111053

JPRS-SSA-87-010

9 FEBRUARY 1987

Sub-Saharan Africa Report

WnnBüTiöfTsfÄi

19980612 129

s

Approved for public release;

Distribution Unlimited

FBIS FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE

REPRODUSEDD!PARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL TECHNICAL

INFORMATION SERVICE

SPRINGFIELD, VA. 22161

33TIC QUÄLTE INSPECTED Ö

no

Mb
NOTE

JPRS publications contain information primarily from foreign

newspapers, periodicals and books, but also from news agency

transmissions and broadcasts. Materials from foreign-language

sources are translated; those from English-language sources

are transcribed or reprinted, with the original phrasing and

other characteristics retained.

Headlines, editorial reports, and material enclosed in brackets

[] are supplied by JPRS. Processing indicators such as [Text]

or [Excerpt] in the first line of each item, or following the

last line of a brief, indicate how the original information was

processed. Where no processing indicator is given, the information was summarized or extracted.

Unfamiliar names rendered phonetically or transliterated are

enclosed in parentheses. Words or names preceded by a question mark and enclosed in parentheses were not clear in the

original but have been supplied as appropriate in context.

Other unattributed parenthetical notes within the body of an

item originate with the source. Times within items are as

given by source.

The contents of this publication in no way represent the policies, views or attitudes of the U.S. Government.

PROCUREMENT OF PUBLICATIONS

JPRS publications may be ordered from the National Technical

Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161. In ordering, it is recommended that the JPRS number, title, date and

author, if applicable, of publication be cited.

Current JPRS publications are announced in Government Reports

Announcements issued semi-monthly by the National Technical

Information Service, and are listed in the Monthly Catalog of

U.S. Government Publications issued by the Superintendent of

Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

20402.

Correspondence pertaining to matters other than procurement

may be addressed to Joint Publications Research Service,

1000 North Glebe Road, Arlington, Virginia 22201.
JPRS-SSA-87-010

9 FEBRUARY 1987

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA REPORT

CONTENTS

ANGOLA

Dos Santos Appoints, Dismisses Officials

(Luanda Domestic Service, 31 Dec 86) ..

Briefs

Savimbi Says War Intensifying

COMOROS

President Ahmed Abdallah Interviewed on Political, Economic Issues

(THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, 22 Nov 86) 4

Briefs

French Funding 7

M'vouni College Students Strike 7

1987 Budget 7

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Briefs

Plane Crash Kills 18 8

MADAGASCAR

IMF Agreement Conditions Viewed

(THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, 15 Nov 86) 9

Minister for Trade Discusses Economic Situation

(THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, 8 Nov 86) 10

Famine in South Described

(THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, 8 Nov 86) 13

Briefs

University Reform 15

Malnutrition Confirmed 15

- a -
MALI

Trade Improves With Soviet Union 15

France To Build Landing Strip 15

Problems of Malians Working in Libya

(M. Kante, A. Camara; L'ESSOR, 16, 21 Oct 86) 16

MAURITIUS

Weekly Views Tactics of Opposition MMM

(THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, 8 Nov 86) 21

Briefs

Sugar Agreement With EEC 22

MOZAMBIQUE

RSA Allegedly Handing Refugees Over to MNR

(THE HERALD, 15 Dec 86) 23

Cooperation Protocol Signed With GDR

(Maputo Domestic Service, 12 Jan 87) 24

Assembly Acknowledges New Standing Commission

(Maputo Domestic Service, 13 Jan 87) 25

Briefs

MNR Reportedly Restructuring External Wing 27

ANC Members Remain in Country 27

NIGER

Briefs

Kountche Returns After Medical Treatment 28

REUNION

Briefs

Giant Telescope Project 29

Indian Ocean Region Plans Abandoned 29

SEYCHELLES

Construction Plan of New Fishing Port, Industries Reported

(NEW VISION, 9 Dec 86) 30

SWAZILAND

Briefs

Population Figures 32

b -
UGANDA

Ties With DPRK To Be Maintained

(THE STAR, 11 Dec 86) 33

Human Rights Commission Begins Inquiry

(THE STAR, 12 Dec 86) 34

ZAMBIA

Briefs

Control of Pesticides 36

ZIMBABWE

HERALD Blames RSA for Delayed Railway Takeover

(Editorial; THE HERALD, 9 Jan 87) 37

Indaba Proposals May Cause 'Serious' Repercussions

(SAPA, 19 Jan 87) 39

Rajbansi Says White Election 'Reasonable'

(SAPA, 31 Dec 86) 40

Bank Official Predicts Deteriorating Economy in 1987

(THE FINANCIAL GAZETTE, 12 Dec 86) 42

Bank Warns of 1 Million Unemployment by 1990

(BUSINESS DAY, 31 Dec 86) 44

Commentary Sees Urgent Need for New Dispensation

(Johannesburg International Service, 8 Jan 87) 46

Briefs

Cuban Cultural Exhibition Opens 47

Minister Hails Mozambique's Mocumbi 47

ZANU Confirms Suspension of Party Officials 47

Warning Against RSA Saboteurs 48

SOUTH AFRICA

AFRIKANER/GOVERNMENT

Micro-Carrier for Navy Contemplated

(Helmoed-Romer Heitman; ARMED FORCES, Dec 86/Jan 87) 49

Law and Order Minister Discusses ANC Violence

(Afriaan Vlok Interview; Johannesburg Television

Service, 12 Jan 87) 55

Head of Oranjewerkers Describes Dream of Oranjeland

(Hendrik Verwoerd Interview; FRONTLINE, Dec 86) 58

- c -
BLACKS

AZAPO Leader's Family Attacked, One Dead

(SAPA, 15 Jan 87) 60

AZAPO Official Commends Students' Return to School

(SAPA, 15 Jan 87) 61

ANC National Executive Willing To Negotiate

(Gerald L'Ange; SOWETAN, 9 Jan 87) 62

ANC Maputo Representative Speaks on Anniversary

(Jacob Zuma; Maputo in English to Southern Africa,

9 Jan 87) 64

Phenomenon of Township Street Committees Revealed

(FRONTLINE, Dec 86) 65

New Member Describes Recruitment 65

Organizational Aspects 67

Black Policeman Describes Ordeal

(Hilton Hamman; FRONTLINE, Dec 86) 72

Bus Boycott Costing Commuters Money

(THE STAR, 7 Jan 87) 75

New Regulations Clamp Down on Alternative Education Plans

(Susan Pleming; THE STAR, 7 Jan 87) 77

Oukasie Residents Say DET Moves School

(SAPA, 19 Jan 87) 79

Briefs

PUTCO Ridership Down 80

ANC Allaying U.S. Concerns 80

PAC Concerned About Hunger Strike 80

Bophuthatswana Seeks Botswana Recognition 80

Masked Gunmen Shoot UCASA President 81

Black School Enrollment Going Well 81

Elite Black Housing Planned 81

SOCIOPOLITICAL/OTHER

Commentary Notes U.S. Opposition Toward Move to ANC

(Johannesburg Domestic Service, 20 Jan 87) 82

International Conference Assesses Post-Apartheid Scenarios

(Robert von Lucius; FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE, 16 Dec 86) . 84

Natal PFP, NRP Agree to Election Alliance

(SAPA, 19 Jan 86) 86

- d -
Emergency Regulations Compound Newspaper Controversy

(Ameen Akhalwaya; POST NATAL, 24-27 Dec 86) 88

Pervasiveness of Corruption Nationwide Revealed

(Jaap Boekkooi; FRONTLINE, Dec 86) 90

Briefs

NRP Defections Continue 93

PFP Ends Boycott 93

ECONOMIC

Government Blamed for Shrinking Rand

(Michael Chester; THE STAR, 7 Jan 87) 94

Job Opportunities Scarce as Thousands Enter Job Market

(Udo Rypstra; SUNDAY TIMES, 4 Jan 87) 96

Briefs

Black-White Wage Gap 97

INDUSTRIAL/S&T

R4 Assault Rifle Capabilities Praised

(SALVO, Nov/Dec 86) 98

Armcor's Cluster Bomb Described

(SALVO, Nov/Dec 86) 99

Grinaker Electronics' Achievements Described

(SALVO, Nov/Dec 86) 100

/9987

- e -
ANGOLA

DOS SANTOS APPOINTS, DISMISSES OFFICIALS

MB311359 Luanda Domestic Service in Portuguese 1200 GMT 31 Dec 86

[Text] Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos, president of the republic, has

issued the following decrees:

For administrative reasons and under the terms of Paragraph D of Article 53

of the Constitution, I hereby appoint the following officials:

Comrade Pedro da Cunha Neto as vice governor of the National Bank of Angola;

Comrade Francisco Manuel (Branel) as assistant provincial commissar of

Lunda Norte; and

Comrade Armando Ferramenta as assistant provincial commissar of Cuanza Sul.

Issued by the Office of the President of the People's Republic of Angola

in Luanda on 16 December 1986.

For administrative reasons and under the terms of Paragraph D of Article 53

of the Constitution, I hereby appoint Comrade Pompeu Antonio Tony

as assistant provincial commissar of Namibe.

Issued by the Office of the Presdient of the People's Republic of Angola

in Luanda on 18 December 1986.

For administrative reasons and under the terms of Paragraph D of Article 53

of the Constitution I appoint Comrade Paulo Lucas as assistant provincial

commissar of Huila.

Issued by the Office of the President of the People's Republic of Angola

in Luanda on 27 December 1986.

For administrative reasons and under the terms of Paragraph D of Article 53

of the Constitution, I hereby relieve the following officials of their duties:

Comrade Antonio Narciso, assistant provincial commissar of Cuanza Sul, who

had been appointed by Decreee No 71 of 9 June 1981;
Comrade Bernardo Sumba, assistant provincial commissar of Lunda Norte,

who had been appointed by Decree No 33 of 16 April 1980; and

Comrade Jose Sumbo, assistant provincial commissar of Huila, who had

been appointed by Decree No 22 of 11 July 1983.

Issued by the Office of the President of the People's Republic of Angola

in Luanda on 16 December 1986. For administrative reasons and under

the terms of Paragraph D of Article 53 of the Constitution, I hereby relieve

Comrade Daniel Justino Sampaio of his post as assistant provincial

commissar of Huila, to which he was appointed by Decree No 12 of 29 April

1985.

Issued by the Office of the President of the People's Republic of Angola

in Luanda on 27 december 1986.

/12624

CSO: 3400/779
ANGOLA

BRIEFS

SAVIMBI SAYS WAR INTENSIFYING—Free Land of Angola, 10 Jan (KUP)--In a vain

attempt to confine UNITA to the liberated territory, the FAPLA forces are

in fact exhausting themselves in a rainy season offensive. The results

are and will continue to be poor, UNITA President Dr Savimbi said when

he reviewed UNITA's military activities last year. Dr. Savimbi also

cited a number of UNITA's military successes in 1986, notably the attack

against Cabinda airport, on the country's northern provinces, and on Lunda

Province's diamond mines, which forced the MPLA-Labor Party to request the

presence of special British forces, the SAS, who came to Angola to kill

Angolans, like Soviets and the Cubans. The war has intensified on the

central plateau, along the coast, and in Huila Province. All this shows

the weakness of the security forces of a government that has neither the

administrative structures nor the economic strength to support its soldiers

on the war front, Dr Savimbi said. [Text] [(Clandestine) KUP in French

to Southern and Central Africa 0600 GMT 10 Jan 87 MB] /12624

CS0: 3400/779
COMOROS

PRESIDENT AHMED ABDALLAH INTERVIEWED ON POLITICAL, ECONOMIC ISSUES

Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 pp 8, 9

[Text]

President Ahmed Abdallah, in Paris after attending the Franco-African

summit in Lome, talked to The Indian Ocean Newsletter on November 18 about

the situation in the Comoros.,

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER; There are rumours in the Comoro» that you: are

intending calling early elections shortly after the federal assembly votes on

the budget. Is this a fact? Will you allow unrestricted candidacies or will

they require the approval of the Union Comorienne pour le Progres?

AHMED ABDALLAHS The elections' will be held on the scheduled date» in March ov

April. Everybody wilt be^ entitle* to stand.. The UCP no longer exists...or

rather it exists, only, lit name.

I.O.N1: Candidates« of the Union pour une Republique Democratique aux Comorec

or the Front Democratique., for example, will therefore be able to stand under

their own party labels?

A.A.;. Yes, perfectly well. But. wilt the Fronti Democratique have any candidate,

to put up?

I.O.N.; Are you not. running a risk in doing this?

A.A.; The day I no longer have the support'5of the majority I will departs But

that Is not the case now. If I lose the elections« that is- too bad. Francois

Mitterrand does not have at majority in parliament but he is president.. I hopeto have the majority.

LO.N.; If" yott agree to free elections» in that case why did you order the

arrest of the URDC activists who were brandishing banner» when the Frenetu

prime minister Jacques Chirac visited Moroni?

A.A.; r did not order their arrest. But I cannot allow my guest to be given a

bad welcome or attacked. The village of Hahaya laid a complaint against those

who demonstrated, there. It was not: the State which had them, arrested.
i.O.N.r Da you not think that you suffered political ham by not raisin? the

question, or Mayotte with. Mr Chirac «hen he was. coming; from therer

A.A.: Opponents, could hold that against me, but that is my affair. I have

brought up the subject of Mayotte several times with Mr Chirac In Prance and

elsewhere. I felt that there was no point in talking to him about it. He came

to see the Comoros, it was not the moment to discuss Mayotte with him.

I.O.M.; Will France increase its aid to your country?

A.A.: It is not because we did not talk of Mayotte on that occasion that

Paris will Increase its aid. We raise this problem regularly.

I.O.N.: There was recently a conflict between yourself and the Kalfane

company over vanilla sales. Do you consider that you have emerged the winner

from this?

A.A.: I can not allow myself to be ridiculed by Mr Kalfane, who flouts the

agreement between the vanilla producers (Madagascar, Comoros, Reunion) and

the purchasers in Europe and the United States, when he himself is a party to

it;. _ .-. _

I.O.N.: Were you surprised by the support he received from the opposition?

A.A.: My opponents took Mr Kalfane's side in the hope that they would be

given financial support.

J.O.N.: why did you have- your former minister Antoy Abdou arrested?

A.A.: He provoked the people of Anjouan and made insulting, statements.

I.O.N.: what is your explanation of the arson of the Forabouni school?

A.A.r The pupils were not responsible. It was the work of the opposition. The

school has in any case been reopened..

I.aw.: Are> the Comorian youth not a major question for your regime?

A.A.: No. the young people are not attached to any regime. They are openminded. But i; am not worried. If they want to kill me, there I am. But what

wrong have I done that anyone should want to kill me?

LO.IT.: Do all these Strikes in the schools not worry you?

A.A.: I am used to it. I will not give in to the students of the M'vount

training college. Their study grants are higher than those of the students

sent to Togo or Senegal. They will not be increased.

y.O.N.:: A few month» ago you had a fundamentalist preacher arrested. Since

then this movement ha* slackened. Do you think this situation will last?
: A.A.: The'Cambrians are altt Moslems. We have; the same ritual' in the fous

islands. There i»:no> need; for fundamentalism,.

f.O.N.: Once the construction* of four South African hotels, is finished, does

the influx of tourists not threaten to provoke reactions from religious,

circles?

A:äV: 'They are- not South African hotels. French, British and Comorian

interests have a share in the..capital. The BIAO. for example, is French. The

largest shareholders will be the British, followed by the Comorians, then by

the French and the South. Africans.

r.O.N.r Did the mercenary Boh Denard play a role In the signing of the

contract?

A.A.r None.

I.O.N.; After the adoption of sanctions against South Africa by the NonAligned Movement and the United States, have you been approached to allcu

South African Airways to land in the Comoros?

