April 15 , 1994 -- Countdown To Democracy: 12 Days To Go!

CAMPAIGN UPDATE #3

STOP PRESS! A Project of The Africa Fund

International Mediation Fails To End Buthelezi Election Boycott

As Election Watch Update went to press a high level team of international mediators , headed by Henry Kissinger and former British Foreign Secretary Lord David Carrington , failed to persuade Kwazulu bantustan chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to end his election boycott. Despite limited deployment of the South African army in KwaZulu to protect voters from boycott violence, over 200 KwaZu1u residents have been murdered over the past two weeks. Failure of the last-ditch mediation effort sets the stage for massive violence by Buthelezi supporters in the days ahead.

Petitions Delivered -- On April 4 Africa Fund Trustees Chair Dr. Tilden LeMelle, Executive Director Jennifer Davis and national NAACP representative Clifford Collins delivered thousands of signatures on Election Watch petitions to the Clinton Administration. The petitions, from 35 states, called on Washington to speak out more forcefully against election violence and fraud. The delegation met with a high level Administration group headed by senior State Department official Ambassador April Glaspie.

Election Watch Coordinator in South Africa -- Election Watch Campaign coordinator Dumisani Kumalo arrived in South Africa this week as part of The Africa Fund election monitoring team. Dumisani's first report to the Election Watch network is enclosed . Both he and Africa Fund Executive Director Jennifer Davis will be reporting from South Africa next week.

ELECTION DAY EVENTS

In communities throughout the U.S. concerned citizens are preparing to mark South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. Below are just a few of the activities planned:

Chicago -- The Division for Global Mission and the Southern Africa Network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have declared Sunday April 24 a day of prayer for free and fair elections in South Africa. Contact Joan Gerig for information: (312) 421-5513 .

San Francisco Bay Area-- The U.S. -South Africa Sister Community Project, the Berkeley ­Oukasie Sister Community Project and the San Francisco - Mfengu Sister Community Project have arranged with progressive local businesses to donate a portion of proceeds from sales on April 27 to the sister community projects. Call (510) 601-7635 for more information.

Los Angeles -- A coalition of religious , community and civil rights organizations are hosting a series of events in the Los Angeles area under the banner "The Power of the Vote . .. From Soweto To South Central." Beginning on South Africa Sunday, April 24 , the Countdown To Freedom Coalition will sponsor community events through April 30. Contact Norma Foster (213) 655-1551 or Estella Holeman (213) 732-6542 for more information .

Newark, New Jersey -- The Presbytery of Newark is conducting ten days of special prayers for South Africa's elections beginning Sunday April 17. Contact Rev. Alfred B. Johnson at (201) 372-8404.

198 Broadway

New York , NY 10038 Tel : 212.962.1210 (over)

Washington, DC -- The Southern Africa Educational Campaign will sponsor a national press conference in Washington on April 25 to press for continued U.S. support for post-apartheid reconstruction and development. Contact Mike Kiernan at InterAction (202) 667-8227.

New York City-- The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture is sponsoring a series of educational and community programs to highlight South African democracy and links between Africa and African-Americans. Call the Center at (212) 491-2200.

Let us know about election day events in your community for the next Campaign Update.

SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTION WATCH CAMPAIGN MATERIALS

-:-:---,::Vot;ing in t:he Shadow of Apartheid - Quest;ions and .Ansti"ers on t:he Sout:h African E~ect;ion by Elizabeth Landis. 4 pages. The author, an international lawyer who worked on the elections in Namibia, analyzes the threats to free and fair elections. Price: 35 cents each. Over twenty, 20 cents each.

=---=-_The St;rugg~e Cont;inues: Sout:h African Women and t:he Vot;e by Rachel Kagen and Lisa Lippman. 4 pages. A review of the crucial role played by women. Price: 35 cents each. Over twenty, 20 cents each.

Sout:h African E~ect;ion Wat;ch BUTTON. Three colors. Includes the =---Free the Vote logo on this letterhead. Price $1.00 each. Ten or more 75 cents each. Fifty or more 60 cents each. One hundred or more 50 cents each.

=----.-·A Person~ Appe~ by Ne~son lfande~a VIDEO. 14 minutes. ANC President Nelson Mandela makes a personal appeal to the international community to support the elections in South Africa. Price: $10.00.

