau, comparable situations. steps to improve the coordination of its of a newly appointed, high-ranking offi- Administration officials repeat uncon- relief operations and to enable the inter- cial—food production in 1987 rose firmed allegations of diversion of relief national donor community to be more sharply, yielding a 60, (XX) metric ton food to the Angolan military—reports effective in the provision of assistance, surplus. which the delegation found enjoyed yet these realities are dismissed by the scant credibility among UN and Western administration. Various options for the Politicizing Humanitarian Aid embassy officials. The administration U. S. to channel larger levels of assist- The Reagan administration has failed also questions the magnitude of Ango- ance, food and non-food alike, through to respond adequately to this crisis due la's national needs, challenging the sta- responsible international relief agen- to domestic political realities. U.S. "cov- tistics on the food deficit and the popula- cies, with a reasonable expectation of ert" support of the Unita insurgency tions at risk provided by the UN, the that assistance reaching intended benefi- places the administration in the shadows government of Angola, and international ciaries, remain altogether unexplored. of Angola's grinding conflict, in tacit alli- relief agencies. Covert aid to Unita does not simply ance with Unity's major sponsor. South Throughout 1987 and into 1988, the compromise U.S. efforts at negotiating Africa. This, together with budget con- administration has insisted that before the withdrawal of Cuban and South Afri- straints and fresh memories of the any substantial commitments can even can forces from Angola, it also imposes bruising battles of 1987—when the be considered, additional work must be grave limitations upon the United State Department's Africa Bureau was conducted—which the U.S. is reluctant States' ability to adhere to a globally absorbed with staving off far-right chal- to underwrite or organize—to resolve consistent humanitarian policy. U.S. in- lenges to slowly improving relations lingering ambiguities regarding com- action in Angola contrasts sharply with with Mozambique—has stymied any mercial food imports, distributional ca- policy toward Mozambique, Ethiopia, significant response to the deepening pacities, and "end-use accountability." and other imperiled countries. It evokes emergency in Angola. These concerns are all valid. Thus far. memories of Reagan administration be- For the State Department to argue however, they have been employed in havior in 1983-84, when American pas- that it must collaborate, directly or indi- an exceptionally strict fashion, less for sivity in the face of famine in Ethiopia rectly, with the relief arm of the Angolan the sake of guaranteeing standards and was a function of political factors—until government on behalf of Angola's vul- facilitating aid than as a bureaucratic de- pressure from Congress, the media, nerable populace is to risk reigniting laying tactic. and the American public forced a turn- conflict with ultra-conservatives. Such a In the meantime, aid levels remain around in approach. move would invite immediate attack minimal and static. In 1987, U.S. relief As long as this reality persists, the from Unita supporters in Washington contributions to Angola amounted to a U. S. will also increasingly set itself apart (most of whom also strenuously object mere 12,410 metric tons, administered from other major Western donors and to the sizeable U.S. relief program in by Unicef; this represented approxi- their encouraging response to the crisis Mozambique), thereby further com- mately 5 percent of the emergency food in Angola. Of course, these troubling pounding the already formidable difficul- deficit. Thus far in 1988, commitments implications were never addressed ties Assistant Secretary of State Ches- have been made for a first six-month when covert aid was first announced in ter Crocker faces in his efforts to medi- tranche of 6,000 metric tons, against a early 1986. Nor are they explicitly dis- ate the withdrawal of Cuban and South Unicef 12-month request for 32,000 cussed today when the administration is African forces from Angola. metric tons. The U.S. has contributed asked to explain its apparent indiffer- Apart from the issue of whether this no non-food assistance to assure that ence to the tragedy unfolding in Ango- administration is prepared to pressure the food reaches the hungry. Nor is la. D

44 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 BYJANNICOSCHOLTEN sanctions is now the first priority. ing with North America and Japan. The Hence, he has a special responsibility to term "action" in our name means that n West Europeans parliaments since convince conservatives in London and AWEPAA members accept that eco- Ithe late 1970s, awareness has Bonn, given that they have so often in- nomic sanctions against South Africa are grown of the West's special responsibil- voked his position as a solid argument an indispensible part of any effective and ity with regard to South Africa and for avoiding sanctions. credible Western policy in favor of jus- Namibia. The independence of the former Portuguese colonies in 1975, the final success of the liberation struggle in Western Europe Zimbabwe, and the growing repression and resistance inside South Africa stim- ulated the involvement of West Euro- pean parliamentarians in the struggle Putting Pressure against apartheid, resulting in a call for intensified pressure, especially through sanctions, to abolish the apartheid sys- on Parliaments tem. In 1980, after a one-year debate, the Dutch parliament with a two-third ma- jority adopted my resolution calling for an oil embargo against South Africa. Since that time, broad agreement on sanctions has been reached, illustrated by recent resolutions adopted by the European Parliament (the parliament of the European Community), calling for: • bans on new loans to and investments in South Africa, • import bans on coal, iron and steel, uranium, gold corns, diamonds, textiles, and agricultural products, • finding alternative suppliers for stra- tegic minerals, • a comprehensive embargo on involve- ment in oil procurement, • suspension of air links, "AWEPAA campaigns for pressure on South Atrica by various means including sanc- • prohibition of nuclear cooperation, tions, promotion of the independence of Namibia, and support to SADCC" • tightening the application of the man- datory arms embargo, and Growing interest and a changing mood in Western • application of current sanctions Europe's parliaments vis-a-vis the South Africa issue against South Africa to Namibia as well. highlighted the need for coordinated European action. Most Western governments were initially rather reluctant to impose sanc- Founded in 1984, AWEPAA is campaigning at the tions. They advocated—and the con- parliamentary level to increase both economic and servative governments of the United diplomatic pressure on the apartheid government. Kingdom and West Germany still advo- cate—a policy of dialogue. It was the time of codes of conduct for corpora- The growing interest and changing tice and freedom in southern Africa. tions operating in South Africa, like the mood in Western Europe's national par- Sanctions are the strongest peaceful in- U.S. Sullivan Code and a similar one liaments made us aware of the need for strument at our disposal to help our drawn up by the European Community. more coordinated action in Europe. Eor friends in southern Africa. However, even the Reverend Sul- this reason, we created the Association AWEPAA therefore campaigns for livan lias finally come to the conclusion of West European Parliamentarians for pressure on South Africa by various that application of his code has not been Action Against Apartheid (AWEPAA) in means including sanctions, promotion of sufficiently effective and that economic November 1984. the independence of Namibia, and pro- Dr. Jan Niai Scholten, a member of the Dutch AWEPAA has quickly become a net- motion of support to SADCC and its Parliament for 16 years, has been president of work for parliamentarians from all West member-states. Any present or former AWEPAA since its foundation in November 19X4. European countries and links are grow- member of parliament who agrees with

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 45 these aims can join AWKPAA, irrespec- strategic commodities, and air links. Germany, the recent visit to South Af- tive of his/her party background. From However, in the European Community, rica and Namibia by Franz-Joseph the very outset, this political broadness the UK, West Germany, and Portugal Strauss, the Christian- Democratic has been one of our organizing principles have been able to block a similar policy. prime minister of Bavaria, has created and is reflected in the composition of our The European Parliament has advisory tension in the Federal/Liberal coalition governing bodies. AWEPAA now has power only and common EC foreign pol- even within his own party. icy is determined by compromise and— So there is great need and potential in the case of southern Africa—by the for intensified cross-Atlantic action on a lowest common denominator. parliamentary level to influence and "AWEPAA members So we have weakly implemented— change center-right politicians in West- accept that economic sometimes not even by law—and badly ern Europe, especially in the UK and sanctions against monitored investment bans, import West Germany. AWEPAA is pleased South Africa are an bans on gold coins, iron and steel, and that good contacts have been estab- indispensable part of embargoes on sale of computers to the lished with leading members of the U. S. South African army and police and on Congress, as well as with all parties in any effective and the sale of domestic crude oil. Less than the Canadian House of Commons. credible Western policy 5 percent of all current EC trade is in- in favor of justice and volved. Namibia: Rejection of "Linkage" freedom in southern Individually, some countries have Namibia is the second and no less im- Africa." done more: Denmark has joined its fel- portant issue in AWEPAA's program. low Nordic neighbors; Ireland banned Here we are more critical of current imports of fruit and vegetables; and U.S. policy which, in our view, is no French state power plants will not con- contribution to the goal of forcing South over 1,000 members from all the polit- clude new agreements to buy South Af- Africa to agree to free elections and in- ical mainstreams of Western Europe. rican coal. What AWEPAA is campaigning for is Current Western Sanctions: the implementation of a joint policy by "There is a great need A Mixed Picture the European Community which should Reluctantly or not, economic sanc- at least include the measures taken by and potential for tions against South Africa have now the U. S., the Nordic countries, and the intensified been accepted by virtually all Western Commonwealth minus the UK. cross-Atlantic action on powers as part of their southern African The main causes of this poor state of a parliamentary level policies, at least in principle. The break- affairs are the loose structure of joint EC to influence through came in 1986 when the public policy-making and the conservative ma- center-right politicians outcry against oppression in South Af- jorities in the largest West European rica, as we watched it daily on our televi- countries. But the U.S. administration in Western Europe, sion screens, became so strong that and Congress alike have a good possibil- especially in the U.K. even the governments of the U.S., ity and therefore a special responsibility and West Germany." Great Britain, and West Germany had to to achieve a more coordinated, succumb to pressure to implement at stronger, and more credible Western least some restrictions on their eco- policy. The Reagan administration has dependence in that country. nomic relations with South Africa. unfortunately refused—and Congress A policy of sanctions against South What sanctions are now in place in the has not enforced—the implementation Africa along with a policy of "construc- West? The picture is mixed: strong of the relevant paragraph of the Com- tive engagement"—dialogue and even American policies, thanks to the Con- prehensive Anti-Apartheid Act on influ- agreement with South Africa on the is- gress which overruled the presidential encing the Western allies to take similar sue of Cuban troops in Angola—send veto; a strong Commonwealth policy, measures as included in the act. contradictory messages from Washing- with a broad consensus between gov- Not all is gloomy, though. In the UK, ton to Pretoria. ernments and parliaments, including a number of conservative MPs are dis- U.S. policy vis-a-vis Angola has been Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, enchanted with Thatcher's policies and counter-productive. Continued support but not the United Kingdom; and the the British image thus created in south- for Unita, by the U.S. and South Africa long-standing common sanctions policy ern Africa. They have formed "Con- alike, is a guarantee that Cuban troops of the Nordic countries of Western Eu- servatives for Fundamental Change in will stay—just the opposite of stated rope. South Africa," and have joined an all- U.S. policy goals. For South Africa, this These policy packages consist of a party group on southern Africa in the creates the perfect alibi to remain in broad range of measures, such as bans House of Commons which aims at Brit- Namibia illegally, to block the implemen- on new loans and investments, most im- ish government implementation of the tation of UN resolution 435, of which the ports, export of oil and other military- joint Commonwealth policy. In West U.S. was one of the sponsors, and to its

46 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 aggression and blackmail against An- military support they can give to Mo- out in the cold regarding its security so gola. A cliange of parameters and priori- zambique; Spain's Guardia Civil will that it remains vulnerable to South Afri- ties in U.S. policy is highly urgent: The train Mozambican village guards. can aggression and Unita rebellion, with Naniibian issue should primarily be In the words of the Spanish Secretary the U.S. supplying Stinger missiles to judged as one of decolonization and not of State for International Cooperation at Unita and Europe refraining from apply- of East-West confrontation. the annual SADCC conference last Janu- ing its Mozambican policies to Angola as Here the stated positions of Western ary in Arusha, Tanzania: Economic de- well. Kuropean countries are more positive, velopment plus security is the formula in Here again the overtones of East- at least on paper. What AWEPAA advo- the light of the present circumstances. West confrontation are blurring and cates though is a more active and ex- A policy is needed whereby the financ- counteracting what should be primary plicit Namibia policy: increased pres- ing of development projects includes the policy goals in a strong and ax>rdinated sure to achieve implementation of Secu- necessary security factor for guarantee- Western policy on the whole of southern rity Council Resolution 435 on the ing their defense. Africa: promotion of development, independence on Namibia; pressure on What a long way to go for the U.S., peace, and social justice in non-racial so- the U.S. to abandon "linkage"; recogni- which is finally supporting Mozambique cieties. Achievement of those aims are tion and implementation of Decree No. 1 economically, but upholds its ban on all in the interest of the peoples of southern of the IJN Council for Namibia on the military aid to that country and explicitly Africa and no less in the political, eco- illegal exploitation of Namibian re- aims at untying Mozambican-Soviet nomic, and strategic interests of our sources; and application of the joint EC links. And how must Angola feel—left own countries. Q sanctions—weak as they are—to Namibia. Winner of the 1986 Conover-Porter Award In its economic relations with (African Studies Association - USA) SADCC and the frontline states, the Eu- ropean performance is much better than Tore Linne Eriksen with Richard Moorsom regarding sanctions and Namibia. Both the Nordic countries and the European Community have special agreements THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NAMIBIA with SADCC. These programs are An annotated critical bibliography more than just development coopera- tion—they recognize the stated aims Published by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies in co- and needs of the SADCC members to operation with the UN Institute for Namibia and the Norwegian loosen their economic ties with South Institute of International Affairs. Africa. They are not an alternative to sanctions, they are a complement to 424 pp. ISBN 91-7106-234-3 Price: US$ 22.00/£13.00 them. It is remarkable that a growing num- The bibliography contains more than 1500 entries, of which over 1000 ber of West Europeans have recognized arc annotated. These include books, articles, unpublished reports, offi- the need for military support expressed cial publications and periodicals in English, German, Afrikaans and the by Mozambique and Zimbabwe, to en- Nordic languages. It also includes a guide to the major libraries, docu- able them to maintain their defense ca- mentation centres and research institutes. pability. What is the use of financing de- velopment projects if South Africa and "... truly impressive" (Africa Today), "a timely and invaluable South African-supported rebels are de- guide" (Review of African Political Economy), "extremely stroying them? valuable and the most comprehensive up-to-date bibliography on Events have moved fast on this issue: Namibia" (Journal of Southern African Studies). "This is a major The UK—the first Western country— work of power, passion and purpose ... a stunning, indispen- has been training Mozambican and Zim- sable reference tool" (World Development). "The annotations are babwean soldiers in Zimbabwe for over a wonder of insight and balance" (Africa Report). "... indis- a year. Assistance is also rendered to pensable for all concerned with Namibia and Southern Africa,... Malawi, Botswana, and Lesotho. Within will become a classic" (Labour, capital and society). "The the last year, Portugal has agreed to authors have succeeded remarkably well in providing informed upgrade Mozambique's military infra- guidance both on history and on recent developments" (Journal structure. France was reported to of African History). agree to the supply of military hard- ware; the European Community allows part of its development funds to be Send Cheque or International Money Order with your order to: spent on protection of transport; Swe- The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, P O Box 1703, S-751 47 Uppsala, Sweden. den and Norway are considering what

