i. d. a.! news notes
Published by the United States Committee of the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 December, 1982 Telephone (617) 491-8343
CANON JOHN COLLINS concerned about apartheid. He was particularly interested in America, for here he sensed a growing consciousness of the evils of 1905-1982 apartheid and a desire to do what can be done to support those The death of the Reverend Canon L. John Collins on December who oppose it. This faith in America caused him to establish our 30, 1982 in the 78th year of his age has brought to a close a great American Committee and to support it to this day. His clerical life of creative service for God and the world; and we, associated colleagues thought him egotistical, intolerant, and a bit fuzzy on with the work of the International Defense and Aid Fund for the niCeties of doctrine. His secular critics thought him "soft" on Southern Africa, have been deprived of our founder, President, the "hard" issues of our times. But there are countless sons and and guiding force. That there is a Defense and Aid Fund today daughters of Africa, exiled or imprisoned, who weep at word of and an ever growing world-wide consciousness of the evils of his death, for they know that in John Collins they have lost an apartheid is due to the Christian outrage, organizational skills, incomparable friend and advocate. I join them in their sense of loss and personal charisma of John Collins. and give thanks to God for the life of his servant and my friend. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that an institution is but the lengthened shadow of Rev. Peter J. Gomes a man. And so it was with John Collins. President, lOAF-USA Those of us around the world in Defense and Aid may have been drawn to this work by the urgency and righteousness of our "Do Not Forget This" cause, but we were sustained and by Dr. Allan Boesak stimulated in that cause by the example of The following is excerpted from a speech delivered by Dr. Allan Boesak our leader. His passionate advocacy for on November 14, 1982, before the National Council of Churches in New human justice, his grand impatience with York, and broadcast on the Voice of America. Dr. Boesak is the leader of the petty and parochial, his nonconformity in the midst of the South Africa's Sendingkerk and the head of the World Alliance of Anglican establishment, and his contagious charm in the midst of Reformed Churches. bad temper made him a figure larger than life, the sort not often In South Africa it is clear that individual human rights and the seen in this age of the blandly good-intentioned. human rights of communities do not matter. It is clear that the I first met Canon CoIlins here in America in 1979 when he Christian standards that the government says it must uphold by came to receive an award at the U.N. and to pay a visit to our staying in power, and byenlisting the aid of Western governments offices in Cambridge. He was a splendid "Spy Print" of a man from Western Christian countries-that these with glorious white hair and that sense of casual authority for standards apply to whites only. For in Cape which the English are noted. He also had a whimsical sense of Town, where I live and work, the raids on the humor which often cloaked his penetrating analysis of human poor people in Nyanga and Langa and Guguletu character. He could regale with wonderful stories: of his days at and Crossroads continue. In the last five weeks Cambridge, as a young academic and theologian, as Chaplain-in over 1700 people have been rushed unseemly ordinary to King George V, and as an activist army chaplain in through the courts, caught in the myriad of laws W.W. II. Although his interests were nearly all international, his that no one can understand anymore ... The heart was in his thirty year career as a canon residentiary of St. pain of the people does not matter. The suffering Paul's Cathedral in London. Here was a setting worthy of the of the children does not matter. The suffering of man: magisterial yet strangely intimate, at the heart of the mothers does not matter. The breaking up of throbbing metropolis, and yet belonging to a kingdom beyond family life does not matter. The government has this one. To hear him preach, to see him administer the written to my synod to defend the security laws as an essential sacraments, to watch him banter with choristers, vergers, continued on page 2 sidesmen, and the like, was to see in some sense where this man of profoundly secular commitments got his power. Ms. Mankekolo Mahlangu Ngcobo, a member of the lDAF He wasalways a controversial figure and was neverfashionable Speakers Bureau, will give a talk at the Harvard University Science in the chilly-polite circles of the English establishment. But he had Center, 1Oxford St., CambridgE', Mass., at8PMonSat., March19. the great satisfaction, not given to many of us, to live to see the Ms. Ngcobo, a member of the Soweto Committee of Ten and a vindication of those causes to which he committed his life and founding member of the Azanian People's Organization, was ministry nearly forty years ago: nuclear disarmament and racial detained under the South NricanTerrorismAct in 1978and held for 21 days in solitary confinement. She will speak on her work within justice in Southern Africa. When he founded the International the anti-apartheid and Black Consciousness movements. The IDAF Defense and Aid Fund in response to the outrageous treason trials Women's Committee cordially invites you to attend. in South Africa in 1956, not many outside of Africa were "Do Not Forget This" continuedfrompagel participation in the decision-making structures of my country. It Christian action, for which the government is proud to take means that the hollleland policy of the government-which is, I responsibility. We have written back and we have said: The think, maybe the most objectionable and immoral aspect of the government does not understand what Christianity really means. whole policy of separate development-will continue. The war in Namibia has become a divine mission. The State We must continue to say: This is evil. We must continue to say: President, speaking on October 5 last year, said that the onslaught This is un-Christian. We must continue tosay that this is inhuman, against South Africa is an onslaught against the Kingdom of God. we must continue to say that we will withstand this, we will fight The Chaplain General Reverend van Zyl said in a television inter against this as long as God gives us strength. view that the war in Namibia is a holy war for the sake of the Constructiveengagementmeans that the SouthAfricangovern Kingdom ofGodandfor the sake ofWestern Cllristiancivilization ment is beinggiven the kind ofconfidence that it shouldnever have in South Africa. Anything, but anything, goes, for it is in the name had. It means that they know the deaths in detention can continue of Jesus Christ, itis in the name of the Christ of theCross, and of his and there will not even be a protest ... In South Africa, when Father and of the' Holy Spirit that these things continue ... Steve Biko died, the CarterAdministration immediately launched Resistance is not only subversion, it has become suicidal, as the the kind of complaint that the South Africans could not ignore. inquest into the death of Neil Aggett has just proved. Between 1977 and 1982, no one had died in detention. This year In this situation, we must ask ourselves: What does it mean already three have died. Six have been admitted to psychiatric when people talk about constructive engagement? For black wards in hospitals because they have been made zombies by those people-I do not knowwhat it means for the people of the Admin people who tortured them. And I give you three guesses where the istration in Washington-for black people it means blatant new methods, the sophisticated methods of torture would come support for the policies of the government. It means support for from. This is the kind of situation we are talking about when we sham constitutional proposals which must carry the label of say to people in America: Please. Do not forget this. Continue to reform. It means that the so-called Coloured and Asian people be in touch wifh brothers and sisters in'South Africa so that you may now become junior partners in the white set-up in South can understand what it means when your government supports Africa, whilst the African people in my country will continue to the government of SouthAfrica. Forus, it is not a question of sums live without any meaningful rights and without any meaningful of money only. It is a question of life and death.