A.A.: No, but if we were asked we would not refuse. We are against apartheid

but we are a poor country and we cannot reject aid which is offered to us.

The South- Africans are everywhere, in Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, why

should they not be in the Comoros?.

79317

CSO: 3400/760
COMOROS

BRIEFS

FRENCH FUNDING.-France is to fund three projects in the Indian Ocean region

through its Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique. The CCCE has allocated

58 million francs (about 6.2 million dollars) for improving the electricity

supply in the Comoros, particularly in Grand Comoro and Anjouan, to cope with

the expected increase in demand from the hotel projects being funded by South

African investors. The Voidjou power station is to be given a fifth diesel

generator, of 2,250 kilowatts and the Anjouan station is to be replaced by a

new plant of three 800 kw. generators. In Madagascar, the CCCE is to provide

17.6 million French francs for the rehabilitation of 2,100 hectares of irrigated land at Ambohibary, near Antsirabe. In Mauritius, France will contribute 25 million francs towards a hangar for the ATR-42 short-range airliner bought with French finance and workshops for maintenance. The total

cost of these facilities comes to 36.28 million francs. [Text] [Paris THE

INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 15 Nov 86 p 7] /9274

M'VOUNI COLLEGE STUDENTS STRIKE—The students of the M'vouni college of

higher education in Grand Comoro are on strike. The government has refused

to satisfy their financial demands and ordered the closure until further

notice of the college, which trains teachers for the archipelago's rural

schools in a two-year course. Also, a deliberate fire caused serious

damage at the Foumbouni school. The government suspects the opposition

and 17 people, including 14 pupils, have been arrested. [Text] [Paris

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 3] /9317

1987 BUDGET-- The Comorian minister for finance and the economy, Said Ahmed

Said Ali, submitted his budget proposals for 1987 to the country's parliament on November 13. The operating budget provides for revenue of nine

billion Comorian francs and expenditure at 11 billion. As usual, the

shortfall of two billion francs will be met from French budgetary aid.

Capital expenditure, all of which is met from outside sources, is put at

10 billion francs. In his speech to parliament Mr Said Ali said 1987

would be "a year of austerity, which will see in particular retrenchment

of staff and a freeze on promotions and recruitment in the civil service."

[Text] [Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 6] /9317

CS0: 3400/760
EQUATORIAL GUINEA

BRIEFS

PLANE CRASH KILLS 18—Madrid, 3 Jan (AFP)—Eighteen people—including 11

Spanish priests and nuns and four sons of Equatorial Guinea's education

minister—were killed when their plane crashed into the sea after taking

off Friday from the Equatorial Guinean town of Bata, Spanish officials

said here. The plane was a Spanish Aviocar military aircraft used to ferry

supplies as part of an economic aid program. There were no survivors.

The three crew members—two Spanish air force captains and a sub-lieutenantwere among the dead. The only Equatorial Guineans aboard were the four

sons of education minister Fortunato Azambi Macainde, the officials said.

[Text] [Paris AFP in English 0051 GMT 3 Jan 87 AU] /12624

CSO: 3400/769
MADAGASCAR

IMF AGREEMENT CONDITIONS VIEWED

Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 15 Nov 86 p 8

[Text] An International Monetary Fund monitoring team is expected to arrive

in Antananarivo on November 19, It will make sure that the conditions imposed by the IMF for last September's agreement to provide 30 million Special

Drawing Rights over the next 17 months have been met (see ION No 249). A

second review will be carried out in May 1987.

I. O.N, „.-According to an IMF internal document relating to this loan, details

of which have become known to THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER, some administrators, notably West Germany, the United States and Britain, have voiced concern at Madagascar's poor economic performance after five structural adjustment agreements with the IMF. The document stressed in^particular that

moves to raise prices paid to producers would only really have an incentive

effect if accompanying measures, notably an improvement in transport services

and roads to productive regions. In this respect, the IMF said, the World

Bank could play a major role.

The rigidity of the Malagasy administration, both in regard to trade regulations and allocation of foreign currency, are partly responsible, according

to the IMF, for the country's inability over the past five years to foster

the development of exports by a substantial amount. As a result, Madagascar

has been forced to seek to balance its external accounts by cutting its imports

by half. The structural adjustment plan adopted last September therefore has

two principal objectives: to substitute local production for imports of rice,

and to boost the export of agricultural produce.

During its stay the IMF team will be given the list of 36 state-owned companies to be restructured, either by being broken up or partially privatised.

The reform of the banking system, which is entirely under state control, is

also on the agenda, but private participation in this sector seems to be ruled

out for the moment as it is forbidden by the constitution, and also because

Madagascar's banks are totally incapable of meeting any competition. Their

reorganisation should be a priority for both the IMF and the government. At

present the interest rate being applied by Madagascar's banks amounts to 25

percent, including commission.

In addition the government is preparing to lift all restrictions, with a few

exceptions, on the price of goods manufactured locally, as well as on exported

products. This follows the abolition of state controls on pepper prices and

the rise in the price of coffee, vanilla, rice and paddy.

/9274

CSO! 3400/750 9
MADAGASCAR

MINISTER FOR TRADE DISCUSSES ECONOMIC SITUATION

Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 8 Nov 86 pp 8, 9

[Text]

Georges Solofoson is one of three ministers, the others being Pascal

Rakotomovo for finance and Jose Rakotamovo for industry, responsible for

implementing the policy of restructuring the economy and allowing in foreign

capiuU which was decided two years ago by President DidierRatiraka

the earn??*011* fr°eS Mt ^^ *» PUbU° ***? °

ften>is "" *> have

90-mZni t

d

°

f

T

te

-

HG Sp°ke t0 The Indian 0ce Newsletter in a

90-mmute interview m his Antananarivo office on October 31 covering the

w?hT. Z

MadTSCtr

'

the C

°

Untry'S f0relsn trade d

with the International Monetary Fund. then^ZZs

^NOCEAN ^WSLETTER; Southern Madagascar Is suffering frn, r»m^ „„,

GEORGES SOLOFOSON: I can neither confirm nor deny those figures but it is

r^6 h?\ Si8 haVe b6en deaths-

A few People are also dyTng of hunger in the capital. The problem is not only drought but the lacf of purchasing

lZer« H

CHUSe "Ce and CSSSava can be found in ^e south. The government has

S«Mdl5C1r "I ,iSend-

f0°d subsidised fe

y the National Relief Councü We have

tha food a nth- T

S Pr°blem al°ne f0r the moment

-

lt must a

^° be stressed that food aid which we receive from abroad cannot be distributed free

because we are obliged to sell it to fund agricultural projects '

I.O.N.: The cost of rice has not stnnped rising. Tt. now costs son Ma»aggw

?!"!! T ^lWhil

the nati0?f

'

1 ,"inimUm

~»

H

- "* eJ Ln francs a month. When controls nn

rice prices were lifted cn,imipt»iv »oU

April you said that the State would mtpnl. with hnffar rtSfftoKn

prices down. Is it not time to do this" to Keep

Sfn nJrht

situation is

, Particularly worrying, but the buffer stocks have

st 11 not been constituted. In any case, I cannot disclose the threshold

tT«co«^T.S^t?onWhleh WaS Sgreed Wlth the IMF'

bSCaUSe We d

° ^

I.O.N.: If the standard of living in Madagascar continues to worsen do vou

not think that the ehiirrt.»« ,fii harden thpir opposition? '

Y

"

G.S.: You are asking me a question which it is difficult for me to answer.

10
L0

-

N

-

:—Ihe People's National Assembly has just rejected the project for an

institute of management funded by the World Bank. How do vou interpret this

vote, which observers have called "historic"?

G.S.: This vote proves that our parliament is not just a rubber stamp. It

also means that we cannot conclude just any agreement with foreign partners

We must therefore be prudent.

I.O.N.: The negotiation of the last stand-bv agreement with the International

Monetary Fund was particularly arduous, and ran into difficulties especially

with regard to coffee prices. Can you explain why?

G.S.: We are sometimes held up as a "model" in the implementation of economic

restructuring agreements with the IMF. But we have the impression that as far

as the fund is concerned, the more we behave in a "model" fashion the more

concessions are demanded. You talk of coffee: like President Ratsiraka, I am

the son of a coffee producer. We are not against raising the price paid to

the producer. But the IMF has made us put the price up twice in a single

season. It went from 385 francs per kilo to 470, then to 600, so the farmers

who sold their crop for 470 think they lost out. The middlemen, meanwhile,

have profited. This was blamed on us. Furthermore, just as we were being

asked to agree to a new increase, international coffee prices fell. It must

be noted, too, that this year we exported 52,000 tonnes of coffee, as against

49,000 tonnes last year.

I.O.N.: You are accused of making strategic use of your vanilla stocks. What

is the situation? ~

—" G.S.: In Europe people believe that we have too much vanilla. In 1985 we had

an exceptional harvest of 1,500 tonnes. But this year we will not exceed 600

tonnes, or a third of last year's crop. Because of vanilla's growth cycle,

the harvest is low one year in every three. Next year will be a good one

provided no cyclone hits the vanilla-growing areas. Our management of our

stocks will take these factors into consideration. But there is no reason to

fear that Madagascar, which is the world's leading producer of vanilla, will

decide one day to flood the market with its stocks. At certain times we have

had as much as 3,000 tonnes of vanilla. At present we have between 1,000 and

1,200 tonnes.

As for cloves, we will produce 6,000 tonnes in 1986 compared with 8,000

last year, and they will be exported principally to Indonesia.

I.O.N.: Some foreign operators would like to have barter deals. You do not

seem to be interested, yet you have such arrangements frequently with the

Soviet union.

G.S.: Bartering is forbidden by our laws, but we have done it when the

economic situation has allowed. The oil which we buy from the Soviet Union is

not paid for in goods, but through financial agreements. On the other hand we

have exchanged cloves for vehicles when we had large stocks, and we did the

same with West Germany to obtain Mercedes trucks. The bartering of cloves has

now ended because we are selling all our production.

I.O.N.: What about other produce, like cotton, vanilla or some minerals?

G.S.: We have never bartered cotton, coffee or minerals. As for vanilla, its

11
price is too sensitive. It wouid be too easy for our partners to overcharge

and bring down the price of vanilla.

I.O.N.: Are you planning massive redundancies in State undertakings?

G.S.: Studies on the enterprises to be restructured are not yet complete. It

is too early to reply to the question.

I.O.N.: What results does the Malagasy government expect from its invitations

to Western investors, particularly French? What limits are you placing on

this policy?

G.S.: We are not anticipating a rush of investors to Madagascar. They want to

be cautious, and it is better that way. As they want to be sure of getting

their dividends back, they will concentrate on exports, they will not be

interested in the domestic market. There are many things which have to be

done. Take, for example, out of season vegetables, we know how to produce

them but we do not have the marketing facilities.

I.O.N.: Do you consider there is a consensus on your policy of looking overseas and restructuring the economy?

G.S.: There is not unanimity. We must take care to listen to the minority

which opposed the new investment code. We are having difficulty in making the

meaning of our measures understood. As the proverb says, "words are wasted on

a starving man". We must be careful and stop ourselves falling into a mood of

complacent optimism.

/9274

CSO: 3400/748

12
MADAGASCAR

FAMINE IN SOUTH DESCRIBED

Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 8 Nov 86 p 1

[Text] Several thousand people have died from hunger in southern Madagascar

in recent months, with their plight unknown to the outside world. The lack

of food in the region of Toamasina is also giving rise to concern. In that

area of northeast Madagascar, on the island of Sainte Marie and round

Fenoarivo Atsin and Vavatenina, which was hit last March by the cyclone

Honorinina, no deaths have yet been reported but more and more people have

nothing left but the virtually uneatable root vegetable known as "via."

Clove, mango and banana trees and cassava fields have all been uprooted,

while the international aid which was sent in great quantities after the

disaster has fallen off.

In the south, where not a drop of rain fell between 1985 and last September,

people have died in large numbers in the Androy, Mahafaly and Taolognaro

regions. At a press conference in Antananarivo on October 23, which was

barely reported by the local media, the figure of 47,520 dead and 200,000

refugees fleeing north from Androy in search of food was put forward by

Monja Jaona, a member of parliament who opposed President Didier Ratsiraka in

the 1982 presidential election. The figures were impossible to check.

Other places in the south, like Isoanala and Bezaha, are suffering no food

shortages. The difference is explained by the almost total lack of roads

between the villages. As minister for trade Georges Solofoson has himself

admitted (see pp 8^9), the problem is not so much drought as "the lack of

purchasing power," In fact, cassava and rice can be bought, but at a price

for the latter of 1,500 Malagasy francs per kilo. This is three times the

cost of Antananarivo, which is already high. On November 3 the State

stepped in with buffer stocks to bring the price down to 450 francs.

In the last three weeks the government seems to have decided to take action

and send food into the south, but it still declines to issue an appeal for

international aid as Mr Jaona, the leader of the M0NIMA party, is demanding.

The minister for livestock and forests, Joseph Randrianasolo, who is a

southerner, and for agricultural production, Jose Andrianoelison, have just

visited the region. The President's AREMA party has also been mobilised, and

Antonov transport planes flew in some food last week. In the region allegations are unhesitating against the Procoops, the organisation which supervises

13
the AREMA's co-operatives and which is headed by Hortense Raveloson

Mahasampa, the president's sister-in-law. The Procoops is accused of

taking over land which has been deserted by farmers who are starving or who

have lost their cattle to "dahalo" rustlers. Local people are also convinced

that AREMA is also making they pay for their traditional resistance and support for MONIMA at the last elections.

At the end of October no foreign organisation had yet sent any teams to the

south, although a film crew has been there. The famine comes at a time when

the Catholic Relief Services, the American charity working with the churches

in Madagascar, is considering cutting back its aid because it is tired of

almost half its gifts being embezzled by the country's administration.

/9274

CSOJ 3400/748

14
MADAGASCAR

BRIEFS

UNIVERSITY REFORM—The measures for university reform which in theory are

to commence with the arrival of the new rector, the former head of the

Madagascar Observatory, Professor Rakotondrainibe, have been condemned by

staff as well as students. In protest pamphlets distributed by students

he has been dubbed "the dragon comet." However, the government believes

it has found the right man to carry out the programme for reforming higher

education which it is about to undertake under pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Its measures include shedding

numbers: 5,200 students will soon be expelled because they have repeated

years two or three times. I.O.N.—Certain teachers consider the measures

technically acceptable but think that from a political and social point of

view they threaten to worsen greatly the current atmosphere of discontent

at the university. It is also noteworthy that some departments are being

changed into separate institutions. However, these developments seem to

conflict with the spirit of law 78-040 which supports socialist education

and are considered in some student circles as a "repudiation of the socialist achievements of the university." The pro-government press prefers to

speak of "new objectives" (Midi Madagascar) or "quantitative improvement"

(Madagascar Matin). [Text] [Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English

22 Nov 86 p 3] /9317

MALNUTRITION CONFIRMED—According to a confidential report by the African

Development Fund dated September 1986, of which The Indian Ocean Newsletter

has details, between 33 percent and 52 percent of Malagasy children under

five are suffering from "quantitative under-feeding." The report also said

that the malnutrition is more due to general calory deficiency than a lack

of proteins. This confirms the extremely worrying food situation which

exists in certain regions of Madagascar, including the capital. [Text]

[Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 6] /9317

TRADE IMPROVES WITH SOVIET UNION—The participation of the Soviet Union in

Madagascar's foreign trade went up from one percent to 8.6 percent between

1982 and 1985, according to the latest Malagasy statistics. Eighty percent

of Soviet exports to Madagascar last year consisted of oil deliveries.