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 47 Across the Continent

"Anti-apartheid campaigners from 41 countries attended the Peoples of the World Against Apartheid for a Democratic South Africa' conference" A Challenge to Action Arusha, Tanzania was recently the venue for the first-ever international conference convened by the ANC. For the anti-apartheid campaigners who attended, hearing how South Africans themselves perceive the current stage of the struggle and post-apartheid options may help to inject new momentum into their efforts.

BY JULIE FREDERIKSE

young black man strode to the see how you respond to that challenge." Such explicit support for the ANC has Apodium at Arusha's International The challenge, issued jointly by the a clear corollary—opposition to, or at Conference Center. He was identified ANC, the United Democratic Front least lack of support for, the rival libera- only as a member of the Congress of (UDF), and Cosatu-aligned activists, tion movement, the Pan Africanist Con- South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). urged the international anti-apartheid gress (PAC). Formed in 1959 when How he had managed to travel from movement to refine and solidify its posi- members split from the ANC in protest apartheid South Africa to this socialist tion. "They're all ««ri-apartheid," said against the latter's alliance with whites, frontline state or how he planned to re- an ANC member, gesturing toward the the PAC has since been slowly disinte- turn without being harassed by the au- gathering of solidarity groups. United grating due to a combination of bldy thorities for his participation in this gath- Nations and governmental bodies, non- internal feuding and lack of on-the- ering—the first international confer- governmental organizations, religious ground or military presence inside ence convened by Pretoria's avowed movements, unions and student associ- South Africa. enemy, the African National Congress ations. "But what are they for?" The Amsha site lent symbolic sup- (ANC)—was not disclosed to the 500 The Arusha conference yielded a de- port to the ANC's near-total eclipse of delegates who listened attentively to his cisive answer to that question: The anti- the PAC, for Tanzania has historically militant speech. apartheid movement has pledged to di- hosted both movements and the PAC is "We believe it is time to make a direct rect its support to the ANC, as the sole headquartered in Dar es Salaam. challenge to the international commu- representative of those fighting apart- Equally important was the chairing of nity," the unionist said. "We will wait to heid from both inside and outside South the conference by Tanzanian Deputy Julte Frederikse, author of South Africa: A Dif- Africa, and to the frontline states, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense ferent Kind of War, « based in Harare, Zim- hapless regional victims of "apartheid's babwe, She also reports on southern Africa for Salim Salim, and the keynote address National Public Radio. second front." given by retired Tanzanian President

48 AFRICA REPORT . March-April 1988 and current chairman of the party, Julius It was this kind of pro-Pretoria tilt to the conference to all members of the Nyerere. Each gave his wholehearted that led the UDF to break relations with European Community, as well as to the endorsement of the ANC and its armed U.S. After the opening session, arepre- struggle without even a mention of the sentative from the British High Com- PAC. "Pretoria has good mission in Dar es Salaam did join the Anti-apartheid campaigners from 41 reason to worry about plenary, with similar low-level repre- countries attended the four-day confer- the effects of sanctions, sentation from the U.S. embassy. ence, officially entitled "Peoples of the for current trends and In his press conference at Arusha, World Against Apartheid for a Demo- ANC Secretary-General Alfred Nzo cratic South Africa," although few of the future projections show chose to emphasize contacts between invited U.S. public figures made it to the South African the ANC and British Foreign Secretary Arusha. The absence of notable black economy as acutely Sir Geoffrey Howe and American Sec- leaders, from presidential candidate vulnerable." retary of State George Shultz over the Jesse Jackson to Congressional Black past year. "In spite of the fact that Caucus members, was due to the fu- Thatcher and Reagan distance them- neral of Chicago Mayor Harold Wash- Britain last year—the impetus being the selves from us, these are tilings that ington, which took place during the British government's decision to drop would not have been thought possible same week. charges against several men accused of just a few years ago," Nzo maintained. At the opening session, the British plotting to kidnap ANC leaders in Lon- The Scandinavian countries, who government's empty seat in the confer- don. Many UDF and Cosatu-affiliated funded the lion's share of the confer- ence hall was rilled by black opposition organizations also refuse to meet with ence, had the most high-profile govern- leader Bemie Grant, who made a point American, West German, or Japanese mental representation in Arusha. Also of formally disassociating his delegation government representatives in protest present at the conference were delega- of labour parliamentarians from Prime against their continued opposition to the tions from the Soviet Union and the Minister Margaret Thatcher's denunci- imposition of effective economic sanc- Eastern-bloc countries. Among the ation of the ANC as a "typical terrorist tions against Pretoria. hundreds of solidarity messages (whose organization" at the 1987 Common- However, the ANC's stance is a bit delivery took up more than a day's wealth Conference. less hard-line, for it extended invitations worth of sessions, much to the frustra-

ANC President Tambo (right) with Thabo Mbeki: "There can be no solu- tion of the South African question until the people themselves exer- cise power through a system of one-person, one-vote in a uni- tary state" tion of many delegates) was one from Yan Vagris, deputy chairman of the Praesidium of the USSR's Supreme So- viet and a member of the Communist Party central committee. The statement was especially note- worthy in light of recent reports that the Soviet Union has been pressuring the ANC to adopt a more political strategy involving alternatives to insurgency. In fact, Vagris' statement contained a clari- fication endorsing the ANC's position on the need for the creation of the condi- tions necessary for a political solution, such as the release of political prisoners, the unbanning of the ANC, and the with- drawal of security forces from South Af- rica's townships. For the international press corps gathered to cover the conference, the focus was inevitably on the question of negotiations with Pretoria, and ANC Johannesburg, July 1987: "At the second national congress, Cosatu suggested various President Oliver Tambo thus addressed preconditions for disinvesting companies to abide by" the issue in great detail in his speech to their funding of South African delegates' among the South African people," said the opening session. travel to the conference could result in the Washington Office on Africa's Damu "There can be no solution of the serious complications in diplomatic rela- Smith. "Many of them are calling di- South African question until our country tions. In the face of such threats, a rectly and publicly—under emergency is transformed into a united, demo- planeload of delegates aborted their trip regulations—for support of the ANC, cratic, and non-racial entity, until the to Arusha during a layover in Zimbabwe. for socialism, and I think we in the U.S. people themselves exercise power "We decided in the end that we just need to hear this." through a system of one-person, one- couldn't afford to sacrifice more of our vote in a unitary state," said Tambo. people," confided an activist who at- The ANC also distributed the Octo- tended a church-sponsored conference ber statement of its National Executive on apartheid in Harare, but did not go to "The anti-apartheid Committee, which argued that Preto- Arusha. "You have to weigh up the pros movement has pledged ria's objective in raising the issue of ne- and cons of sending people out for such to direct its support to gotiations was to "defuse the struggle direct contact with the movement." the ANC, as the sole inside our country by holding out false Whatever the risks taken by the representative of those hopes of a just political settlement which South Africans who addressed the con- the regime has every intention to ference, their presence had a palpable fighting apartheid from block," as well as to sabotage the inter- impact on the international delegates both inside and outside national sanctions campaign. who heard them. Six activists, repre- South Africa, and to It was the deteriorating state of rela- senting the UDF and Cosatu, speaking the frontline states." tions between the government and the for workers, youth, women, rural resi- UDF that accounted for the small num- dents, religious bodies, and the legal ber of activists from inside South Africa profession, spoke anonymously, in an who travelled to Arusha for the confer- effort to minimize inevitable security ForJimCasonofthe Africa Fund, the ence. In a press briefing as the confer- problems upon returning home. real value of the conference came in pri- ence got underway, ANC information The speaker representing South Afri- vate meetings outside of the public ses- director Thabo Mbeki revealed that in- can youth echoed the ANC and UDF sions. "This conference has provided us timidation by the South African govern- stance on the negotiations issue, argu- with an opportunity to dialogue with the ment had led to a general decision by the ing dramatically that "the table on which trade unions in South Africa and learn democratic movement inside the coun- negotiations have to take place is cov- better the kind of actions we can take to try to cut down on the number of dele- ered with a cloth of blood." assist them," explained Cason. "This gates sent to Arusha. "When you listen to what those from helps us to ensure that when companies According to Mbeki, representatives inside South Africa have to say, you get are divesting from South Africa, they from at least one Western country were a real education as to the level of political are consulting with the workers and approached by Pretoria and warned that consciousness that has developed meeting their demands."

50 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 Cason said his most valuable experi- tion agreements, embracing worker service parts, management, and techni- ence at Arusha came in a long discussion benefits and the control of pension cal assistance to Samcor violates the with a Cosatu member who is a shop funds; specific compensation formulae, U.S. sanctions lobby's demand that dis- steward at an American company in e.g. workers receiving a month's pay investment extend to franchising and li- South Africa that his organization is tar- per year of service or the guarantee of censing agreements. geting for a boycott. "Now, when we go five years employment. Cosatu feels it In addition, Numsa's acceptance of to this company and say, 'You ought to should now be the task of the interna- this deal represents a minority view- get out of South Africa'," said Cason, tional sanctions lobby to press business point in contrast with Cosatu's stated "We can also add: 'And you ought to not only to disinvest, but to do so in resistance to employee share-owner- negotiate with the workers who are accordance with such general condi- ship plans. The National Union of Mine- making these specific demands.' " tions. workers, Cosatu's largest and most This new-found sensitivity on the In theory, the means of ensuring co- powerful affiliate, recently rejected a need for input into international sanc- ordination between workers' demands similar share offer and the Cosatu- tions campaigns from the South African in South Africa and pressure from their aligned Labor and Economic Research labor movement formed a central theme supporters outside seems simple Center in Johannesburg has condemned of behind-the-scenes deliberations at enough. In practice, there are more nu- such schemes as aiming "to draw black the conference. Over the past three ances to contend with, as exemplified by South Africans into the benefits of capi- years since the American Free South a novel agreement between the Ford talism," which is "particularly inappro- Africa Movement breathed new life into Motor Company and the National Union priate in a context where most black the decades-old drive to isolate apart- of Metalworkers of South Africa workers do not earn a living wage and heid, the context of such campaigns has (Numsa, a Cosatu affiliate), concluded would be better off gaining higher wages changed completely: The U.S., the on the eve of the Arusha conference. than shares in a company." Commonwealth, the Nordic states, and Ford undertook to give part of its The Washington Office on Africa's most of the VMC have enacted basic holdings in the South African Motor Damu Smith noted that one of Ford's sanctions legislation, and more than 2W Corporation (Samcor, created when vice-presidents had approached his or- companies, including top multinationals Ford began scaling down its involve- ganization and several others with a and all major Western banks, have ment in South Africa more than a year copy of the shares plan to ask their opin- pulled out of South Africa. ago) to a trust fund controlled by the ion. "This is an indication of the tremen- At its most recent national congress, mainly black workforce. While the dous pressure on American corpora- Cosatu suggested various preconditions agreement does comply with the Cosatu tions by the divestment movement," for disinvesting companies to abide by: requirement that the assets and wealth said Smith. "A few years ago Ford keeping unions abreast of each compa- of disinvesting foreign companies not would never have sent someone to con- ny's disinvestment, including a year's leave the country' and be used instead in sult with us." advance notice of withdrawal; requiring workers' interests, Ford's continuing Thus the international anti-apartheid new owners to maintain union recogni- role in supplying vehicles, components, movement now finds itself in a position not unlike that of the ANC—whose leadership over the past two years has received a steady stream of visits from businessmen to Afrikaner politicians. Both movements are still far from wield- ing power, but both are increasingly de- termining the agenda in international moves toward eroding apartheid's do- mestic and international base of sup- port. Just as the ANC, and the UDF inside South Africa, are mounting cam- paigns to woo liberal and moderate whites away from President P.W. Bo- tha's camp, the international solidarity movement is also widening its base. In Britain, a right-wing Conservative Party member of Parliament is at the head of a new grouping that feels that Margaret Thatcher's South African pol- icy is so out of step with British public opinion that she may be forced by her own supporters to get tough with Preto- At the conference: "We don't want any Savimbis or Renamos in a free South Africa" ria. As for the U.S., it remains to be

