Statement by Welile Nhlapo, Department of International Affairs, ANC at the meeting of the Special Committee on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Sharpeville Day)

21 March 1994

As we gather here today to mark one of the darkest episodes in South African history, the massacre in 1960 of unarmed men, women and children in Sharpeville, the people of Sharpeville, as, indeed, the people of South Africa as a whole, are in 1994 poised to usher in a democratic dispensation which will guarantee that there will be no more Sharpevilles.

On 26 April through 28 April, South Africa goes to the polls in its first-ever democratic elections. By this act, they will put the final nail in the coffin of apartheid and thus vindicate the countless sacrifices made by the people of that embattled country and people of conscience the world over.

Members of the Committee will no doubt have been following the developments in South Africa and will have realized that the democratization process which is under way has reached a critical stage. Despite the numerous difficulties, including the escalating political violence in certain parts of Natal and the East Rand, the forces of. democracy have scored important victories, including the following.

The Transitional Executive Council (TEC) and its sub-councils are firmly in place. There can be no doubt that no major political decision can be taken in South Africa without the involvement of the TEC. Even the sceptics have come to accept that the TEC is playing a central role in the country, whether in matters of national or international import.

The Independent Electoral Commission, which has the task of ensuring that elections are free and fair, is fully functional. To date it has registered 27 political parties, and it is already in the process of producing 80 million ballot papers. The work of establishing polling stations and conducting voter education programmes around the country is also in progress.

Both the Independent Media Commission and the Independent Broadcasting Authority, designed to ensure free media in the run-up to the elections, are in place. The election campaign is in full swing, as leaders of the various political parties criss-cross the country in search of votes. International observers representing intergovernmental organizations, including this very body, and individual Governments, as well as a host of non-governmental organizations, are streaming into the country in order to give their support to the process and to attest to the fairness or otherwise of the elections.

All these positive developments can be credited to the dedication of our people to democracy, as evidenced by the many sacrifices they have made over the years in defence of that ideal, as well as the patience they have exhibited during the protracted negotiations, during which over 50,000 people were killed as a result of the violence.

It must, however, be said that whatever progress has been made in the struggle for the elimination of apartheid, it could not have been made without the support of the international community, especially the United Nations. It is therefore appropriate at this solemn meeting, which in all probability will be the last of these solidarity gatherings to be held under the auspices of the United Nations, that we pause to place on record our heartfelt appreciation to the United Nations family.

In this regard, the Special Committee against Apartheid and the Centre against Apartheid deserve special mention. For more than 30 years these bodies have played a pivotal role in placing the issue of apartheid on the international agenda. Indeed, it can be said that a measure of the Special Committee`s success in carrying out its mandate is the extent to which the General Assembly has, since its adoption of the celebrated Declaration on Apartheid, increasingly adopted resolutions relating to South Africa by consensus. For this, the African National Congress and the people of South Africa are immensely indebted to the Committee and its Chairman, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who throughout this exercise displayed not only commitment to the cause, but also remarkable diplomatic skills.

During this last solemn meeting we should also like to pay tribute to the representatives of various Governments that have stayed the course, even under very difficult circumstances, in our struggle. In particular, we should like to single out the Ambassadors of the front-line States and the Ambassadors to the United Nations of the countries of the African Group for their unflinching support. To all of those mentioned, and many more, we should like to acknowledge that their support has brought us within reach of our common objective. We shall, however, appeal to them to continue to march with us as we seek to traverse the last mile. This is particularly pertinent, as events of the past weeks have demonstrated.

In our efforts finally to consign apartheid to the dump-hill of history, the battle has not yet been won. At the heart of the matter are two basic problems. First, there is the problem of those parties that have narrow constituencies and therefore a somewhat limited support base, both at local and national levels. Their fear, therefore, is that the electoral process will not return their members to Parliament in sufficient numbers to let them have any appreciable impact in the Parliament`s constitution-making function. The so-called Freedom Alliance was an amalgam of such political parties, whose main players included the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Conservative Party, the neo-Nazi Afrikaanse Weerstandsbeweging and the administrations of the so-called independent Bantustans of the Ciskei and Bophuthatswana.