Please indicate the quantity desired on the line before item. Add 15% postage and handling. (Foreign postage extra.)

Enclose is $ towards costs of being a Sout;h African E~ect;ion Wat;cher.

$ for materials marked above

$ for 15% postage and handling

$ Total enclosed.

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Address ---------------------------------------------------Organization -----------------------------------------------city _______________________ state _________ Zip ____________ _

A Letter from Johannesburg ... From Dumisani s. Kumalo

Date: April 14, 1994

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER HOPE CRUSHED ...

I should have known better. But sometimes hope can spring eternal, and that in South Africa these days is very dangerous. When I arrived in Johannesburg last Tuesday, I brought more than my luggage which is supposed to last me for a month. I came bearing gifts for my family and hope in my heart. But as I said, the gifts are fine, but hope is a dangerous thing to have in South Africa. These days, the most favorite "emotional sport" here seems to be crushing people's hopes. Mine were no exception.

I felt the impact deep down in my bones less than an hour ago after listening to a radio report on a press conference held at the Carlton Hotel. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, Lord Carrington, Britain's former Foreign Minister, Judge Leon Higginbotham, retired u.s. Federal Judge, and four other international jurists announced that they were packing their bags and leaving for their countries because the mediation talks between the African National Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party and the ruling Nationalist Party had collapsed before they started.

I don't know whether it is because Kissinger came on the same plane with me. Or that Judge Higginbotham is such a powerful and nice man who once took about an hour from his judicial duties to talk to my son about becoming a lawyer for the poor people. Whatever it was, the arrival of these men and women gave me hope that something was going to happen.

At the same time, I knew that no serious negotiation could happen in such a short time. In fact, a few weeks ago when I was in South Africa with Bill Lynch, former Deputy Mayor of New York, we spent an afternoon with Walter Sisulu, Deputy President of the ANC, and one of South Africa's wise old men. This was before the mediators had been even named.

Mr. Sisulu told us then that the mediation was doomed to fail. "The problem is that Chief Buthelezi does not want an election to take place. He is against democracy. His role is that of a spoiler. This whole mediation tactic which he has proposed is yet another attempt by him to stop the election. I think the ANC should not have agreed to join in this mediation. However, I understand the need for us to be open as possible to any kind of dialogue. The only thing is that we can't change the date of the election. We can't allow that to happen. The election is the last hope people have and we will keep it," said Mr. Sisulu.

Kissinger and the other mediators said they were giving up on the mediation because Chief Buthelezi wanted them to mediate on the date of the election. "The date of the election is an internal South African matter. No one can expect us seven foreigners to come and mediate on this date," said Kissinger on behalf of the mediators.

Nelson Mandela agreed, saying, "The date of the elections is sacrosanct."

Even State President F.W. de Klerk was firm. "The changing of the date of the election will not serve the interest of South Africans, including those in Kwazulu/Natal," he said.

Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of Inkhatha said that if the date could not be on the agenda for mediation, there was no point in meeting.

Once again, the hopes of millions of South Africans, Black and white, Zulus and non-Zulus, crashed.

I think I know why my hopes were hurt in spite of my knowing better.

After fourteen years of exile in the u.s., I returned to South Africa for the first time nine days after Mandela was released. It was the most hopeful time e~er known in South Africa. Since then I have returned many times. Each time I've stayed at the same hotel in Johannesburg and got to know the staff, including the cooks, cleaners and other workers.

Whenever I carne back, I always asked these people if they were ready for a "new South Africa," said here tongue-in-cheek since everyone knows the old South Africa is still alive and kicking, albeit with a fainter punch. These people were always up and hopeful. This time, however, there was a tinge of fear and sadness in everybody. "We are ready to vote for our leader Mandela, but we don't know about Buthelezi," they said unanimously.

Last night, I carne across Rev. Sipho Mzirnela, one of Chief Buthelezi's advisers during the non-mediation meetings. As expected he was pessimistic. In fact, he was very angry. "I don't know what the ANC is thinking. They think they can hold this election without us. We won't allow that to happen." Mzirnela said angrily.

I tried to joke about me being hopeful that an agreement may be reached so that I can return t0 run for public office in Johannesburg. In a sarcastic and angry tone, Rev. Mzirnela quipped, "That is if there is still a Johannesburg left ... "

One thing I know is that there are 22 million voters ready to go to the polls against all odds on April 27. I know that nothing will stop these people from casting their vote. And there lies my next hope ...

