A/35/PV.64 General Assembly

The South African policy of separate development as the political and economic instrument for perpetuating the supremacy of the white minority over blacks, Coloureds and Indians constitutes a mockery of Africa and the inter- national community at large. It is hard to accept the fact that in this last quarter of the twentieth century there can exist a place in the world where a society claiming democratic values can still keep people, against their will and their expressed desire, in town- ships according to the colour of their skin. 2. It is astonishing to learn that people can have their movements and activities controlled by armed forces merely because they happen not to be white. It may sound unreal that in 1980 somewhere in the so-called civilized world blacks, Coloureds and Indians can be forced to live in precarious conditions in town- ships where living facilities are of a sub-human standard. However, no matter how inhuman it may sound, that is what apartheid is all about. 3. Apartheid, which is a different version of slavery, is vigorously alive in South Africa in a period ofhistory in which even some former slave-masters speak of human rights and the equality of races. 4. In October, during the general debate, my Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, said: NEW YORK "In the so-called free world, few know about the nature of apartheid and of those who practise it." [25th meeting, para. 84.] " ... Apartheid and nazism are based on the same political and ideological principle-the superiority of one race over the other races. They use the same instruments to suppress and massacre the peoples... ••... The direct victims of nazism in Europe were whites while those ofapartheid are blacks." [Ibid., paras. 79 and 80] " ... Apartheid, like nazism, can never be re- formed; it must be destroyed." [Ibid., para. 88.] 5. It is of great concern that in a country like South Africa a Government whose regime is totally opposed by over 80 per cent of its population, has been able to defy the international community and sustain its malevolent policy of apartheid over the people of Namibia and South Africa for many years. It is dis- turbing to know that South Africa has managed to escape the punishment ofinternational sanctions which it deserves. 6. We think that it is not very difficult to understand the reasons behind this. The fact is that the Govern- ments of certain Western countries that are the beneficiaries of the intensive plundering of Namibia's and South Africa's natural and human resources have repeatedly failed to condemn the policy carried out in South Africa and in Namibia, thereby encouraging the Pretoria regime in its discriminatory practices, its illegal occupation of Namibia and its military aggres- sion and threats against neighbouring countries. The refusal of the American, British and French Govern- ments to endorse a plain condemnation by the Security Council, in its resolution 475 (1980), of the invasion of Angola last June by racist South Africa reveals the extent to which those countries are committed to protecting Pretoria's policy of apartheid in South Africa, the occupation of Namibia and the constant destabilization of front-line States. 7. The Pretoria regime has, by its stubborn attitude, demonstrated on various occasions its unwillingness to abandon its apartheid policy. The solution to the problem now lies in the isolation and neutralization of that regime by the international community. But such isolation cannot be effective while certain Western countries covertly continue to render support to the Pretoria regime. 8. It is urgently necessary that the international com- munity adopt effective measures to put an end to the repression, the exploitation and the denial of the most elementary political rights to the majority of the population in South Africaand Namibia. We in Mozam- bique believe that the arms embargo declared by the Security Council in its resolution 418 (977) should be 10. Despite this negative attitude shown by the West, the ever-increasing political awareness of the peoples of Namibia and South Africa, led by their respective liberation movements-the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO] and the African National Con- gress of South Africa [ANC], and their effective determination to fight until total liberation is achieved and apartheid is wiped out in their respective countries are inflicting very serious casualties on the minority regime. The uprising of black students against racial discrimination in education, the wave of strikes by black workers demanding more pay and better working conditions, the bus boycott and the rent strike, the resistance' against arbitrary and forcible removal of African communities in South Africa, the intensifica- tion of the underground and armed struggle by ANC militants and the boycott by the Indians and Coloured people of South Africa of the announced plans to establi$b a constitutional framework for Coloured and Indian .,eople to the exclusion of blacks are vic- tories which are very seriously shaking the fortress of apartheid. 11. The racisr regime of South Africa announced a few days ago the introduction of compulsory educa- tion for blacks, to commence next year. That move by South Africa should not be taken as a considerable step towards ending apartheid in South Africa. This maneeuvre is an integral part ofthose ClV '-netic changes that are already very familiar to us and a~.J aimed at silencing the ever-growing dissatisfaction and revolts of the people of that country and the protests of the international community. 12. The Pretoria regime must be isolated and neutralized. That is the only way to put an end to apartheid in the region and it is the duty of the international community to participate by all possible means in this combat so that Sharpeville, Soweto, Oogoleto and Langa shall never more be repeated. A luta continua. . 