By Norm Dixon
South Africans in their millions have shown beyond doubt that the African National Congress and its allies continue to command the support of the overwhelming majority. Their enthusiastic participation in last week's two-day general strike — the largest political mobilisation in South Africa's history — and the huge marches and militant occupations of government buildings that followed on August 5, have underscored their determination to fight to achieve the end of apartheid.
Pallo Jordan, a member of the ANC National Working Committee and head of the organisation's information department, speaking from Johannesburg, told Green Left Weekly that support for the strike call was beyond even the ANC's expectations: "If you take into consideration the actions of people in the rural areas, then something in the vicinity of 5 million workers have been involved in this action."
Millions more students boycotted their classes. Even in predominantly white areas, department stores were closed. The city centres were quiet. The stay-away was strongest in the heavily industrialised Johannesburg-Pretoria area and the eastern Cape, where tens of thousands took to the streets of Port Elizabeth on the first day of the strike in one of the largest protests in years.
The scene in Soweto was like a peaceful Sunday afternoon. Trains and buses ran empty as over 90% of the urban work force stayed home or gathered at protest rallies. Taxi owner-drivers joined the strike in solidarity with their passengers. By all accounts an even greater number of workers heeded the strike call on the second day.
In Natal, the province that borders the KwaZulu bantustan which is ruled by Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the predominantly Zulu population defied Inkatha's demand that workers ignore the strike. At least 80% risked the violent retribution of anti-strike Inkatha thugs by joining the action.
Similarly brushed aside by the human wave of strikers was the call to disregard the general strike by sections of the liberation movement opposed to the ANC's participation in negotiations — the most significant being the Pan Africanist Congress, the black consciousness National Council of Trade Unions and the Azanian People's Organisation.
'Mandela's referendum'
The white government, business spokespeople, pro-government press "commentators", unnamed "political observers" and "analysts", and the many foreign correspondents who seem to gather their news by rehashing South African Broadcasting Corporation telecasts were all badly caught out by the success of the strike. Convinced by their own disinformation that the strike would fail badly, they dubbed it "Mandela's referendum".
ANC general secretary Cyril Ramaphosa accepted that description with delight and pointed out that a far greater percentage of blacks took part in the strike than did whites in de Klerk's March referendum. He added that a greater percentage of blacks supported the ANC than did whites support the National Party. "This is a message for de Klerk", he said. "The vast majority of South Africans pronounced their unmistakable no to the attempts by de Klerk and his colleagues to delay the birth of a democratic South Africa."
Confronted with the obvious success of the strike, government spokespeople and the pro-government
press focussed on so-called "strike-related violence".
Pallo Jordan explained to Green Left Weekly: "What the South African government, and especially the SA Broadcasting Corporation and some pro-government newspapers, have done is to take the generally high levels of violence and criminal activity in our country, and lump those incidents together as if they all resulted from the campaign for freedom and democracy". They hoped this would "create the impression of general and very severe intimidation and political violence.
"The truth is, if you really analyse those incidents, very few of them had anything to do with this campaign. There was a concerted effort to spread disinformation ... What is remarkable is that 4
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55D> million people, at least, participated in [the general strike] and hundreds of thousands of people participated in the marches throughout our country in a peaceful way. No organisation has the power to bring such large numbers of people into the streets through intimidation. Their participation was the result of a commitment to peace and democracy."
Government violence
Levels of political violence during the strike were no greater than usual in a country that has had 7000 killings over the last two years. Most of the violence that did occur was directed against the protesters by the regime and its allies. On the eve of the strike, Pretoria deployed 5000 extra police and troops, a move that the ANC denounced as "sheer intimidation designed to create an atmosphere of tension and allow the police to get involved in repressive activity".
In Johannesburg, three people were shot dead by police. Inkatha gunmen killed three mourners at a funeral in Heidleberg, near Johannesburg. In
Alexandra, residents accused police of helping Inkatha supporters to murder six ANC supporters, and a British camera crew was fired on by snipers holed up in a Inkatha-controlled hostel. Police also shot a man dead in Cape Town.
In Natal, 10 ANC supporters were massacred in an incident almost totally ignored by the press outside South Africa. According to residents, 15 gunmen walked from house to house killing anyone they could find. The youngest victim was a 20-month-old baby who died in her mother's arms. A man and a woman were killed as they sat talking in a car. The ANC suspect the involvement of the KwaZulu police controlled by Inkatha leader Buthelezi. The day before, a rally was held to protest against police behaviour in the area.
On the second day of the strike, a senior ANC and Communist Party leader in Natal, Harry Gwala, narrowly escaped injury when a group of gunmen arrived at a protest march and opened fire.
Mass campaign
The general strike was the high point in a campaign of mass action to force the de Klerk regime to concede genuine non-racial democracy. The ANC had suspended its participation in CODESA (Convention for a Democratic South Africa — an all-party forum charged with formulating ground rules for future constitutional negotiations) in May after the National Party refused to budge on its demand that a 75% majority in the projected constituent assembly must approve key clauses of any new constitution.
The regime's terrorist surrogates, Inkatha, aided by the security forces, replied to the launch of mass action with the terrible massacre at Boipatong on June 17. A seething ANC leadership withdrew from CODESA and issued a list of 14 demands to be met by the regime before talks could again resume.
"Those 14 demands can be summarised under two main headings", Pallo Jordan told Green Left Weekly. "One is that the government has to take adequate action to curb the violence with the power at its disposal ... Secondly, the government must accept in a full and unambiguous fashion the need for a speedy introduction of an interim government and then a properly elected constituent assembly to draft a constitution for a full democratic dispensation in South Africa ... Until those demands have been clearly met by the government, we will not return to negotiations."
The campaign of mass action was launched on June 16 as hundreds of thousands of people rallied to commemorate South African Youth Day. The decision to step up mass protest followed criticism from within the ranks of the ANC and its allies, the COSATU and South African Communist Party. Many activists felt that mass mobilisation was being neglected, thus weakening the ANC at the negotiating table. An ANC policy conference in May voted to remedy this situation.
On July 13, 10,000 demonstrators marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria as warm-up protest for the general strike. On July 15, government buildings, including police stations and courts, were occupied throughout the country. Members of the ANC Women's League organised "till-jams" by blocking supermarket checkouts with unpaid-for groceries.
The ANC further proved its support on August 5 with huge city and town occupations across the country. Pretoria, the citadel of white power, was engulfed by wave after wave of black demonstrators. The turnout was greatly underestimated by the press, Pallo Jordan told Green Left Weekly. The Pretoria march was 150,000 strong, he said. In Cape Town, 40,000 marchers took two hours to converge on the city centre. At least 60,000 demonstrated in Johannesburg.
"All South Africans, black and white, have struck a blow for peace and democracy", Nelson Mandela told the Pretoria throng. "The campaign for peace and democracy must become a tidal wave which will thrust our country into a future where justice prevails, peace is assured and democracy becomes a way of life."