The European Economic Community also saw its share increase from 48.6 percent to 50.6, while Japan fell back to 2.45 percent last year, compared

with 5.7 percent three years before. The proportion of imports from France

also diminished slightly in the same period, from 34 percent to 32.5 percent. [Text] [Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 6]

/9317

FRANCE TO BUILD LANDING STRIP—France will construct a landing strip next

year in the lies Glorieuses, the archipelago claimed by Madagascar. [Text]

[Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 7] /9317

CSO: 3400/760 15
MALI

PROBLEMS OF MÄLIANS WORKING IN LIBYA

Bamako L'ESSOR in French 16, 21 Oct 86

[16 Oct 86 p 6j

[

rArticle by M. Kante and A. Camara: "Eldorado Isn't What It Used To Be"!

[Text] For most of the Mallans we met in Libya, getting to Tripoli was

a challenge to be met at any cost, because it meant starting a life of

prosperity unavailable anywhere else in the world. Just get there any

way you can; the main thing is to stay there. Generally speaking, those

who went there seeking their fortunes took one of two roads.

The harder trek lay across the desert. From the various regions of Mali,

young people flocked to Gao, whence they headed for Tamanrasset, on the

Algerian border. Professional guides, working mainly out of Gao, were

paid to lead the emigrants across the desert on donkey or camel or, rarely,

by car. The guides' expert knowledge of the desert enabled them to escape

the surveillance of local authorities in Mali and Algeria. Once across

the border, the travelers passed through Gatt and Gadames, towns located

on the Algerian-Libyan border. There, the guides turned back, and the

emigrants were left to their own devices.

With the revolution of 1 September 1960 [as published], commonly called

al-Fatah, and with the help of oil prospecting, Tripoli, the capital of

Libya, became a green metropolis. Many projects were undertaken in housing, road construction and agriculture on behalf of the Libyan people.

Carrying out and maintaining these tasks of popular development have

required Libya to draw from abroad some of the workers it needed, because

the country's population is only 3 million.

Thousands of Egyptians and Tunisians were the first to come. Then Filipinos, Chadians, Guineans, Malians and Moroccans, among others, invaded

the Libyan labor market. Over the years, this market has not remained

untouched by fallout from the world-wide economic recession and, especially, the drop in oil prices.

16
One of our fellow citizens, Mr Namory Coullbaly, who has been living in

Tripoli since 1969, has experienced the effects of the changing economic

situation. He sees two main periods: "When I came here in 1969, the average wage was 150 Libyan dinars (1 Libyan dinar equals $3.33). That was

an enormous sum at the time, and workers could not only put money into

savings but also lead a relatively acceptable life. We could also convert

as much as 100 percent of our wages into foreign currency. Nor was there

any danger that foreign companies would abuse our trust when it came to

paying wages on time. At that time there were a lot of good reasons to

go to Tripoli.

"But now," Mr Coulibaly adds, "life has become extremely hard for us here

in Tripoli. One example of this is the 'yomya-yomya' or 'chade,' which,

in the local dialect, refers to day labor that earns 10 to 15 Libyan

dinars a day and is relatively more profitable than a monthly salary.

That is the kind of work we most commonly perform now."

It is impossible at this point to say how many Malians there are in Libya.

The Malian embassy in Tripoli counted 5,000 people at the beginning of

1985, but this figure was too low, because the massive expulsions in

June and July of that year revealed that the Malian diaspora was much

larger than that. Indeed, almost 11,000 people were forcibly repatriated.

According to estimates at the time, 1,500 Malians remained in Libya after

the deportations. Since then, some deportees have returned, and there

have even been new arrivals. Malian nationals in Libya can now be estimated

at more than 4,000. They are living mainly in Sabha, Bari, Gatt, Benghazi,

Missirata and Tripoli.

Some 80 percent of these people are illegals, and this means harsh living

conditions in a completely alien social environment.

They are in constant danger of being sent to Zanzur, Tripoli's main prison,

before being "shipped out" under military guard to their countries of origin. The permanently insecure status of these "stevedores" is, of course,

exploited by some "moudir," or bosses. On this point, it should be noted

that these taskmasters belong to private, generally European companies

operating in Libya for limited times. Libyan natives are not subjected

so such treatment.

We are told that in December 1985, the Turkish home-trade shipping company

Cerika, which was headed by one Bassam Mohamed, refused to pay 3 months

wages to seven young Malian illegal-immigrant workers. At the outset,

Bassam Mohamed promised to get them legal status (an official residence

permit contingent on a work contract). But, he said, they first had to

serve a probationary period. After 3 months, the workers appealed in

turn to the Malian embassy, the Markes Churta (police), and the Libyan

Labor Fund to intervene. Unfortunately they did not have the shyster's

address, and he slipped between the fingers of the authorities, who normally manage to find just solutions to such frequent problems in Libya.

17
Young Djakaridia Bamba has been in Tripoli since January 1984, but he

already talks like an old hand. "You know, the illegal who makes it

to Tripoli can figure he's lucky to be alive. He could have died of

hunger or thirst in the desert or been cut down in some ambush where

he could escape only by a miracle. On the other hand, once he does

arrive in a large town or city, he's haunted by two big problems: rejection, which means harassment and expropriation; and the difficulty in

adjusting to Libyan society. Also, the Libyan dinar can't be exchanged,

and the prohibition against holding Libyan currency is a real problem

for us. That's when we realize we'y,e gone to a lot of trouble for practically nothäng. To put it frankly; a good maintenance man in the Ivory

Coast is definitely better off moneywise than an immigrant worker in Libya."

[21 Oct 86 p 6]

[Article by M. Kante and A. Camara: "The Embassy as Campground and Workers'

Clearing House"]

[Text] Although it is difficult for us to attest to the accuracy of

Mr Bamba's conclusion, which is somewhat subjective, we have found two

diametrically opposite situations concerning Malians in Libya.

First, the Malians who have a work contract are generally given company

housing. If the company belongs to the Libyan government, they also get

free board. Those who have an official residence permit can convert 30

to 40 percent of their wages into foreign currency. All others have no

chance to exchange money in banks, and exchanging money on the black

market_is_severely-punished-by the_Libyan police. All.the-workers can

do with their earnings is spend them—provided they get the chance, because sales are rationed—in hopes of being able to send their purchases

home.

Then there are the "yomya-yomya" or "stevedores"—and remember they account

for 80 percent of the Malians in Tripoli—who have a doubly difficult time

of it. Not only do they risk being rounded up at any time because their

kind of work is prohibited in Libya but they have no housing, either.

The workers' centers that used to house them were closed by the authorities last year. What solutions have the workers found to this situation?

Unfortunately, those who have ventured across the Libyan desert have

invaded the Malian embassy simply to find a place to stay. It is no

exaggeration to say that since July 1985 the "yomya-yomya" have turned

the Malian embassy into nothing more or less than a hiring hall for day

laborers, something like the railroad yard or Medina Koura in Bamako.

When the great wave of expulsions took place last year, it is reported

that there were more than 600 squatters a day at the embassy. They said

they were there out of concern for their safety. The ambassador, His

Excellency Bakary Drame, organized 11 charter flights to Bamako. Some

8,000 Malians were able to return home. Among them were hundreds of

women, children and ill people. The embassy even persuaded the Libyan

government to free some Malians from prison so that they could take a

plane home. Now there are more than 100 lurking about the embassy or

18
occupying its hallways during the day. They may or may not have suitcases,

and they do not heed the explanations of embassy personnel who try in vain

to make them understand that the embassy is only a workplace and not a

shelter for Malian emigrants. The bolder ones who do not fear being

caught by the police take refuge in the homes of Malian nationals or

other Africans they are acquainted with. It should be noted that only

married couples may rent houses in Libya.

The language barrier is another, no less important handicap added to the

problems facing Malians as soon as they enter this desert country where

Arabic is the sole official language. Italian and English are also spoken,

but not widely. Malian newcomers are generally uneducated and are lost in

this society where, although racism is not found in public and is officially prohibited, the society is very different from Mali's. For example:

in Mali, the host brings his guests right into his living room, while in

Libya visitors or friends are received outside the house on a special patio

designed specifically for this purpose.

In conclusion, it is obvious that the general situation prevailing in

Libya offers migrants little hope of getting rich quickly and safely.

For some, the low percentage of money that may be exchanged for foreign

currency is an obstacle; for others, it is the very impossibility of going

to a bank to exchange any money at all. They all face enormous problems

in sending their puchases home (mainly houshold appliances, stereos and

television sets). These are factors that should pour cold water on the

enthusiasm of those who would seek Eldorado.

However, migrant workers continue to flow into Libya, lured by tenacious

illusions. Should they be stopped, at the price of personal freedom? We

don't think so. The most that need be done is to neutralize the clandestine guides working along the northern border and enforce the existing

labor agreement between Libya and Mali.

Meanwhile, the goodly amount of rainfall that has occurred in Mali in

the last 2 years may be a psychological factor in slowing emigration,

if indeed the drought and famine that this country has experienced are

the main reasons for these poor workers' departures.

Finally, Malians who want to take the "road to Tripoli," as it is commonly

referred to, should beware. An electrician, Mr Koumare, married, father

of three and a veteran of the Libyan capital cites his own case as a warning: "I have been in Libya since 1977 and have earned a good living.

Seeking your fortune in Libya today is a crap-shoot, and you have to

realize that there are more chances to lose than to win. I have put

down roots and made connections since I came here, but I survived last

year's wave of layoffs and expulsions only because the company I work

for cannot get along without me. It's as simple as that. I have been

getting ready to go back to Mali, no matter what. Whoever wants to come

here will have to realize he is playing a lottery. Let a word to the

wise be sufficient."

19
[21 Oct 86 p 6]

[Article by M. Kante: "Labor: What Do the Texts Say?"]

[Text] Mali and the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya have an

administrative convention on the use of labor. It was signed in Bamako

in 1980 and ratified by the two countries 4 years later. It regulates

the conditions under which labor moves from Mali to Libya.

The treaty provides that any commitment to work must be submitted to

the official agencies in charge of operations and formalities in recruiting workers: the Bureau of Labor Coordination, the Libyan embassy in Mali,

and the Labor Office in Mali. The Malian embassy in Libya is, according

to the treaty, charged with handling the problems of Malian workers in

close collaboration and coordination with the appropriate Libyan authorities. It is also clearly stated that Malian workers may be hired in Libya

only if they "possess individual contracts between himself and his employer

written in Arabic and French according to the model previously approved by

the parties signatory to the present convention."

To provide for the consequences that may arise in executing the work

contract, article 5 of this agreement stipulates important employer

obligations, especially that of providing the worker a round-trip ticket

from Bamako to Tripoli. It is also stated that Malian workers have the

right to convert their savings into foreign currency and to send them

to Mali.

The people affected are, of course, those who go to Libya under the

auspices of this convention. The Libyan authorities authorize the

transfer of their earnings according to and in compliance with the

exchange regulations in force in their country. In 1980, 90 percent

of earnings were transferable if the worker was single and 60 percent,

if married.

However, we are unfortunately obliged to note that almost none of the

Malians presently livng in Libya observe the hiring conditions set forth

in this convention, which was signed in a mutual spirit of bilateral

cooperation.

As a consequence, the Malian embassy has had to intervene more and more

in the lives of Malian nationals. Thus, to enable them to return home,

the Malian legation provides them with not only exit visas but plane

tickets. A foreigner with irregular status does not have the right to

obtain them himself. At present, an average of 28 Malians return home

every Friday.

8782

CSO: 3419/238

20
MAURITIUS

WEEKLY VIEWS TACTICS OF OPPOSITION MMM

Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 8 Nov 86 p 4

[Text] The politbureau of the opposition Mouvement Militant Mauricien met

on November 5 to discuss among other things recent contacts between JeanClaude de l'Estrac, the party's secretary for external relations and mayor

of Beau Bassin/Rose Hill, and prime minister Anerood Jugnauth. These

talks, which have given rise to rumours in Mauritius of a possible alliance

between Mr Jugnauth's Mouvement Social Mauricien and the MMM, have come

just as the leader of the MMM, Paul Berenger, has been stepping up his

attacks on the prime minister, accusing him of being "responsible" for links

between his government and the big drug dealers.

The report on the differences between Mr Berenger and Mr de l'Estrac which

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER published two weeks ago (ION No 253) has also

made waves on the political scene. There is speculation that Mr de l'Estrac

might try to force through an agreement with the MSM, The MMM, which is

riding high because of allegations of drug dealing and corruption which

have tainted the Jugnauth government, has to choose between three strategies

in the run-up to a general election! an alliance with the Labour Party if

the latter decides to go back into opposition under Nuvin Ramgoolam, the son

of its late leader who would be its Hindu "guarantee," an alliance with a

purged MSM (an option which is apparently supported by Jean-Claude de

l'Estrac), or going it alone, which a number of grass-roots militants would

like.

Mr Jugnauth, however, has not said his last word, and could profit from the

excellent economic results to make no changes to the existing governing

coalition,

/9274

CSOf 3400/748

21
MAURITIUS

BRIEFS

SUGAR AGREEMENT WITH EEC—An agreement between the EEC and the sugar exporting states of the ACP (African^Caribbean-Pacific) group was concluded on

October 31. The price per quintal of raw sugar imported into Europe was

put at 44,92 ECUs and of white sugar at 55,39 ECUs, Mauritius remains the

EEC s principal supplier with a quota of 490,000 tonnes. This year

Mauritian sugar production could exceed 700,000 tonnes, beating the record

of 1973, [Text] [Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 8 Nov 86

p 7] /9274

CSOs 3400/748

22
MOZAMBIQUE

RSA ALLEGEDLY HANDING REFUGEES OVER TO MNR

MB111706 Harare THE HERALD in English 15 Dec 86 p 11

[Report: "Fleeing Mozambicans Forced into MNR Hands by Pretoria"]

[Text] South Africa is forcing fugitive Mozambicans back into the

clutches of the MNR bandits, according to two American documentary

photographers who have arrived in Zimbabwe from Johannesburg.

Tony Savino and Cathrine Smith, both from the New York-based Impact

Visuals, told THE HERALD at the weekend that Mozambicans fleeing

MNR terror found themselves back in the hands of the bandits if they,

usually under extreme pressure, crossed into South Africa.

The two, who spent about 10 weeks in South Africa documenting the life

of a people under apartheid, said most of the displaced people they had

spoken to had told of "a reign of terror" by the South African-backed-bandits.

On the situation in South Africa itself, they did not believe Pretoria would

of its own will dismantle apartheid.

"From what we have seen, only a combination of armed attacks, comprehensive

mandatory sanctions and other domestic and international pressure will

remove that system", said Mr Savino.

It has got to be a multifaceted kind of struggle," he said.

While in South Africa, the two visited many areas, including Crossroads

and the black townships in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and other

cities and towns.

"It is a police state in every way, with virtually every political

organization having members in detention."

On the number of people being killed every day, she said: "It's just

genocide which the South African Government is practising."

The two, who leave Harare next week, said they intended using their

pictures in a slide show photo exhibition and pictorial book on South Africa.

/12624

CSO: 3400/774

23
MOZAMBIQUE

COOPERATION PROTOCOL SIGNED WITH GDR

MB121909 Maputo Domestic Service in Portuguese 1730 GMT 12 Jan 87

[Text] Hans-Joachim Heusinger, the GDR's Council of Ministers deputy

chairman and minister of justice, has described as splendid his visit

to our country. He is leading a GDR delegation visiting our country

since Wednesday within the framework of cooperation agreement signed

in 1981 between the Mozambican and GDR Justice Ministries. Before his

departure for the People's Republic of Angola, where he will also hold

talks with that country's authorities, Hans-Joachim Heusinger said

in an interview with the national media that his visit to our country

gave him an opportunity to review the implementation of cooperation

protocol established for the last 2 years. He also stressed that the

visit enabled him to familiarize himself with the activities of judicial

bodies both in Maputo and Manica.