no more than a desert mirage. He is rueful then: BAD DREAMS byJulieMiller I wanted to live outside history. I wanted to live outside the history that empire imposes on its subjects, even its lost subjects. I never Waiting for the Barbarians, by J.M. Coetzee, Penguin Books, $3.95 wished it for the barbarians that they should have the history of the paper, 156 pp. empire laid upon them. No one, least ofall a magistrateina repressive country, canremain morally separate from his society. The central illustration of this truth occurs when the magistrate attempts to become the lover of an imprisoned barbarian woman. This prisoner, captured by the colonel and tortured, is left behind in the fort when the other prisoners are released. Her ankles are broken, and she is now nearly blind. The magistrate, although he takes her in to love her andhelp heal herwounds, comes to realize that she must see himas just another version of the colonel, a manifestation of that same incoherent and destructive power. Her wounded, weirdly quiet presence causes the magistrate to wonder just what he is a part of. References to blindness and dreaming fill the book. For years and years the magistrate did not see clearly what was going on. He has been living in whatever world his power as ruler of that small place has allowed him to dream. The book uses the tactics of a nightmare, as the magistrate struggles through the rapid changes that the agents of the empire-those makers of his people's history-have imposed upon him. He wants to wake up, to see what is really going on, but his tragedy is that he never really does. Historical events have left him shaken and wondering, but what has he learned? Only that history will someday wake him from his dream. This, Coetzee's third novel, is a kind of fable. (His first was [HowJapposite it would be if I were caught in the pantry downstairs Dusklands, 1974; his second, In the Heart ofthe Country, won South with a spoon in my hand and my mouth full of fig preserve filched Africa's coveted CNA Prize in 1977.) The teller of the tale is the from the lastbottleon the shelf; then my headcouldbe hacked offand magistrate of a fort located in an oasis at the remote edge of an tossed on the square outside still wearing a look of hurt and guilty imaginary empire. The empire's capital is far away, and between it surprise at this irruption of history into thestatic time of the oasis. To and the fort lies a dangerous wilderness of mountains, desert, and each his most fitting end. treacherous mud, populated by the "barbarians" of the title. The Coetzee's brief fable may be read as a political allegory-the decades the magistrate has spent at the fort have been ordered and verligte Afrikaner lost in the dream his power has made, meaning leisurely, and he looks forward to an equally peaceful old age. But well but hurting the "barbarians" he rules with a hand that some his hopes do not last. A colonel and his men arrive suddenly at the times means to help. Its narrow, blinkered view is the view of fort, supposedly to intercept a barbarian attack. These represen South Africans under Botha, Vorster, Verwoerd and even before: tatives of the empire leave the magistrate and the fort trampled dwellers in an oasis where the rumblings of anger are too distantly into the sand and abandoned. He is' forced to realize that his heard, and the cruelty done in their own name is never pleasant daily life, the sweet comings and goings of the fort were understood. 2 Southern Africa News Calendar October and November 1982
The following news items are based primarily on shortwave broadcasts by the South Africa-The Evangelical Lutheran Churchappealed to SouthAfricansnotto British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Voice of America (VOA), and Radio serve on state-appointed organizations. The church's synod in Cape Town also South Africa (RSA). They are intended to supplement major news sources and are rejected, as conflicting with Christianity, the government's plan to give a not exhaustive. Because radio reception is sometimes unclear, the spelling of all Parliamentary voice to Asians and Coloureds but not to the African majority. proper names cannot be guaranteed. Dates on items reflect date when event was reported. 5 October Items relating to political trials and detentions appear in red. United Nations-The President of the UN Security Council appealed to South Africa to commute the death sentences on three members of the banned African For more comprehensive news about political prisoners in Southern Africa, National Congress (ANC) who were convicted in August of high treason, murder, please see our bimonthly publication Focus. robbery and terrorism. On 2 October the General Assembly voted 126 to 0 to urge. South Africa to show clemency to the three: Theile Simon Mogoerane, 23, Jerry Semano Mosololi, 25, and Marcus Thabo Motaung, 27. South Africa-Pretoria's decision to raise bread prices by 17% for brown bread 1 October and 25 % for white was met wi th vigorous protest, including a petition drive by the United Kingdom-Visiting Britain, Sam Nujoma, President of the South West Housewive's League, a pamphlet and poster blitz by the AdHocBread Committee, Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Gaid there was a deadlock in the Namibian andmarches in which 18people were arrested last week oncharges ofcontravening negotiations because of the Reagan Administration's insistence that Cuban troops the Riotous Assemblies Act. Bread deliveries to one township outside Durbanwere be withdrawn from Angola. Nujoma pointed out that when UN Resolution 435 on stopped when protesters stoned delivery trucks. Namibia was first proposed, there was no question of Cuban troops being consi South Africa-The Agriculture Department has declared more than 30 districts dered in the negotiations. He said an independentNamibia would have diplomatic total orpartial disasterareas, in a drought already being called theworstin 30 years. relations with all countries andwould negotiate newagreements with multinational Experts say millions ofhectares ofgrain will be lost if there is no rain within the next corporations doing business there. two or three weeks. United Nations-Addressing the General Assembly yesterday, Angolan Foreign South Africa-A memorandum submitted by the Detainees' Parents Support Minister Paolo Jorge said the US representatives on the Contact Group havespread Committee charged security police with using torture and intimidation to force confessions from prisoners. The memorandum, which contained statements by false rumors that progress is being made. Jorge earlier pointed out that long before more than 70 former detainees, cited 20 known cases of sleep deprivation, some any pressure had been exerted by Washington, the MPLA executive signed an agreement with the Cuban government for the progressive reduction of Cuban lasting for days on end, 22 cases of electric shock torture, 11 cases of suspension in troops in Angola. Withdrawal was halted when South African attacks caused a mid-airand25 cases ofsuffocation. Therewere14cases ofattacks ongenitals and25 of detainees being kept naked for long periods. Other detainees were beaten with deterioration of the security