A Project of The Africa Fund

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Army treads warily into KwaZulu

flash points By Alec Rus~QII lll,>KwaMashu township

THE South African army As an initial column of 10 took 11 softly·!loitly appr(lach armoured vehiclee moved as it began d.;ploying yester· into Nata] . front the neigh. day in Natai·Kwa7,ulu t\nd~r bouring Transvaal province the state of em~rgency yesterday, senior police, it~lposed·on Thursday. arn1y and KwaZ•.1h.1 police

Just a few hund:rc:d sol· officers met in Durban to dis· dien were sent to trouble cuss strategy. spots. but a full-scale deplOf· A key item on the agenda 1\l~nt .will take place th1s was the future position of the w~ekend . KwaZulu police, who have

Natal tvas relatively calnt, been implicated in hit·squad hut at the fla:>ht:•Oints assassinations of ANC b.:tween foiiO\v~rs of the memb~rs. African National Congress Mr Nelson Mandela, tht and th'l ~ainly-Zulu Inl-:atha ANC leader, said on Thursday fHt~dom Party, there was .1 police should be tonfined to feelin: that it was the lull bamJcks, but anny command· before the storm: en at~ beli~v~d to be keen to ·, The government .l)ublished secure theit to.operatlon to details of the wide-ranging avoid confrontation. powers that will allow the In th~ <ia~·s of anti-apart· ~scurity forces unrestricted belt:\ protnsts, states of emer· ac:c~ss to all buildings anrJ gency were followed by an gi\'e theu1 the richt to detain irnmediAte cracl<.d·)wn, with suspects for up to 30 days , many areas of unre$t being • Anyone "who cor,stitutes a sealed off while the security thre~t to public order" can forces crushed dissent. I)'~ arrested without ll But a governroE'nt source warrant. said yesterday th~re was a ·· The tenns are less draco· deliberate policy to start in a nian than those approved ''minimalist way" to give a during the continuous £tate chance :ror dialogut \Vlth of emergency in the late Zulu I<.lng Goodwill Zw~Uth· 1980s. in I ~nd his ally, the· lnkatha

But Inkatha ~upportF.r' lea'der Chief Manr:osuthu will see some of the terms, B•1thele1i. such as those authorising the The source 1 said the anest of people bearing "tra· · eovirnment '"anted to e~void ditional weapons", as eonfro~tation and hoptd that provocative. the stat& of emergency would

In tne past three years the encouraee Ci'llef Sutbel~:ci to carrying of spears, axes, pan· adopt a leu belligerent tas (machetes) and l<nobker- stan~~. rie:~ (clubs) has becomt stan· But a .manpower sMrtase dard practice at political was another possibl~ reason marches ot both groups, but for yesterday's slow start. especially by supporters of Tbere were widespread [nkaUHt, which nurhlrts reports last week that the U~ks with the past. army had had a poor res·

A key test of the security ponu to its call-up of forces' detArmlnatt' ... 0 will be reserve• for the elections

" u frQm April .26 to 28. ' whnh~r they attempt to Military linalyste uy that, enforce the clause. u its present stren.th;' tht'!

The other controversial aN'ny cannot deploy all over clause allows for. the closure Natal and Kw11'-.ulu. of paramilitary training c·amps. This clearly targets the Mlaba camp in Mrtbern Natal. futlded by the Kwa· Zulu ctovernment for lnkatha supporters.

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PAN AFRICANIST CONGRESS OF AlANIA

SPORTS ORGANISATION FOR COllECTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS AND EQUAL RIGHTS

THE KEEP IT STRAIGHT ANU SIMPLE PARTY

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Oweb1 uphawu , ,Udu lenl eti,edul c. kw•nht11n&:~no oylkh• thayo .

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XIMOKO PROGRESSIVE PARll

AFRICA MUSLIM PARTY

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Presented by the Voter Education Programme of the lnclepenclent Electoral Commission. "'"'-~;:

NEW YORK NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 1994

A Project of The Africa Fund

Kissinger: . Wrong Mal} for the Job T HE CHOICE of Hemy Kissinger to negotiate

the impasse between the two warring black factions in South Africa recalls nothing so

much as the fox guarding the hen house. Nothing in their bloody 10-year civil strife has pre­

pared African National Congress President Nelson Mandela and Inkatha ChiefMangosuthu Buthelezi for the Great One. News of the assignment last week sent the right-wing Sunday Telegraph soaring with a recol­lection of the long-dormant Kissinger as "The Grand Thaumaturge who once ceaselessly circled the world . . . promoting spurious peace arrangements."