This morning, the GDR delegation was received by Joaquim Chlssano,

president of the People's Republic of Mozambique. Earlier, Dr Mario

Machungo, our country's prime minister, granted an audience to the head

of the GDR delegation during which cooperation relations between the

GDR and our country were discussed. Also discussed in the meeting was

the international situation, particularly the situation in southern

Africa and central Europe.

Early this morning [as heard], Justice Ministry delegations from our

country and GDR signed a cooperation protocol in the judicial field for this

year and 1988. The agreement was signed by our country's justice minister,

Ossumane Ali Dauto, and Dr Hans-Joachim Heusinger, the GDR's Council

of Ministers deputy chairman and minister of justice.

/12624

CSO: 3400/774

24
MOZAMBIQUE

ASSEMBLY ACKNOWLEDGES NEW STANDING COMMISSION

[Editorial Report] Maputo Domestic Service in Portuguese at 1600 GMT on

13 January carries a live relay of the proceedings of the first session of

the Mozambican People's Assembly second legislature.

At 1602 GMT, speaking on the occasion of his swearing-in as the chairman

of the People's Assembly, Marcelino dos Santos says that the People's

Assembly will continue with the work left by the late President Samora Machel.

He adds: "Comrade president, we have created the post of the chairman of

the People's Assembly in the second legislature. There is therefore an

already opened path, work that has already been carried out." Marcelino

dos Santos then salutes all deputies, "wishing them determination, courage,

and success in the noble task to serve the people in this new mandate and

intensify the struggle against armed bandits, famine, nakedness and

underdevelopment, for socialism and peace." Dos Santos concludes his

remarks at 1606 GMT.

Following his speech, Dos Santos is congratulated by members of the

Political Bureau and other people. At 1610 GMT, Dos Santos says it is now

time to elect members of the People's Assembly Standing Commission.

"According to the constitution, the People's Assembly Standing Commission

is elected by the People's Assembly following a proposal by the Frelimo Party

Central Committee. This is what is contained in Article 50 of our

constitution, and it was under these terms that, during its sixth session

proceedings, the Central Comimttee drafted the following proposal of deputies

to be integrated in the People's Assembly Standing Commission. I shall

call on them one by one, requesting them to come and stand here by the

presidium. Marcelino dos Santos, Alberto Joaquin Chipande, Jose Oscar

Monteiro, Oswaldo Assahel Tazama, Fernando dos Reis Ganhao, Rui Baltazar

dos Santos Alves, Augusto Macamo, Raimundo Pachinuapa, Graca Machel — she

is absent, Eduardo da Silva Nihia — he is absent, Salesio Teodoro Nalyambipano,

Feliciano Gundana, Salome Moiane, Antonio Trindade Costley White,

Aurelio Manhica, Jorge Mabay Tembe, Samuel Chambuca, Cristiano Paulo

Taimo, Salomao Meque Chironda, Afonso Joao.

"Comrade president, deputies, invited guests, that was the Central Committee

proposal with regard to the members of the People's Assembly Standing

Commission. We would now like to congratulate them all and ask them to

return to their seats. Thank you."

25
The announcer, at 1618 GMT, then says: "That was the Central Committee

proposal for the members of the People's Assembly Standing Commission.

It is a proposal of 20 members, some of whom — 8, if I am not mistaken —

were members of the previous Standing Commission of the first legislature."

Marcelino dos Santos returns at 1619 GMT to ask if there are any deputies

who would like to vote against or abstain. Then he announces that the

People's Assembly Standing Commission has been established following a

unanimous vote and thanks participants and guests. Live relay ends at

1623 GMT.

/12624

CSO: 3400/774

26
MOZAMBIQUE

BRIEFS

MNR REPORTEDLY RESTRUCTURING EXTERNAL WING—A former Mozambican ambassador

to Portugal has joined the rebel MNR. A Lisbon weekly newspaper says former

Ambassador (Joao Ataide), who has been in political exile in Lisbon, has

joined the right-wing rebels in what has been described as an overall

restructuring of the organization's external wing. And the paper says

another top-ranking official could also be joining the organization as part

of the new move. It says embassy official and member of the Mozambican

security police (Franscico Mascarenhas) is expected to be named as a

delegate to the rebel minisummit due to be held soon in central Europe.

[Text] [Umtata Capital Radio in English 1000 GMT 11 Jan 87 MB] /12624

ANC MEMBERS REMAIN IN COUNTRY—There are reported to be more than a

hundred members of the African National Congress still in Mozambique,

after a Mozambican Government undertaking to expel 6 ANC activists at

South Africa's request. Radio RSA's Lisbon correspondent (?is quoting)

diplomatic sources in Portugal, and says, however, that the exact number

is difficult to establish, as some ANC members have acquired Mozambican

citizenship. Our correspondent says a senior ANC official has claimed

that the Mozambican Government would not close down the organization's

offices in Maputo and that there are confirmed reports of ANC men in

military barracks in the northern Mozambican towns of Inhambane and Nampula.

[Text] [Johannesburg International Service in English 1100 GMT 10 Jan 87 MB]

/12624

CSO: 3400/774

27
NIGER

BRIEFS

KOUNTCHE RETURNS AFTER MEDICAL TREATMENT—Brigadier General Seyni Kountche,

chairman of the Supreme Military Council [CSM] and head of state, returned

to Niamey this afternoon from Paris where he underwent medical treatment

following his illness on 31 December 1986. Gen Seyni Kountche, accompanied

by his wife, was welcomed by the chairman of the National Development

Council, Mamane Oumarou, and the chief of staff of the National Armed

Forces, Colonel (Ali Kogo). He was later greeted by the members of the

government headed by Prime Minister Hamid Algabid as well as members

of the CSM and of the diplomatic corps. In order to enable the Niger nation

to celebrate with happiness and popular joy the return of the head of state,

tomorrow, Monday, 12 January 1987, has been declared a paid holiday

throughout the national territory. [Excerpts] [Niamey Domestic Service

in French 2150 GMT 11 Jan 87 AB] /12624

CSO: 3400/769

28
REUNION

BRIEFS

GIANT TELESCOPE PROJECT—Reunion is in competition with Chile as the site

of the largest telescope in the world. The possibility was raised in

Paris on November 13 by the head of the 13-member European Southern

Observatory. The cost of the project is put at one billion francs. While

ftoom the technical point of view the Chilean site seems to be preferred,

France could use its influence as leader of the ESO to persuade its partners

to install the telescope on "European" territory. France has also

contributed more than 80 million francs to the project in 1985-86. [Text]

[Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 7] /9317

INDIAN OCEAN REGION PLANS ABANDONED—France's minister responsible for

overseas territories, Bernard Pons, has abandoned for the moment the idea

of creating an administrative Indian Ocean region containing Reunion,

Mayotte, the Scattered Islands and the Southern and Antarctic Territories.

[Text] [Paris THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER in English 22 Nov 86 p 7]

/9317

CSO: 3400/760

29
SEYCHELLES

CONSTRUCTION PLAN OF NEW FISHING PORT, INDUSTRIES REPORTED

Kampala NEW VISION in English 9 Dec 86 p 2

[Text] The land area of the Seychelles has grown by more than one square

kilometre in one year. A huge dredger, starting work in July 1985, chewed

and pumped dead corals from the seabed to add 120 hectares along the east

coast to the mainland island of Mahe. The total land area of the island is

now 455 square kilometres.

Fast-developing Seychelles had run out of space and the multi-million dollar

reclaimmation scheme became the platform for the launching of the most ambitious package of projects over designed for the island.

Land gained from the sea is providing space for construction of a modern

fishing port, the extension of the commercial port, industries, roads,

housing and for recreational purposes. These activities, branded the "East

Coast Project," are expected to move the Seychelles into the next era of

progress just like the international airport, also built on reclaimed land,

brought tourism to the island.

The fishing port too deserves mention because it is expected to arm it with

the facilities to enable these islands to reap more from the Indian Ocean

tuna stocks, a rich resource that is being exploited almost entirely by

foreign fleets. A Seychelles Fishing Authority official said the port would

become the tuna centre of the Indian Ocean, A modern tuna canning factory,

already taking shape on the reclaimed land, alone will employ some 300 people.

Activities at the fishing port, after the installation of the necessary facilities, will enable fisheries to surpass tourism in becoming the most important industry in the economy of the country. It is estimated that the Indian

Ocean tuna stocks are worth 250 million dollars annually. Over 70,000 tonnes

of tuna are transhipped through Seychelles a year.

The quay is being lengthened to accommodate more ships. Proper ship repair

facilities to deal with greater tonnage will be built on part of the reclaimed

land. The extension of the commercial port are expected to give added importance to the country's advantageous location in the Indian Ocean, a position which could attract shipping businesses. There have already been

30
discussions on the possibility of turning Victoria into a transhipment port

for goods travelling between Australia and Europe and Africa and Asia.

The land reclaimed by the Blegian dredging company Jan de Nul stretches 4.5

kilometres southward from Port Victoria. On it will be built a portion of a

second highway linking the capital to the international airport, ten kilometres away. The new road will speed up traffic flow along the East Coast

of Mahe island and reduce congestion on the existing access inland.

Land is a scarce commodity in the Seychelles. The development of agriculture, housing, industries and recreational facilities have always been

hampered by the lack of good land. The terrain is difficult, land must be

provided for agriculture and the natural beauty must be preserved. The

alternative is to push back the sea. Government engineer Alan Lloyd said

dredging was the cheapest way of creating new land.

Chief Economist Emmanuel Faure commented that the Government was now

monitoring how many people would find work and how much benefit the reclaimed land would bring to the country,

Mahe island, where 85 percent of the country's population live, has a

density of 365 persons per square kilometres and government has launched a

housing programme to build 500 detached units a year. Housing officials

are welcoming the new land gained from the sea to try out a new concept of

house construction. Never before has the national housing company acquired

such stretches of flat land where building could be laid out neatly and

utilities such as water, electricity, and sewerage can be easily installed.

/9274

CSOi 3400/752

31
SWAZILAND

BRIEFS

POPULATION FIGURES«-Mbabane—Swaziland's population is now 706,137 according

to provisional figures obtained from the country's second population census

held in July. The figures show a 36 percent increase since the country's

first census in 1976, representing an annual growth rate of three percent.

[Text] [East London DAILY DISPATCH in English 12 Dec 86 p 5] /9274

CSOJ 3400/752

32
UGANDA

TIES WITH DPRK TO BE MAINTAINED

Kampala THE STAR in English 11 Dec 86 pp 3, 7

[Text] The Uganda Government will maintain the existing relationship in

economic, technical and scientific fields with the Democratic People's

Republic of Korea.

This was stated by the Prime Minister, Dr Samson Kisekka, when he received

the new Ambassador of North Korea, Mr Kim Tae Ryong, who paid a courtesy

call on him in his office at the Kampala International Conference Centre

yesterday.

The Premier told the Envoy that the new Ugandan Administration of the

National Resistance Movement will do its best to make all Ugandans understand

their rights, adding that it's for the same reason that the Resistance

Committee system of administration was introduced.

He further made it clear that Uganda today is being led by leaders and not

officials as was the case in the past. He added that "it's our work as

leaders to lead our people to their right destinies."

In reply, the Korean Ambassador told the Prime Minister that his country

which is non-aligned like Uganda, and which has been outspoken against

imperialism, racism and apartheid will continue to demand for the rights

of the oppressed people to self determination and freedom.

He said that North Korea will also continue to assist Uganda under the

protocol of economic, technical and scientific signed between Uganda and

Korea in 1981.

Mr Kim Tae Ryong was happy to note that Ugandans have started realising

harmony and real stability after a war spearheaded by the National

Resistance Army.

He thanked the NRM government for the tremendous success they have achieved

for the people of Uganda within the short time they have beein in Government.

/9317

CSO: 3400/753

33
UGANDA

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION BEGINS INQUIRY

Kampala THE STAR in English 12 Dec 86 pp 1, 2, 7

[Text] The National Commission of Inquiry Into the Violation of Human

Rights in Uganda during the last two decades, was opened yesterday at the

International Conference Centre in Kampala by its Chairman, Mr Justice

Arthur Oder.

The Commission opened with the public hearing of a case in which a group of

more than nine people were murdered at a weddding ceremony in Bulera

Gombolola, Mityana sub-district in January last year.

Members of the Commission are Mr Justice Arthur Oder, Mr Edward Khiddu

Makubuya, Mr Jack Luyombya, Mr John Kawanga, Mr John Nagenda and Mr John

Kakwenzire.

The Commission is to inquire into all aspects of violation of human rights,

breaches of the rule of law and excessive abuses of power, committed

against persons in Uganda by the regimes in government, their servants,

agents or agencies during the last two decades up to 25th January, 1986,

and possible ways of preventing the recurrence of these atrocities, and

in particular but without limiting the generality of the inquiry, to inquire

into,

(A) the causes and circumstances surrounding the mass murders and all acts

or omissions resulting into the arbitrary deprivation of human life,

committed in various parts of Uganda,

(B) the cause and circumstances surrounding the numerous arbitrary arrests,

consequent detentions without trial, arbitrary imprisonment and abuse of

powers of detention,

(C) the denial of any person of a fair and public trial before an independent and impartial court established by law,

(D) the subjection of any person to torture, cruelty inhuman and degrading

treatment,

(E) the manner in which the law-enforcement agents and the State security

agencies executed their functions, the extent to which the practice and

34
procedures employed in the execution such functions may have violated

the human rights of any person and the extent to which the State security

agencies may have interfered with the functioning of the law-enforcement

agents,

(F) the causes and circumstances surrounding the massive displacement of

persons and expulsion of people including Uganda citizens from Uganda and

the consequent disappearance or presumed death of some of them,

(G) the subjection of any persons to discriminatory treatment by virtue

of race, tribe, place of origin, political opinion, creed or sex, by any

person acting under any written law or in the performance of the functions

of any public office or public authority,

(H) the denial to any person of any other fundamental freedoms and rights

prescribed under Chapter III of the Constitution of Uganda or the unlawful

interference with the enjoyment by any person in Uganda of the said freedoms

and rights.

The Commission shall in the course of its inquiry, so far as is practicable,

apply the law of evidence, and shall, in particular, conform with the

following instructions, that is to say, that any person desiring to give

evidence to the Commission shall do so in person.

Before the Commission was one Godfrey Sekabembe, first witness in the

murder case who testified that in his home village Kikube Bulera Gombolola

at about 8.30 pm, during his wedding with one Christine Nantege, unidentified armed gang started shooting from the left hand side where he and his

bridegroom were seated, which resulted into running of everybody in disarray

from the scene. Christine Nantenge (17) also testified before the

Commission. Hearing continues today.

/9317

CSO: 3400/753

35
ZAMBIA

BRIEFS

CONTROL OF PESTICIDES—Lusaka—The Entomological Association of Zambia (EAZ)

has suggested the establishment of a pesticides board to monitor the importation and control of pesticides in the country, Dr Dennis Wonchinga EAZ

Chairman in an interview yesterday, said that the country had laid itself

open to the importation of harmful pesticides from abroad because of the

lack of a controlling board to ensure that only tested and a-proved chemicals

were used. There was also little control to ensure that the pesticides used

did not harm either users, the soils and environment around them. [Text]

[Addis Ababa THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD in English 9 Dec 86 p 6] /9274

CSO» 3400/752

36
ZIMBABWE

HERALD BLAMES RSA FOR DELAYED RAILWAY TAKEOVER

MB190935 Harare THE HERALD in English 9 Jan 87 p 6

[Editorial: "Bantustan Game"]

[Text] It has always been Botswana's ambition to take over the Botswana

railway system which is presently owned by the National Railways of

Zimbabwe. Negotiations to that effect have been going on for several years

and late in 1986 appeared finally to have been successfully concluded.