situation. Jorge stressed that Angola was willing to negotiate directly with the US government towardfull diplomatic relations, butthat sticks orgun butts, kicked, punched, dragged by the hair, orhad toes crushed under it would not accept Cuban withdrawal as a precondition for such relations. bricks or chairs. Minister of Law and Order Louis leGrange deplored the way the Support Committee made its allegations, saying it had sought sensational publicity Mozambique-The governmentclaimed Malawi is being used as a springboardfor based on unsigned allegations of torture. South African-backed guerrilla attacks against Mozambique'sZambezia province, the latest of these being a major offensive launched from Malawi six weeks ago and South Africa-The Sendingkerk, the country's Dutch Reformed Church for stepped up last week. It was unclear whether this was happening with orwithoutthe Coloureds, described apartheid as a theological heresy andsaid that justification of support of Malawi's President Banda. such a policy was a mockery of the Gospel. The Sendingkerk said it was regrettable that its ties with the white DRC were threatened, but that the path to reconciliation could be followed only if the white church acknowledged its guilt in providing a moral and theological foundation for apartheid. 6 October USA-After meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz, Angolan Foreign Minister Paolo Jorge said there had been some progress in negotiations toward Namibian independence, but that Angola did not share the optimism expressed in 3 October American and othercircles. Jorge said the Cuoanswouldleave Angola "whenwe see United Kingdom-The First Secretary of the South African embassy left London there is a considerableevolution in the implementation of Security Council Resolu last week because information was revealed linking South Africa with attacks tion 435," which provides for a ceasefire, a reduction of South African forces in against anti-apartheid groups in Britain. The First Secretary apparently left hours Namibia, and movement toward free elections. The State Department termed the after a London magistrate's court announced that serious charges would be brought meeting "useful and frank." against a man arrested in connection with these attacks. Clinton Davis, the Labor Party spokesperson for foreign affairs, expressed his belief that South Africa was South Africa-William G. Paddock, 31, was sentenced to one year for refusing to conducting spying operations in Britain. be drafted. Paddock opposed mili tary service on overtly political grounds, citing St. Augustine's doctrine of the "just war." He said South Africa's war in Namibia was unjust on all eight points of the doctrine. 4 October United Kingdom-The Commonwealth adopted a new code of conduct aimed at Lesotho-The ceremonial digging of a contour furrow for soil conservation barring all sports contacts with South Africa. The new code strengthens the 1977 marked the celebration of Lesotho's 16th anniversary of independence. King Qeneagles Declaration. Members breaking the new accord would now be liable to Moshoeshoe, dressed in tennis shoes and a billed cap, dug with a silver-plated suspension from future Commonwealth events. shovel. Cabinet members and foreign diplomats were expected to help with the digging. 7 October South Africa-A Johannesburg district surgeon laid a charge of assault against n-embers of the Security Police after Linda Dlodlo, an 18-year-old black student South .... fn"ca-Testifying at the inquest into the death of labor leaderNeil Aggett, a detained by police on 15 August and released 7 September, died sixteen days later. Security Police lieutenant said he had trailed Aggett for three years before his The doctoraccused police ofkeeping the girl, who was asthmatic, underconditions detention in November 1981. He said police had been dissatisfied by the statement which caused her death. Aggett made in detention and that this had led to the 62-hour interrogation that preceded Aggett's death. Witnesses said Aggett appeared to be defeated after this South Africa-The government has refused to return the passport of Bishop session, during which he complained of electric shock torture. Police had said a Desmond Tutu, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. The satisfactory statement from Aggett would include an admission that he was a passport waswithdrawnlast year afterthegovernment accusedTuto ofencouraging member of the South African Council of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the ANC. other countries to impose sanctions against South Africa because of its apartheid policies. The government gave Tutu temporary travel documents in September to South Africa-RSA reported that a successful uranium enrichment process using allow him to attend a church conference in the US. local uranium has been perfected. 8 October 13 October Angola andMozambiquehave asked tobeincludedinfresh negotiationsbetween Zimbabwe-In a surprise move, the judge adjourned the trial of Wally Stuttaford, the European Economic Community (EEC) and members of the Lome Convention, a former Republican Front MP who pleaded not guilty to charges of treason and which runs until February 1985 and gives preferential treatment in development plotting to overthrow the government. The state alleged that Stuttaford met with assistance to more than sixty countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The leaders of the guerrilla army Zipra, which is loyal toJoshua Nkomo, with the aim of two countries' decision to join the Convention was seen as evidence of their desire plotting a coup. The case was adjourned after the defense asked that the main for closer links with Western Europe. prosecution witness be impeached on the grounds that he gave different evidence to South Africa-Progressive Federal Party (PFP) leader Alex Boraine, askedwhether the court and to the police. The witness said he had made the earlier statements his party would sit in the white chamber of the Parliament to be formed under P. W. under duress and torture and that he was only free to speak in court. The judge, the Botha's new plan, said it was an agonizing decision which would depend on the only black senior member of the Zimbabwean bench, asked the prosecutor to con precise nature of the legislation. sider whether it still had a case against Stuttaford. South Africa-Lauren Cronje, former Minister of Labor in Rhodesia and now adviser to President Mangope of the Bophuthatswana bantustan, said a law would be tabled this month permitting black unions to exist. Cronje ruled out the possibi lity of unions engaging in politics, saying that unions must keep to their ownsphere. SOUTH AFRICA ON SLIDES Other bantustans have viciously clamped down on any form of unionism. The Two new slide/tape presentations are now available from Ciskei in 1981 detained over 200 officials of SAAWU, the unregistered South lOAF. Amandla! traces the history of white oppression and the African Allied Workers Union, and similar strong action has been taken in Venda black liberation struggle in South Africa. ForgeI Nol Our Sislers and Transkei. focuses on the role of women in the struggle. (Amandla! is also available in filmstrip form.)