13. Mr. de FIOUEIREDO (Angola): Apartheid is ••aparthood''. The regime in Pretoria calls this system "separate development" and "independence for the homelands". But, no matter what name, orappellation, the racist Fascist minority regime ofSouth Africa uses to justify and explain its system of apartheid and its creation of the white Republic of South Africa, it cannot disguise the truth. No one is deceived any longer by Pretoria's attempts to whitewash the situa- tion in which South Africa's m~ority inhabitants are forced to live. African labourers. What was devised as a cure for apartheid has in fact -become part of the diseased system. Foreign companies nowjustify their continued presence in South Africa by their status as signatories of the Sullivan code. - 20. The violations of human rights taking place daily in South Africa far outweigh all the violations in other parts of the world which South Africa's Western friendsare so fond of quoting. But where is the Western conscience, collectively or individually? Why is there a deafening silence when black schoolchildren are murdered by racist police in South Africa? Why is there silence when women are detained and tortured in South Africa? Why is there silence when children are kidnapped from neighbouring countries and taken to work on South African farms? 21. There is no running away from the truth; it is not a question of interpretation but of fact. Those who support South Africain political, diplomatic, economic and military terms are also perpetrators of apartheid and racism. They support a system which denies the majorityinhabitants of South Africa their human, civil, political and economic rights. They support a system which threatens the peace and stability of southern Africa. They support a system which is opposed by the entire third world. They support a system which Africa has sworn to eradicate. 22. Apartheid cannot be diluted, refined or changed; it must bedestroyed. This is the position of the People's Republic of Angola, which has been enunciated by the Central Committee of the MPLA-Workers' Party, the vanguard Party which has led Angola along the path to independence and national reconstruction. Aud itis our support for the anti-apartheid struggle that has led to repeated armed invasions and attacks by the racist South Africanarmed forces against the territory and the people of Angola. Pretoria has felt threatened ever since the emergence of progressive Governments in the area. It has followed the policy that the best method of defence is attack. No country has borne the brunt of Pretoria's racist militarism more than the People's Republic of Angola. Pretoria knows that my Government and indeed all the Angolan people are committed to the eradication of the apartheid system. 23. We believe that half-hearted cures are no cures at all. They will not stamp out the disease and might even kill the patient. Pretoria has been given enough time-too much time-by the international com- munity. And Pretoria has blithely gone its way and disregarded the admonitions, even the condemnations, of the international community. We call for economic sanctions against South Africa, especially an oil embargo, as called for at the thirty-fifth session of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity lOAU] at Freetown in June 1980 [see A/35/463 and Corr./]. 24. History does not respect colour. It is tragic that so often man does; he often bases his principles on protectors and allies of South Africa. 29. South Africacontinues to defy the United Nations in Namibia by trampling underfoot ali the relevant General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and it exists and continues to exist only because it enjoys immeasurable support from the Western Powers. No statement can any longer mask this reality. As is often said in my country, if the hare dares to aim at the elephant, do not look in the direction in which the gun is aimed; look, rather, for the person who is holding the rifle butt for it. 30. The African peoples have learned tojudge, but to judge henceforth by what is done and not by what is said. And what is being done? When the Security Council decided to impose an arms embargo against South Africa the Western Powers delivered the most sophisticated munitions factories .to the apartheid regime. In response to the request of the international community to impose economic sanctions on the Fascist Pretoria regime in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter, the Western Powers maintain that the investments they have in the apartheid citadel are in keeping with their desire to raise the standard of living of the African population. That makes us think of the famous father in Dante's Divine Comedy who had to devour his many children one after the other under the pretext that he might otherwise die of hunger and leave them orphans. 31. As are other matters, South Africa's ability to experiment with the nuclear weapon and to bring it to perfection is of the greatest concern to the States of the African continent. In that connexion we have read with obvious interest the reports which are con- cerned with the implementation of the Declaration 36. Annex III to the report of the Ad Hoc Com- mittee on the Drafting of an International Convention against Apartheid in Sports [A/35/36] is enlightening. Our delegation greatly appreciates the recent decisions of the Argentine Government in this sphere and encourages other States in the region to act similarly. We also appreciate the very effective co-operation of the Nordic countries, as wellas theirgreat contribution to the implementation of the mandate entrusted by the Orgenization to the Special Committee against Apart- heid. We should like to express our earnest and warm congratulations to the dynamic Chairman of that Committee, Mr. Clark, on the unswerving dedication he has shown. 37. It is high time that the challenge of the racist minority of South Africa and its allies to the United Nations be met. For more than 20 years we have been going round in circles and we have now proved that we must look elsewhere for ways of meeting that challenge by giving priority to another approach to the question of the apartheid regime. 