Then, with only a few days remaining to the take-over ceremony, South Africa,

in the guise of Bophuthatswana, threw a spanner into the works by applying

the ridiculous condition that Botswana now had to talk to the bantustan

administration.

Bophuthatswana, one of the so-called independent homelands created as

sovereign republic by the South African regime, is not recognized by

any other country in the world except its creator, South Africa.

This has pained South Africa a great deal but, determined as ever, it

has continued to look for ways to at least get the puppet bantustan

administrators talked to by credible foreign governments.

It is for that reason that the South Africans have been in a hurry to

explain their impotence in the matter concerning the railway line.

They have played their part in signing the agreement with Zimbabwe and

Botswana, they say, and the Bophuthatswana objections have nothing to do

with them.

Botswana has been caught in a most awkward position as it has to abide by

the condition if the deal is to go through. Failing that, its imports

and exports will suffer tremendously as they rely heavily on that

railway system. And if Botswana does negotiate with the Bophuthatswana

bantustan as an equal, South Africa will have scored a major propaganda

coup.

Whether Botswana will choose the devil or the deep blue sea is difficult

to predict at the moment. What can be said is that the South Africans

can always be relied upon to pull out a new trick from the bag. The men

who run the elaborate system of racial segregation called apartheid are no

fools. They know exactly what they are doing. We are being caught

unawares dangerously too often.

37
Bophuthatswana, Transkei, Ciskei, Venda. The black stooges who run those

bantustans are oiling the apartheid machine for the Bothas. They have

a stake in the system in that they are personally rewarded. They are more

than your average Mr Quislings.

It is a lesson to supporters of the blacks' struggle in South Africa and

Namibia.

The gun and the bullet are not the only way to fight an evil system.

The South Africans may feel they are finally winning this battle to

legitimize Lucas Mangope's "presidency" but they can rest assured that

"A Luta continua" [the struggle continues].

/12624

CSO: 3400/784

38
ZIMBABWE

INDABA PROPOSALS MAY CAUSE 'SERIOUS' REPERCUSSIONS

MB190837 Johannesburg SAPA in English 0832 GMT 19 Jan 87

[Text] Pietermaritzburg 19 Jan (SAPA)—If the Indaba proposals for

Kwa Zulu-Natal were implemented there would follow serious socio-economic

consequences for the region, the chairman for the Afrikaanse Sakekamer

[Afrikaans Chamber of Commerce] and the Afrikaanse Handelsinstitut [Afrikaans

Institute of Trade] representative at the Indaba, Mr Chris Hattingh has

said. In a statement today, Mr Hattingh said South Africa (and Natal)

did not possess the economic strength to "equalize a First World and a

Third World economy without the destruction of vested standards and present

economic structure." Kwa-Zulu-Natal (as envisaged by the Indaba) might

find itself in the same position as many African states which create

political expectations which cannot be fulfilled economically. He said

the economy of the region would not be able to meet the cost of the Indaba's

demand for "total control" within one year.

The committee has also recommended that functions such as health services

and education, be adjusted to an average level. Such a step implied a

drastic reduction in standards for whites, while no significant improvement in

standards for blacks was envisaged, Mr Hattingh said. "The Implementation

of such a recommendation within one year — apart from creating totally

unrealistic expectations — will result in serious socio-economic consequences

for the region," Mr Hattingh said. It could cause an outflow of capital,

skilled labor and manegerial expertise and would sitmulate the inflow of

unskilled people and would lead to an "imbalance which would place severe

strain on the existing socio-economic structures with the danger of a total

collapse."

Through its inability to give content to "economic reality" the Indaba

was guilty of "political opportunism which does not offer a workable

solution," Mr Hattingh added.

/12624

CSO: 3400/781

39
ZIMBABWE

RAJBANSI SAYS WHITE ELECTION 'REASONABLE'

MB311651 Johannesburg SAPA in English 1633 GMT 31 Dec 86

[Embargoed until 1800 GMT 31 December]

[Text] Capte Town, 31 Dec, SAPA—An early general election for whites was

"reasonable" seeing the last test of opinion of voters for the House of

Assembly had been in April 1981, the chairman of the Ministers Council in

the House of Delegates, Mr Amichand Rajbansi, said tonight.

Commenting on the election announcement earlier by the state president,

Mr P.W. Botha, during his television New Year's message, Mr Rajbansi said

a general election for Indian voters to coincide with the one for whites

would be "too early".

Mr Rajbansi, who is also leader of the majority National People's Party,:

said he had consulted with the leader of his houses opposition Solidarity

party, Dr J.N. Reddy, and they had reached consensus that no election

should be held now.

He had also discussed the matter with Mr Botha, but the contents of this

discussion were still confidential.

Explaining his view that an election for the House of Delegates now would be

premature, Mr Rajbansi pointed out MP's had held their seats for only two

and a half years and that although progress had been made, it was too early

to present "the fruits of our labor" to voters.

Indian voters had been put to the test during elections for the then SA

Indian Council [SAIC], on the same constitutional basis as that for the

House of Delegates, in February 1981. There had been an SAIC electoral

college election in November that year, and voters had gone to the polls

again in August 1984 for the new dispensation.

"In contrast, white voters last went to the polls in April 1981, and I think

a general election for the House of Assembly now is reasonable," Mr Rajbansi

said.

40
In terms of the 1984 dispensation, the term of office of the House of

Delegates and the House of Representatives only expires towards the end

of 1989 — a five year period.

Mr Rajbansi said that, starting from scratch in the new dispensation,

the House of Delegate's administration had been laying down its

infrastructure, particularly in the spheres of housing and health.

A problem had been the lack of official expertise in the departments

and the need to recruit people with the necessary know-how.

Good progress had been made with laying down the administrations

infrastructure over the last two and a half years, but the process

"takes time".

"Although we are doing fairly well, it is still too early to see the

fruits of our labors, Mr Rajbansi said.

/12624

CSO: 3400/776

41
ZIMBABWE

BANK OFFICIAL PREDICTS DETERIORATING ECONOMY IN 1987

MB101529 Harare THE FINANCIAL GAZETTE in English 12 Dec 86 p 12

[Report: "'Deteriorating' Economic Scene Forecast for 1987"]

[Text] An assessment of the expected performance of Zimbabwe's economy

during 1987/88 paints a picture of a deteriorating balance of payments

position, a slower growth in gross domestic product (GDP), and a decline

in the volume of manufacturing output in the face of renewed inflationary

pressures, high taxes and shortages of imported inputs.

Added to this, says Mr Zdenek Silavecky, group economist with Standard

Chartered Merchant Bank, the worsening political situation in southern

Africa will "almost inevitably" have an adverse Impact on regional

investment, economic growth and business performance.

Zimbabwe's overall balance of payments situation, which improved

significantly in 1984-85 and 1985/86, is expected to deteriorate in

1986-87 and 1987/88. The country's debt service ratio (foreign debt

repayment as a percentage of total foreign currency earnings) will peak

at more than 30 percent in 1987/89, "effectively siphoning more than

30 cents on every dollar earned into debt servicing and repayment."

Mr Silavecky said that it was unlikely there would be a "realistic

improvement in import allocations before the end of 1989, "taking into

account the country's steadily worsening external account position coupled

with ever-increasing foreign currency requirements for defence.

"Renewed inflationary pressures, together with continuing high tax rates

and the unavailability of many types of imported inputs, have reduced

effective demand for manufacturing products. This trend is expected to

continue through 1987. The most likely scenario for 1987/88 is that

manufacturing volumes will remain static or decline slightly during this

period."

Mr Silavecky said that although a number of small and medium sized

mining projects will be established during 1987/88, it is however,

unlikely that they will increase the overall output in this sector.

He added that the volume index of mining production did rise "fractionally"

to an average of 93.75 points in the first six months of 1986 compared

with 93.42 points for the same period in 1985.

42
A slowdown in the gross domestic product began in the second quarter

of this year due to static or falling retail sales, flat manufacturing

and mining output indices and a generally "unexciting" (with the exception

of tobacco) agricultural marketing season.

"Statistical evidence so far available for the productive sectors of the

economy — but taking into account rising government expenditure

particularly on defence and social services — point to a real GDP

expansion in the region of only about 2 percent this year.

"While much will depend on the outcome of the 1986/87 rainy season,"

Mr Silvaecky said, "it now appears increasingly probable that real GDP

growth in 1987/88 may be even slower in the face of static international

commodity prices and continuing foreign exchange shortages in the local

economy."

The average inflation rate for 1986 will be about 14 percent, and the

November 1985 prediction of an inflation rate of 17 percent for 1986/87

"remains a more realistic forecast," he said, adding: "In the face of,

on the one hand, the continuing rigid price control mechanism and, on

the other, a rapidly increasing need to reduce parastatal deficits,

higher and lower income group prices were, on a year-on-year basis, 14.2

percent and 13.3 percent higher in the first eight months of 1986 than

in January-August 1985."

Mr Silavecky is certain that agriculture will not be able to provide

the "economic growth engine" which it did in 1985. Current weather

forecasts indicate that 1986/87 rains season would be an average one.

"The anticipated move by commercial farmers away from grains and towards

oil seeds has taken place with 1986 oilseed production expected to reach

17,000 tons compared with last year's 7,500 tons. Some commercial grain

producers may become financially disadvantaged by the recent maize price

adjustment but little change to the overall financial situation in

agriculture is likely."

He also said that the Manicaland Province is "clearly" poised to become

the fastest growing province in this country because the important

work being carried out in the Beira corridor. "The proposed rehabilitation

of the Chicuacuala line may offer an opportunity to supply railway sleepers

for the projects."

/12624

CSO: 3400/775

43
ZIMBABWE

BANK WARNS OF 1 MILLION UNEMPLOYMENT BY 1990

MB311536 Johannesburg BUSINESS DAY in English 31 Dec 86 p 5

[Text] Harare—More than a million Zimbabweans — some 10 percent of the

total population — will be unemployed by the year 1990, warns a report

published by the country's leading merchant bank.

RAL Merchant Bank's latest review of the Zimbabwean economy predicts

that Robert Mugabe's socialist-style, five-year national development plan

will not succeed in overcoming restraints on the creation of new jobs

for the hundreds of thousands of secondary school-leavers coming on

to the labor market.

The lack of foreign exchange, falling output, lack of new venture capital,

the Zimbabwean government's uncompetitive policies on taxes, prices, wages,

salaries and labor, and "unfavorable perceptions elsewhere of Southern

Africa's political problems" will all contribute to the job crisis, says

the bank's economists.

The review notes that the overall level of employment in Zimbabwe's

non-agricultural economic sectors has remained almost static since 1982,

when the post-independence boom ended.

The 1982-85 Transitional National Development Plan aimed at creating

108,000 new jobs — but only 7,000 job opportunities became available

each year. Most of these openings were not in the productive sector

but in the expanding government service.

The RAL review prediction of a million unemployed takes into account

a backlog of at least 250,000 young people who have left school since

independence without finding work, with the number of secondary schoolleavers rising rapidly towards 200,000 a year by 1990. Zimbabwe's

present population of 8.5 million is increasing by some 4 percent a

year, with just over one-million in formal employment.

The clamps placed by Mugabe's government on retrenchment of workers have

played a significant role in preventing more extensive job losses,

says the review. But if Zimbabwe's foreign exchange shortage is not

alleviated, there will be increasing pressure from employers to lay off

staff in order to cut operating costs.

44
The Zimbabwe government's supervision of the recruitment and selection of

apprentices is said by the review to have curbed nepotism in job allocation,

but it is "seen by many employers to be an unwarranted interference

in their freedom of choice".

Only about 200 of 7,000 potential apprentices were indentured in 1986.

Examining land-locked Zimbabwe's transport problems, the review says that

the operations of the state-run railways have been seriously affected

by the shortage of locomotives, with repairs and maintenance being held

up by unavailability of imported spare parts. More than 30 percent of

Zimbabwe's locomotives are now reported to be out of service.

"Efficiency on the railways was further reduced in the last few months by

SA's decision to withdraw locomotives and rolling stock on loan to

neighboring countries, apparently with the intention of ensuring that

possible border closure measures will not leave important equipment

stranded on the wrong side of any regional borders," says the review.

/12624

CSO: 3400/775

45
ZIMBABWE

COMMENTARY SEES URGENT NEED FOR NEW DISPENSATION

MB021053 Johannesburg International Service in English 0630 GMT 8 Jan 87

[Station commentary: "Dedication to Reform"]

[Text] Fears at home and abroad that the imposition of sanctions against

South Africa will put a brake on the reform process in the country

have been disclosed by the minister of constitutional development and

planning, Mr Chris Heunis. In his Christmas and New Year message, Mr Heunis,

who is the chief architect of the reform process, says that the greatest

challenge facing the country in the coming year would be to give effect

to the ideals of reform in the face of efforts from several quarters to

derail the process of constitutional and socioeconomic reform.

A search for a more acceptable constitutional dispensation has to be tackled

as a matter of urgency. This could only be done through negotiation with

the leaders of all communities in the country. As president P.W. Botha

said early this year, all South Africans must be placed, in the position

where they can participate in the government through their^elected leaders.

What remains to be decided is the mechanics for bringing this about. It

has been repeatedly stated by the government that it is committed to reform

and to the sharing of power between the various people who make up the

population of the country. But because of this diverse population mix of

13 minority groups in the country there can be no question of one-man-onevote in a unitary state. One of the basic realities of the South African

situation is the fact that the country does not comprise a minority of

5 million whites and a majority of 25 million blacks. Black South

Africans comprise 10 main nations divided by differences in language,

culture, and tradition. The divisions are deep, fundamental, and jealously

guarded. Africa, with its complex population mix, and one would have to

be devised by South Africans themselves. South Africa is intent on

providing for each group the right to self-determination while satisfying

the need to work together on matters common to all. To simply install a

one-man-one-vote unitary system in South Africa without adequate protection

for cultural and ethnic minorities will only repeat the deadly struggles

that have broken the promise of democracy in so many African states.

/12624

CSO: 3400/776

46
ZIMBABWE

BRIEFS

CUBAN CULTURAL EXHIBITION OPENS—The minister of youth, sports, and culture,

Comrade David Karimanzira, said it was the government's intention to have

more cultural exchange programs between Cuba and Zimbabwe within the framework

of the Nonaligned Movement and the bilateral cultural exchange agreements.

Comrade Karimanzira was speaking at the official opening of a 1-week Cuban

[word indistinct] exhibition which depicts that country's revolution, the

economy, and the general life of the Cuban people. Speaking at the same

occasion, the Cuban ambassador to Zimbabwe, Comrade Alfonso Fraga,

expressed the support for liberation movements in South Africa and. Namibia,

and the Palestine Liberation organization. Comrade Fraga said Cuba will

continue to keep its forces in Angola as long as the apartheid regime still

exists in South Africa. [Text] [Harare Domestic Service in English 2000 GMT

14 Jan 87 MB] /12624

MINISTER HAILS MOZAMBIQUE'S MOCUMBI—Harare, 14 Jan, SAPA—Zimbabwe and

Mozambique should continue to work together to withstand South African

destabilization activities, ZIANA reported the minister of foreign affairs,

Mr Witness Mangwende as saying today. In a congratulatory message to his

recently appointed Mozambican counterpart, Mr Pascoal Mocumbi, the minister

said he hoped the cordial relations existing between the two countries would

be strengthened. "It is also my conviction that our two sister republics

will remain united against South Africa's destabilization activities,"

Mr Mangwende said. [Text] [Johannesburg SAPA in English 1950 GMT 14 Jan 87

MB] /12624

ZANU CONFIRMS SUSPENSION OF PARTY OFFICIALS—The ZANU-PF headquarters in

Harare has said that the suspension of five ZANU-PF officials of the

Bulawayo East District is valid. In an interview with ZIANA today, the

party deputy secretary for the commissariat and culture, Comrade Nelson

Mawela, said the provincial executive has powers to suspend people from

their party posts, but not from the party. He said the Matabeleland

North Provincial Executive had not violated the party's constitution

by suspending Comrades (Loveness Makoni), (Francis Jovu), (John Mutende),

(Gottfried Ntinigo), and (Daniel Gumbakumba). [Text] [Harare Domestic Service

in English 1745 GMT 8 Jan 87 MB] /12624

47
WARNING AGAINST RSA SABOTEURS—People living in the southern parts of the

country have been urged to be vigilant against South African saboteurs.