The former secretary of state was invited in as me­diator, along with Lord Carrington and Paul Kerven­horster, a German political scientist, by both the ANC and Inkatha. The gesture was intended, sources say, to appease Buthelezi's push for an international~ to mediate his threatened boycott of the election. Should internal negotiations defuse the constitution­al crisis, Kissinger and his international team may

,nev~r swing into action. . . . ~ As-a foreign policy executor m the 1970s, Kissinger had a 'dual and contradictory relationship with sub­Sahara Africa. With President Gerald Ford, he set about to undo the very U.S. policy he had championed as Richard Nixon's national security adviser. In his biography, "Kissinger," Walter Isaacson wrote: "This chameleon-like ability to embrace views that first seemed alien to him testifies to his cleverness."

Duplicitous, not clever, was how African l~~rs perceived Kissinger during his 1976 shuttle VISits. They accused him of saying one thing to the president of Kenya and the opposite to, say, the president of Tanzania They also sensed in the Great One a conde­scension, tinged with racism.

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He reportedly spiked his lectures to Tanzania President Julius Nyerere, one of the world's foremost statesmen, with references to Shakespeare. In time, Nyerere let the Eurocentric professor in on the fact that he himself, was a Shakespearean scholar. He had tr~lated the "Merchant ofVenice" and other of the bard's works into Swahili.

Kissinger's chief contribution to African policy stems from his 1969 recommendation in the notori­ous National Security Study Memorandum 39. Dubbed the "Tar Baby option," this hypocritical policy, which Nixon approved, urged support for apartheid Rhodesia and South Africa because "the whites are here to stay and the only way that con­structive change can come about is through them . . . We woul<i mamtain public opposition to racial repression but relax political isolation and economic restrictions on the white [minority-ruled] states."

While serving as architect of U.S. policy toward M­rica, Kissinger, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, gave every indication that he held personal notions of white supremacy. He, Alexander Haig and their boss, Nixon, according to Hersh's biography of Kissinger, "The Price of Pow­er," operated a national security locker room where racist epithets were the rule.

"Kissinger repeatedly made clear his lack of respect for the intelligence of blacks," Hersh wrote. "When the State Department appointed C. Clyde Ferguson, a black law professor from Rutgers University, special relief coordinator during the Nigerian civil war, Kis­singer asked fatuously, 'Do you think he'll under­stand the cables?' "

Another preoccupation of the Great One seemed to have been odor. "Hemy can't stand the smell [of blacks]," Alexander Haig was quoted by Hersh as say­ing. And, reported Hersh, Kissinger confirmed the notion in a discussion with Sen. J. William Fulbright prior to a dinner with African ambassadors: ''I wonder what the dinning room is going to smell like?"

Throughout the Nigerian civil war, Kissinger maintained in his tight intelligence circles that the lbos were necessarily less "gifted and accomplished" because they were more "NeW,oid" than the other, more "Semitic," tribes of Nigeria.

In mediating the South African impasse, determin­ing the relative "Negroid" quotient df lnkatha mem­bers vs. Mandela supporters may well be Kissinger's first official act. ·

'IHE GUARDIAN Saturday April 9 1994 ----~---:--~·--- ~

Crisis grows as talks stall onKwaZulu

wall standing by h~ nepht~w, O•vld S.(a$1(Jrd In lltubza Chief Buthelezi, in his ref'nsal

to Uke p3rt in the April ~7

THE political crisis in election. South Mica over the The chltf later told the sunl· future of KwaZulu and mit m~ting in a t~repared mem· Nat~\ deepened last otandum. that argurnentll that

night after Che country'& main his .Jnkathll organlsatiolt did political leader$ falled to make not enjoy sientncant pop,u!ar uignincant progress at an emer· suppOrt. were "dangE:rouJ; •. In· gency sununit, ka.tha's c:rttic~ would hav~ to