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 51 seen whether this election year will standing, especially in its early years." with Pretoria." serve to widen opposition to President This theme of the vulnerability of This defiant frontline state stance is Reagan's pro-Pretoria stance. post-apartheid South Africa and its con- timely, for 1987 saw the first deadly Ke- A clear indication of the worry caused tinued need for international support namo incursions into Zimbabwe, while to Pretoria by the increased interna- was echoed by the delegates from inside Tanzania and even Malawi now have tional recognition now being accorded the country. There is widespread con- troops fighting Renamo in Mozambique. both the ANC and its activist supporters cern in ANC and UDK circles, especially Thatcher's latest gambit to divert calls is evidenced by South Africa's fastest- in light of the current Inkatha-UDF war for sanctions has been the announce- growing new industry: sanctions-bust- in Natal, as well as mounting vigilante ment of stepped-up aid to the frontline ing. attacks on UDF and Cosatu members, states. Backdoor efforts to evade even the about attacks on a future ANC govern- Like the British Industry Committee weak sanctions of South Africa's major ment by a "contra"-type army, possibly "Marshall Plan" to plough funds into trading partners (which do not restrict including elements from Gatsha Buthe- black advancement schemes in South imports of strategic minerals nor seri- lezi's Inkatha movement, the PAC, and/ Africa in place of enforcing and strength- ously affect financial links or transfers of or other minority groupings. ening sanctions—roundly rejected by technology) are coordinated by the both the UDF and the ANC—the front- newly established Secretariat for Un- line states aid scheme was dismissed at conventional Trade, chaired by a vet- Arusha as a "leaky tap solution." Front- eran Rhodesian sanctions-buster. The line state delegates to the conference public version is managed through a mil- "The need for input urged that the focus rather be shifted to lion-dollar international advertising cam- into international "eradicating the source of the problem: paign run under the slogan, "Free enter- sanctions campaigns South Africa." prise frees people—sanctions don't." from the South African Solidarity groups also argued for vigi- Pretoria has good reason to worry labor movement lance against international maneuvers about the effects of sanctions, for cur- formed a central theme toward shaping the post-apartheid rent trends and future projections show of behind-the-scenes economy and society. "While providing the South African economy as acutely U. S. corporations with a useful rationale vulnerable, with soaring unemployment deliberations at the for their South African ties, [post-apart- and inflation rates accompanied by de- conference." heid] planning further enables them to clining investor confidence and deepen- invest in specific programs which aim to ing international isolation. Despite lax shape the future South Africa," con- enforcement, even the present sanc- tended the New York-based Interfaith tions have dented South Africa's econ- The Cosatu delegate made a bid for Center on Corporate Responsibility in omy: The American Chamber of Com- united action in support of the ANC to its statement to the conference. merce in Johannesburg recently an- head off such an onslaught, saying, "We "The emphasis on training black nounced that exports of commodities don't want any Savimbis or Renamos in workers and black managers to function banned under the U.S. Anti-Apartheid a free South Africa." Given the frontline more productively within the existing Act have "effectively dried up," to cite states' bitter experience with "Savimbis system, like support for black busi- just one recent example. and Renamos," the Cosatu delegate nesses, prepares South Africa's econ- It was these kinds of reports that voiced another concern. Reminiscent of omy for a change of hands rather than a buoyed the spirits of the sanctions cam- the pressure brought to bear on Mo- structural transformation." paigners who plotted the imposition of zambique during the Rhodesia/Zim- It was that goal of the structural comprehensive, mandatory interna- babwe liberation struggle, the destabili- transformation of South African society tional sanctions at Arusha. In this spirit zation of the frontline states might force that united the activists as they headed of confidence, they turned their atten- them to accept a premature negotiated home from Arusha to press for "peo- tion to the anticipated future scenario settlement. ple's sanctions" aimed at breaking the after the achievement of their goal of "We know the sacrifices that the ties that bind their governments with dismantling apartheid. frontline states have endured and we Pretoria. Keynote speaker Julius Nyerere fo- are encouraged that comrade Nyerere, As the pressure mounts for a negoti- cused attention on the challenges of like us, believes that conditions are not ated settlement—with inevitable con- post-apartheid South Africa, telling the yet conducive to negotiations," he told cessions forecast by all sides—the suc- delegates, "We must not try to pretend the conference. "We're going to go back cess of the Arusha conference will be that the struggle for justice and democ- and tell our people that the frontline measured not only by the immediate racy in South Africa will end on the day states are standing behind us." A vet- popular mobilization that results, but when the apartheid government is re- eran concurred with that analysis of also by the level of insight and analysis placed by a government of the people, Nyerere's speech: "Mwalimu was fore- that guides the international anti-apart- for that new government will have ur- closing the option of him—or the front- heid movement in the ever-more chal- gent need of our support and under- line states—brokering a settlement lenging struggles that lie ahead. •

52 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 lltllll

Across the Continent The People's Sanctions Although most African governments have long expressed their abhorrence of apartheid, it is only recently that African activists have begun to devise concrete strategies of their own. Our correspondent reports on recent efforts across the continent to advance Africa's participation in the struggle against apartheid.

BY ERNESTHARSCH

or years, the peoples of Africa quences. How can these measures be Clearly the potential exists in Africa Fhave reacted strongly to develop- effectively implemented? What more for building a genuine movement against ments at the southern tip of their conti- can be done to isolate the apartheid re- apartheid, encompassing governments nent. The apartheid regime's mass de- gime and aid the South African people? and organizations as well as ordinary tentions, killings of children, forced re- A number of gatherings in Africa over people on the streets. But the obstacles movals, and institutionalized racial the past two years have been marked by to fully tapping that potential are not in- discrimination have aroused anger and efforts to grapple with such questions: significant. outrage far beyond South Africa's own the eighth Non-Aligned Summit, con- The most intractable difficulties con- borders. vened in Harare as a display of solidarity front those in the frontline states, under Yet in recent times, the most visible with the South African and Namibian apartheid's immediate shadow. international action against apartheid struggles; the May 1987 Writers Through proximity and political commit- seems to have come mainly from out- Against Apartheid Symposium in Braz- ment, it is these African states that have side Africa. The drive for economic zaville; the Bambata Forum, which as- contributed most to the liberation move- sanctions has by its nature been focused sembled in Burkina's capital, Ouagadou- ments. Despite considerable difficulties in those countries of Western Europe gou, in October 1987; and two confer- of their own, they have provided politi- and North America that have the most ences in Arusha, Tanzania—an August cal backing, material support (both fi- extensive South African investment and 1987 frontline states youth seminar and nancial and military), and refuge to those trade links. a December 1987 international confer- fighting against apartheid. And in con- Increasingly, anti-apartheid activists ence in solidarity with the African Na- trast to some other parts of the conti- in Africa are seeking to redress this im- tional Congress. nent, the peoples of the frontline states balance—in words used at a recent con- Participation in these conferences in- generally have a greater understanding ference in Burkina Faso, "to move the cluded representatives of liberation of the stakes involved—due in large center of the anti-apartheid struggle out movements, anti-apartheid commit- measure to their own direct conflicts of the drawing rooms ;md conference tees, women's and student's organiza- with the apartheid regime. halls of the West and place it on its own tions, trade unions, political parties, and Bombing raids, commando incur- ground, Africa." governments. Many ideas were raised, sions, economic sabotage, and sponsor- Apartheid, activists point out, is a many proposals discussed. ship of rightist insurgencies have been crime against all humanity, but particu- A strong desire for action already ex- Pretoria's answer to their acts of anti- larly against the peoples of Africa, most ists outside such conference halls. apartheid solidarity. It has been esti- of whom themselves directly experi- Though very poorly covered in the me- mated that direct South African eco- enced racism and colonial rule not that dia, people in many African countries nomic and military destruction, com- long ago. So Africans, they argue, are have actively expressed their opposition bined with indirect economic losses, morally obliged to do everything possi- to apartheid by demonstrating, hailing have cost these countries some $20 bil- ble to rid their continent of apartheid's visiting liberation movements, or con- lion since 1980—not to mention the scourge. tributing to solidarity funds. tens of thousands killed and more than But how? As some note in frustra- Sometimes such actions are more one million driven from their homes. tion, the OAU and other African b(xiies visible, as during British Prime Minister Besides facing the constant threat have passed resolution after resolution Margaret Thatcher's January visit to Ni- and reality of South African attacks, condemning apartheid and calling for geria, when thousands of noisy trade most southern African states are locked bold action—with very limited conse- unionists and others lined the streets of into a web of long-standing economic, Lagos and Kano to protest her govern- transport, and communications links Ernest Harsch is a freelance journalist based in ment's opposition to economic sanctions with Pretoria that cannot be easily dis- New York who has written extensively on African political developments for over a decade. against South Africa. entangled. The foreign trade of several

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 53 our second religion." Since advocating a break with South Africa entails a direct challenge to gov- ernmental policy in countries like Cote d'lvoire, conducting anti-apartheid ac- tivities there becomes more difficult. But not impossible: Also present in Ouagadougou was a representative of a newly formed Ivorian anti-apartheid group. Direct or indirect relations with Pre- toria also hamper efforts to present a united African face against apartheid. Exiled South African poet Breyten Breytenbach observes that one of the ways Pretoria tries to disrupt African unity "is by infiltrating Africa, among other routes through the French con- nection. " An aim of both the Ouagadou- Ouagadougou conference, 1987: "The call for 'people's sanctions' is based on the gou and Brazzaville gatherings was to assumption that governments alone cannot or will not effectively enforce counter this effort by propelling the is- South African trade embargoes" sue of apartheid more forcefully into is overwhelmingly dependent on South however, for African states further francophone Africa. African railways and harbors. "Hos- north that have economic and other ties Wliile most African states are not tages of liistory" is how the Ouagadou- with South Africa. They are deemed to similarly compromised by dealings with gou conference referred to them. be following policies dictated more by Pretoria, they nevertheless exhibit Although these countries have taken narrow self-interest than by necessity. varying levels of commitment to the some steps to disengage from South Af- An official of South Africa's Ministry struggle against apartheid. Some gov- rica, their overall vulnerability imposes of Foreign Affairs revealed in late 1987 ernments seem to hesitate out of do- severe limits on the pace, extent, and that annual South African trade with mestic political concerns, apparently kinds of economic sanctions they can sub-Saharan Africa now totals some $1 viewing any independent initiative as a implement. To suddenly break all ties, billion. Most is with other southern Afri- challenge to their own authority. In Au- without alternative trade routes or mas- can countries, but states as far afield as gust 1985, for example, the Senegalese sive international assistance, would be the Central African Republic, Cote d'l- government banned an anti-apartheid suicidal. voire, Zaire, Equatorial Guinea, Mauri- demonstration that had been called by Speaking at the December 1987 Am- tius, the Comoros, and Somalia are several opposition parties. Thousands sha conference, ANC President Oliver known or believed to have South African of people turned out anyway, but were Tambo acknowledged their difficult po- ties of one kind or another. dispersed by police. sition. While affirming that Africa should Most of these governments formally At times, economic difficulties are impose economic sanctions against Pre- deny such trade, while secretly promot- cited as justification for lack of firmer toria, he excluded "those countries in- ing it or at best turning a blind eye. In action. Tanzania's Julius Nyerere re- volved in an undeclared war with the other cases, private merchants carry sponded at the December Arusha con- South African regime." He claimed that out clandestine commerce in defiance of ference: "All of us, in our own countries, it was wrong for the international com- governmental bans. have our own problems to contend munity to demand that they impose Cote d'lvoire's government has been with— sometimes very desperate prob- sanctions first. among the more open in its South Afri- lems. . . But nothing can excuse us Growing awareness in the rest of Af- can contacts. It has long advocated "dia- from actively supporting the struggle rica of the plight of the frontline states logue" with Pretoria, permitted South against apartheid. We must be active in has led to a closer linking of their de- African goods to be freely sold in Abid- opposing it, by every means within our fense with the anti-apartheid struggle as jan's markets, and in November last power." such. Most of the recent African anti- year formally granted landing rights to A number of African states have al- apartheid conferences featured calls for South .African Airways. ready taken important initiatives. It is increased assistance to and solidarity At the Ouagadougou conference, a not possible here to cite more than a few with the frontline states. The Non- representative of an Ivorian students' examples. Nigeria, with its considerable Aligned Summit in Harare led to the es- group boldly defended his government's resources, has long provided funds, tablishment of an .Africa Fund to assist stance. "We believe in dialogue," he scholarships, and other forms of assist- them. proclaimed to boos and hoots from the ance to the liberation movements. A There has been no such sympathy, audience. "In Cote d'lvoire we make it National Committee Against Apartheid