38. Although we appreciate the efforts of the United Nations to put an end to that crime, we are bound to note that, as President Ahmed Sekou T9ure has constantly proposed at all the sessions ofthe Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU, if the in the priority political, financial, diplomatic and military support for the legitimate struggle ofthe South African and Namibian peoples under the courageous leadership of their liberation movements, the African National Congress of South Africa [ANC] the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania [PAC] and the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO]. We remain convinced that this is how the historic victory over the apartheid regime will be achieved. 39. Mr. ROMULO (Philippines): For the Govern- ment of South Africa 1948 was a landmark year. In that inglorious year South Africa inaugurated the set of policies that comprise the practice of apartheid. A seamless web oflaws, rules and regulations covering every aspect of South African communal life-po- litical, economic and social--firmly established the most thorough and systematic example of racial discrimination ever conceived in the history of mankind. 40. To say that racial discrimination in the form of apartheid violates the principles of the Charter of the United Nations is to state the obvious. With or without the Charter, however, racial discrimination constitutes a violation of every known norm of conduct sanctified in religion, philosophy, custom and civilized tradition. The practice of racism is evil to the core, an affront to the dignity of the human person and an offence to human decency. 41. The passion of universal moral indignation that apartheid has evoked should therefore surprise no one, including its callous practitioners. Every year for the last three decades the United Nations has adopted resolutions persuading, appealing and finally condemning the Government of South Africa in its heedless pursuit of racism and massive oppression. To all of these, South Africa has turned a deaf ear. The impenitent Government sitting in Pretoria has ignored, defied and mocked the world Organization and today, in the most ominous development of all, it threatens, by the use of its potential for nuclear armament, to use force to maintain itself in power and thus perpetuate the practice of apartheid. Whereas before South Africa claimed that apartheid was a domestic problem, today, as a result ofits own actions, it can no longer make any such claims, which were invalid to begin with. South Africa has become a threat to the peace of continental Africa and a threat to international security. 42. I suggest that for South Africa the eleventh hour has struck. 43. We have before us the reports of the Special Committee against Apartheid [A/35/22 and Add.I-3]. They must be judged in the context of a decision by the United Nations aimed at the complete isolation of South Africa through the imposition of total, sanctions. As a result of rapid developments in southern Africa-namelY, the independence of Zim- 49. Today, South Africa can feel the gathering storm. The premonitory signal in Sharpeville turned into a raging revolution in Soweto. To the oppressed peoples of South Africa, Soweto is the first wave in an irresistible tide towards independence. As much as we deplore violence, it is impossible to deny the right of peoples to regain their birthright. Recent events in South Africa involvingterrorand counter-terror should make the message to South Africa crystal clear: South Africa is sitting on top of a volcano. 50. All over the dark continent, the winds of change are blowing and nowhere more mightily than in South Africa. It must make its choice before it is too late. If it does not, that bastion of racism, of a practice that is repugnant to the moral sense and the soundez instincts of man, South Africa, may well be making its last, futile stand.

At this point in the exhaustive discussion to which the General Assembly has devoted several days relating to the question of the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa, a question which has been before the United Nations since its creation, my delegaticu, whose position is well known, would once again like to speak of all the repugnance and horror that the apartheid regime inspires in it, and we should like to emphasize that it is urgently necessary to proceed to its total and definitive elimination. ' 47. Two options remain open to South Africa. It can decide to choose the road to peaceful change by dismantling the entire apparatus which supports apart- heid. The basic thrust of the United Nations is in this direction-to apply pressure. to permit the forces for peaceful change. to find solutions to a problem that remains insoluble only because Pretoria wilfully ignores the voices of reason. Pretoria must recognize that fortress South Africa, no matter how strong-and it is not that strong-cannot stand alone against the world. The example of Zimbabwe suggests that peaceful change is possible, that the restoration of the moral order is achievable, that the sovereign rights of peoples can be reclaimed through political and diplomatic solutions and that multiracial societies can exist, as they do in many parts of the world, with full respect for the rights of all. 48. The second option for South Africa is to persist in its ill-chosen course in the mistaken belief that 52. The persistence in Africa of this odious system of discrimination racial oppression imposed by a white illegal governing minority which proclaims itself to be superior when compared to the overwhelming majority of the African populations which have been decreed to be naturally inferior and debased to the status of foreigners and slaves condemned to wander in their own country, has become the most humiliating challenge and the shame of our time. 53. Over and above its ritualistic aspects, the intense discussion which is taking place here, and which has been going on for more than three decades, testifies to the constant concern ofthe international community about this serious problem. Indeed, despite the intema- tional community's reprobation and unanimous con- demnation ofapartheid, each day we receive news of further atrocious incidents of humiliation, torture and assassination of the black people in South Africa. And it should beemphasized that the fringeofwhite liberals, laymen or members of the clergy who oppose and struggle against the hateful system are victims of the same oppression. 