WORK IN WIP65 • April 1990 500 DEAD: WHO SET THE FUSE? WORK IN PROGRESS AprlM990No65 ... ... EDITORIAL • -. •:• • .•••••• Published by the Southern African Research Service PO BOX 32176 Braamfonteln 2017 t is now clear that the price of each step on the path to democracy in South Africa will be high. South Africa . In addition lo the advance payment in thousands of lives and incalculable Lx, suffering in past years, more than 500 people have died in political strife this Auckland House Iyear - most of them since the legalisation of the African National Congress and other c/o Smlt and Blccard restricted organisations. Streets The ANC's insistence on retaining its capacity to wage an armed struggle and an Braamfonteln 2017 active commitment to mass action has led some to lay at its door responsibility for ihe Johannesburg current explosion of political violence. • • • • But any serious attempt to understand South Africa today and to plan for its tomorrow, Phone:(011)403-1912 must include an assessment of who benefits from the rising death-toll and associated Fax: (011)403-2534 political disruption. Clearly the toppling of Pretoria's bantustan fiefdoms opens windows of opportunity for the ANC and its allies. Equally clearly, conflicts within black communities and the resultant disruption of the ANC's nascent legal organisation does not. But there are other beneficiaries. And there is a growing body of evidence to suggest their actions have been consciously undertaken to achieve a political leverage beyond that to which their constituency support entitles them. But the awesome body-count and sometimes brutal manoeuvring for tactical advantage should not blind South Africans to the fact that their own efforts, coinciding with developments far beyond their borders, have presented them with a gift of history not often granted a nation. South Africa's final step towards democracy is being taken at a time of almost universal ideological fluidity. The steady replacement of calcified othodoxies is accompanied by growing international acceptance of the supremacy of the popular will. The value of this historic gift has, however, been obscured by the immediate political ••• • crisis. In a period that should be taken up with a national debate on the country's future, opposition leaders have been forced to divert most of their energies into the task of putting out political fires. Combined with the opposition's limited organisational capacity (a limitation it readily acknowledges) this has left the internal opposition leadership unable to capitalise on the liberation fervour unleashed by the freeing of Nelson Mandela. The addition of a handful of individuals, whatever their stature, to the domestic ' leadership of the democratic movement cannot make good the organisational stunting caused by years of repression. L Much of the tactical planning for the immediate future is thus still directed from ANC Picture credits structures abroad. Cover: Avigail Uzi, The broad objective of these tactical thrusts is essentially no different from those of thi Afraplx. internal leadership's 'fire-fighting': to maintain and strengthen a broad and coherent Afrapix: Pages 9,13, political movement to end apanheid; and head off efforts to weaken support for 17,20,21,32,33,35, democracy. 3a A key proposal from the ANC is the establishment of a broad front, with the ANC at Dynamic Images: its head, based on the minimum demand for the eradication of apartheid and its Page 17. replacement with a political democracy. International Such fronts can never function without tension and a degree of political contest. But Defence and Aid this is far removed from the kind of political tension which exacts lives. Fund: Page 4. Nevertheless, alliances must be approached with caution. There is a powerful popular Herbert Mabuza, resonance for the argument that there is little benefit from alliances with one-time The Star: Pages 6/7, oppressors whose instant conversions have more to do with self-interest than belated 11. Parade: Pages 23 discovery of the moral supremacy of democracy. and 24. There is a real danger that alliances based on short-term expediency can win weak The Star: Page 16. friends at the cost of alienating committed supporters at the grass-roots. Paul Weinberg, This is most graphically demonstrated in the bantustans, where expectations and Afraplx: Page 22. demands are integrally linked to the total destruction of the bantustan system itself. CONTENTS BRIEFS 2 Sayco eyes the ANC Moves on the LRA DP on privatisation War exiles look South NUM says no to racism CHALLENGE AND CARNAGE 6 Looking beyond the political death toll ^^^"* • CISKETS GQOZO 13 Pretoria's puppet or MDM's man? ALLIANCE POLITICS 16 ANC paths to broadening support DEMOCRACY TO THE FORE 18 Sachs on rights for whites NAMIBIA LOOKS TO LIFE 20 Development prospects and problems ZIMBABWE TEN YEARS ON 22 An election of vicious rhetoric UNIONS UNDER 'SOCIALISM' 24 A view from inside Zimbabwe LESSONS OF EASTERN EUROPE 27 Socialism and the democratic