The call was made by the ZANU-PF midlands Chairman, Comrade Richard Hove,

when he addressed district party officials at Matonga in the (Imberengwe)

recently. Comrade Hove, who is also minister of mines, pointed out that

South Africa's attitude towards Zimbabwe is aggressive and called on

the people to be vigilant. [Text] [Harare Domestic Service in English

0500 GMT 13 Jan 87 MB] /12624

CSO: 3400/775

48
SOUTH AFRICA

MICRO-CARRIER FOR NAVY CONTEMPLATED

Pretoria ARMED FORCES in English Dec/Jan 87 pp 26, 27, 28, 31

[Article by Helmoed-Romer Heitman]

[Text]

With both the frigates and the

Shackletons out of service, we are now

well and truly out of the "protection of

the Cape Sea Route" business. Despite

this, we do still need a measure of blue

water capability, if only to keep track of

what is going on around us. In the long

run, we can hope for a "home-grown"

frigate force and some or other aircraft

type converted to the maritime patrol

role. Neither of these will materialise in

the short or medium terms, however, and

this leaves a gap in our defence

capability which should be redressed.

Modernising the two remaining

President class frigates and taking them

back into service, would not by itself

suffice — two ships would be a totally

inadequate force. One possible answer

might lie in a "micro-carrier" based on a

hull similar to that of SAS Drakensberg

and carrying suitable helicopters in the

Pume/Super Puma class.

The advantages of this approach

would lie in the fact that:

1 . We have the immediate capability to

construct the basic ship, drawing on

the experience gained with the

Drakensberg;

2 . Such a ship would not need to be

terribly expensive, as it could be built

largely to merchant ship standards;

3. One such vessel would give the

surveillance capability of several

frigates at less cost, by virtue of the

range and speed of her helicopters

and her own endurance;

4 . Unlike any type of maritime patrol

aircraft or airship, she would allow us

to maintain a presence at sea when

and where needed.

Missions

A ship — or ships — of this type

would have a wide range of applications

in our situation. Peacetime missions

would be found in the areas of shipping

route surveillance, the patrol and protection of the Exclusive Economic Zone

(EEZ), search and rescue, and counterinfiltration patrols. They would also prove of considerable value once Antarctica

begins to attract real economic interest.

A micro-carrier would also be an ideal

training ship. Wartime missions would

include the protection of coastal convoys against attack by submarines and

fast attack craft (FACs), the "reception"

and escort into port of foreign-going

ships, and operations in conjunction

with strike craft.

In the EEZ patrol/protection role, a

micro-carrier would offer the combined

advantages of long on-station endurance, far-ranging surveillance and a

49
quick reaction capability. It would thus

be equally suited to watching over a farflung fishing fleet or providing protection

to offshore gas or oil fields. In some

cases, such a ship would — by virtue of

the reach which its aircraft give it — be

able to combine one or both of these

missions with that of shipping route

surveillance. Its potential in the SAR role

is obvious; given that attention is paid to

this aspect in the design stage, a ship of

this type would also have considerable

potential in a disaster relief role in

coastal areas.

In peacetime, a micro-carrier would, in

effect, combine many of the capabilities

of several frigates and maritime patrol

aircraft and some additional ones — and

do so at rather less cost.

The usefulness of a ship of this type in

wartime is equally beyond doubt,

although it would only really come into

its own operating as a part of an escort

or patrol group.

The Ship

Depending on the funds available, the

basic ship could take one of two basic

forms — "two deck" or "through deck":

"Two Deck"

This would amount to the basic

Drakensberg design redrafted to allow

for a forward flight deck and providing

hangar space in the superstructure. Extending the superstructure forward

should allow it to accommodate up to six

helicopters of the Puma class. Further

extending it out to flush with the hull

sides would serve to ease helicopter servicing and handling and should just

allow enough space to move a helicopter

forward or aft past two aircraft parked

next to each other. Helicopters could

thus be flown off the forward deck and

on to the aft deck.

Some additional office space could be

provided above the new hangars, but

taken together with the additional weight

of the forward hangar this micht produce

serious topweight problems, there will,

however, be considerable space

available in the old well deck under the

new forward flight deck. Taking this

together with a portion of the

Drakensberg's hold space would allow

enough space for the accommodation

and offices displaced by running the

hangar through the superstructure and

for the additional spaces required in the

new role.

The would still be enough hold space for

the ship to support her helicopters and

for her to provide limited munitions and

stores support to any consorts. Her fuel

capacity would hardly be affected except

inasmuch as she would need to carry

more fuel for her helicopters, which

would displace some of the tankage

available.

"Two Deck" Alternatives

While the "Two Deck" type-as discussed above does appear to just fit inside

the Drakensberg envelope, it could prove

too crowded and cluttered a design, and

could also present an unacceptable

topweight problem. These problems

could, of course, be redressed by stretching the basic design, or by scaling it

up all round. Either of these solutions

could, however, involve considerable extra costs.

A cheaper approach to redressing

these problems would lie in accepting a

somewhat less capable ship as outlined

below:

"Two Deck" Type 2

This would provide for either six

helocopters with restricted movement

between the two decks, or four

helicopters with the same degree of

movement between decks as in the basic

type. Essentially, this variation would

have the forward flight deck and the

widened superstructure taken out to

flush with the hull sides, but not the forward superstructure/hangar extension.

The choices would thus be between six

helicopters parked three abreast, allowing movement between decks only when

two helicopters in line are out of the

hangar at the same time, or four

helicopters parked two abreast with a

free space to one side of them for between deck movement.

"Two Deck" Type 3

This would be the cheapest and

simplest approach but naturally also the

least capable. It would again provide a

forward flight deck and convert the main

superstructure block to hangar space,

but would not involve extending the

superstructure out to flush with the hull

sides. This ship would thus have hangar

space for four helicopters, with fore and

aft movement possible only when two

50
parking spaces in line are free at the

same time.

Ä full '•through-deck" redrafting of the

Drakensberg design would offer considerable flight operations advantages

and could also allow up to ten or even

twelve helicopters of the Puma class to

be carried. The "through-deck" approach

would also facilitate the operation of

non-expendable, long-range remotely

piloted vehicles (RPVs).

It would also, however, be the most

complex, expensive and time-consuming

option. Despite the availability of hold

space to convert to offices and accommodation, this option would probably require an additional deck level as the entire superstructure would effectively

disappear. This extra deck level would, in

turn, very probably require the entire ship

to be scaled up in all dimensions.

While the "through-deck" variant

would be the most capable of the possible Drakensberg-based micro-carriers

discussed here, it does not seem likely

that its advantages would outweigh the

additional costs and time required to bring such a ship into service. The

"through-deck" approach might thus be

one that could follow on to one or more

"two deck" vessels as and when funds

and experience allow, and operational

considerations demand. Such a later and

larger "through-deck" ship could then

perhaps also be built to a size and standard where it could offer a limited fixed

wing capability with, perhaps, a navalised light attack derivative of the SAAF's

Impala replacement. This would still be

no attack carrier, but it would take the

SAN's capability a major step further

towards limited sea control.

Armament

The primary armament of the microcarrier would be its aircraft which are

discussed below.

Apart from its aircraft, the microcarrier should carry two weapons

systems — a point defence system to

provide defence against ASMs launched

from a submarine or from a long-range

aircraft, and a basic gun armament to

allow it to enforce its will in the EEZ protection role. An area air defence system

would be "nice to have" but would price

the ship out of our reach and would also

almost certainly not fit into the basic

Drakensberg hull together with the aircraft and their supporting systems and

equipment. While the point defence

system will need to be procured or

developed — albeit also for other ships

in the fleet — the gun armament would

ideally centre on one or more 76mm guns

as used on the strike craft. Some additional 20mm and 40mm could also be fitted.

Surface to Surface Missiles (SSMs)

An additional weapon system which

would not make excessive demands on

space and volume, and which would

greatly expand the capability of the

micro-carrier, would be a suitable SSM.

The micro-carrier's aircraft would allow

the range of such a system to be exploited to the full by providing both timely target detection and identification and

mid-course guidance for over-the-horizon

engagement. Provided that box launchers or — more expensive but also with

more potential — a vertical launch

system is used, the provision of an SSM

system should make no really problematical demands on the design of the

micro-carrier.

The SSM chosen for the micro-carrier

might be the Skerpioen or a derivative

thereof, or a cruise missile using the

small turbojet developed by Armscor.

Ideally, the ship might carry a mix of both

weapons, allowing the choice of weapon

to be matched to the nature of the target.

Whichever approach is followed in this

regard, an SSM capability would move

the micro-carrier from having merely an

ASW (anti-submarine warfare) and sea

surveillance capability with limited

ASuW (anti surface warfare) potential, to

having a limited sea control capability.

Sonar

If at all possible, the micro-carrier

should also be equipped with a longrange sonar. This will allow the ASW

potential of the helicopters to be fully exploited without the need for specialised

ASW consorts. Given that the

helicopters would be fitted with active

dunking sonar and for a mix of active and

passive sonobouys, the ideal option

would seem to be to provide the microcarrier with a towed array sonar system.

This would make the best use of the

51
Overall ship/helicopter combination and

would have the additional advantage of

not making excessive demands in the

areas of hull shape and hull and propulsion silencing. Gertainly the micro-carrier

would not be capable of the "sprint and

drift" mode of operation — "amble and

drift" would be more like it — or "waddle

and drift" as the frigate types would

almost definitely term it, but together

with its helicopters it would still have

considerable potential in the ASW role.

Even if it is envisaged that the microcarrier would in the long run operate

together with specialised ASW vessels,

her own towed array sonar will still be a

valuable asset in the combined detection/location system of the escort group.

Aircraft

Helicopters

The basic aircraft type for the proposed micro-carrier would be a helicopter in

the Puma class. Such a helicopter will in

any event have to be procured or

developed to supplement and later supplant the SAAF Puma fleet. For the short

term, a number of Pumas could be permanently assigned to this role.

The micro-carrier's helicopters would

have four primary missions:

1. Reconnaissance;

2. ASW;

3. ASuW;

4. Search and Rescue.

In their reconnaissance role the

helicopters would operate in conjunction

with RPVs in the surveillance role, as

discussed below. Essentially, the

helicopters would be operated only in

the detailed identification or interrogation role.

In their ASW role, the helicopters

should be equipped both with dunking

sonar and for active and passive

sonobouys, and would employ both homing torpedos and — in confined waters

— depthcharges. They would ideally only

have to handle the localisation and the

engagement of the submarine, being

guided to its general area either by accompanying ASW vessels or one or

another type or by the micro-carrier

herself.

In their ASuW role, the helicopters

would employ air to surface missiles

(ASMs), a heavy weapon perhaps derived

from the Skerpioen and a lighter one for

operations against small craft, or could

also provide mid-course guidance for

longer-ranges SSMs launched from box

launchers on board the micro-carrier

herself. They could, naturally, also

operate in this role together with strike

craft.

Attack Helicopters

Should the attack helicopter being

developed for the SAAF turn out to be a

larger aircraft than the Alpha-XH1 prototype suggests and be twin-engined, it

could also have a maritime role in the

ASuW environment.

Carrying a small number of attack

helicopters armed with cannon and

rockets or light missiles would offer certain advantages in the EEZ patrol/protection role. Helicopters of this type would

allow an errant fishing vessel, for instance, to be arrested in the absence of

the micro-carrier or other surface

vessels. Skerpioen-armed Puma class

helicopters, by contrast, would face the

embarrassing situation of either having

to employ massive "overkill" with a

heavy ASM or letting the vessel go,

should it decide not to heed a polite request to heave to or to sail towards the

micro-carrier.

Operating attack helicopters from the

micro-carrier would also seem to hold

out some very interesting possibilities in

the counter-infiltration role and in operations together with strike craft. Certainly

all light craft such as FACs would be

suitable prey for a maritime attack

helicopter which, in its turn, would be

more suited to such operations than a

larger, less manoeuvrable and slower

helicopter of the Puma class.

The logistical and technical advantages of operating only one maritime

helicopter type, or at least of operating

only one type aboard one ship, might

well argue against this as a standard

practice. These problems could,

however, be overcome in the long term if

both types are designed around the

same basic engine — something which

would seem to be a logical course for us

to follow in any event. Regardless of

which way we go in this regard,

52
operating two different helicopter types

from a ship of this size would still be

logistically and technically simpler than

similar operations on shore far from a

major base. Proper planning of support

and maintenance "kits" should go far

towards reducing any problems to readily manageable proportions.

Drones — Remotely Piloted Vehicles

A suitable long-range RPV would prove to be a great asset to a ship of this

type. Helicopters are by their nature not

ideally suited to the surveillance mission, while fixed-wing aircraft are for the

forseeable future beyond our capability

to take to sea. The RPV/helicopter combination could, however, go a long way

towards providing a similar capability

while conserving the helicopters, their

crews and fuel.

RPVs equipped with a suitable mix of

radar, infra-red (IR), electronic support

measures (ESM) and visual sensors —

not necessarily all abord the same RPV

— would seem to offer an excellent

means *of providing surveillance over a

large area around the parent ship. The

task of locating ships and providing an

initial identification would be much

simpler than that facing the RPV seeking

targets on land.

The micro-carrier might have a number

of electronic sensor — ESM, IR, radar —

equipped RPVs permanently "on

station" around it to provide area

surveillance. These would generally be

operated out to the maximum range of

their control/data link with the ship.

Some RPVs might well also be sent further afield on a programmed course to

extend ithe ship's surveillance coverage

still further. Other RPVs fitted with

cameras and/or real-time electro-optical

sensors — TV, low-light level TV (LLLTV),

thermal imaging — could then be

despatched to investigate routine contacts to make the initial identification.

Alternatively, more capable — and

more complex! — RPVs might be

employed to handle both tasks. This

would provide for an earlier identification

of detected ships but would be paid for

by gaps in the surveillance coverage

while the RPV descends to make the

close identification and by the additional

complexity in the RPV and in its operation.

Where a more detailed identification

or an interrogation of a particular ship is

needed, this task would fall to the microcarrier's helicopters. In wartime,

however, the detailed identification

might also be left to an RPV so as not to

risk a manned aircraft.

RPVs could also be used to attack

enemy ships directly with bombs or

missiles carried by the RPV or indirectly

by providing target illumination or midcourse guidance for SSMs or ASMs launched by the micro-carrier or by its

helicopters. Like the helicopters, the

RPVs could also be used in this role in

conjunction with strike craft.

Side Effects

Apart from its actual naval utility, a

micro-carrier project would have some

valuable side effects or spin offs.

Building a vessel of this type would serve

to keep our ship design and construction

expertise alive until there are sufficient

funds available for the procurement of

new combatants. Being "more naval"

than SAS Drakensberg, it would in fact

also take our expertise a step further on

the road from maintenance and refits via

modifications, the strike craft and the

SAS Drakensberg to designing and

building our own frigates and submarines.