10 October South Africa-A memorandum was submitted to Parliament in defense of South Africa-A BBC analysis said the South African application to the Interna domestic workers, saying that they were the most vulnerable and exploited of all, tional Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $1.1 billion loan reflects deep economic trouble and that existing legislation offered them virtually no protection. Thememo stated and places a question mark on the future of the apartheid government. South that most domestic workers worked from 6 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week, were African inflation is already at its highest since the 19205, and unemployment is separated from their families and poorly fed. running at 20%-higher for blacks. South Africa will welcome the compulsory Angola-President Eduardo dos Santos said the South African government was spending restrictions and tax increases that come with the IMF loan as a way of destabilizing Southern African states in orderto retain control ofNamibia. He said shifting responsibility for these unpopular actions away from the government. But that South Africa was trying to replace the governments of Angola and because of the breadth and extent of worldwide financial problems caused by Mozambique with reactionary and neocolonialist regimes. Meanwhile, in thewake recession, the BBC said manycountrieswould probablydecide that nowwas not the of an MNR attack on the Beira oil pipeline in which the pipeline was c~t and seven time to get tough with South Africa. Portuguese kidnapped, Mozambican journalist Alves Gomez said the MNR was widely regarded as a branch of the SADF. Gomez said the MNR crossed the border from South Africa to Angola in helicopters at night. United Kingdom-The British government said itwas taking a very serious view of the alleged illegal activities of South African agents in Britain. Documents, pass 11 October ports, etc., have been stolen from the offices of South African liberation Malawi-The government, responding to a Mozambican accusation that it has movements, the ANC offices were bombed recently, and the Anti-Apartheid provided bases for guerrillas of the Mozambique National Resistance, denied Movement has long complained that the South African government has interfered having any contact with the MNR. The government pointed out that neither with its operations and tried to steal material from its offices. Mozambique nor Malawi has the resources adequately to patrol the long open border between them. Ethiopia-Marking its day of solidarity with South African 14 October prisoners, the OAU called upon member states to apply Lesotho-Fighting between two factions of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) economic sanctions and other pressures to secure the release elicited a strong warningfrom the Lesotho government to all SouthAfrican exiles to of all political prisoners in the country. Particular attention abide by Lesotho's laws, especially the law forbidding the unlawful possession of was paid to ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who has been in arms. prison for 20 years. Meanwhile in London, a new campaign was launched for Mandela's release. South Africa-Police announced that a policeman and a suspected saboteur were killed in an exchange of fire between 15 October security forces and ANCmembers in thekwaZulubantustan overtheweekend. The Greece-The Greek government expelled Piet Marais-the chair ofthe parastatal alleged saboteur was said to have been sent by Joe Slovo, a leader in the ANC to South African Armaments Corporation, or Arrnscor-from the country, and told commit terrorist acts in SouthAfrica. Police said a secondsuspectwaswoundedand Arrnscor to close its weapons display at an international exhibition in Athens. A was lat~r arrested. government spokesperson said Greece was in the forefront of the anti-apartheid Namibia-African newspapers including the Daily Times of Nigeria and the Nation struggle and found the presence of Armscorin the countryhighly embarrassing. In and Standard of-Kenya have expressed profound opposition to the US linkage of South Africa Marais said that great interest had been shown at the exhibition in the Cuban withdrawal from Angola to Namibian independence. TheNation said, ''The B'/z-tonG-5 artillery cannon, which has an accurate range of 40 km. SouthAfrica,. presence of the Cuban troops in Angola has nothing to do with Namibia but has which has military attaches in the US, Chile, Portugal, France, Taiwan and Britain, everything to do with South Africa's regular aerial bombardments of Angolan has been selling arms designed for Southern African semi-desert conditions. territory and the enormous loss of life and property which Angola continues to suf fer at the hands of the invaders." Mozambique-The Mozambican Foreign Ministry in Lisbon confirmed the kidnapping of seven Portuguese citizens-three technicians, their wives, and a 16 October child-by the MNR. Some observers thought the kidnapping, which apparently Angola-The Red Cross said it was temporarily suspending its aid program and occurred during an attack on an oil-pipeline substation, could be in retaliation for withdrawing Red Cross Workers from parts of Angola, including the central the Portuguese moves to restrict the freedom of operation of Abel Fernandez, the plateau area, because of security problems. A UNITA spokesperson in Lisbon MNR representative in Portugal. In August the MNR captured six Bulgarians in the accused the Red Cross ofplaying the game of the Luanda government, incollabora north of the country, demanding the release of some prisoners. tion with the MPLA and the USSR.