54. This isan unprecedented challenge, butone which unfortunately is becoming more widespread in the Organization, whose authority and mandatory decisions are beingincreasingly flouted. This is nothing more or less than a test of force engaged in by the Pretoria racist minority against all the Governments which are represented here and which bring together within the Organization the value systems that, ar~ nations. 86. The very close relations of interest which some countries have with South Africa have greatly strengthened the ability of the racist regime to defy the international community. They constitute the m~or obstacle to the implementation of sanctions, however limited, that has been agreed upon by the United Nations. 87. This brief analysis shows that apartheid cannot be interpreted solely from the standpoint of individual human rights violations, and even less can it be reduced merely to that dimension. 88. The violations of South African human rights are in reality nothing but a by-product of an ideology of exploitation and of power. To attempt to focus con- sideration of the situation in South Africa only on the 94. The South African people took up the challenge a long time ago and began a long national liberation struggle that alone can ensure its real emancipation. If Sharpeville sounded a warning, Soweto, a few years later, confirmed the determination ofthe South African people to recover its rights by whatever means. Today, thousands of students and schoolchildren are showing their opposition to the apartheid system. Their move- ment has broadened that of the workers, who, by means of strikes, not only refuse to accept their in- human working conditions but, above all, challenge the very regime which imposes them. 9S. The South African national liberation movement is resolutely committed to the path of armed struggle, the only means of liberating its country from racist oppression. We pay a tribute to the Special Com- mittee against Apartheid and to its Chairman, Mr. Clark, for having caused the echo of that struggle of the South African people for the salvation of their homeland and also for the salvation of mankind to reverberate at the levelofthe international community. 100. Nevertheless, we must note that United Nations action has not been based on the joint political will of all Member States or taken the form of a coherent approach that would respond to all the challenges of the policyofapartheid. United Nations action has been marked by powerlessness and has long been limited to verbal condemnation. lOt. The international community has very often confined itself to laboriously devising replies without real impact each time the Pretoria regime has faced it with a new fait accompli. The process of deteriora- tion of the situation can thus only accelerate. 102. In this connexion, the impressive number of Security Council and General Assembly resolutions devoted to all the aspects of this question, while reflecting an awareness of the growing intensity of the threat to international peace and security posed by the Pretoria regime, none the less shows the disappointing limits of United Nations action. 103. Thus, the Security Council, unfortunately, has often found itself incapable of taking any decision at all because of the use of the veto by three of its members, sometimes even all at the same time. Because of this the Security Council, which the Charter has entrusted with the primary function of the maintenance of international peace and security, has not been able to discharge its responsibilities. In the few cases where that body has been able unanimously to adopt a reso- lution, applying that resol~tion.has. turned out to ~e impossible both because ofIts rejection by the Pretoria leaders, isolated in arrogant disdain, and because of the behaviour of certain permanent members of the J Declaration on the Denuclearization of Africa adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity at its first session in July 1964. See Offidill Records of the General Assembly, Twentieth Session, Annexes, agenda item 105, document A/S97S. 143. These are concepts that we have heard before and it is the memory of where they lead that gives them a peculiar and very special resonance now. We are only one generation removed from a war and from an experience of human degradation on a scale not seen before in human history. Those events resulted from a previous effort to make racial theories the basis for the organization of human society. We cannot now plead ignorance of where they lead. To our shame, they were theories that developed within Western culture as an aberration and a perversion of its best values. All the more reason, therefore, why all of us who speak out of that background must flatly repudiate those in South Africa who claim to stand for our values while re-establishing racial theories as a basis for the organization of society. Those are ghosts which must not walk again. 144. But, white South Africa will claim, this is unfair on two counts. First, apartheid is, they say, a policy of separation-of separate development in separate homelands for people of ditferent ethnic .origins and not necessarily a policy of discrimination; and secondly, there is in any case change and reform within the system and this has now done much to make it acceptable. We outsiders, they say, do not know the reality. 145. As to the first of these points, it is not easy to know whether the belief.