imperative THE WHITE RIGHT RE-ARMS 32 Does fiery rhetoric mean war? LIVING WAGE CAMPAIGN 35 Numsa's fight for a single deal LABOUR TRENDS 39 Strikes and disputes past, often loose, federal essential'. negotiations between the Sayco structure. But the result has been the democratic movement and But the recent formation of establishment of hundreds of Pretoria, attention will also eyes hundreds of local youth independent local youth focus on the issues of theANC congresses, particularly in the congresses and the 10 unemployment and socialism Northern Transvaal and the regions, each with its own - which Say co sees as Transkei, has added to the constitution and priorities, interlinked. he South African Youth uncertainty. and an extremely Ifhe organisation draws much Congress (Sayco) is cumbersome consultative of its support from T Already Sayco's biggest process. likely 10 seek a merger with regional affiliate, the unemployed youths, for the youth section of the Northern Transvaal Youth In the current, more open whom the idea of non-racial African National Congress in period, says Ntombela, a capitalism appears to offer as Congress has seen its few prospects fora job and a the wake of their first-ever membership almost double to more centralised and open national congress on streamlined structure is both decent life as apartheid has April 13-15. an estimated 200 Out) since desirable and possible. done. December - the growth of The objective of the merger Therefore, post-congress And while the congress will organisation fed by and formations such as Cayco will be the re-establishment feeding into the waveof rural reassert Sayco's primary of the ANC Youth League - (Cape) and Styco (Southern commitment to the possibly before the ANC's resistance, particularly in the Transvaal) will become attainment of popular national conference on 'homelands*. Sayco's Western Cape and political power and the December 16 - according to After the congress, officials Southern Transvaal regions. realisation of the demands of proposals to the Sayco Local youth congresses will the Freedom Charter, congress, at Kabokwene near become branches - the Ntombela acknowledges: Nclspruit and at which Soweto Youth Congress •'I he youth likes socialism, Nelson Mandela, deputy becoming Sayco's Soweto but we want to understand the ANC president and a former branch. recent developments in Youth League president Eastern Europe. We want to himself, is scheduled to be The streamlining and draw lessons from it. As the key-note speaker. centralisation will facilitate a people who are going to 'Members arc already merger with the ANC's youth inherit the future, we want to agitating for it', says Sayco section, adds Ntombela. inherit it fully armed to tackle publicity secretary Simon Sowillihe introduction of an the problems. Ntombela. 'We're being age limit of 35 on Sayco •We have asked (SACP pestered all the time by membership - in the past general secretary) Joe Slovo members asking "When are Sayco used the term 'youth' to give us an input on what wegoingtobeANC?'" more to describe a state of has brought about that Sayco is expectingupto40 Ntombela: Pestered over m ind than an actual age phenomenon (in Eastern ANC youth section the ANC bracket. 'I he age limit will Europe)*. representatives at its bring Sayco into line with the congress, as well as smaller will undertake the mammoth youth section. It is unlikely to An additional issue for the delegations from the ANC task of accurately have any immediate effect on congress will be the itself, the South African documenting Sayco's Sayco's leadership: president establishment of a non- Communist Party and membership. Peter Mokaba is 32 - giving sectarian federation of South Umkhonto weSizwe. At the same time, the him three clear years should African youth • a junior The small print of precisely organisation will be he choose to stand for the version of the anti-apartheid how Sayco will be restructuring. presidency again. alliance envisioned by the transformed into the ANC And whilea key debate in the ANC. This will include adding the congress will be on Youth League has not yet Transkei to Sayco's current 'Not all South African youth been resolved - it is a key 10 regions, and replacing share our political vision', issue given the ANC's Sayco's original federal says Ntombela, 'but we all insistence on direct, network with a centralised, faceacommon future. We individual membership, national organisation with a are. as a matter of urgency, rather than organisational single constitution. therefore going to be affiliation. But Sayco Launched in secret at the attempting to establish - with officials are confident it will height of state of emergency themembcrsof the Youth be (while acknowledging that repression in early 1987, the Summit (an alliance transforming the organisation loose federal structure was established in 1988 of Sayco, willbeamassivctask) given well suited to conditions at Nusas, Sansco and Cosas) as the sheer size of its the time, says Ntombela.