Conclusions

The real question must of course be

whether such a ship would serve a purpose and whether it would provide real

"value for money". The answer would

seem to be yes on both counts.

A micro-carrier would redress several

of the present gaps in our maritime

capability. It would give the SAN and, indeed, the SADF, a much greater blue

water surveillance capability than we

have had since the early days of

Shackleton operations when the full

Shackleton fleet was operational. A

micro-carrier would also give the SAN

the ability to maintain a presence at sea

over considerable periods and would

facilitate the retention of our ASW skills.

Finally, a ship of this type would greatly

enhance the SAN's capabilities in

various other areas including EEZ patrol

and protection and SAR. All of these

benefits would naturally be multiplied by

53
the procurement of two or three such

vessels — three allowing a near permanent presence off each coast.

Very importantly, it would seem that a

micro-carrier would be available rather

earlier than a frigate or a corvette, as its

construction would be largely based on

an existing and recently built design and

as its primary weapon systems — its

helicopters and its SSMs — are already

in service in their basic form. Even the

matter of operating helicopters from the

micro-carrier can be exercised in good

measure in the interim by operating

helicopters in similar roles from the SAS

Tafelberg and the SAS Drakensberg.

Where a frigate or even a corvette

would be an entirely new project, a

micro-carier would be largely a combination of an existing design and existing

systems. Certainly the micro-carrier

would only attain its full capability once

its other systems — specifically the

RPVs, the point defence system and the

towed array sonar — become available,

but it would in the meantime already give

us a potent platform at sea virtually in the

time it takes to build and fit out.

As to "value for money", a microcarrier as discussed here should cost no

more than a frigate and might well cost

less, depending on the sophistication of

the electronic systems decided upon. Its

capabilities would be vastly greater than

those of a single frigate in any but a

specialised role. A micro-carrier would

be extremely useful in its own right and

would become even more useful when

later combined with specialised ASW

ships. One long-term consideration in

this regard would be that the existence

of such a ship or ships would allow

greater flexibility in the design of any

future corvette or frigate in that these

would not necessarily all have to have

full helicopter operating facilities aboard.

A micro-carrier would thus represent a

very efficient interim solution to our

maritime problems and one which is

rendered even more efficient by having

considerable long-term utility lasting

beyond the introduction into service of

more specialised vessels.

Thus the SAN should perhaps look at

the possibility of becoming a "carrier

owner", even if we can only afford a

rather little and basic one.

/9317

CSO: 3400/786

54
SOUTH AFRICA

LAW AND ORDER MINISTER DISCUSSES ANC VIOLENCE

MB130913 Johannesburg Television Service in Afrikaans 1830 GMT 12 Jan 87

[Interview with Afriaan Vlok, RSA Minister of law and order, in Cape Town

by Kolie van Koller on the "Network" program, introduced by Betty Kemp — live]

[Text] [Kemp] Welcome to Network. The minister of law and order, Mr Adriaan

Blok, has agreed to discuss certain aspect of the ANC on the Network program.

Kolie van Koller is on the microwave link to our Cape Town studio and the

minister of law and order.

[Van Koller] Good evening Mr Vlok and welcome to the Network program.

[Vlok] Good evening.

[Van Koller] Mr Vlok, approximately 3 weeks ago the ANC president predicted

increased violence, but according to the organization's 75th anniversary

message, last week, he indicated that the ANC will no longer attack soft

targets in South Africa. But scarcely 24 hours later, a bomb exploded

in a shopping center in Johannesburg, and a second one had to be defused.

Now, there two devices were planted in a manner which could have killed or

injured hundreds of people. How does one reconcile this?

[Vlok] Well, it is difficult because, as you know, the ANC is a terrorist

organization which has left a trial of violence in South Africa. On its

path of violence it has also allied itself to the PLO. But this violence

of the ANC, together with its relations with the PLO, is causing problems

for them both, here in the country and in the world at large. So I believe

one should realize that the ANC has developed a strategy of using

propaganda to try to convince the world that it is renouncing violence.

The ANC will never renounce violence, because violence is the means it

used to intimidate people in this country, to gain support for its deals.

It is nothing but a propaganda campaign by the ANC to enhance its image.

[Van Koller] But does that not have something to do with the discussions

later this month in Washington with the U.S. Secretary of State and the

report published a few days ago in Washington on the ANC2

55
[Vlok] Yes, I believe so. The ANC is sensitive about its image overseas

and in the United States. As I said just now, the ANC is linked to the PLO,

which is America's archenemy — they have bombed them in Libya. The ANC

would do anything to make a favorable impression in the eyes of the

Americans, who are putting a lot of pressure on South Africa, an impression

that they are a moderate organization that wants to negotiate with us when,

in reality, that is not the case. The ANC stands by its violence, and I do

not believe it plans to renounce that violence.

[Van Koller] Is this approach of not practicing what you preach

characteristic of ANC policy, would you say?

[Vlok] Well, that is the norm, the characteristic, of a terrorist

organization. It preaches one thing but does another. One only has to look

at the activities of the ANC in this country. As you said a moment ago,

just a few hours after they had announced that they would no longer attack

soft targets, they planted a bomb at the OK. During this past weekend there

was the case of a man murdered by the so-called necklace method in Soweto.

We also have had the example of people being attacked with gasoline bombs

simply for having taken part in a song attempting to promote peace and

cooperation in South Africa. These are the victims of the ANC and its

gasoline bombs.

[Van Koller] Mr Vlok, the U.S. Government has said the South African

Government is radicalizing its enemies by not negotiating with them,

including the ANC. What is your reaction to that?

[Vlok] The ANC is an organization of violence, which wants to take over

the country by means of violence. At present it is controlled by the

South African Communist Party [SACP]. This is even confirmed by the report

issued by the United States. The SACP has only one goal for this country,

namely, to take over this country and establish a Marxist, single-party

state. I think it is expecting too much that any self-respecting government

should negotiate with such an organization, or hold discussions with such

an organization, before it renounces violence. Certainly the South African

Government is not prepared to do so.

[Van Koller] What is the reason, in your opinion, that hardly anything

has come of the planned December-January attacks by the ANC?

[Vlok] I think the actions of the security forces have been the major

reason why the ANC did not succeed in its plans.

[Van Koller] According to the ANC leadership, the organization has very

strong support from the South African population. Could you estimate

their actual support, particularly in the black community?

[Vlok] To be totally honest, that is not known. No one knows for sure. But

the fact of the matter is that the ANC is too afraid to renounce violence,

and to return to South Africa, and to test for itself its popularity and

support in the country. The ANC is not prepared to do so because, I think,

it would lose, because the majority of the people in this country

categorically reject the violence for which the ANC stands.

56
[Van Koller] Do you not then think that the announcement by the ANC that

it is going to renounce violence, and that soft targets should no longer

be attacked — do you not think that may be an indication that it wants

to negotiate?

[Vlok] That is what the ANC is trying to reflect, but the question remains:

Is that genuine, or is it merely sham? As I said, this past weekend has

shown that it is not genuine, but sham, through which they want to satisfy

the world while their violence continues in South Africa. And let us

remember, a terrorist organization cannot achieve its goals without the

use of violence to intimidate people into supporting it.

[Van Koller] In other words, stability is a danger to a terrorist

organization?

[Vlok] Quite right. Stability is a danger to it, as is law and order.

[Van Koller] There have also been reports of tension and disagreement

within the leadership of the ANC, particularly between the so-called old

guard and the young Turks. Your reaction?

[Vlok] We have reason to believe this is true. There is tension in the

top ranks of the ANC, because there are people there whom I do not think

are communists, Marxists, confirmed Marxists. But it is also true that

at this stage the ANC is controlled by the SACP, by true communists. So

there is friction among them. We must remember there is power struggle within

the ANC, in the sense that some want to take over power here, while others

are prepared to return on a more reasonable basis in order that they can

come and work with us towards a peaceful future.

[Van Koller] Right, then, Mr Vlok. Can we take a look for a moment

into 1987? What do you foresee?

[Vlok] Well, I am optimistic about 1987. There are difficult days ahead

for us, but we are prepared to do all possible to ensure the safety of the

people of South Africa. But we must always be realistic about this matter.

The ANC is a terrorist organization which attacks when it feels secure, and

we must remain prepared. And the public must help us, as they helped us

in the OK Bazaars incident last week. They must be alert, they must look

around them and take notice, so that all of us together — the security forces

and the South African community — can put an end to these.acts of terror

as a team. There are difficult times ahead for us, but we must have no fear.

We should not be over optimistic, we should be realistic. People can

lose their lives in 1987, but for our part, and with the cooperation of the

public, we will do everything possible to protect them against these cowardly

terrorists.

[Van Koller] Mr Vlok, thank you very much for joining us tonight on Network.

Good evening to you.

[Vlok] Thank you, and good night.

/12624

CSO: 3400/790

57
SOUTH AFRICA

HEAD OF ORANJEWERKERS DESCRIBES DREAM OF ORANJELAND

Johannesburg FRONTLINE in English Dec 86 p 10

[Report of interview with Leader of the Vereeniging van Oranjewerkers,

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd jnr. by Gus Silber in Pretoria, date not given]

[Text]

THE son of the architect sits behind his desk in a small room in

a small house in the small suburb of Gezina in Pretoria. Sunlight dapples his hands through the dusty

parted curtains. Roaring trucks change

gear on the throughway outside the window. The son of the architect apologises

for the state of his desk.

What desk? This thing that lies buried

under a compost of curling, yellowing,

white paper and newsprint. Somewhere in

there lives the germ of an ideal. It

breathes. It is growing. One day it will

burst forth from its vault, and the land

will be coloured Orange.

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, son of the

architect, will be the master painter of the

new nation. It will be called Oranjeland.

It will be the Zion of the Afrikanervolk.

There will be no black Oranjelanders. The

Afrikaner will toil, and the soil will flourish.

Even Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, the

architect of apartheid, the silver-haired

patriarch, the assassinated martyr of his

volk, could not have seen this far into the

future: a separate independent nation

where whites would not only be in the majority, but would be the sole inhabitants.

He could also not have foreseen the foundations of his building collapsing under

the hammer of his own volk.

Twenty years after the Greek messenger plunged a knife into his heart in the

sacred House of Parliament all that survives is the House itself. Apartheid is

dead. Hendrik Verwoerd is dead. But his

son is the future.

The leader of the Vereeniging van

Oranjewerkers is a man whose thorntree

build hides a heart of melktert, at least for

those he deems his volk. His meek, smiling face, wreathed by a silvery-grey Voortrekker beard, recalls little of his father's

deep-etched Old Testament severity.

But Hendrik Verwoerd has inherited

more than the family name. His dedication to the ideal of separate development

extends beyond the vanishing boundaries

of his father's Grand Apartheid, which

failed to provide a practical solution to the

problem of blacks living outside their designated national states.

The Oranjewerkers will do away with

the problem by doing away with the

blacks: in the independent white state of

Oranjeland there will be no work for the

vreemdelinge — the aliens — so there will

be no excuse for them to wander outside

their own territories. Naturally, this

means the people of Oranjeland will have

to make certain sacrifices.

They will no longer be able to afford

the convenience and luxury of labour on

tap. One has to accept, says Hendrik Verwoerd, his hands clasped and his eyes shut

tight behind his bifocals, that workers

from other volk are also human beings.

They are not machines.

Sooner or later you would have to absorb them into your society. But there are

too many of them. They would absorb you

first. There is a way to escape. It is called

Oranjeland.

58
From Mossel Bay through the Karoo to

the Orange Free State to the ou Transvaal. O bring my terug. Already the seed

has been sown. The town of Morgenzon,

on the south-eastern Transvaal highveld

between Standerton and Ermelo, is the

first Oranjedorp, where Afrikaner families

bring up their children (at least five per

family, for the future of the nation) in an

environment devoid of vreemdeiinge.

One day Hendrik Verwoerd will move

there and farm. Yes, he has five children:

four girls and a boy, smiling from their

cameo frames above the mess on his desk.

Yes, he has no servants. It is healthier. It

brings the family together. It brings the

volk together.

The Afrikaner needs this. The Afrikaner has become soft through his reliance on the vreemdeiinge. Of course the

volk will have to accept a decline in living

standards in the promised Oranjeland. But

not a decline in the quality of life. Die

volk moet swaarkry. Swaarkry. The word

tolls with the bitter taste of drought.

One day the rain will fall. Will there be

time? Perhaps. There could be more nuclear accidents in the world, and in the

blink of a seared eyelid, the Afrikanervolk

will march to Oranjeland. There may not

be time. But nor is there a choice.

The vreemdeiinge must go. The white

man must reclaim his land. Of course this

is not racism. The Afrikanervolk just happens to be a white volk. And a Christian

volk. The vreemdeiinge would be expected

to ontswart the Oranjeland, to go back to

their nations in an orderly manner.

Should this expectation not be met, the

Afrikanervolk will be forced to follow

more drastic methods. There is no choice.

The Afrikanervolk will not lie back and

accept the process of history. The Afrikanervolk will make history. Its own.

Yes, it is true that the vreemdeiinge

may be involved in separate struggles for

their own freedom. The Afrikanervolk can

understand that. But if the vreemdeiinge

win their struggle, what will happen? You

will have satisfied only the majority of the

volke. The question is: is this democracy?

No. Each volk must struggle for the freedom of its own volk, but no volk must

ignore the rightful struggle of another

volk.

Hendrik Verwoerd searches for a newspaper clipping on his desk. He cannot find

it. He can barely find the desk. It does not

matter. The Bible says, and Hendrik Verwoerd knows it by heart, that a volk has a.

responsibility from its Creator to bewaar

en bewaak the land. To safeguard and

preserve. To work. A volk that chooses to>

ignore its responsibility is a volk of thieves;

and cowards. No. That is not the Afrikanervolk.

Today there are 2 500 Oranjewerkers.

There are many more Afrikaners, and

there are many more vreemdeiinge.

The son of the architect rises. One day,

he says, I really must clean up this

desk.

/9317

CSO: 3400/789

59
SOUTH AFRICA

AZAPO LEADER'S FAMILY ATTACKED, ONE DEAD

MB0150840 Johannesburg SAPA in ENglish 0829 GMT 15 Jan 87

[Text] Johannesburg, 15,Jan, SAPA—The uncle of AZAPOS general secretary,

Mr George Wauchope, was shot dead in Soweto yesterday, the SOWETAN

newspaper reported today.

Another relative was also shot and has been admitted to Baragwanath Hospital.

The SOWETAN said Mr Wauchopes uncle, Mr Washington Linda Wauchope, 44,

died soon after he was shot in the head and body. His nephew, Mr Kenny

Dlamini, 23, was taken to Baragwanath Hospital with a bullet lodged in

his face.

The shooting took place four days after Mr George Wahchope's mother,

Mrs Ethel Wauchope, was buried at Avalon Cemetery. Her house in Dlamini,

Soweto, was extensively damaged by petrol bombs.

The newspaper said Mr Dlamini was cornered and shot in Soweto by a

group of men. He ran home and was taken to Baragwanath Hospital. Minutes

later, Mr Washington Wauchope was shot dead after a group of youths chased

him near Ibongo senior secondary school in Dlamini.

A witness, Mrs Jane Majola, 55, said she heard the youths shout "here he is"

and saw Mr Wauchope jump into her yard.

She ran away when she heard two gunshots. She later found Mr Wauchope lying

face down in the yard.

Mr George Wauchope said his relatives were targets in the "escalating feud

of rival political groups."

He said the rival group was out to get him in the hope that "if they killed

me, they have killed AZAPO."

The matter was reported at the Moroka police station.

Col Johan Labushagne, a police liaison officer, confirmed the incident

but said the dead man had not been identified.

He said Mr Kennedy Dlamini was being treated at Baragwanath Hospital.