54 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 functions under direct government count economic constraints, a variety of undertake a coordinated education cam- sponsorship and maintains a Southern low-cost measures were proposed: paign among the youth and the broader Africa Relief Fund, to which all civil ser- contributions of goods from local indus- public about the realities of apartheid vants are obliged to contribute a per- tries (clothing, shoes, pencils) that and the struggles for the liberation of centage of their pay. Recently, the Ni- would not require expenditures of South Africa and Namibia." This could gerian government announced that it scarce foreign exchange, greater access be accomplished, the conference's Pro- was offering military training facilities to to the national media for ANC and gram of Action suggested, through the ANC. The Nigerian Labor Congress Swapo members, benefit concerts, and meetings, film showings, speaking has established its own direct contacts public collections to raise money for tours, classes, and other means. with the South African union move- scholarships. Like this gathering, which focused on ment. Besides renewed calls on African ways to mobilize youth, several of the Ethiopia. Tanzania, Zambia, and governments to observe South African others also addressed specific constitu- other countries have given the ANC ma- trade embargoes, they were also urged encies. The Brazzaville seminar sought jor radio, educational, and training facili- to step up pressure on their Western to draw writers more actively behind ties. The National Women's Union of trading partners to do likewise. "A spe- the anti-apartheid cause. The Ouaga- Mali has organized support meetings cial responsibility rests on Africa and dougou conference singled out youth and collected funds for southern African non-aligned countries to assist in strictly and women. The Pan-African Women's combatants. Ghana has seen some siz- monitoring the imposed sanctions," the Organization, which has affiliates in 28 able anti-apartheid actions and the na- December Arusha conference affirmed. countries, has urged observance of Au- tional media keeps a constant spotlight Such appeals to African governments gust 9 as a continental day of solidarity on southern Africa. As a leading mem- and official organizations have been with southern African women, in- ber of the OAU Liberation Committee, creased coverage of apartheid in wom- Ghana has also solicited contributions to en's magazines, and the organization of the committee's liberation fund. "The general visits to refugee camps. In Congo, a class on apartheid has sentiment at the Some regional and national trade un- been introduced into all schools. Streets various anti-apartheid ions have undertaken campaigns in de- have been named after Nelson Mandela conferences was that fense of South African workers, and a and a Mandela Cup soccer match was there is much more representative of the Congress of South organized to raise funds. The country's that can be done, both African Trade Unions was a featured main women's group maintains educa- speaker at the ANC's Arusha confer- tional and training facilities for young to induce African ence. Namibian women. governments to take Among numerous proposals for pop- Under Thomas Sankara, Burkina more effective action ular action—ranging from rallies and Faso took an especially active approach. and to deepen popular meetings to mass fundraising—the or- South African goods were barred from involvement." ganization of "people's sanctions" is an sale, streets and schools were named idea that seems to have aroused some after Mandela, and governments that interest. Cited specifically at Ouagadou- had dealings with Pretoria were roundly made before, but a new emphasis is on gou and the two Arusha gatherings, the denounced. Anti-apartheid themes fre- reaching out to the African people di- call for "people's sanctums" is based on quently featured in public speeches and rectly. "We are no longer knocking at the assumption that governments alone the media. the doors of governments," Nigeria's cannot or will not effectively enforce The response of the Burkinabe peo- UN ambassador Joseph Garba told the South African trade embargoes. Individ- ple was encouraging. Several anti-apart- Ouagadougou conference. "We are now uals and organizations are asked to orga- heid groups took root and spread their mobilizing the people." nize their own boycotts of South African message into the countryside. Students The greater the popular participation goods, to mount campaigns against volunteered to organize anti-apartheid in anti-apartheid campaigns, activists Western companies with investments in film showings and other events. The have pointed out, the more difficult it South Africa, and to expose sanctions- Ouagadougou conference itself was or- will be for African states to trade with busting operations. ganized by an ad hoc committee of vol- South Africa or to confine themselves to Even if such efforts are only partially unteers, with much of its budget pro- verbal denunciations. successful, they will go some way to- vided by public contributions. But before people can be mobilized, ward the goal of rooting the anti-apart- Yet the general sentiment at the vari- they must know what apartheid is. Par- heid struggle more firmly on the African ous anti-apartheid conferences was that ticularly in rural areas, few Africans continent—and moving it out of the con- there is much more that can be done, have access to precise news and infor- ference halls. "Today we say the time of both to induce African governments to mation. Education has therefore em- speeches, the time of resolutions, is take more effective action and to erged as key theme in many of the pro- past," ANC leader Mark Shope told the deepen the kind of popular involvement posals. The frontline states' youth semi- Ouagadougou gathering. "Our people exemplified in Burkina. Taking into ac- nar, for example, resolved "to want action." •

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 55 BY CAROLINE ALLEN

n the arrival of a "rebel" New OZealand rugby team, a South Afri- can Rugby Board official was reported as exulting that "rugby had changed the face of South Africa" by driving specula- tion over the release of long-time politi- cal prisoner Nelson Mandela off the front pages of national newspapers to page six. This observation was made in the re- port of the Commonwealth's Eminent Persons Group which visited South Af- rica in 1986. "The response of whites to the presence of overseas sportsmen— whether representative or not— brought home to us the impact and im- portance of the international sports boy- cott, " the report stated. "The lengths to which the South African authorities are prepared to go in elevating the impor- tance of visiting teams and the huge fi- nancial inducements they offer reveal their craving for supposed international recognition." In the months before the summer Olympics in Seoul this year, world anti- apartheid sports bodies are closing in to ensure that South Africa's already paltry access to international competition is further curtailed. At a meeting of the International Conference Against Apartheid in Sport (ICAAS) in Harare in November last year, delegates esti- mated that they have already succeeded in barring South Africa from 90 percent 'Sports boycotts hit at exactly that section of the South African community which bene- of world sporting activity. fits from policies of apartheid—conservative, wealthy whites" "We are not here to debate the pros and cons of mixing politics and sport," declared Sam Ramsamy, an Indian South Africa South African who heads the South Afri- can Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), one of the most effective lobbies worldwide. "We are here to dis- cuss how we can exclude South Africa A Boycott That Works from the international sporting arena." Organizing chairman Zimbabwean The campaign to exclude South Africa from participation in Tommy Sithole maintains that the sporting events around the world has been perhaps the sports boycott—alone among the most successful of international boycott efforts. In this plethora of sanctions being organized Olympic year, as South African athletes try to find ways against South Africa—is coordinated, around the boycott, activists are seeking to tighten any coherent, and effective. Sports boy- cotts, he said, hit at exactly that section remaining loopholes. of the South African community which Caroline Allen, a Zimbabwean journalist based in Harare, reports on southern Africa for Agence France-Presse, The Sunday Times of London, and the BBC Africa Service.

56 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 benefits from policies of apartheid— but doesn't participate as a country, al- conservative, wealthy whites. though individuals can compete. An Appetite The conditional membership of South SANROC, through its new observer African sporting associations in 15 of the status to the Association of National for Power 29 international federations with full Olympic Committees of Africa Buthelezi's Inkatha and Olympic recognition will come under in- (ANOCA), was instrumental in the South Africa 8y Gerhard Mare and Georgina Hamilton creasing threat as many hold confer- ANOCA demand that the IOC should Chief Gatsha Buthelezi's ences in 1988. Golf, tennis, gymnastics, not reconsider South .African member- Inkotria movemen! lays rowing, fencing, yachting, and rugby- ship to the Olympic movement without claim to an important role in the determina- have been targetted as sports which ANOCA's agreement. tion of South Africa's lobbyists will monitor extra-carefully, As the loopholes close, South Africa future An Appetite for Power provides o criti- said Ramsamy. has assembled an array of charges, in- cal examination of In- And sports applying for Olympic sta- ducements, and arguments to stave off katno's activities at a tus will soon have to prove that they its increasing isolation. First among crucial period in South Africa's history have dropped any connections with Pre- these is the assertion that sport has S35.00 toria before they are accepted. The rul- been integrated in S< >uth Africa for years ing has already affected the World Union and that international bodies only punish of Karate Organizations and has been black athletes by implementing the boy- The Invention enforced for Softball and baseball associ- cott. of Africa ations applying to the International Although Pretoria maintains there is Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in no legislation forbidding integrated Order of Knowledge Canada in February. sport, an investigation into sports facili- By V. Y. Mudimbe In this unique and provocative book, Zairean A new thrust in the sports boycott ties in South Africa came up with the philosopher and writer V Y Mudimbe ad- has been powered by Sweden, which following statistics: Whites have 73 per- dresses the multiple scholarly discourses ttiof has influence in a number of sports cent of athletic tracks, 92.7 percent of exist -African and non-African—concerning the meaning of Africa and being African where South Africa still has tenuous sta- golf courses, 83.7 percent of hockey African Systems o! Though! tus. Together with Scandinavian allies. fields, 84.7 percent of cricket fields, cloth $39.95 papef $14.95 Sweden will be pushing for South Afri- 96.2 percent of squash courts, 80 per- can exclusion in canoeing, ice-hockey, cent of badminton courts, 98.2 percent Now in paperback skiing, and skating. of all bowling greens, 82.4 percent of Beggar Your The remaining 11 federations for rugby fields, 83.5 percent of swimming Olympic sports in which South Africa pools, and 26.5 percent of soccer Neighbours has conditional membership are arch- fields—the latter, one of the few facili- Apartheid Power in ery, badminton, equestrian sport, fenc- ties where South Africa's black popula- Southern Africa ing, hockey, gymnastics, pentathlon, tion, which outnumbers whites by five By Joseph Hanlon ^^ ", . . an excellent com- rowing, shooting, tennis, and yachting. to one, has more access. mmmm mmm p pendium of information In almost all of these. South Africa is Turning to lack of sports facilities at on the military ond BEGGAR YOUR economic power that barred from international competition, schools, white schools have 72.4 per- NEIGHBOU South Africa applies but has unrestricted membership in cent of all sports facilities—79.9 per- in dealing with its eight of the other 35 Olympic sports— neighbors." —Foreign cent of athletic tracks, 88.6 percent of Service Journal sport for the disabled, power boating, cricket pitches, and 87.7 percent of comprehensive in practical shooting, rugby, surfing, tram- rugby fields. its coverage, exacting poline, tug-of-war, and veterans' ath- Another way of legislating blacks out in its standards of de- scription ond interpreta- letics. of sport is to deny them South African tion, anO almost faultless in its use of source Boycott lobbyists are pushing for citizenship and relegate them to tribal- material and existing literature . " based "homelands" whose sovereignty -Anti-Apartheid News more governments to strictly imple- paper SI 2.95 ment the United Nations International is recognized only by South Africa. Also available in cloth S35.00 Convention Against Apartheid in Sports South African sporting bodies claim in- and for the nation's exclusion from world ternational organizations have "moved At bookstores, or order from bodies which would make it difficult for the goalposts" by dismissing claims of South African organizations to initiate or progress toward integration. accept bilateral contacts. But embarrassing instances slip out: In 1976, the South African Rugby Board INDIANA With the inclusion of tennis as an Olympic sport for the iirst time, there threatened some members with expul- UNIVERSITY PRESS has been intense pressure on the Inter- sion for having played multi-racial TENTH AND MORTON STREETS national Tennis Federation (ITF) to cut matches. Three years later, a parlia- BL00M1NGT0N, IN 47405 ties with South Africa. Until now. South mentary report said by way of reassur- 812-335-6804 Africa has had membership in the ITF ance to the white community that ra- Major credit cards accepted

