By Norm Dixon
SYDNEY — Popo Molefe, a member of the National Working Committee of the African National Congress National Executive Committee and head of the ANC's Election Commission, addressed a meeting of ANC supporters on August 5. He told the gathering that the terrible violence sweeping the townships in the wake of the announcement of constituent assembly elections for April 27 next year was being orchestrated by sections of the security forces for the benefit of the de Klerk government.
Molefe, former secretary general of the United Democratic Front which led the anti-apartheid struggle inside South Africa throughout the 1980s, pointed out that the violence, spearheaded by elements of the security forces and the Inkatha Freedom Party of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, came just as the democratic movement had scored important gains, the key one being the agreement by a majority of South Africa's 26 political players to set a date for South Africa's first non-racial election.
Agreement has been reached on broad principles which would underpin the new constitution. There is also agreement on the establishment of the Transitional Executive Council. A transitional constitution which defines the powers of the TEC and will be operate until the adoption of the final constitution is already being circulated for discussion.
Molefe said that the final draft of the electoral act has also been produced. This act will be finalised by the end of August and will result in the establishment of an Independent Electoral Commission, which will administer, monitor, and deal with disputes arising before and during the elections.
A minority of South Africa's political organisations, grouped around Buthelezi's Inkatha and the far-right Conservative Party, are opposed to an elected constituent assembly, Molefe explained. They have demanded that a system of autonomous regions with wide powers — "even to the extent of those regions being able to veto decisions of the central government" — be agreed to and entrenched as a constitutional "principle" before the constitution-making body is elected.
Molefe explained that Chief Buthelezi was projected for many years by the apartheid regime "as the most popular leader of the black people of South Africa and the leader of the biggest tribe of South Africa, the seven million Zulus." The regime and its international backers attempted to raise his stature to that of Nelson Mandela.
"They were able to do those things because they silenced us. Now we are able to speak for ourselves and, contrary to all the claims they have made in the past, the stark reality is that Buthelezi and Inkatha does not command much support. He is a leader of an insignificant party — a product of apartheid like many other bantustan leaders d regime...
"Buthelezi does not have the support that he claims, even in Natal itself. Scientific opinion surveys indicate that in Natal the ANC would enjoy 63% support. Leaving the remaining 37% divided between the National Party, PAC and Inkatha ... He does not represent the majority of the Zulu people, on the contrary the African National Congress does."
Molefe said that Buthelezi's demand for a autonomous KwaZulu/Natal region is a manoeuvre to "preventing an advance to democracy and allow the people of South Africa to make their verdict on who they recognise as their leaders."
The ANC also rejects completely the far-right Conservative Party's call for an independent Afrikaner homeland and their call for "Afrikaner self-determination". Not all Afrikaners support this small group of conservatives, Molefe said. The majority of Afrikaners see themselves as South Africans and there is no single place where the white people are in the majority and therefore they cannot even begin to argue a case for "national" self-determination.
"We feel to agree to the notion of 'national self-determination' for the Afrikaners would amount to giving them a licence to engage in acts of forced removal against other communities that have been living in those territories they want," Molefe observed.
The ANC has already pledged itself to protect every South African's right to practice their religion, their language and their culture. These and all other human rights — freedom of speech, association, assembly, to life — were guaranteed in 1955 in the ANC's famous Freedom Charter. The ANC remains committed to these fundamental rights, Molefe assured. They will be included in a bill of rights entrenched in the new constitution and enforced by an independent judiciary.
Molefe said that the sudden upsurge in violence coincided with Inkatha and the far-right's decision to walk out of the multiparty talks. The violence has been concentrated in those areas where the ANC is strongest and best organised. This follows the pattern of previous outbreaks of township violence in the past.
"At the centre of this problem are elements within the security forces. Countless disclosures have shown this. Mr de Klerk has said to us that he has dissolved all the special forces that they had established in the past ... He has also told the world that he has dissolved Battalion 51 and 52 that consists of mercenaries from Angola and other countries but the reality of the situation is that all these structures are still in place," Molefe charged.
He said the repressive structures put in place under the rule of P.W. Botha remain and continue to pursue their objectives of weakening and destabilising the ANC. "The violence in South Africa should not be seen as violence between the IFP and the ANC. It is violence that is orchestrated by elements within the security forces." It is in the interest of the de Klerk regime that this violence continue, Molefe said. "The ANC is winning even those who were the traditional allies of the government, those people that it had made to accept homeland rule and so forth. They have turned against the system and are coming towards the ANC ... They are trying to use this violence to arrest the ever-growing strength of the ANC."
Molefe said the coming elections would "give to legitimate representatives of the people the power to control those guns that are being used to kill the people of South Africa. We cannot delay it on the basis that there is violence." He called on the ANC supporters in Australia and the international community to pressure the South African government to control the violence and ensure the elections take place on schedule.
The ANC faces a huge challenge in the elections, Molefe explained. Eighteen million people will participate who have never voted before. Approximately 60% of the electorate is functionally illiterate. Five million people do not have identity documents and have not yet been registered as voters. Many oppressed South Africans are apathetic or suspicious because of the tradition of boycotts.
"The ANC itself as a political movement has never fought an election campaign. It has to transform itself from a purely liberation movement into an election winning machine. New structures and training of personnel [is needed] to mount an election campaign ... In the past we would have been happy to have 50,000 or 100,000 people in our demonstrations. Now we must reach 22.5 million people and convince them to vote for the ANC. That means we have to produce the foot soldiers and the kind of messages and techniques to reach those people."
The ANC is up against the National Party which has governed the country for 45 years and successfully fought 14 elections, Molefe reminded his audience. "It has got a well-oiled machinery, 176 offices throughout the country, parliamentarians who can use taxpayers' money to organise for the National Party. It controls the state, the police and army which it uses to destabilise us. It alone has control over electronic media, television and radio. Up until now they have refused to allow even neutral voter education agencies to use that media to educate the people in voting procedures."
The burden of delivering South Africa's people from apartheid "rests squarely on the shoulders of the ANC", Molefe said. "It cannot carry out this mammoth task unless it is empowered to do so. That is why I'm here in Australia, to ask the Australian people to support the process of democratisation. We have a unique opportunity, with your help, to take our country forward to a just and equitable state, or allow it to regress into chaos and drift into civil war.
"We have the opportunity to ensure that South African men and women — who have known nothing but degradation and humiliation, hunger, poverty, joblessness, disease, and pain — may begin to experience fundamentally different lives."