12 October 17 October Tanzania-After discussions with President Nyerere, French Foreign Minister South Africa-The Afrikaans-language newspaper Die Beeld applauded the US Claude Chaissonsaid the workof the ContactGrouphad been completed. Chaisson decision to send diplomatic observers to the bantustans, as a step toward greater said the one remaining block to the implementation of the plan was the US and realism. Thepaper said the US was joining with France and West Germany, which, South African insistence on Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. He said the unlike Britain, do not pretend that the bantustans don't exist. The opposition Rand American linkage of the two issues was contrary to the views of the Contact Group Daily Mail commended the US argument that precisely because the US does not as a whole, and that a country making such a linkagewould have to bearfull respon recognize the bantustans, their diplomatic corps is free to visit them merely as a part sibility for blocking progress on Namibia. of South Africa. 4 18 October Swaziland-The government denied a report by the Johannesburg Sunday Times ing legal action against the Security Police for torture and ill-treatment he received that the late King Sobhuza II was poisoned by two princes, who were arrested ten during his 289-day detention without charge or trial. days ago and subsequently vanished. USA-The AFL-CIO's George Meany Human Rights Award was given to South Africa-The Black Alliance, which includes the Coloured Labor Party, the kwaZulu Chief Minister Gatsha Buthelezi and posthumously to Dr. Neil Aggett. Indian Reform Party and kwaZulu Chief Minister Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha Mrs. Jill Aggett Burger, Aggett'ssister, accepted the awardfromAFL-CIOPresident movement, emphatically rejected Prime Minister Botha's constitutional reforms. Lane Kirkland on her brother's behalf. Zimbabwe-Minister of Home Affairs Herbert Ushewokunze asked President United Kingdom-A judge sentenced three British arms dealers to prison terms QuettMasire of Botswana to actagainst dissidents whoestablish basesin Botswana. rangingfrom three to nine monthsforsellingarmamentstoSouthAfrica. TheSouth Botswana is alleged to have received many Zipra dissidents among refugees from African government was said at the trial to have paid for £1 million worth of Zimbabwe, but has denied that its territory is being used as a base for subversive machine-gun parts through its embassy in London. activities. This issue was reportedly high on the agenda for talks between Masireand Mugabe.
20 October South Africa-A state witness at the trial of Suzman Nkopane Mokoena said that 28 October Mokoena took part in the 1981 sabotage of the Rosslyn electrical substation in South Africa-Every home in a black ghetto near Pietermaritzburg was said to Pretoria. Mokoena had pleaded not guilty. have been searched and several detentions were made in an early-morning police South Amca-The fifth anniversary of the security clampdown of October 19, raid. The raid followed demonstrations against rent increases and violence between 1977, was observed by groups in the Black Consciousne5S Movement (BCM). The residents and police in which police shot one black youth dead. Azanian People's Organization (Azapo), the successor to the Black People's Con vention, organized one of two commemorative services in Soweto. The Johannes burg Star noted that Justice Minister Kruger's clampdown had succeeded only in strengthening the voices of dissent and causing a resurgence of ANC support. ' 31 October South Africa-Only 150 out of the 300,000 Tswana people living in Soweto voted South Africa-Reacting to a speech by former US Secretary of Defense Robert in the Bophuthatswana bantustan election. Turnout in the bantustan itself was said McNamara, the Johannesburg Star said that McNamara had given "a somber by some to be fair, possibly as high as 60% in some.areas. The results of the exercise warning," whose message was "adapt and be snappy about it, or die." The pro were seen as a firm rejection of the bantustan idea. government Citizen said that McNamara underestimated the South African deter mination not to be overwhelmed by black liberation forces which would tum it into another Angola, Zimbabwe, or Mozambique. 21 October South Africa-Barbara Hogan, the first white South African woman to be found guilty ofhigh treason, was sentenced to ten years byJustice H.P. van Wyk. Thesen tence was greeted in the courtroombyshoutsof "Amandla!" Hogan, who had been held for 13 months, was found guilty on the basis of her admission that she was a member of the banned ANC. LET US HEAR FROM YOU UnitedNations-The General Assembly votedoverwhelmingly to request the IMF lOAF plans to trim its mailing list in early 1983. If we not to grant the proposed$1.1 billion loan to SouthAfrica. Thevote was 121for, 23 have not received a donation, literature order, or kind abstentions, and 3 votes against-cast by the US, UK, and West Germany. Mean word from you within the past year, we may stop sending while, the Congressional Black Caucus threatened legislation to force the US to youNews Notes. Please let us hear from you. Exchanges of oppose all South African requests for IMF assistance, pointing out that the US government has followed political rather than economic considerations in the past publications may be accepted in lieu of donations. in blocking some loan requests. South Africa-The Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the country's largest denomination, joined the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Sendingkerk in declaring apartheid a heresy. Meanwhile a majority of the delegates at the synod of the white Dutch Reformed Church voted to withdraw from the Alliance, which has suspended it, but the required two-thirds vote was not 1 November achieved. "Liberation theology" and Marxist forces in the Alliance were blamed for South Africa-The new three-year ban on Afrikaner minister Beyers Naude, the thesuspension. Thesynodreaffirmeditsmanifesto"Race, People, andNation,"and founder of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, focused new attention and argued that the New Testament makes provision for apartheid. anger on banning. Minister of Law and Order Louis leGrange said he was satisfied that Dr. Naude remained a potential threat to national security. Naude refused to South Africa-The student body of the University of the North, one of the employ the special appeal process newly established for banned people, because he government's "bush colleges" fur blacks, has taken dramatic action to protest the said it would lend credibility to a charade of justice. Opposition MP Helen Suzman detention of two students in a police raid. ThePresident of the Student Representa said that the government did not understand the impact that the renewal of the ban tive Council said that all students had vacated the college until 1 November, ten days would have on the Western world. Rev. David Russell. whose old ban expired with before final exams. The students voted on 15 October to boycott classes until Naude's and was not renewed. paid tribute to others still banned. saying, 'We are Makhosazana Nhlapo and Benedicta Monama, both executive members of Azapo, actually under God's orders to resist evil and establish justice." were released.