The African National Con· fa~e the truth th.at "resistance ~ess leader. Nebon Mandela, is a far moro effective arbiter of and President F. W. de Klerk who is right and WhO is wrong emerged fr"m thdr daY· long than tl\e ball(lt box". n1eeting with the Zulu king, A key elemel\t in the s~f\~ Ooodwill Zwelithini. and tbe In· oC both Zulu leaders was their katha £-'reedon\ Party leader, ttl>eated references to the Chtef M~ngosutlm Butholezi. at re<:ent musacre or •nkatha sup-a· tame lodge nf.W' ·thf! 'M07Jl11t·· · pOrt~s otJ.tside'the' ANC's hear:\­biqlle bQrder, havint qual'ters ln JohannesbUl'i• and apparently failed to agree on Mr MMdeta's subsequent veto demands for Zulu ~vereiJnty. on pollee tnveatigating claims

In a joint statement tM four that th~ ANC was mponslble. said they had agreed that " in· Oemanding that the A~O eo· temational mediation should o~rate with the police investi­proceed ill order to seek a eon· gation, King Zwelitltini s~id: stltutlonal settlement and pOlit· "Until and unl&$s you l~r&on· ica! reconciliation. Urgent na- ally distance yourself frt)m the gotlation$ .should take plllce to shedding o! the innocent blood reach a~eement on the tenns of my father' a people by ~ of reference and the procedures of your pel'S()t\al initiative lead· to be followed." ing tAl the convict~n of those

'rhey said that they planned a who are guilty of this Cll·ime, meoeti..ng ~te next w@(!k to ~Js. ou.i:' dl.alogue will r~tnatn dlffi· cuss the progres$ beln8 made in cult. if Mt impOS&lble." negotia.tiol\8, The kir\g also focused his

The talks saw a detennined, attack on the ANC's responsl· blll seeminsJy unsuecee$tul at- bility, with the government, for tompt by Mt Mandel.a to bring the lntr<xtuetfoh of a uate of the Zulu monarch into the emereency in Natal. "I WIU\t to country'c con&tltutional settle. rnaM clear that I, the king of ment. The two men met alone the Zulu nation and my fat.her't~ for 41/l hours during the morn· people, consider tM dedare.tion ing before Mr De Klerk and of a stat~ of etnergencY in Kwa· Chief Sutheleti joined them. Zulu lO be an o.et ot foreign ag.

Mr Mandtlil presented tho cress !on, "n tnvasion ot curter­king with a detailed pr¢po$a} ritory and a rape of our for the prot~tion of the Zulu national dignity and pride." monarchy under the new eon· M~\whlle. police said seven stin.Hlon, in the form of a draft l)e()ple had been killed over• "agreement between the Afri. night tn Natal and Kwli'Zulu, can National Congres& 8nd the btl.niPng to 136 the d~tll toll Royal How. of Kwazulu". (t slnca Mr De Klerk lm~ a comm.it«wl the ANC to ''aetlvely state of emergeney there on promote the restoration of the Mareh st . dignity or hi$ m~~ty". The summit was ortglnally

Sut the klng, Jn a 12·Page plaraned tor wt week but po&t· statement presented to Mr ponfld at tht king'4 ~uest Mandela at the outset of' their after the bloodbath in meeting, mad~ it clt~ar tMt he Joh~burg.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1994

MiJJions ntay boycott poll overrlskof

reprisals By Christopher Munnlon

In Johannesbur'

UP TO 38 per ctnt of South . Africa's 23 million voters tnay

stay away from the ~oils in the country 's first democratic eltctions · in three weeks ' tltne, a report $aid yesterday.

According to the Human Sciences Research Council survey, millioM of black vot· era were concerned about politlta) violence and were uncertain . of complete coM\· dentiallty inpolllng booth&.

•• It is not apathy," said one researcher. " The grtat maj· ority of bJack peo~le have been caught In the crossfire of politic41 battles and are genuinely'ffl$htened that the very act of votlne will mean they are seen to take sides."

Millions of pounds are being poured into voter edu· cation. Radio stations and ttlevision networks are broadcasting instructions on how to vote, emphasising that the poll is sec-r~t.

The stay-away is likely to be eKctptlonttlly high·in the Kwat.ulu-Natal area , where Chief Buthelezi ' s lnkatha Freedom Party has chosen to boycott the elections . .Some supporters are actively cam· paigning against votlng.

The ANC would be great· est hit by a stay·awav but opinion polh still e<>Midently roredict 1t will record a clear victory, gaining, they say, at least 60 per cent of votes cast.