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 57 cially integrated sports and sports clubs disenfranchised "homelands," a labor Sweden made 1982 its turning point involve less than one percent of the total pool which is one of the main buttresses when after public debate and pressure of sporting activities in the country. of the apartheid system. from lobbyists, the government Reflecting common concern with Sponsorship of individuals is another strengthened common visa regulations "reds under beds," the President of the way around the organizational boycotts. for South African nationals generally and South African Rugby Board, Danie Cra- "In 1981, we thought we had maybe an- closed the loophole whereby South Afri- ven, said in 1982 that nations which sup- other two or three years before the UN cans used tourist visas to play in Scandi- ported the Commonwealth-sponsored Blacklist ended international tennis navian tournaments. Other countries 1977 Gleneagles Agreement, in which here," said Brebnor. "It hasn't worked have followed suit, but the frontline signatories pledged not to participate in out that way. . . Tennis is an individual states, particularly Swaziland, Lesotho, sports activities with South Africa, were spoil, it's a professional sport. A player and Botswana—all vulnerable to eco- "in the pay of Moscow." has a lot of alternatives if Third World nomic and political pressure from Preto- Even up until 1984, rebel tours and countries don't accept him. Our players ria—have been burdened with a new individuals were defiant about playing in have always been popular overseas, but problem. South Africa, claiming that they it could change here. Players won't Three Springbok (national rugby wouldn't mix sport and politics. In 1984, come if it puts their careers at risk." team) athletes from South Africa-—;Jo- the English Rugby Union declared that It is not only Western countries which han Fourie, Chris de Beer, and Mark "contact [with white South African break the boycott. At least 11 sports- Plaatjes—have set up shop in Swazi- sportspeople] was more constructive men and one club from African countries land, a Commonwealth country, apply- than leaving people out in the cold," a have been blacklisted by the UN Centre ing for citizensliip which will allow them sentiment diluted from the comment of Against Apartheid lor taking part in to compete internationally. The pay-off a British cricket team which visited sporting events in South Africa up to is the sporting connections the three will South Africa in 1982, "We have a right to 1985. The 11—from Egypt, Kenya, allegedly bring with them to the tiny earn a living where we like." Swaziland, Malawi, Cote d'lvoire, and state. As international sport, both through Lesotho—are among 2,190 interna- South Africans who want to compete organizations and individuals, becomes tional sportspeople and 24 national in even amateur events outside their more closed to South Africa, the "big teams to defy the UN ban. country ch

58 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 South Africa A Conversation with Piet Koornhof One of the South African government's most ardent advocates of "reform" is now arguing his case not from within the confines of Pretoria's cabinet chambers, but from Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. As South Africa's recently appointed ambassador to the United States, Piet Koornhof, 62, welcomed the opportunity to explain his governments agenda for bringing blacks into "the political processes at all levels on an equal footing," a program which he says will ultimately entail "the dismantling of apartheid," as well as the major economic reforms announced by President Botha on February 5. In a lengthy conversation with Africa Report—just two days after 17 organizations, including the United Democratic Front, were banned—Ambassador Koornhof made impassioned pleas for understanding of and cooperation with Preto- ria's program for economic and political reform. In fact, "reform," Piet Koornhof's political trademark, was the only subject open for on-the-record discussion. Off limits were the creation of a climate within South Africa that might give those reforms the slimmest hope of success, or the events of two days earlier, which seemed to jettison prospects for anything other than a worsening of the violence and polarization. Because of the length of the interview, we publish here excerpts of Ambassador Koornhof's remarks.

INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI

On the South African government's recently an- at the point where it was possible to have announced such nounced economic reforms: important economic reforms. What the president announced I can do no better than to read from State President P. W. is not something that suddenly fell like manna from blue heav- Botha's speech when he opened the new, enlarged parliament ens, it is the result of three to five years in-depth research. chambers in South Africa in February. In this speech, he It has all along been argued that for constitutional reform to summed up the regional and local situations and then used this be meaningful, peaceful, and successful, it must be accompa- occasion to make a very important announcement: a com- nied by tangible and practical economic reform, so that all plete, new economic reform which has three legs—privatiza- people can participate and benefit in the total of the society and tion, deregulation, and a new tax system. in the reform process. That is why these in-depth research On southern Africa, President Botha said the following: projects on privatization, deregulation, and tax reform had "War and conflict are not the course we desire for our region been going on. What you are looking at therefore is the result because they would worsen an already critical state of affairs. of tremendous hard work. You are not looking at a sudden, We wish to pursue a course of friendship and cmperation. haphazard change of strategy. Tliis is a concerted, worked- South Africans are already making a valuable contribution to out program of deep reform as you had in your country with the process of finding solutions for Africa and our region in Abraham Lincoln, as they had with Wilberforce in Britain. The Africa. We are prepared to go further." economic reform which has been announced underlines, as Then he went on: "Africa needs development. South Africa nothing has before, the genuine effort of constitutional reform has the economic strength and expertise to be able to play a in South Africa. considerable part in the progress of this continent. Conse- If economic reform is successful, then by itself, it will have quently I wish to propose again that a southern African peace such motivation and power that you can't stop constitutional conference be held on matters of health, food production, reform! So you are looking at something which from within economic development, and measures to maintain peace and engenders movement for successful constitutional reform. I order, as well as non-interference in each other's internal find myself in damn good company when I say this. On Febru- affairs and other related matters." ary 22, a London 77m« editorial said: "Capitalism and its need ()n the domestic situation, he said the following: "Progress for a skilled, stable, and mobile workforce has been the major is a prerequisite in the Republic of South Africa. It goes with- instrument in the erosion of the apartheid society. Mr. Botha out saying that constitutional development and renewal in has long known that he could have capitalism or apartheid, but South Africa have to take place in an evolutionary manner. not both. Botha is attempting his own form of perestroika. . . During this session and thereafter, we shall accordingly pro- Like Gorbachev, he must know that perestroika, if it is to ceed with the measures which have already been announced succeed, cannot and will not stop with the economy." and wliich are under consideration. However, reform has The president liimself said reform has different facets— economic and social facets which have to be given attention." social, economic, political, and constitutional. To say that eco- Anybody making the point that this government has now nomic reform is going to replace the other is not true, it is moved away from constitutional reform and opted for some- going to strengthen it. It is part of the same thing. Those thing else is definitely not on target. South Africa has arrived tilings that are in the pipeline will come to fruition as far as

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 59 constitutional development and renewal is concerned. The It was not. In this election, the white electorate gave me an economic reform will strengthen and augment it. If you privat- overwhelming mandate to negotiate with representative lead- ize a huge set-up with $216 billion in assets such as Escom, ers of the black communities and groups about our common who is going to benefit? It is quite clear—primarily the blacks future and a new constitution. These negotiations will not be a are going to benefit. You read articles about a tremendous struggle for domination and power. It will be an honest meet- spurt for a black middle class. The underprivileged in the ing of men of peace and good will, a meeting that must and will society, mostly the black people, are going to be the prime produce a solution to our problem. Above all, the question of beneficiaries of the reform announcements. our political future must be answered. My government and I have the power, the will, the desire and the mandate to work On the government's political reform agenda: out the answers to these questions with all leaders who reject If I was in the position of Socrates, I would want to stand on violence. . . Join me in talks and negotiations." the highest pinnacle and say: Please, my black friends in Next, he put on the table of Parliament a bill called the southern Africa, listen, see how the table is laid for peaceful National Council Act, because he now has a mandate to nego- reform, for evolutionary attainment of constitutional develop- tiate the new constitution on the basis which I read to you—all ment, for complete renewal with the objective of dismantling people participate on an equal footing at all levels in the politi- apartheid and of all people participating in the political pro- cal processes—and this implies the elimination of any discrim- cesses in South Africa. Please come forward and assist in a ination. The National Council will consist of 30 people, of positive way. which at least 15 will be black, with the state president as I'm going to quote from a public document from "The Fed- chairman. The chief minister of each of the six self-governing eral Congress for I-Yeedom and Stability," which was held in territories will be members—six blacks. All black people in Durban, 12-13 August 1986. This type of federal congress has South Africa will have universal suffrage at the age of 18 to only been convened a couple of times in the history of the elect nine additional members to represent them on this coun- country and party—once in I960 to get a mandate for South cil to negotiate a new constitution. So that makes 15 blacks out Africa to become a republic, and in 1983, to bring Indians and of the 30, plus the three leaders of the Coloured, Indian, and mixed origin people into Parliament. The 1986 congress was white houses of Parliament and then 10 members chosen for convened to get a mandate to bring black people into the their specialized knowledge on constitutional matters. The political process, for a new constitution to be negotiated with color of those 10 is not specified. There could be blacks among the meaningful black leaders. them. At the end of the day, you will look at a council which will The first leg of the mandate they got was: "Everybody most likely have a majority of blacks on it to negotiate the new must participate in the political processes at all levels on an constitution. equal footing." The second leg of this mandate on reform is equally important, and I quote again: "This implies the elimina- On why blacks are planning to boycott these elec- tion of any discrimination on the ground of color, race, cultural tions: affiliation, or religion." That is a different way of saying to The answer is very simple—because some black leaders in negotiate how apartheid can be dismantled completely and South Africa who want to negotiate this new constitution find how you can attain a completely new society through negotia- it difficult to come forward and sit on such a council. They tion and by way of consensus—evolutionary development and make it quite clear why they are not sitting on such a council renewal, as the president put it two weeks ago. and what their conditions are for doing so. They say as long as This has a more important background. In 1983, when the the African National Congress is operating from outside the country had a referendum to break through color bars to have country and is an illegal organization inside the country, as people of different colors in Parliament, the question at the long as Mr. Mandela is in prison, they can't because if they time was could the country bring in blacks, Coloureds, and came forward and negotiated, then their own constituents Indians and deal with the constitutional issue in one shot? And would say they were Uncle Toms and they would lose author- rightly or wrongly, they decided that the country would have ity among their own people. We all understand that and what is to do it in two stages—first, disposal of the question of Col- more, I think they are right. So that is why the laid table hasn't oureds, Indians, and whites, and if you have done that suc- got people sitting at it. But can't you see that we all have the cessfully, then deal with the black one by itself. same target—all people participating on an equal level in the The president told the country that if the referendum was a political processes, the dismantling of apartheid? So where do yes vote to bring Coloureds and Indians into Parliament, the we differ? Not on the target, but on the method. first priority would be how to deal with the black people in a new constitution. After the referendum was held, the Durban On whether the target is one-person, one-vote: congress took place and the president got this mandate. Next, No, you can find different structures to have all people an election was held for whites in May 1987, in which the participate in the political processes at all levels on an equal president got the mandate approved to bring black people into footing—the objective and the mandate that the president has the political processes by 76 percent of voters against 24. received to negotiate with whomever. Now you must negoti- Three weeks later, on May 25, 1987, the president wrote a ate how you are going to achieve that target so that all people letter to all people in South Africa and it reads: "There are participate on an equal footing and in the process the rights of black people who say that the recent election was irrelevant. minority groups are insured. I genuinely believe it can be

60 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 done. I have yet to come across a black leader of repute in my miracle because of white people and black people. country with whom I have had talks on this who differs that we I understand people wanting to take a moral stand against must look at how to enshrine the rights of minority groups in apartheid. But my black friends are saying, "Do you want to South African society. drive us back into barbarism and think that you've done a good You haven't got one-man, one-vote in a unitary' state in thing? And do you first want a scorched earth which you will •Switzerland or in many other countries. Have you got it in have, if you drive these people into a corner?" What are they many of the African states? But what we must look for is the going to do? Give up and say take us? Do with us what you target and then you must negotiate how you can achieve that like? They are not that way inclined, neither blacks nor in this complex set-up. If the only way you can acliieve that is whites, they are tough people. So you are looking at a long, as you say one-man, one-vote in a unitary state, then you drawn-out struggle, which I will not see, thank heavens, be- must go and prove it there. It is quite possible that on that cause I can't live that long! The South African economy is a basis you can never rind a consensus, but there may be other self-reliant one, it can stick it out indefinitely. ways to find consensus, where the blacks can have what they There are better ways to achieve the target which we all want through negotiation. There are a hundred types of feder- agree on and that is the third way—the one that is on the ation in the world! table. What beats me is that it is not tried. The president has This is where people tend to oversimplify so much and said it in very simple terms, "I am inviting the African National where my plea comes in: Please listen, the table is laid, let's Congress, thinking that violence is the only answer, to come talk because we agree on the objective, but we differ on the home and talk," if only they would accept the president's offer method. I am willing to wage a bet with you that if the people to abandon violence. It beats me why that is not taken up. would negotiate in the South African context, you would be If you can negotiate peacefully lo have all people participate surprised how they will find each other in consensus as to in the political processes at all levels on an equal footing, why what the real answers are to achieve these targets. I know the would you not try that, rather than say, "I'm going to kill those people, I love them, and I know that I am right. bastards and lose my life in the process"? Why would you say, "I'm first going to destroy the economy"? I address black On the South African government's view of the people and ask them, "Why don't you talk with us?" Who method to achieve negotiation: blocks it? I have lived and worked my whole life among blacks. I know of three methods to achieve the target which we talk I've got more black friends than others, so I think I've got about. One is through revolution, barrel of the gun, through some wee bit of understanding about it. I was embued with violence. The ANC openly states that there is no other way only one spirit up to this very day—to make some minor you can acliieve that target but through revolution. I say there contribution for peace, for understanding, for love, among is a much quicker, safer, and shorter way. humans. It's genuine. I'm still trying to do it. If there is a The second method is one which Governor Michael Duka- semblance of truth in what I'm saying, is it not better to push kis has put best of the presidential candidates so far. On us into substantiating it? The government is doing all these December 4, 1987, he said the method is "toughened U.S. tilings that I proved to you here. They are not lying about it. economic sanctions against South Africa and. . . multilateral How can 76 percent vote a lie? It's real democracy as far as agreement with our allies for a more comprehensive trade that goes. embargo against that country in the absence of agreement by the South African government to enter into prompt and mean- On the rise of the right-wing in South African politics: ingful negotiations for the abolition of apartheid and the crea- What is now a tragedy is that because little success has tion of a non-racial South Africa." been registered along this way, the people on the right are That's the second type of method, punitive measures. Hit making inroads. They now have a very simple message—that them. If that doesn't work, hit them harder. If that does not people like me, President Botha, and the government are work, total embargo. But this method is just as violent and I selling out the whites, that we are traitors, communists, God don't think it will work. It will have exactly the opposite effect knows what. They are making inroads because they tell the of what Mr. Dukakis and those advocating it want, for many people that the blacks won't talk to us, that we're not improv- reasons—it weakens the very people that you want to ing race relations, we're not solving the problem. They say strengthen, it weakens the economy. there is only one way-—to divide the country, more apartheid, A black leader of repute has said: "Has America lost the go back to the old roads, that is the safest, the surest, the way so much now that they think by driving Africa back into best. And that's a tragedy, because later on, you will not be barbarism through economic and punitive measures they can looking at violence from only one side. I fear you will look at a achieve any valuable target in South Africa?" I could cry when worsening situation. If you could get such a council off the I heard this very noble black leader expressing that thought, ground, if people would start negotiating, then there is no way because that is the question. As Gatsha Buthelezi is saying, that the right-wing could make progress. 1 know them well, the one jewel and one miracle in Africa is the economy of they want a solution as much as anybody else. One thing that South Africa. The facts are there for anybody to see. Where is overlooked is that there are no people on this globe who are the black people best off in Africa? Why are a million black more want a solution to the South African problem than the people coming from outside South Africa to this very bad South Africans themselves. Why would an American want a country? This great, great leader of Africa says it became the solution more than I do? Q