-that apartheid aims at no more than a simple separation of peoples-is sincerely held by some in white South Africa, or whether it is 151. We do concede that in comparison to the more frozen situation which has long prevailed there appears 152. But over-all, so/!tar as we can judge, there i's noevidence that real and substantive change has taken place or is intended. There is no movement that we can discern in the matter of political prisoners, and leaders such as Nelson Mandela are still incarcerated under harsh conditions; and there is no evidence that the basic concept which makes race the central prin- ciple of social and political life has been modified or. abandoned. 153. But for us to argue this point on one side or the other from outside is in any case irrelevant. Whether wejudge that there has been real change or not is not the issue. What really matters is what the people of South Africa-that great majority of the people of South Africa who are black or of mixed race-really think, and what they will do now and over the coming months and years. For it is they in the end who will decide; it is they in the end whose views will prevail and whose demand for justice must be met. 154. What is extraordinary in many ways is the relative moderation which has been shown for so long by those who speak for this miijority ofSouth Africans. Repressed as they have been, they do not seem to want to repress white South Africans in their turn, still less to expel them. South Africa, they accept, should belong to all those who live in it, white and black, on the sole condition that Hbelong in equal measure to all so that all have an equal opportunity, and that domina- tion and repression of one race by another should come to an end. 155. It is indeed remarkable that this view should- still prevail to any degree among black South Africans who sutTer under the present system; and it is this, and this alone which could give any ground for hope in the present situation. It could otTersome hope because such relative moderation, if maintained, could do much to meet the most deep-seated fears of the Afrikaner population-a people whose roots are 300 years deep in what is now their only home; and it is these fears which underlie their intransigence. 156. But even if this relative moderation of black South Africa does suggest some limited basis for hope, there are many other reasons which must bring us close to despair as we look at South Africa today. There may be some change, but it is slow and minor. Militancy is rising within the maiority population of South Africa, especially among the young. Reform, as always in such situations, is slow and lags behind events; and there is serious doubt as to whether any- thing more than surface change is intended. More and more the talk is of armed struggle. With each year that passes opportunities are lost for a peaceful transition to a just and equitable society in South Africa, which would involve all its people on an equal footing. As at other times in history, those in power do not seem to have the wisdom to anticipate events by making adequate changes in time. Inevitably, this must increase the possibility that change will come only as a result of a bitter struggle involving great 164. Ireland has also said that it would be ready to consider further action by the intemational com- munity--e!ffective, co-ordinated measures, on a con- sidered basis, to bring pressure to bear on South Africa. Measures to channel the collective pressure of the intemational community' 'should, however, be cai'efully considered, properly directed and fully implemented. If they are not, they are liable to be ineffective. That could increase the already con- siderable intransigence of white South Africa and reinforce it in its belief that it can utterly disregard criticism from the outside world. Consideration as to which measures are likely to be most effective should also, in our view take account of the particular diffi- culties which could arise for other African States in the reaion. In that reaard Ireland supports the objec- tives of the forthcoming Southem African Develop- ment Co-ordination Conference, to be held in Maputo later this month. ' 165. At the national level, my Govemment has "owed the general principles I have outlined. In a _Aiety such as ours in Ireland certain actions are open to Govemments;and to the extent possible we have taken steps in these areas, on a considered basis, to bring pressure to bearon South Africa. FO,rexample, Ireland does not, maintain diplomatic relations with South Africa; and successive Irish Govemments have acted to ensure that no official encouragement is given to the promotion of economic relations with South Africa. 166. Other matters in our society, however, are not directly within the province of the Govemment, and under our laws and Constitution are not susceptible to lovernment control. In such cases the Irish Govern- ment has made its views Oft the situation in South Africa very clear to those concerned. But there is a limit to the extent to which, under our Constitution, 'OjJ1t'ial R~c'()f(Js of th~ S~C'urlty Counc'iI. Thirty-fifth Year, S"ppI~m~nt It" July, August and S~pt~mber 1980, document 5/14179. be decided in South Africa by the people of South Africa-the white South African minority that dominates and represses, and the black and Coloured South African majority that endures. 170. Those were the views which the Irish delegation wished to put on record once more, in this current debate. 171. I can conclude by summarizing our views very briefly. First, in general: Racial discrimination is wrong; when made the basis for a political system it is dangerous as well; and when that system represses a majority in its own country, it is Potentially disas- trous. To be more specific: apartheid, we know, is wrong; .the danger too is evident; the issue today is how to bring white South Africa to, see that it may soon lead to disaster. My country will try to play its part in this effort. '

We have now heard the last speaker in the debat~ on agenda item 28. I would invite the General Assembly to tum its attention to the report of the Special Political Committee contained in document A/3S1626. May I take it that the Assembly takes note of that report? It was so decided (decision 35/415).