THE NEWSPAPER OF THE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1992 40p THE NEWSPAPER OF THE ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1992 40p ANC says mass action for peace and democracy will continue Talks stalled: regime must act ELECTIONS IN ANGOLA Page .11 Dly a~d dM e-s When the ANC pulled out of fonnal talka inJune, it presented 14 demands to De Klerk (see page 3 for details). Two months lter, the ,eatity confn its leaders was that soaly u few of theseldhbeen adfi ebythe regitne. Pin-poInting the uac ceptahe vagens of re~e -assabce thatteps ., ttcsi h viölence ae 'te.eing f-rtser attenation, the ANC ttitted the government for deay and douhie-speak'. bing the violence The NEC highlghted three prtia meaue s to cub fe violence that still ewait govemmenit action:, * steps to prevent notorious hostels heing used as bases6fr attacks agaist colnanities: b the need for a complete cotrywide har n the pblic itplay ofweapons; and b conilnement to hateacks of special forces Underinsg the ANC s deep a~xieties over the con -ging violence, twoANCIbusch chaäpersons in soutfier Natal ,wee asassmated dthigthhtreedys when the NEC was aeeting. Althoughconsite àlytaltain up the prospeets for a swift resunption of segtons, the tegise clearly ant~5 ipated the ANC's refusal to return to the tahle, and had cat1ed a fojnd ,f its Bantustailies for the secod week of Septenmhec to dtscuss the cosotttional aspects of regtonatst and fede its. But if this was Latended to signal to the ANC that it woold forge ahedin shapingthefure without the ANCitwasahollow threi. For as British foreign secretay Douglas Hund ack.nowledged on hidepatuefrom South Afnca There can he no successful conclusions without the hivolvenent of the AC.' 'No solotion couldbe reachéd bythe ,g ernment alone. Mr Hund said that the EC ~o61k send 11 ohoervers Lo cno pement the teIt tnltal 50 an he experts to heef ap the GoldstoneCommsot' ~~Ivestiative role. ~ intodem~o=lcy Reaffirming it sconnitent to a negotiated seoletstnt, the ANC ulso puhished proposalsfot the transtion to detiocracy. It calls foruastngle chamber 409-memter intertst legislature, democeat tcalty eleted by proportioal representation, 'to Joble as Constituent A9seni and l amaking parliament tifa ore constitution kad not emerged within nine tsonttts, fresh elections would be called This connasts with the regie's insistence that ,the transitional ar~angettenta stay in place for at least three years, la aresks ~ioenoit1esnd the AN noted that. In its cotmtaticati , the * rne has ro-fin tly uacuepti the tdea oTt d~emoamc Co,stituent A-Ltsly tt atu irthcated is support for he foloreisg priciples with regard to a Constituent Assembly, toastiety that it must: I b, temocaticUy ected; b draft and adopt ihe new cnns.ttttton (lnplytng tlhat i, ttoold st as a sitgle cratber); * hr hound onlY y agrend coitutiosal pineiples; * have an agreed time futor, * have agreed adequate deadlock-breaking tmeclanisms: 6 function democratically, Le arrive at is decisions democeatically with ce~tain ageed maorities: Shrelectedithinanagreedpe ,dtimepeiod.' 1tis not, vet dear whether agteement has been reached on the ,exed uestion of ehat a-nel.nlhood be neeted fot the Ns tr aedecisions M9ttrtheANtpulott,theregise andicateat that it rotid not stick nitsdemasndfora75%.majority. 1, ANC, rhich had fBot pmposd 66% an then movend to 70% in a vain -earch foe a nompronse, reverted to ts original positonafeeciticismof the,70 offer as too Hga concesson. ~7 SPECIAL TRADE UNION ISSUE PageS F, ME Mi BER S' NEWS1ETTER 2 ANTI-APARTHEID NEWS 0 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1992 MoonnbicaYrigtninlsestulfal U Top govensment pthologi,( Drjonauhan Glau shatwce hit the news for exposing an alarming level ofdeaths amongst People in police uslotly. in July, after long but fnidess efforts to get some respose from Police Conmissoner Joa. van dee Merwe and President De Klerk, the formnerchairof the SA Medical andDental Council publshed his findings that at least 90% of the 200 corpses he exanined (of persons who died in custody) had been killed by police. In August he went public again, charging ithe police witha 3-4 fold increae in the deathrate and crtng 15 cases of death in custody since his prevtous disclosure. 0 Six senior oflI o ths internattona ment the ChinesConsnistParyvisited Sooth Africa in Jily as guests of the SA Conunit Paty. Suth Africa is reported tobe se ing cars in China and a quasidiplomatic South African 'inter estsoffic e' wasopened inleing in March. N Som 200,00ol-300,o00woien seek illegal abortions in South Africa each year. Baragwanath Hospital, adjoining Soweto, admits 15,000 women annually with infections caused by such abortions The issue is causing greatconcernwithin the ranks of the ANC, butithasnotyetworked out a policy on abortion. Nuclear ins This month "the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) takes place again in Austria, and South Africa is likely to feature. Abdul Minty reports. .pectlons SADF units 'disbanded' WIDESPREAD