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 61 South Africa Interview with Tony Bloom

INTERVIEWED BY AMEEN AKHALWAYA

A couple of years ago, Tony Bloom caused a flutter when he accompanied a group of leading white South African businessmen to Lusaka for talks with the outlawed African National Congress (ANC). Bloom headed the business his father established, the Premier Group, which is now one of South Africa's largest employers The company also conducts business in other parts of Africa. In January, Bloom caused another stir when he announced that he was quitting South Africa, just as several other business leaders have done in recent years. But he will maintain his links with the country and his company. Bloom has been "out of step with the business regiment" in South Africa, since he is a public critic of the government's apartheid policies and missed out on a round of talks last year between the captains of industry and State President P.W. Botha. On February 5, the day parliament re-convened, P.W. Botha again met business leaders in Cape Town. But Bloom was not there. He agreed instead to this interview with Ameen Akhalwaya, editor of The Indicator, at Premier's magnificent offices in Johannesburg.

Africa Report: There has been considerable speculation left. But that hasn't precipitated my departure. On the con- about why you have decided to leave South Africa. What are trary, it has been turned around at me and it's been said that the real reasons? my leaving has been a blow to the liberal left. I've never quite Bloom: It's been a traumatic and agonizing decision and as understood that, because while I have identified very firmly usual in decisions of this kind, there isn't one peg only on with their principles, I never considered myself to be a stan- which to hang it. In my case, it's an amalgam of personal, dard-bearer. I'm not an elected official. It's not as if I've ever family, and business reasons. The family reasons relate to a run for office. But the decline of liberal values in the white member of my family who was injured in an accident. [His community is a worry. daughter is being treated in a hospital in England.] As far as Africa Report: What do you ascribe that decline to? business reasons are concerned, I've been able to work out Bloom: If I had to put one word on it, I would say "fear." something with the Premier board of directors which will P.W. Botha in the last election—and one thing you have to enable me to stay on as a director of the company and to hand to him is that he is a skillful exploiter of white political expand and develop their international relationships and hope- fears—beat the security drum very hard indeed and the white fully also their business base internationally, which is very voters responded to that. So I would say that at the bottom of important at this time. it is fear, compounded by the state of emergency. People are People have been looking for a hidden agenda in my deci- worried that if they get involved in left-wing politics, they sion. There isn't one, I'm afraid. I've been asked if I'm leaving might get detained or silenced in some way. Lastly, there is an for political reasons. The answer is not really, because I've absence of a coherent leadership. Any political movement has learned to live with the politics—although I don't like them— to have a strong core that you can identify with—and the over the past MO years of my political consciousness. Nothing liberal left has been groping for that leadership. has happened within the past three to six months which has Africa Report: Do you think that was because Frederick Van made me suddenly throw my hands up in horror and say: "I've Zyl Slabbert resigned as leader of the Progressive Federal had enough, I want to get out." I'm certainly not leaving Party? 'because I fear revolution or violence. I don't think we are on Bloom: It is ever since he resigned the brink of some sort of cataclysmic explosion. I think we are Africa Report: Where does that leave people like [PFP MP] in for a long, slow haul. Helen Suzman who have a record of fighting for liberal values? Africa Report: It's been suggested that your departure was Bloom: There is hardly anybody in the country that I have precipitated either by the disarray in white liberal politics in more admiration for than Helen Suzman, but she has been at it the country or perhaps disillusionment with white liberal poli- for a very long time in Parliament. I don't think she is about to tics. assume the role of a leader. Helen will always be a standard- Bloom: I don't think that's correct. I am disappointed in the bearer for liberal values, in effect the standard against which decline of liberal values in this country, going back to the last everybody else will be judged. white election [last year], the poor showing of the so-called Africa Report: What about the independent movement— white left, and also with the lack of leadership on the liberal Van Zyl Slabbert's IDASA [Institute of Democratic Alterna-

62 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 National Union of Metalworkers meeting: "In my discussions with union leaders I try to point out that there is a difference between exploitative capital and free enterprise" tives] and so forth? Do you see any future role for them? cies: Bloom: The work Van Zyl is doing is very important in what I Bloom: Business is very aware of the political and economic would call a micro-political environment, in working at com- consequences of government policy. There are different re- munity level and breaking down prejudices between people in actions as to what should be done about it. Some people are smaller areas. But on a macro-national basis, I think they are quite happy to acquiesce in it, and others are positively acqui- going to struggle hard. escent. Others are happy to just go along with it and not say Africa Report: You haven't been exactly beguiled by P.W. anything, not stick their necks out. I'm not saying who's right Botha in terms of dealings with business leaders. In fact, you and who's wrong. I've always felt out of step with the regi- missed out on his previous meeting—boycott would be an- ment. I've been viewed as the lunatic left of the business other word lor that—and even as we speak now he is meeting establishment by my colleagues! business leaders in Cape Town. Is there any reason for this? Africa Report: On the other hand, trade unionists and more Bloom: No. It's just been my own public stance on those sort radical black activists would regard you as part of the overall of matters. I've been very outspoken on the question of racial apartheid scheme. discrimination and other issues related to apartheid, which I Bloom: That's right. As far as a lot of the black liberation movements—in particular the union movement—are con- cerned, I'm identified with the capitalist class and therefore on "I've always felt out of step with the the other side of the fence. That's natural. I certainly don't regiment. I've been viewed as the resent that in any way. It is our policy in this group to try very hard to work out some sort of modus vivendi with the unions. lunatic left of the business We've got to learn to live with each other. establishment by my colleagues!" We're probably 85 to 95 percent unionized at this point, and that's something I welcome. Yes, we're going to have our punch-ups in wage disputes or work conditions, but that's a have- never hesitated to criticize. Some people think I'm too good, healthy negotiating process which I don't shy away outspoken, that it's my job to run a company and not to be a from. In my discussions with union leaders—and there have politician. The state president is not a man who deals with been few, too few, because there is suspicion and mistrust criticism easily. He is very tough and he tramps very hard on and I am identified with the capitalist class—I try to point out those who are seen to cross his path. You just have to see that there is a difference between exploitative capital on the what happened to Chris Ball [Barclays National Bank manag- one hand and free enterprise on the other, and I am very ing director who was accused of financing pro-ANC ads] as an firmly in favor of free enterprise. I think that's the system that example. works. Africa Report: Do you see yourself, Claris Ball, and one or Africa Report: A lot of major employers as well as govern- two others as exceptions in the business held in terms of being ment fear the increasing political role and power of the unions. aware of the political consequences of the government's poli- Because of the government's actions against organized politi-

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 63 cal groups, won't the trade union movement itself become the major factor in the South African political situation? Bloom: That's very likely to happen because if you close off every other avenue for political expression and leave only one, then you must expect all the political aspirations to be channelled through it. There is a very real danger of that happening—if it hasn't happened already. Africa Report: How do you see the economic situation de- veloping in the next 10 to 15 years? Bloom: I'd need a crystal ball! I don't know about 10 to 15 years, it's hard to look two or three years ahead. There is no doubt that the economy is in better shape than it was two years ago. Let's start from that point. There seems to be a resurgence of consumer spending, companies are doing bet- ter despite the fall of the stock market and so on, there is more of an air of business confidence around, a certain amount of new investment is taking place by South African companies. Those are positive points. "I don't think violence is going to achieve anything in the South The ones to worry about are inflation and the fact that there African context because the scales are so unevenly weighted" is no foreign capital coming in to develop the whole infrastruc- security apparatus, police, etc. You may well have sporadic ture of business and create the jobs that are necessary to acts of violence but basically the government is very firmly in absorb all the work-seekers who will come onto the market control of the situation. So, I don't think political rights are place. But in the short term, I think we can look to reasonable going to be won by violence for a very long time. economic conditions. On the other question, I'm totally against disinvestment and Africa Report: What do you think the government should be sanctions, basically because I believe that the way to break doing in terms of fundamental changes to be able to attract apartheid is by economic advancement. Because there are more capital, to change the disinvestment campaign? such inequities in the South African situation, the way to break Bloom: There is only one answer—you have to scrap statu- them down is to open up the economy to everybody and to tory discrimination, take it off our statute books in every really break down in practice, in the work place, what legisla- vestige. You might have to announce a timetable, a very short tion seeks to entrench in theory. I think that's going to spill timetable, but a precise one. But until we take statutorily over into the broader social fabric. entrenched discrimination out of our laws, we're going to be There have been more transgressions of the Group Areas regarded as the polecat of the world. Act as a result of economic mobility in South Africa than there Africa Report: Do you think the government is ready to do have been by legislative amendments. Finally, the govern- it? ment will be faced with a situation that it can't control legisla- Bloom: No. tively and will have to recognize it. And I would argue for that. Africa Report: Why not? I don't think sanctions work. They produce belligerence and Bloom: I don't know the answer to that, but P.W. Botha defiance in the South African white population and I've never made it clear in the last elections that there are certain non- seen it as a weapon for black advancement. negotiable issues. Segregated schooling is non-negotiable ex- Africa Report: One sphere in which sanctions have been cept for incremental relaxations as far as private schools are applied with a great degree of effect and in which there has concerned. Segregated residential areas are going to remain. been significant change is sport. One could argue that the Political rights for blacks are not going to be given except in same could apply to economics—that with sanctions and dis- structures which are not part of the mainstream. You most investment, South Africa has to internalize the economy. certainly are not going to have blacks in the overall Parlia- This, in turn, should bring black advancement much more ment. The Population Registration Act is going to remain. quickly and at the same time pressurize the government. Those are the cornerstones, the pillars of apartheid. If you Bloom: I just don't see it that way. The South African econ- take the state president at his word—and I think you should— omy is a very strong, robust one and the infrastructure is very those are not going to be abolished, in the near future anyway. developed. It is not that fragile that all you've got to do is Africa Report: Would that not support those who believe in impose a few sanctions and the whole system will collapse and violent overthrow of the government, or in non-violent therefore something will rise from the ashes. change who would support economic sanctions and disinvest- Africa Report: We are talking about comprehensive sanc- ment as a form of pressurizing the government? tions. Bloom: On the question of violence as a political option, I Bloom: Even so, you could argue the other way—that in understand what drives people to violence, I don't condone it. some cases where sanctions have been imposed, like the Frankly, I don't think it's going to achieve anything in the arms embargo, South Africa has developed an indigenous South African context because the scales are so unevenly arms industry and in fact has become an exporter of arms. weighted. The government is so powerful militarily, with its Take the oil embargo. Sasol has been developed, synthetic