The Freedom Alliance seemed to have been united by a common desire to ensure that the ANC and its allies did not emerge victorious in the forthcoming elections. It was not too long, however, before this strategy came unstuck. The civil servants in the Ciskei became restive about their future, given that under the interim constitution the so-called independent Bantustans would be reincorporated into South Africa. The leader of the Ciskei was forced to abandon the Freedom Alliance and join the negotiations and the Transitional Executive Council.

Bophuthatswana was faced with the same problem. Since the conflict in Bophuthatswana occurred in circumstances in which the Freedom Alliance had succeeded in getting those participating in negotiations to give concessions through amendment of the already agreed interim constitution, Mangope felt emboldened to defy the wishes of the people to participate in April elections. In so doing he overestimated the strength of the Freedom Alliance and underestimated the resolve of the people of South Africa to defend their right to vote. The rest is history, and Bophuthatswana as a political entity is no more.

The decision by General Viljoen to register the newly formed Freedom Front for the elections seriously undermined the cohesiveness of the Freedom Alliance. A serious threat to the elections nevertheless persists in the position taken by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Despite many attempts to address its concerns, including agreement to solve the outstanding constitutional differences, the IFP seems to be hell-bent on shifting the goal posts. The latest of the numerous concerns is the demand of the Zulu King, whose call for the restoration of the nineteenth-century borders of his domain must be met as a condition for IFP participation in the elections. Moreover, the IFP still insists that the elections be postponed. Clearly, these conditions are not in the least helpful, since there is no way they can be agreed to.

The second problem, which is related to the first, is that of political violence. This violence has caused great concern, first because of the sheer scale of human misery it has visited on the people of South Africa. To date, while there are no definitive figures, there is a general consensus that since the negotiation process started over 15,000 people have been killed, countless thousands maimed and many more rendered homeless. It is a matter of great concern that the number of casualties is much higher than was experienced during the days of extreme repression. The political violence is greatly perturbing for the additional reason that if it is not addressed effectively it may hamper the possibility of a free and fair election.

We should like to make a few observations about this violence. For many years the ANC has insisted that what the media have chosen to refer to as black-on-black violence is in fact political violence orchestrated with the involvement of some elements within the security forces. This assertion by the ANC has now been vindicated by the Goldstone Commission`s report implicating top generals of the South African police in the supply of weapons, through some leaders of Inkatha, to foment violence in the hostels in the Reef and in some parts of Natal. The spate of killings in trains and during funerals has also been traced to the activities of this third force. The international community must continue to monitor, in particular, the activities of these elements attempting to undermine the democratization process now unfolding in our country. On our part, we will ensure that these criminals are brought to book and that their plans to subvert the process are halted. We continue, therefore, to attach great importance to the National Peace Accord as an important instrument for peace.

Despite all this, we believe that it is not too late to remove some of the outstanding obstacles in the way of free and fair elections. In this regard, we need to place on record that the elections will indeed take place as agreed and in all parts of South Africa. This is a challenge the people of South Africa will have to face. This resolve will indeed be strengthened through concrete measures of assistance from the international community, principal, among which are the following: increasing the numbers of observers and monitors, this to include support by Governments or non-governmental organizations in their countries to reinforce this much-needed presence of the international community before, during and after the elections themselves; supporting the voter-education campaign to reach, in particular, millions of our people in the remote rural areas, who, like many in urban centres, will be participating for the first time in voting for a government of their choice, thus shaping their own destiny; and continuing to render moral, political and material assistance to those who are charged by history with the enormous task of bringing democracy to South Africa. All these measures will guarantee what this Committee has all these years been seized of: the demise of the apartheid system.

We cannot conclude without expressing our firm solidarity with all those who are fighting for liberation throughout the world. In this regard, we should like to convey our greetings to the people of Palestine, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It is our firm wish that all the obstacles to a resumption of negotiations will be addressed and that negotiations will indeed resume, resulting, in the end, in the enjoyment by the Palestinian people of their inalienable right to independence. We, on our part, pledge to do all in our power to ensure the birth of a non-racial and democratic South Africa.