25 October 2 November POrlugal-The first contacts with Portugal since the fall of the Portuguese colonial South Africa-Delivering his summation at the Neil Aggett inquest, the Aggett regime in Angola were made by South African Deputy Foreign Minister Barend family attorney George Bizos said two Security Police officers, Major Arthur duPlessis, in preparation for a possible peace conference between government offi Cronwright and Lieutenant Stephen Whitehead were guilty of culpable homicide. cials of Angola and South Africa. DuPlessis' visit to Portugal coincided with that of After 42 days of testimony, Bizos said, "We have all agreed that he committed a high-level Mozambican military delegation seeking help against MNR attacks. suicide." He added that it was the job of the magistrate to decide whether the death was due to some offense bysome person. Thepolice attorney wasscheduled to begin his summation on 3 November. United lVatiolls-In a report for the first half of 1982, the UN Special Committee against Apartheidsaid the South African government and its sportsbodieshad tried 27 October to entice sportsmen with exorbitant fees but that this had only provoked stronger South Africa-The inquest into the death of labor leader Neil Aggett heard opposition in South Africa and abroad. A blacklist citing 40 sports exchanges with dramatic testimony from Auret van Heerden, former President of the National South Africa was headed by Britain, with 100 athletes named. The US was second Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Van Heerden recounted the last surrep with 45. titious conversation he had with Aggett before the latter's death after a 62-hour Namibia-The Washington Post reported that many US firms were defying the UN marathon interrogation. Van Heerden said, "I could see hewas in a bad way, andhe by investing in Namibia. An official report released by the Africa Fund accused spoke with resignation and wept." Van Heerden said he had been threatened with firms including Amex and Superior Oil of engaging in the mining of copper and jail, banning, and house arrest if he testified at the inquest, and that he was consider- other metals. petroleum distribution, and other activities. 5 3 November 10 November South Africa-Thousands of black workers in the sugar industry have been on South Africa-A white trade union organizer, Allan Fine, 30, was acquitted of strike against white employers over the last few days, demanding improved charges under the Terrorism Act, after pleading not guilty to charges ofserving the conditions. More than 1000workers in two sugar mills inNatal were dismissed after interests of the ANC. Fine had been charged along with Barbara Hogan, who was ignoring an orderto return to work. TheGeneral Secretary of the National Union of last month sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for high treason. Sugar Manufacturing and Refining Employees said the dispute began late last week. Over 3000 workers at six sugar mills had stopped work at once. Mozambique-Seven Portuguese nationals and six Bulgarians kidnapped by the MNR were freed by the Mozambican army after about ten weeks of captivity. The seven Portuguese-three technicians, their wives, and a five-year-old boy-were released along the Zimbabwe border and walked unknowingly through a 4 November Rhodesian-war minefield to reach safety. They had spent 28 days in captivity marching through the bush. South Africa-The ruling Nationalist Party won three comfortable victories and beat off a challenge from the far right in four bye-elections held in Walvis Bay, Parys, Stellenbosch, and Johannesburg North. The prelude to these elections, the first since Prime Minister Botha's constitutional reforms were proposed, were emo tionally chargedandfocused on theissue ofrace. Therightwingmade unashamedly 11 November racist statements, saying tl;te Coloureds were selling white South Africa down the South Africa-Charges against Thozamile Gqweta and Sisa Njikelana, President river. and Vice President of the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU). were to United Kingdom-Banning orders were renewed on three South Africans now be formally dropped in East London tomorrow, according to their lawyers. This living in Britain: Rev. Theo Kotze and Rev. Brian Brown, former leaders of the action follows a five-month legal ordeal for the two and more than six months of Christian Institute ofSouthernAfrica, and Donald Woods, former editorof theEast detention. London Daily Dispatch and author of a book on Steve Biko. Angola-The SADF denied an Angolan allegation that commandos from a South African Navy ship blew up two bridges in Angola on the night of 7 November. The SADF blamed UNITA rebels for the action, although it admittedhavingcarried out 5 November "followup operations" against SWArO in the area. Zhlbabwe-Prime Minister Robert Mugabe told representatives of the nine nation Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) that they must work to improve their defense against South Africa, which he called a 12 November racist regime bent on overthrowing the economic and political systems of its black Zimbabwe-A Cabinet Minister said that attacks by South Africa's surrogates on neighbors. Mugabe appealed to the international community to help the black regional transportation links were in part an attempt to force the Front-Line States countries in theirstruggle for economic independence from South Africa. The meet to use South Africa's ports, which are suffering from the world recession. ing, designed to assess proposalsforself-sufficiency infood, was inpreparationfor a summit meeting of SADCC to be held in Lesotho next January.
