By Frank Noakes
JOHANNESBURG — Filling in for a physically exhausted Nelson Mandela, African National Congress chairperson Oliver Tambo addressed 900 delegates from five continents at an international solidarity conference here on February 19. "We meet in the land of apartheid to discuss what next we should do finally to end apartheid. We say you are here today because by your actions you have brought the system of apartheid to its knees. We can now say that victory is in sight."
The three-day conference: "From Apartheid to Peace, Democracy and Development", called by the ANC, registered a new stage in the struggle. The conference was briefed on the ANC's perspective for the transformation from apartheid to a democratic South Africa and discussed the international solidarity movement's role in this process.
"Within the next 12 months and hopefully before the end of this year, the people of South Africa — all the people of South Africa — will participate in a historic and watershed election which will mark our break with the past and the beginning of the process of transforming our country into a non-racial and non-sexist society.
"Out of that process will emerge a sovereign Constituent Assembly charged with the task of drawing up a democratic constitution. There will also be formed an Interim Government of National Unity incorporating parties that will have demonstrated that they have significant support", Tambo told delegates.
"But the ANC also bears on its shoulders the responsibility to liberate the oppressors — to liberate them from fear of democracy and the future, to free them from a guilt-driven fear of retribution and to dissuade from any foolhardy temptation to seek an ephemeral security by imprisoning themselves within an armed laager."
In addition to many veteran anti-apartheid activists, conference participants included sporting personalities such as world heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe and Russian chess player Anatoly Karpov, in South Africa to hold clinics to raise the standard of their respective sports. Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and the mayor of Amsterdam were among the host of political leaders present.
As ANC executive member Sydney Mufamadi said, the country was living through difficult times. "Never before have we faced such formidable problems as we face today, just as we have never had such unprecedented opportunities to resolve them."
By no means the least of South Africa's problems is violence — just one measure of which is the more than 40,000 murders committed in the last two years, 95% of which remain unsolved. Mufamadi complained that the portrayal of this violence was distorted by the media. "It is our contention that the violence problem is a manifestation of the Supporting evidence for this charge is as persuasive as it is massive. Yet as far as the other side is concerned, if it is not 'black-on-black violence', then it is political competition between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party which sometimes expresses itself in violent conflict.
The real problem, Mufamadi explained, came from past measures of the government: "In order to give the majority of our people, who are excluded from the organs of power, an illusion of participation, they created toy structures in the form of bantustan parliaments and governments. By doing so, they imposed illegitimate governmental structures on our people — structures run by people who develop a propensity to use violence to decimate popular organisation because they see popular organisation as posing a threat to their privileged positions."
Mufamadi spoke of 200 IFP members being trained by the army in the art of killing. "There is already evidence of systematic organising by elements within the security establishment, who have a nostalgia for the good old days of unfettered white rule. It is our estimation that as the process of transition reaches advanced levels, for instance, as we get close to the non-racial democratic elections, the more will those elements who are haunted by the spectre of electoral defeat, attempt to intensify violence."
Mufamadi stressed that the international community should initiate and intensify campaigns aimed at countering the South African government's deliberate distortions as to the nature of the violence. He called for the exposure and isolation of "parties that are trying to derail the process of transition to democracy".
The elections, which will most likely be held in early 1994, will mark a new stage in the transition to a new democratic South Africa; this was a major focus of the conference.
The international solidarity movement is encouraged, in the coming months, to raise aid for the election campaign, in which the ANC says it is critical that it does very well. ANC spokesperson Popo Molefe told Green Left Weekly that the elections are about ending apartheid: "It's about who should draw up the new constitution. The elections are the biggest campaign the ANC has ever undertaken."
The ANC is insisting on the establishment of a Transitional Executive Council, which will be in place before the first ever one-person-one-vote election. It will not govern the country; it will attempt to "level the playing field" by creating a climate conducive to free political activity and ensuring the elections are free and fair. The TEC will also assume control of all armed forces.
Molefe pointed out that the ANC, which was only unbanned in 1990, has no previous experience in running election campaigns, nor has the black population. In fact, the ANC has always campaigned against voting in elections to the apartheid regime's discredited "black homelands". The ruling National Party, by contrast, has been involved for years in white only elections and has money, experience and infrastructure, not to mention an experienced, literate and politicised electoral base.
Addressing the question of whether the ANC should declare itself a political party, something National Party spokespeople often raise, Molefe said that this was premature since the ANC had not yet achieved its goal of creating a non-racist, democratic South Africa. It was necessary to unite the broadest possible electorate to destroy apartheid and begin the process of reconstruction, he said.
The ANC is proposing that the new president, almost certain to be Nelson Mandela, have executive as well as ceremonial powers and be elected by the Constituent Assembly.
The ANC estimates that more than 130 million rand ($65 million) will be required to run its campaign. It is also appealing for material aid, such as: 108 IBM compatible 386SE desk-top computers; 94 fax machines; 52 cars; 70 TVs and video machines, through to 14 badge making machines.
The conference declaration agreed that a major priority must be to mobilise the international community to ensure that the electoral process is genuinely "free and fair", and confirmed the need for the maximum possible material and financial resources for the ANC's election campaign.
Aware of some confusion abroad caused by the issuing of apparently conflicting messages on sanctions, the ANC used the conference to spell out its position in the changing circumstances. It
recommends that, on the announcement of an agreed date for elections, and on the establishment of the Transitional Executive Council, as well as the enactment of the Transition to Democracy Act, sanctions affecting diplomatic relations, gold coins, trade and trade credits, new investment, loans and other financial links be lifted. In the meantime, international pressure through sanctions should remain.
The statement recommended that no representative of the white minority regime should be granted accreditation by any international organisation, this being a matter that will be resolved upon the election of the new interim government. Likewise, oil, arms and nuclear embargoes should remain in force until the democratic government has been installed.
But as Tambo noted in his opening speech, "As our task will not end with the election of a democratic government, so do we believe that your task will also not end at that point.
"We believe that we must stand together in creating the new South Africa. When our work is done, let all look at the new South Africa with hope and encouragement — hope and encouragement", Tambo said, " because she will have demonstrated that it is possible for people of different colours and different races and nationalities to live together in peace and friendship, sharing a common sense of nationhood and humanity". The final declaration stated: "In order to overcome apartheid's massive destruction and deprivation, the conference addressed the need to prepare for a major program of restructuring, reconstruction and development to achieve the vision of a new South Africa as enshrined in the Freedom Charter. All participants pledged to work together, through new forms of solidarity, to make this a reality."