protests about the role of certain South African Defence Force (SADF) special * units in the violence, and edence of their involvement in abusesagainst theAficanivilian population, have forced the De Kerk regirre to announce the 'disbandment' ofboth 31 and 32 Battalions. The latter, known as the Egypt wchtook SA'splace after BuffaloBattalion, andcomposed it was forced out of the IAEA by largely of Angolans, was used by anti-apartheid campaigns, the SADFinAngola andNamibia. Serious questions remain Also due to be disbanded is unanswered.Whathashappened the Konvoet (crowbar) Unit, a to all the apartheid bombs ? Are thuggish paramilitary force that any still stored in South Africa ? was used mainly in Namibia and Have some or all been handed was ostensibly disbanded in over to one or more of Pretoria's 1989/90. UClearalliesIWhohelpedSouth But in June the Goldstone Afca overalmostthreedecades, Commission, as the course of to obtain vital nuclear and other investigating the Boipatong technology from abroad? Which massacre, found that a unitofexcountries and compatues were Koevoetsandtheirarmshadbeen involved in helping to build its based on a coal-mine near nuclear weapons capablity ? Witbank. The implications of a So committed are the major possible link with the massacre powersto'rewarding'De Kierk'$ compelled Pretoa to do somereforms that these questions are thing to defuse criticism. unlikelytobeaddrse. Instead, All three units were an this month's conference may see integral part of the South African a serious attempt ist to reinstate security forces, and their disSouth Africa as a maor 'nuclear' bandment seems likely to entail member a(S then to set about the redeployment of their perrelaxing all nuclear sactions, sonnel to other units. Since these If tl i toIe avoided it -l will remain integrated in De requir vigilant and determined Klerk's security apparatus, theaction. 'disbandmentofthesenotorious * Dictrepresentat,- tld and widely-loathed units will h mak adnal govem.ei i make lite practical difference Inast tO Batalions31and32have nrit ' been stationed in the easter pnsanent representive, Mr Transvaal near the border with G E Clark CMG, 1AEA, Jaures- Mozambique.Mediafa, alMaputo gase 12, 1030 Vienna. Austia. publication, claims that those of Mozambicain orgnin the Buffao batahon are being inmtgratcd with Renmo. Meanwhile the president of the ANC's Border region, Slmuko Siokupa, has charged that Pretora is integraing emembec of these two hattalions, and exKoevoets, into the army of beleaguered bantustan chief Brigadier Gqoco, boss of the Ciskei 'homeland', Agent sacked IN JULY, the Independenit published a sensational front-page story detailing how two SADF secret agentsoperating in Britai had embroiled Ulster loyalist paramilitaries in a plan to assassinate Captain Dirk Coetaee. Coetee, theformerfhit-squad operative who defected and sought refuge in the ranks of the ANC, now lives in London tinder Special Branch protection. British intelligence got wind of the plan, apprehended the agents, and quietly returned them to South Africa, thereby avoiding a political row that would have embarassedJohn Major as much as F W de Merk. ' Now one of the agents, Leon Flores, has been sacked by the SADF for acting without authority. The other agent, Captain Pamela do Randt, has apparently been cleared. Questions raised by the AAM about the affair, including whether the pait were ever sent to the Crow Prosecution Services, remain unanswered by the British government. n South Africa Electoral arithmetic ELECTION talk is in the air in South Africa. Although no agreement is yet in sight on when and how a Constituent Assembly will be established, the main contestants mn any future election based on the principle of oneperson one-vote, are already preparing for it. The ANC has drafted two of the weightiest figures of the exUDF leadership into an elections committee - Popo Molefe and Patrick 'Terror' Lekota. The latter was previously attached to the ANC's intelligence department A programme of training 4,000 activists in 'basicvotereducation' has also been launched. The ruling National Party, which in June launched its election campaign, is desperately searching for ways of attracting at least 4 million black voters to add to the great majority of the 3.2 million wite voters it expects to support it. This would give it about 40% of a 15 million-strong electorate. But an ofbical of the Home Affairs Dept. has conceded that there could be about 17 million eligible to vote, evenwithoutthe reincorporation of the four 'independent' Bantustanswhich would bring the total to more than twenty million voters. This is the contest in which De Klerk chose to bringtse Codesa 1 talks lastMay to a halt by insisting that decisions be taken by 75% of elected representatives - a position he has since reportedly dropped. Meanwhile, with typical unawareness of the irony of its actions, the regime has launched the prisons department on a crash programme using convicts to build voting booths and make ballot boxes.