South Africa-A magistrate this week barred the press from covering the trial ofan alleged ANC member, Lillian Keagile, 24, on the grounds that publicity could 13 November endanger the life of a state witness. The witness was allegedly a former ANC United Nations-US ambassador Gordon Luce, the alternate US delegate to the member who defected to the Security Police. UN, said in a debate on apartheid that the US believes that isolating South Africa South Africa-The government decided to prosecute the editors of the would be a blueprintfor disaster, instead ofinducing the changes that the US wants Johanneshurg Sunday Times, the Rand Daily Mail, and the Afrikaans-language to see in the area. He said sanctions would deny hope to blacks and whites in South Sunday Rapport for printing reports saying that South African Intelligence agents Africa who seek a peaceful change from the nightmare of apartheid. Luce also said had gone to the Seychelles to persuade confessed South African spy Martin that most blacks in South Africa reject democracy in a unitary state because one Dolinchek to recant his story of Intelligence involvement in the attempted black group would not accept being ruled by another. Seychelles coup. The prosecution was based on the new Protection of Information Act, which bars the publication of information relating to security matters. TheAct carries penalties of up to ten years in jail and RI0,000. 14 November Namibia-Gail Hovey, the author of a new study, "Namibia's Stolen Wealth," published by the American Committee on Africa and the Africa Fund, said in an 8 November interview that Western exploitation of Namibia was continuing with virtually no South Africa-Anoil storage depot in northern Natal was sabotaged, causing four benefits to the Namibians. The US government and corporations, she said, were or five explosions and fires in several storage tanks. The attack was the latest in a compounding South African violation of international law and were cooperating series said by police to be the work of the ANC. with South African occupation forces in putting down the Namibians' struggle to South Afnca-South African Airlines planned to launch its new service to regain their freedom from foreign racist domination. Houston on 8 December, despite political opposition. The new flight was expected South Africa-The Johannesburg Sunday Express said that a second mercenary to boost tourism. force, operating in Durban, was being recruited secretly to overthrow the socialist Rene government in the Seychelles. This was discovered in the Express's investiga tion of the death in the Seychelles oftheDurban-basedmercenary MikeAsher, who was killed wi th a Seychellois in a car, when the bomb they were preparing wentoff. 9 November South Africa-A new military callup system, intended to counter ANC insurgen cy, will allow the defense forces to draw on 15 November far more men to extend its military reserves. South Africa-Three suspected "terrorists" were killed at the town of Piet Retief All whiteSouthAfrican men arenowsubject near the Swaziland border, when a car stopped by the police drove off after its to conscription at 18 and serve two years of occupants shot and wounded one policeman. The three in the car were killed and active service. The new regulations will another policeman was wounded in the gun battle that ensued after the car was make them subject to callup as a member of found again. the citizen force for as much as three months in a year for an additional 14-year period. They then must serve in a regional 17 November commando or part-time militia force until United Nations-The US objected to UN funds reaching the PLO and SWAPO, the age of 55. In 1980 South Africa had warning that it would not continue to grant funding increases to the UN if this 63,000 men in the active armed forces and a continued. total mobilization capacity of 400,000. SADF chief Gen. Constand Viljoen said the South Africa-TwoTranskeians finally won the right from the Transkei Supreme new requirements will give the armed forces Court to sue the Police Ministerforrepeated beatings sustained in 1980, soon aftera another 800,000 men and a full mobilization state of emergency was declared in the bantustan. Each man lost the use of an eye in capacity of 1,200,000 reservists. the beatings. An out-of-
24 November Namibia-A report by David Stephens of the Minority Rights Group was issued today on the status of the San people ("Bushmen") of Botswana and especially Namibia. Stephens said in an interview that there was a serious threat to their survival and that South African army recruitment was destroying their traditional way of life. Drought had forced them into the army "simply to survive." In Botswana the cattle industry is a majorthreat to them as hunters andgatherers. Zimbabwe-Defense Minister Emerson Munangagwe blamed South Africa for establishing four camps south of the Limpopo River in South Africa for dissidents. He said two of thecampswere for ex-members of the privatearmy offormer Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa, one for ex-members of Joshua Nkomo's Zipra guerrilla army, and onefor new recruits. Those in thecampswere intended, hesaid, to cross back into Zimbabwe after receiving full military training.
25 November South Africa-Minister of Law and Order Louis leGrange announced new SOWETO guidelines affecting detainees, in the wake of a protest from the Detainees' Parents 19 November Support Committee. Detainees will be able to appeal their detention, torture and inhuman anddegrading treatmentare outlawed, and twoseniorseeurity officersare Kenya-Continuing his tour of Africa, Vice President Bush continued to be to be present at all interrogations. Thecode also calls for all cells to havean exercise pressed by African leaders dissatisfied with US policy on Namibia and the Cuban area, bath or shower facilities and a flush toilet. Top political trial lawyer Harry issue in particular. Daniel arap Moi, chair of the OAUand President ofKenya, said Pitman called the code limited, cosmetic, and totally ineffective. The Committee that no nation professing true democracy and respect for sovereignty could link the also rejected the guidelines, saying they fail to permit the independent monitoringof Cuban question to Namibian independence. police treatment of netainees.