64 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 fuels have been developed, and ways around it have been not everybody agrees with my political views or indeed the found. company's "political philosophies." But having said that, there Africa Report: Could your departure not be seen as a form is a willingness in the organization to listen, and there are of disinvestment? certain policies which we regard as cast and concrete, that are Bloom: As I have said, there are serious family reasons and immutable. One of them is non-discrimination in employment. so on behind it. Well, some people are going to see it that way. If you ask if that happens in our bakery in Naboomspruit La But I'm not going to sever my links either with the company I rural town], the answer is probably not. But if we found out work for or with South Africa. I'm going to be coming here that that's happening, we will try to do something about it. four or five times a year, maintaining my position on the board Africa Report: Do you get people wanting to work for you of this company and hopefully on the board of other compa- because of that philosophy or despite it? nies. I have a holiday home here, I have friends and family Bloom: Both. Earlier, I said we've never been penalized by here, 1 have roots in this country. I feel deeply and passion- the government. That is not the reason for doing it. We do it ately about South Africa, so I will continue to be involved with because we feel it is right. On the other hand, for example, we it. I'm not saying I'm leaving and that's that. I'm going to see it do a fair amount of business in the rest of Africa, where people again. have checked out for our credentials, liked the way we oper- Africa Report: Has your public stance regarding the compa- ate, and we picked up business as a result. That's not the ny's policies, economic direction, and so forth had any adverse reason for adopting our policies. We adopted them because effect on it? we think they're right. But there is a spill-over effect, no Bloom: No. To be absolutely fair, we have never been penal- doubt. ized in any way in our dealings with government departments. Africa Report: Have you been able to maintain any sort of We take a fair amount of verbal stick, but we have never been contact or dialogue with the ANC since you first met them? denied a licence. Bloom: Yes, totally informally. Africa Report: You're not going to go overboard like a wetl- Africa Report: It is said that you tried to convince them of known financial institution and start sponsoring everything in the merits of free enterprise. sight like rebel rugby tours? Bloom: I still do. We have discussions all the time—I'm not Bloom: No. I've been part of a team that has developed the winning. philosophies and practices of this organization, and they will Africa Report: A draw? continue. Peter Wrighton, who takes over from me, has been Bloom: Not even a draw yet. I think I'm down! involved in all the major policy decisions and we feel and think Africa Report: What would you say is needed to break the the same way. I'm not saving we're perfect, we're not. Hut logjam between the ANC and the government and other or- we try. There is a big gap in tins organization between policy ganizations as well, to try to get them together? and practice. It's all very well for the chairman to say there Bloom: The first thing to be done—and this may be happen- shall be no discrimination in our organization and do nothing to ing and I simply don't know about it—is to establish at least an make it happen. informal channel of communication, a back channel if you like, Africa Report: I recall criticism levelled at you at a confer- through which we can iron out differences, or just see what ence in Gaborone last year by South African trade unionists the stumbling blocks are. regarding your company's policies and actual practices. Do The perceived stumbling blocks from the South African you find a lot of resistance to your policies within the com- government's side are the ANC's adherence to violence as a pany? means of achieving political ends, primarily. From the ANC's Bloom: No. We are a very large company in the South Afri- point of view, quite a laundry list of things: the state of emer- can context and nationally based. We must assume that our gency, the imprisonment of black leaders, the government to employment mirrors what is happening in the whole of South express its willingness to come to the negotiating table with an Africa. The employment is overwhelmingly black. Manage- open agenda, not a pre-arranged one. ment is, regretfully, overwhelmingly white, and that white You only have to think of the things Anwar Sadat and Mena- management probably reflects the attitude of society at large. chem Begin said about each other before they threw away their arms around each other at Camp David. I know the peace is fragile. It has its difficulties, but nevertheless two "I'm totally against disinvestment parties who were seemingly irreconcilable and poles apart and sanctions, basically because I found that they did have something in common. And at least between Egypt and Israel, for the last eight or nine years, believe that the way to break there has been peace. apartheid is by economic The public rhetoric has to cool from both sides. You have to advancement." stop this tirade of anti-ANC propaganda which is pushed out all the tune by the SABC and the press over here. On the other side, there is equally a level of rhetoric in Radio Freedom If you had to poll them for their political views, they would that's not helpful. But it's going to take some skilled diplomacy probably percentage-wise fall into your voting patterns, more to get them together, some world figure maybe. Maybe Mrs. or less. I would be surprised if they reflect anything else. So Margaret Thatcher will see that as her crowning exit role.D

AFRICA REPORT . March-April 1988 65 Zimbabwe

"The spirit was jovial and festive, as longtime archfoes Mugabe and Nkomo warmly embraced after signing the unity agreement"

United We Stand Worsening dissident violence and regional conflict were the factors which finally led Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo to put aside their differences and merge their political parties. The foremost task of the new coalition will be to convince the people of Matabeleland that they are truly a part of Zimbabwe's political future.

BY ANDREW MELDRUM

n Zimbabwe, like the rest of south- and tense. "unity agreement" was as dramatic as Iern Africa, the end of the year brings Then a thick belt of clouds rolled any drought-breaking cloudburst. On rain, and with it relief from overpower- down from central Africa and thunder December 22, as the overwhelmingly ing dry heat and the hope of a good har- sounded throughout the country, bring- Christian country was preparing for the vest. But by December last year, the ing cooling, soaking, and soothing rains. Christinas holiday, Mugabe and Nkomo seasonal rains had not arrived. As the rainstorms continued regularly abruptly convened the domestic and in- Instead of being wet, November suf- through the holiday season, so did Zim- ternational press to attend the signing of fered through scorching sunny weather babwe's political developments. a unity agreement joining the two par- which sent temperatures soaring to rec- Just before Christmas, Robert Mu- ties. ord highs. Crops withered in the fields, gabe and Joshua Nkomo resolved to put The spirit was jovial and festive, as water reservoirs dwindled, and tem- aside their differences and to join their longtime archfoes Mugabe and Nkomo pers frayed. Economists began to speak two rival nationalist parties in order to warmly embraced after signing the doc- of another drought, the fifth serious one unite the country and help reduce sup- ument. The normally abstemious Mu- this decade, and a resultant economic port for the dissident rebels. On New gabe even sipped a glass of champagne downturn. Year's eve, Robert Mugabe was inaugu- in a celebratory toast. Zimbabwe's political tensions rose as rated as Zimbabwe's first executive The signing of the unity accord was well. The country was reeling from the president, and on January 2, he an- hailed by diplomats as the most signifi- vicious axe-murders in November of 15 nounced a new and restructured cabi- cant political development since the white missionaries by a band of anti-gov- net. country's achievement of majority rule ernment dissident rebels in Matabele- Taken together, those three changes in 1980. It was so momentous an occa- land. It looked as if Zimbabwe's political have decisively altered the face of Zim- sion because it was the necessary first and ethnic divisions could only get babwe's government, making it repre- step toward reducing the political rift worse. Zimbabwe was hot, parched, sentative of all the country's significant which has divided Zimbabwe along eth- population groups and bringing it just nic lines. That ethnic division, between Andrew Meldrum, an American journalist who one step away from becoming a one- the 75 percent Shona majority which has been bused in Zimbabwe for six years, reports on southern Africa for The Guardian of London, party state. generally supports Mugabe's party and Agence F ranee-Presse, and the Voice of America. The announcement of Zimbabwe's the 20 percent Ndebele minority which

66 AFRICA REPORT - March-April 1988 largely backs Nkomo's ZAPU, has been founded our enemies who sought to in- set up exile headquarters in Zambia. the country's most troubling problem flame our differences," said Reverend The Soviets provided large amounts of since independence. Banana, a Methodist minister. "With weapons and training for Nkomo's mili- The usually taciturn Mugabe was un- this unity we have found a new political tary force, the Zimbabwe Peoples Rev- characteristically effusive when speak- maturity which will see us working to- olutionary Army (ZIPRA), which devel- ing about the unity agreement. "This oc- gether as one nation against violent dis- oped largely as a conventional armed casion fills me with emotion. The youn- cord and destabilization." force, preparing for a head-to-head bat- ger and elder brothers who have been The merger agreement must be rati- tle with the Rhodesian army. separated by circumstance have now fied by the full congresses of both par- ZANU. on the other hand, received come back home and are together," said support from China, and its military Mugabe of himself, 63, andNkomo, 70. wing, the Zimbabwe African National "We can now move into the future hand- Liberation Army (ZANLA), was based in-hand, knowing that we leave behind "It was the continuing in Mozambique. The Chinese did not us a united country, instead of going to spend nearly as much money on hard- our graves separately, leaving behind us and escalating ware, but they imparted their classic a divided country-" anti-government Maoist guerrilla techniques to ZANLA. Of course, Mugabe had much to be violence that brought As a result, ZANLA became very effec- pleased about. The unity agreement Mugabe's proud, even tive in winning the active support of the was very much on the terms laid down arrogant, party to majority of the country's peasants, by his ruling Zimbabwe African National accept the merger." which helped tip the scales in favor of Union (ZANU). Nkomo's party, the the African nationalists before the Rho- Zimbabwe African Peoples Union desian army was actually defeated in any (ZAPU), was not by any means the large-scale battle. equal partner in the merger. ZAPU will ties, which should take place in March By 1979, Mugabe, as leader of simply join Mugabe's party and accept or April, according to government ZANU, and Nkomo set aside their dif- the ZANU name. sources. In the meantime, the agree- ferences to negotiate together as the Mugabe became the newly enlarged ment states, "Both parties must take Patriotic Front at the Lancaster House party's president and first secretary. immediate, vigorous steps to eliminate talks in London. But when it came time Nkomo and ZANU stalwart Simon Mu- and end the insecurity and violence for the first elections in 1980, Mugabe zenda were named the vice -presidents prevalent in Matabeleland." Despite all pulled away from the Patriotic Front so and second secretaries. Thus ZAPU Mugabe's warm words, it was the con- that his ZANU stood alone in competi- was given a top, but clearly secondary tinuing and escalating anti-government tion against Nkomo's ZAPU, as well as position. The unity pad also called for violence that brought his proud, even against the parties of Bishop Abel Mu- the establishment of "a socialist society arrogant, party to accept the merger. zorewa and the Reverend Ndabaningi in Zimbabwe on the basis of Marxist- The differences between ZAPU and Sithole. Leninist principles" and lor the creation ZANU date back to 1963. At that time, The 1980 election results confirmed of a one-party state. Nkomo was the leader of ZAPU, the that Mugabe's party had the over- Nkomo, much more subdued in prais- nationalist party with widespread sup- whelming support of the country's ing the merger, acknowledged ZAPU's port among blacks throughout the coun- Shona majority, as ZANU won 57 of the secondary status in the agreement try in its crusade for the end of white UK) parliamentary seats, while Nkomo's when appealing to his followers "not to minority rule. ZAPU took just 20 seats, all of them look at who has gained and who has not In 1963, a group of Nkomo's depu- confined to the Matabeleland and Mid- gained," but instead to take pride in a ties, including Robert Mugabe, broke lands regions where the Ndebele people newly unified nation. "We do not want to away to form ZANU. .Some say it was are concentrated. leave behind a legacy of divisions," said because of Nkomo's domineering style As the new prime minister, Mugabe Nkomo. "We want to lay the foundation of leadership, others because of policy formed a government of national unity, of a Zimbabwe with one people, one na- differences, but the effect of the break- including whites and Joshua Nkomo and tion. " away was to ethnically divide the nation- other ZAPU leaders in his new govern- Both politicians expressed gratitude alist movement. Eventually the majority ment. But in 1982, Nkomo and other to President Canaan Banana for working of Shona people supjx>rted ZANU, and ZAPU cabinet ministers were sacked tirelessly as mediator to bring the two the Ndebele minority, concentrated in amid charges that ZAPU had secretly opposing parties together. President the southern Matabeleland region of the hoarded huge arms caches for use in a Banana, soon to retire as Mugabe as- country, remained loyal to Nkomo. coup against the Mugabe government. sumed the new post of executive presi- The differences between the parties Top leaders of Nkomo's ZIPRA forces dent, said the achievement of unity be- increased during the guerrilla war to end were arrested, charged with treason, tween the two parties allowed him to Rhodesian rule. Nkomo, the better acquitted in the High Court, and then leave office untroubled and satisfied. known leader internationally, won mili- held without charges. "With this national unity we have con- tary support from the Soviet Union and The dissident violence began in 1982

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 67 when disgruntled former ZIPRA mem- started in June and by December there matter what size it is." bers took to the bush to violently pro- had been more than 100 incidents, many While it remains to be seen if the mer- test what they felt was unfair govern- in which Zimbabweans were brutally ger of Zimbabwe's two nationalist par- ment treatment of Nkomo, ZAPU, and hacked to death with machetes. ties can bring an end to the country's the Ndebele people in general. Six for- Already burdened with the costly de- dissident violence, it is apparent that the eign tourists were kidnapped and mur- ployment of some 10,000 troops in cen- country now has a de facto one-party dered by a dissident band, white tral Mozambique, the government be- state and the way is now clear for Mu- fanners were killed, and so were gov- gan to feel that it could not afford two gabe to achieve his often-stated goal of ernment workers throughout rural Ma- domestic security threats—the dissi- establishing a de jure one-party state. tabeleland. Although Nkomo repudiated dents in the south and Renamo in the In many African countries, the prob- the anti-government violence, it be- east. So with a bowed ZAPU and a wor- lems created by a single party form of came clear that the peasants in rural ried ZANU, the unity merger was suc- government outweigh the benefits. But Matabeleland were giving food and shel- cessfully concluded. in Zimbabwe, many diplomats point out, ter to the rebels, much as they had done Just a week later, Mugabe was inau- the merger of the two parties is undeni- during the anti-Rhodesian war. gurated as Zimbabwe's first executive ably positive as it has started a process Army campaigns in Matabeleland in president, holding the responsibilities of of reducing dangerous conflict between 1983 and 1984 to eradicate the dissi- both the head of state and of govern- the country's two major ethnic groups. dents compounded the country's divi- ment. The Zimbabwe constitution was Nevertheless, as heartfelt and moving sions, as thousands of Ndebele peasants amended to create the new post and as the signing of the unity agreement were killed and brutalized, according to abolish those of prime minister and was, the pact alone is not sufficient to church and international aid workers at president of state. solve the dissident problem or the years the time. Alienation of the Ndebele peo- Mugabe's inauguration was a gala of bitterness built up among the rural ple from the Harare government grew, event at the shiny new Chinese-built Ndebele s. and ZAPU's political participation dwin- 60,000-seat stadium. The heads of state The leaders of the amalgamated par- dled. In the 1985 national elections, ZA- of Botswana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, ties wasted no time in holding rallies PU's parliamentary seats were reduced Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia attended throughout Matabeleland to promote by five to just 15. In 1987, ZAPU's of- the ceremonies. Even with all the pomp the new merger and to encourage the fices were closed by the government and circumstance, however, the inaugu- peasants to support the new govern- and the opposition party was forbidden ration remained somewhat overshad- ment line-up, not the dissidents. The to hold rallies. Unable to function, ZAPU owed by the significance of the unity need for such promotion was evident at was as good as banned. pact. One of the biggest cheers from the a January rally in Lupane, where when During those years, the two parties, stadium crowd was received by a beam- some 10,000 rural villagers were asked which have no basic ideological differ- ing Joshua Nkomo as he took his place if they were aware of the unity agree- ences, sporadically held discussions to on the dais. ment and new cabinet, said they knew end their differences, coming very close A few days later, Robert Mugabe an- nothing about it. Top ZAPU members to actually accomplishing a merger at nounced his new cabinet. Nkomo, who quickly began describing the political de- least twice. But ZAPU chafed at accept- was named one of three senior minis- velopments to them. ing a junior partner position, top ZANU ters to oversee several other minis- Absent for years from newspaper and members did not like the idea of having tries, is responsible for rural develop- television reports, the massive figure of to share any cabinet and party positions ment, which is very important to Mata- Joshua Nkomo was featured making im- with ZAPU, and the efforts to bring the beleland as well as to the rest of the passioned appeals for his followers to two parties together faltered. country. Two other top ZAPU mem- support the Harare government and to But by the end of 1987, the dissident bers, John Nkomo (no relation) and Jo- end all cooperation with the dissident rebels had spread their violence seph Msika, were named cabinet minis- rebels. At his side were top ZANU min- throughout Matabeleland and the Mid- ters. isters, who just a year earlier had de- lands, having killed more than 70 white Mugabe also included one white min- scribed Nkomo himself as a dissident. farmers and hundreds of peasant ister and two deputy ministers in his But just as the Matabeleland country- farmers. There was evidence of South new cabinet. The only disappointment side needs more steady rains to ensure African involvement with the dissi- expressed by diplomats was that he re- a good harvest in April, the troubled re- dents—the pro-dissident Radio Truth tained all previous ZANU ministers, gion also needs to see new government was broadcasting from South Africa and even though a strong odor of corruption development projects—roads, schools, dissident ammunition was traced back has grown around many. and irrigation schemes. Many of those to that country. The enlarged cabinet gives represen- efforts were abandoned during the Adding to the Mugabe government's tation to all important interests. "I think years of dissident violence, but must be worries was the new spate of attacks Mr. Mugabe is a very shrewd politi- revived again to convince the Ndebele along Zimbabwe's western border with cian," said one Western diplomat ap- peasants that they are truly included in Mozambique by the Renamo rebels. provingly. "I think he knows how to get the political and economic development Renamo's border raids into Zimbabwe what he wants from the new cabinet, no of Zimbabwe. Q

68 AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 Books Secret Wars

Zimbabwean guerrillas fighting for ma- upon the "militarization of pseudo-oper- jority rule. ations" via the formation of the notori- Ken Flower, Serving Secretly, John "Don't quote me, and I'll deny it if you ous Selous Scouts was "the worst mis- take I made," for it "attracted vainglori- Murray, U.K. and Quest, 1987 do," he began, "but it was decided as I Rhodesian] government policy to assist ous extroverts and a few psychopathic the resistance." Flower even went on to killers," yet Flower protects their meth- The most controversial new book in claim credit for the rebels' propaganda ods and identities. Zimbabwe is one written by the man who radio, telling me, "It was run as a clan- In short. Serving Secretly is of some headed Rhodesia's Central Intelligence destine station and nobody's proved ex- value to the colonial historian or political Organization from before the illegal Uni- actly how it operated, but I'm telling you analyst studying the liberation struggle, lateral Declaration of Independence in quite frankly, and you're the first re- specifically in illuminating the extent of 1965 until after Rhodesia became the in- porter I've ever told, that it operated South African pressure on Rhodesia for dependent, majority-ruled nation ojZim- from inside Rhodesia." a settlement—motivated by Pretoria's babwe in 1980. Harare-based author and For me, those startling admissions hope that "sacrificing Rhodesia" would journalist Julie Frederikse was the first made more than seven years ago re- buy time in both Namibia and South Af- reporter to obtain an interview with the main more revelatory than anything I rica itself. elusive Ken Flower soon after indepen- have heard or read from Flower since— The book's real value, however, is to dence, when she was researching her including the disclosures contained in those analyzing the evolving regional book. None But Ourselves: Masses vs. the book published just before his recent power balance with a view toward trying Media in the Making of Zimbabwe. Af- death. Zimbabwe's main newspaper, to fathom the strategies and predict the rica Report asked her for an assessment the Herald, criticized it as "a scanty sur- tactics of the South African government of Flower's memoirs. Serving Secretly, vey devoid of any essential details which and military. Flower reviews the history released shortly before his death late last one would have liked to see in a work of Rhodesia's ties to Pretoria from the year. written by one who was involved in joint guerrilla incursions of Zimbabwean carving out all the dirty work of the and African National Congress forces, BY JULIE FREDERIKSE Smith regime." Indeed, anyone expect- which brought South African police and It was mid-1980, just a few months ing fresh information and insights into troops to Rhodesia in 1967, through after Robert Mugabe had assumed the undercover campaigns of Rhode- Pretoria's desperate efforts to influence power. I had been interviewing the new sia's failed fight to maintain white su- the outcome of the 1980 elections. minister of state for security, Emmer- premacy will be disappointed. "Whether we like it or not we are all in son Munangagwa, about the history of While Flower uses every opportunity this tiling together," Flower writes in the Mozambique National Resistance, to emphasize his and the Rhodesian his diary after a 1973 visit to Salisbury now commonly known by its Portu- Central Intelligence Organization's links by South Africa's then-minister of de- guese acronym, Renamo, and was ea- with the CIA and especially MI6 (to the fense, P.W. Botha. The logical follow- ger to confirm its origins in both Portu- point of arousing suspicions that he up is a briefing to Rhodesian Prime Min- guese and Rhodesian intelligence. Sud- might have been a British intelligence ister Ian Smith in advance of a private denly Munangagwa picked up the phone mole), the book's treatment of various meeting with his South African counter- and made a call, then motioned to the Rhodesian "dirty tricks" is frustratingly part, John Vorster: "It should suit the door. "I've arranged for you to speak sketchy. South Africans to put more effort into with the man who knows more about Flower takes credit for the assassina- clandestine operations, within and out- this than anyone," he explained. "His tions of several guerrilla leaders, the in- side Rhodesia." name is Ken Flower." stigation of a rebellion in ZANU's Given Flower's circumspect style and Although Flower was clearly not camps, and even the distribution of poi- apparent commitment to protecting his pleased to see me and my tape re- soned uniforms which reportedly killed agents and contacts, the reader should corder, he agreed to answer my ques- hundreds of guerrilla forces, but his dis- expect no dramatic revelations. Rather, tions about the founding, funding, train- passionate description of these atroci- his account of the intelligence connec- ing, and direction of a rebel movement ties will cause no concern to the perpe- tions between the two countries offers aimed at destabilizing the government trators, for few new details are re- opportunities to draw parallels, analyze of neighboring Mozambique, which had vealed. differences, and speculate about future provided wartime support and bases for Flower concedes that his insistence regional trends, as based on the Rhode-

AFRICA REPORT • March-April 1988 69 sian experience. Robert Mugabe was released from 10 years in a Khodesian New Yorker Films jail in 1975 and in 1980 moved into Ian Smith's office; where will the newly-re- leased Govan Mbeki and the rest of his ANC comrades in South African prisons be in five years time? Flower's book chronicles Rhodesia's attempts to co-opt black allies, culminat- ing in the internal settlement that brought the ill-fated Bishop Muzorewa to power in 1978. Pretoria's similar ma- neuvers, both in Namibia and South Af- rica, are reminiscent of this tactic. But even more chillingly familiar are the paramilitary structures created to prop up these unmandated alliances; in Rho- desia they were called private armies and "auxiliaries," while in South Africa THE AFRICAN COLLECTION today vigilantes and "kitskonstabels" (hastily trained black township police) ANGOLA SAMBIZANGA. 1972. Directed by Sarah Meldoror A powerful film of oppression in Angola, realized through the story of a defend the reviled black "sell-outs" who young woman searching for her jailed husband. deal with Pretoria. CONGO THE LION HAS SEVEN HEADS. 1970 Directed by Glauber Rocha. Another tactic Flower describes res- Stylized allegory attacking colonialism, made by the acclaimed onates in the current South African con- Cinema Novo director. text: "Because Rhodesia was losing the IVORY FACES OFWOMEN. 1985 Directed by Desire Ecare. Politically war at home," he writes, "the military COAST and stylistically adventurous film explonng the links between planners turned outwards in frustration, feminism, economics, and tradition in modern-day Africa. to strike beyond our borders where in- SENEGAL BLACK GIRL. 1965-Directed by Ousmane Sembene Landmark hibitions need not apply." Thus the most African film about an uprooted Senegalese servant girl in France direct parallel between Rhodesia's pros- CEDDO. 1977. Directed by Ousmane Sembene. Far-ranging ecution of its war and South Africa's re- national epic centering on a political kidnapping to stop Moslem lates to the Renamo rebels that expansion in the 19th century Flower's CIO turned over to South Afri- EMITAI. 1972. Directed by Ousmane Sembene. A clash between can military intelligence when Zim- French colonialists and a mystical African tribe in the closing days babwe gained its independence. of World War H A top secret document reprinted in JOM, The Story of a People. 1982. Directed byAbabacar Samb the book's appendix details Renamo's A rousing West African fresco that illustrates and illuminates the founding, as modelled on the Angolan continuity of Senegalese history. Flechas ("arrows" or, as Flower calls MANDABI. 1968. Directed by Ousmane Sembene. An intimate them, pseudo-terrorists). In the final sage of modern life in Dakar, about a man who encounters an chapter, he recounts Renamo's transfer intimdatmg barrage of Third World bureaucracy to South Africa, concluding, "I began to NJANGAAN. 1974. Directed by Mahama Johnson Traore. The wonder whether we had created a mon- story of one of the many boys enslaved by marabouts ster that was now beyond control." purportedly teaching them the Koran. Since it was Flower's CIO that acted as XALA. 1974. Directed by Ousmane Sembene. A Third World the Dr. Frankenstein that created the paragon topples ignomimously social comedy in the monster in the first place. Flower's ret- great tradition. rospective regret is unconvincing. Like Renamo, many of the other For more information on the New monsters he helped create—the Selous Yorker Films library, call or write for Scouts, Muzorewa's auxiliaries, CIO's our free catalogue dirty tricksters—have fled southward to Pretoria. Any sincere effort at undo- ing the resultant damage wrought throughout the entire region should be directed at exposing those still-active agents of destabilization. • N.Y. 10023(212)247-6110 in a ousiness move unprecedented in the soft drink industry, ecember 15,1985 J. Bruce Llewellyn and Julius ("Dr. J") Erving These Black Businessmen became owners of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Made History j making it the fourth largest black-owned business in the United States. With assets over $100 million and a territorial population of 4.7 million consumers, the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company is one of the largest in the soft drink industry. The relationship between these two entrepreneurs and Coca-Cola USA symbolizes a spirit of mutual investment in the prosperity of a society— a spirit between partners. We commend these gentlemen for being leaders in business and leaders in their community. We're proud to be a part of hiitory in the making, f ifc

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©1986 The Coca-Cola Company "Coca-Colar "Coke" and ihe Dynamic Ribbon device are Irademarks of V, The Coca-Cola Company. V" The roots of American soul food go back to West Africa When you go there you'll find greens, yams and barbecue galore.

A typical dinner from Chez Valentin in Treichville, Ivory Coast, might offer an appetizer of country pate, smoked salmon, or a mound of chunked lobster in a de- licious cream sauce. For an entree you might enjoy a rack of baby lamb or "Veal Africain," which is a veal cutlet wrapped around a banana and topped with a delicate curry sauce. As for dessert, perhaps a flaming rum omelette filled with fruit, or a baked Alaska. As you can see, the pleasures of In many of the West African countries, women dominate the retail- the palate prevail in West distribution business. Many of these "market women" have considerable Africa. Bon Appetit! wealth and exercise important political influence.

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AIR m AFRIQUE Africa begins with Air Afrique. And it'sjust seven hours to the New Sun... West Africa