20 November 26 November Namibia-P. W. Botha, speaking in Windhoek, officially extended the term of the Namibia-Cornelius Njoba, one of Namibia's leading black political leaders, was Namibian National Assembly for three months and ruled out early elections as killed in his car in a landmine explosion in which six other people were also killed. undesirable and impractical. Political parties were furious and alarmed at the Security forces said the mine was laid by SWAPO guerrillas. Njoba, the former prospect of another three months of DTA rule, under which conditions seem to be Chief Minister of the Ovambo bantustan and former President of the DTA, was an deteriorating politically and economically. Botha also announced that outspoken critic of SWAPO. Administrator General Danie Hough would be succeeded by Willie van Niekerk, a Namibia-A spate of arrests under Security Proclamation AG-9 have occurred in senior member of the President's Council. the north, and police confirmed that several men died hoursafter being detained for questioning. A police spokesperson said an investigation was under way and that autopsies would be cauied out on the men. At least 25 and possibly as many as 70 22 November Kavango-speaking people have been detained; no reasons were given. South Africa-To the surprise of many, the President's Council announced its full South Africa-The government said yesterday that it had virtually shelved plans endorsement of P.W. Botha's compromise constitutional proposals. The Council for the time being to transfer 3000square miles ofbantustan territory and more than was expected to urge more liberal and far-reaching reforms than Botha's. The 000,000 people to Swaziland. South Africa said control of the kaNgwane area Council endorsed Botha's three-chamber Parliament and the powerful Executive would be handed back to the kaNgwane legislative council. An out-of-court settle Presidency, and rejected the inclusion of a bill of rights in the new Constitution. ment was reached hours before the kaNgwane bantustan government was to argue its case in the provincial Supreme Court. Swaziland continues to believe that the land deal will go through sometime in the future. South Africa-A Johannesburg magistrate ordered that the trial of two South 23 November African newspapereditorsand a senior reporter, set to begin in March1983, should Swaziland-The government reactivated a law dormant since 1980 which allows be held in camera. The journalist and the editors of the Rand Daily Mail and the detainees to be held for 60 days without charge. The law was reactivated following Johannesburg Sunday Times were charged under theOfficial SecretsActand thenew three ANC attacks in November against South African police stations and govern Protection of Information Act for printing reports on the alleged involvement of the ment installations near the Swaziland border. National Intelligence Service in the aborted coup in the Seychelles. 7 27 November 29 November United Nafuns-The Political and Security Committee of the General Assembly Libya-In a decIaration adopted 27 November, 31 African countries rejected approveda resolution callingfora total boycottonall military and nuclearcollabo American and South African attempts to link Namibian independence with the ration with SouthAfrica. Theboycottwouldalso includecomputersandelectronic Cubanwithdrawalfrom Angola. Vice President Bush respondedin the US, saying, equipment. 'We feel an Angola free of foreign force is the best way to bring about a solution to South Africa-Thirty-four of the 42 mercenaries jailed for taking part in the 1981 Namibia. If another country has another idea they ought to come forward." hijackingofanAirIndiaplanefrom the Seychelleswerereleased: 21SouthAfricans, 6 Britons, 5 Zimbabweans, one Australian and one Austrian. Eight of the merce South Africa-Twolegal wranglesin theTranskeiwere recentlysettled. Anout-of naries are still in prison, including the leaderof the coup attempt, Col. MikeHoare. court settlement was reached witha local journalistwhosued theTranskei Minister Four mercenaries left behindin the Seychellesafter theattempthave been sentenced of Police for R75,000 because of his detention about two years ago. The detention to death. President Rene has yet to decide.whetherhe will commute theirsentences. occurred after hequestioned Prime MinisterGeorge Matanzima about reports that the Shah of Iran might seek refuge in the bantustan. Also, the former head of the Transkei Defense Force was acquitted of charges relating to debt and fraud, after being held for more than a year and subjected to what he said were atrocious and subhumanconditions. Hewas alleged to have used an army vehicle to transport his lover to two holiday resorts outside the bantustan. 28 November South Africa-Authoritiessaid thehungerstrikebyRobbenIslandprisonerswhich began on 23 November ended over the weekend. This was the latest in a series of South Africa-The Bloemfontein Supreme Court turneddown the appeals of three strikes which are rarely reported in the South African media or disclosed by ANC members sentenced to death forhigh treason: AnthonyTsotobe, 27, Johannes authorities. The CommissionerofPrisonssaidhe had orderedaninvestigationinto Shabangu, 27, and David Moise, 23. They were convicted of participating in a the reasons for the strike, which was said to be a protest against prison conditions. number of armed attacks, including an attack on the Booysens police station and a 1980 explosion at an oil-from-coal plant.
30 November -Angola-South African-backed guerrillas intensified their efforts this month, _aiming to have destroyed two vital road and rail bridges. The town of Huambo, virtuallysurroundedby UNITAguerrillas, was ontheverge ofeconomicstrangula TRIALS AND DETENTIONS tion. In one recent railroad attack, UNITA killed five people, stole-the goods on the ARE CONTINUING! train, set fire to the locomotive and kidnapped the driver. MPLA leaders privately acknowledged that the situation had never been as bad. IDAF provides legal defense for political prisoners of the South Africa-Unskilled black workers face an increasingly bleak future in the apartheid regime, as well as food, clothing, and other current recession. TheIron and Steel Corporation, Iscor, cutback5000jobsin1982, humanitarian aid for their families. and the textile industry hassaid it will have to cut its payroll by10,500. Atleast four Please help us in this work by mailing a contribuhon to major motor manufacturers have laid off more than 7000 workers and cut lOAF, P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, MA 02138. Checks should be production by over 50%. The South AfricanTransport Services has cut its work made out to IDAF, and all contributions are tax-deductible. force by 3000 and intends to reduce it by another 20,000. Bantustan industries have been hard-hit. Witwatersrand University lecturer David Westbank said the country's total unemployed work force was more than 2.5 million.
IDAF News Notes is published bimonthly by the United States Committee of the IDAF has three objectives: International Defense and AidFund for Southern Africa, P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. President: Peter J. Gomes, Vice President: Mia Adjali, (1) to aid, defend and rehabilitate the victims of unjust legislation and oppressive Women's Committee Chair: Nancy Randolph, Executive Director: Kenneth N. and arbitrary procedures, Carstens. (2) to support their families and dependents, News Notes Editor: GeoffreyWisner, Contributorsforthislssue: KennethCarstens, (3) to keep the conscience of the world alive to the issues at stake. Peter Gomes, Julie Miller. Photos: UN, Presbyterian Survey.
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