/12624

CSO: 3400/765

60
SOUTH AFRICA

AZAPO OFFICIAL COMMENDS STUDENTS' RETURN TO SCHOOL

MB151309 Johannesburg SAPA in English 1230 GMT 15 Jan 87

[Text] Johannesburg, 15 Jan, SAPA—More losses than gains were suffered

during the school boycott last year and it had resulted in unemployment

swelling the ranks of the police force and the SADF, the Azanian People's

Organizations' publicity secretary, Mr Muntu Myeza, said today.

Addressing a press conference, he commended students for heeding the call

for return to school.

"The boycott has gone on for too long and the losses have outweighted

the gains.

"Student bodies were disorganized. Littering and idling resulted and

emigration into the homeland schools has increased," he said.

"Insufficient education and unemployment has swollen the ranks of the

police and SADF.

"There is disunity amongst students and community and the anti-school

call has been championed by issue-oriented groups."

He called the United Democratic Front-affiliated Soweto Students Congress

"reactionary" and said, "they wanted the boycott to continue."

AZAPO's deputy president, Mr Lynboln Mabasa, said: "We don't see a

complete change of education while the Nationalist Party is in power.

"We think people who are responsible have to start exercising control.

The children are being sacrificed and we are not going to allow children

with selfish interests to hold the black community to ransom."

Responding to a question about the UDF-backed "peoples education,"

Mr Myeza said: "We don't believe education must be concocted by unknown

people without the people having contributed to its formulation."

/12624

CSO: 3400/765

61
SOUTH AFRICA

ANC NATIONAL EXECUTIVE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE

MB101247 Johannesburg SOWETAN in English 9 Jan 87 p 4

["Focus" column by Gerald L'Ange of the SOWETAN Africa News Service]

[Excerpt] Lusaka—The African National Congress has reiterated a

willingness to participate in a negotiated solution in the country.

And it has joined the call for children to return to school and end the

class boycott in South Africa.

In a statement issued to mark the ANC's 75th anniversary, the organization's

national executive committee reiterated its commitment to "seize any

opportunity that may arise to participate in a negotiated resolution

of the conflict in our country" with the specific aim of creating a

"democratic, non-racial and united South Africa."

"Let those in our country who in the face of our mounting offensive,

have started talking about negotiating, commit themselves publicly to

this perspective".

Many whites, the statement said, were feeling their way towards

acceptance of the inevitability of a non-racial order.

It said the ANC "must pay the greatest possible attention" to the role

of whites in the democratic revolution".

Whites must learn that it was not democracy that threatened their

survival but racist tyranny.

The present crisis in South Africa demanded that whites make a clean

break with the past and "unequivocally reject the ruling group as being

unrepresentative of them".

The statement called on blacks and whites to "come together in a

massive democratic coalition".

The statement rejected any ethnic distinction between South Africans.

62
It supported the guaranteeing of the freedoms of speech, assembly,

association, language, religion, the Press, the inviolability of family

life and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention without trial.

The statement committed the ANC to an economic policy of ensuring that

the wealth of the country increased and was equitably shared by all.

The ANC national executive made a point of paying a special tribute

to the late President Samora Machel of Mozambique and promised to erect

a monument on the spot where he died in a place crash.

/12624

CSO: 3400/765

63
SOUTH AFRICA

ANC MAPUTO REPRESENTATIVE SPEAKS ON ANNIVERSARY

MB091514 Maputo in English to Southern Africa 1100 GMT 9 Jan 87

["Excerpts" from speech by Jacob Zuma, member of the ANC National

Executive Committee and chief representative of the ANC in Maputo,

on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ANC in

Maputo on 8 January — recorded]

[Text] Seventy-five years ago today, on 8 January 1912, a few hundreds

of the most prominent speakers among the oppressed people of our country

assembled in Bloemfontein to form the African National Congress. Our

movement's founding assembly congress took place 2 years after the

establishment of the Union of South Africa which brought together the

two former British colonies of the Cape and Natal and the two conquered

Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Organge Free State. The British

act of parliament which established the Union and ignored the demands

of the majority of our people and conceded rights of self-government

exclusively to the white minority, the majority remained as they had

been since the time of colonial conquest excluded from any participation in

the governance of the land of their birth. [sentence as heard] The year

in which our movement was formed was also the year in which the government

of Prime Minister Louis Botha published the notorious land (?Act) dividing

land ownership on the racial basis. In this context, the founders of

our great movement sought to organize our people to struggle for their

rights and govern themselves and to live as free and equal men and women

in the society free of racial discrimination.

[Announcer] In his speech, Mr Zuma also referred to the death of

President Samora Machel.

[Zuma] This is the first ANC function in Maputo since the tragic death

of Comrade President Samora Machel, and it is fitting to record the profound

shock and sorrow which our people felt at the loss of this great son of

Africa. In his own message on this occasion of our 75th anniversary,

Comrade President Tambo said, and I quote, the late president of the People's

Republic of Mazambique, Samora Moises Machel, and others who have been

murdered by the Pretoria regime and its agents will forever remain examples

of that steadfast refusal of the peoples of the region to surrender to

racial and colonial domination, fascist tyranny and state terrorism. Samora

Machel was a towering child of the African revolution. He dedicated his

life to our own liberation. His ideas and deeds are a material force in the

struggle for our emancipation. The blood shed on our soil is and will forever

by a foundation of freedom for all our people, and quote, [applause]

/12624 '" ,.

CSO: 3400/765 64
SOUTH AFRICA

PHENOMENON OF TOWNSHIP STREET COMMITTEES REVEALED

New Member Describes Recruitment

Johannesburg FRONTLINE in English Dec 86 pp 11-12

[Text]

THE sight of a group of boys

calling house to house has become common. It is unnerving.

You think "for whom does the

bell toll?" When a group came up to my

door and told me to attend a meeting the

next night to form a street committee for

my street I was at first apprehensive. But

the boys were polite.

1 began to see an opportunity for me

and my neighbours to organise ourselves

so we would not be alone and at the mercy

of the comrades. It seemed ironic that it

was the comrades themselves who were inspiring this, but I started to get interested.

The meeting was to be held at a friend's

place. I went to sound her out on the

meeting. Apparently her house had been

chosen because it had recently been enlarged.

I found her terribly agitated. She could

not understand why she should be picked

on when she was a woman staying alone

with her children.

"There are so many men staying in this

street, why is the meeting not held in a

man's house?"

1 told her as far as I was concerned,

that was not an issue to waste time on.

What I thought important was the opportunity to get together as people of that

street, get to know each other, and, above

all, form strategies to solve our problems

as a people.

I am not sure if she agreed with me or

not, but when the evening came, my

neighbours and myself started converging

to her house. At first people walked in,

looked at each other suspiciously, greeted

and sat down.

I really do not know what we were expecting. Of course, there were fears that

the police might come in and detain the

whole lot of us. Worse still, they could just

get there and open fire. But then, so many

people have died lately that one feels the

presence of death all the time. And above

that, we have heard stories about other

townships neighbours getting together and

sorting out unruly elements.

One by one, people started coming in. It

had been raining the whole week, so the

night appeared to be blacker than it

should have been, adding a sinister note to

an already pregnant evening.

The convenors (comrades) arrived and

were also given the suspicious and apprehensive looks. There were only three boys,

not older than 18. As they stood addressing us, they shuffled their feet and rubbed

their hands (I think they were nervous).

They introduced themselves. I am not

sure those were their real names. They

gave us the reasons for wanting to form a

street committee. They said we need to

protect ourselves, first from the Boers who

want to evict us from our houses; we also

need to protect ourselves against com-tsotsis (these are thugs who masquerade as

comrades). But more than that, they said,

they wanted to be together with us as

parents.

65
Then the meeting was open to the people. Like a pack of wolves, the parents

descended on the three boys. "Where do

you come from?" "Where will you take

our names to?" "Who is your headquarters?" "Do your parents know you are

here?" were some of the questions being

asked, and all at the same time.

We were about to have a nasty confrontation when one man spoke: "It's not

as if you people do not know that street

committees are being formed in most

parts of Soweto. In this street we have

had comrades coming here demanding our

children, girls especially, to go to funeral

vigils.

"The formation of a street committee

is going to give us power to do what action we want to take and not have them

tell us adults what to do."

That did the trick. Some women were

obviously still angry. Understandably, too.

For there they were face to face with people who were harassing them and making

life impossible.

It was obvious they had come along to

give the boys a good telling-off and to

say "to hell with the street committee".

The boys were humble. First, they confessed they were not familiar with the jargon used at meetings, let alone conversant

with procedures.

Some women offered to open a night

school for them. "Ma, we are boycotting

schools." That derailed the meeting as

questions such as "what do you hope to

be without education?" were thrown at

the boys.

Someone realised that we were now

off at a tangent and protested: "We are

not here to discuss the school crisis."

The people got back to the purpose of

the meeting.

Gradually the ice began to thaw as the

boys explained their stand and what we

had to do.

People asked for clarification on matters such as "does it mean if you want to

tell us anything you will go to our chairman who will call a meeting and communicate to us your problem?"

They agreed.

"Does this mean you won't come knocking at our door demanding our children?"

The answer to that was: girls were no

longer to be taken away at night. Parents heaved a sigh of relief.

The boys went on to explain how some

elements were masquerading as comrades.

The street committee would work closely

with the comrades and fight all the unwanted elements.

They also told us no cars would be

hijacked and Putco buses were no longer

to be stoned.

"What is the point of stoning buses

driven by our fathers? It is our parents

who get killed and not the owners of the

buses."

By this time, the parents were interested. We had also ceased to be on the receiving end — just there to receive orders

from the boys. We were participating in

the running of our affairs — something

new in the lives of most of us.

Not only that. We had been gathered

as strangers who have lived next door

since 1982. Suddenly we 'were no longer

strangers and this feeling was to continue

long after the meeting. In fact, we got to

know each other better and better.

We then got down to the business of

electing the executive. After a great argument with people refusing to stand for

elections, giving lame excuses such as "I

knock off late from work" or "I am already committed elsewhere", a man over

50 years old, who had made an impression with the sense of his comments during the meeting, was chosen chairman.

But not before telling the house that he

was accepting on one condition: that he

would never have tc be told to necklace

people or burn down anybody's house.

"I am saying so because our politics are

no longer run democratically. If you disagree with the crowd then you get necklaced. If I am called to do that, I want to

tell you here and now that I will stop

being chairman of this committee."

Once more the comrades reassured him

that they would not do any such thing. In

fact, they said they were also against the

necklaces and burnings. Our names were

taken down as well as those of the executives. We were further told to buy a particular type of whistle, different from the

ones used by the blackjack police.

These whistles are to be used when attacked by anybody, whether soldiers,

blackjacks or thugs. The idea is to blow

the whistle if attacked and, on hearing

that, the neighbours come out to your

assistance.

66
Unfortunately, recently in one area,

people came out on hearing the sound of

the whistle and were shot at.

The executive was also drawn from people who had contributed during the course

of the meeting. One of them was a bus

driver who has links with a football organisation. It was obvious that his soccer club

experience in respect of running meetings

would be an asset for our street.

With the executive chosen and business

out of the way, we spent some time chatting to the boys and getting to know them.

It was amazing the amount of goodwill

created within a few minutes. The boys

who we had viewed with suspicion and

anger had become midwives of security

and understanding.

For days after that, I would meet some

of my neighbours and we would actually

stop and chat. In fact, last week after four

people had died in Phomolong, our chairman suggested we look beyond whistles

for protection. We have now arranged an

extra system using telephones, which most

people now have.

Not only that, last Saturday a group of

so-called comrades came demanding girls

for a vigil.

When they came knocking at my door,

I told them that the issue had been dealt

with at our meeting, that no girl from this

street would be going to a funeral vigil. I

must have spent less than ten minutes arguing with them when I was joined by a

group of women from my street who told

the boys off. Previously we would have

been too scared.

Organizational Aspects

Johannesburg FRONTLINE in English Dec 86 pp 13, 15, 16

[Text]

IN THE closing months of 1986, tens

of thousands of ordinary township

residents have found themselves —

unexpectedly and usually for the first

time in their lives — playing active roles

in the political process. They have been

caught up in the remarkable rise of the

street committees.

From numerous townships, people report the same story. They were summoned

to meetings, usually by teenagers and

often at extremely short notice. A committee was elected, and since then they

have, whether with enthusiasm or otherwise, recognised this committee as a form

of local leadership.

This phenomenon emerged largely at

the instance of the Civic Associations. In

Soweto, where the current growth has

been particularly rapid, it followed hard

on the heels of the re-opening of the Soweto Civic Association's offices after the return from detention of its senior staff.

The office remained the nerve centre

for only a couple of months. At the end of

November its activities were disrupted by

an action which may not be described in

terms of current legislation, but one of its

key staffers happened to be absent at the

time and another successfully passed himself off as a job-seeker. These two, currently of no fixed address, continue to further the spread of the committees.

What are the street committees all

about?

From Lusaka, the ANC has no doubts.

They "grow out of the need of the people

to defend themselves against State repression ... and in response to ANC calls to

make the country ungovernable and apartheid unworkable". So Frontline is told by

spokesman Tom Sebina. "The main idea"

is to forge them into "contingents that will

be part of the process towards a total people's war".

In Pretoria, official comment is hard to

come by. Off the record, security force

sources display exactly the same perspective as Sebina. It's all part of the revolutionary plot, they say, directly traceable to

the ANC's 1953 "M-plan", and is a development to be fought at all costs. Which

presumably explains why some 420 street

committee members in East London and

an unknown further number in Port Elizabeth, where the surge took place somewhat earlier than in the Transvaal, are no

longer in active circulation.

In Johannesburg, in a cupboard-sized

office which is normally the premises of a

tiny trading company and is today serving

also as the headquarters of the Soweto

67
Civic Association, two men who spend

their every evening instigating new committees laugh out loud, drawing a glower

from the secretary who is trying to conduct the business of the company by telephone.

"The people in Lusaka can say what

they like," says one, an amiable man of

middle age. "We know that the purpose is

to enable people to take their lives in

hand. Local government has collapsed.

"The State's version of local government was corrupt and inefficient in any

case, but local government is necessary for

people to channel their grievances. The

street committees fill the vacuum. They

give people an avenue to express views

and come up with solutions."

The SCA's plan is that between 20 and

40 households should form a committee.

The elected leaders of each street committee would represent their street in a block

committee. Six or eight adjoining streets

would form a block.

The block committees would in turn

elect the next tier of leaders to their

township's "branch".

Each of Soweto's 26 townships is to

have a branch and the branches between

them elect the fourth tier, which is the

"interbranch". The interbranch, to consist

of two members from each of the 26 townships, is to be accountable to the executive

of the SCA.

Why this last step? Several different

SCA people put the same point the same

way. The interbranch, arrived at in this

super-democratic fashion, is "accountable

to" the executive of the SCA. This sounds

like the tail wagging the dog. Surely it

should be the other way around?

"It is necessary while we get going,"

says one of the SCA organisers. "We realise that the structures are unrepresentative at present. We are adapting these

structures as the committee system builds

up. Finally the leadership will come from

the streets themselves, through direct responsibility to the people."

To this enquirer it still seems odd that

the SCA executive should, even temporarily, expect some sort of supremacy over

this ground-up system. The organiser disputes this. "The government says the

SCA is 'self-elected', just as it said the

Committee of Ten was 'self-elected'.

"In fact, the Committee of Ten was

elected by means of widely representative

organisations as fairly as it was possible

to do at the time. But there was no mechanism for continued accountability to the

people, so the Committee became the nucleus of the SCA, which has a fuller

ground-level base.

"At the general meeting in '84, there

were branches in 17 townships. There

were ten delegates from each branch, and

the executive they elected included only

two people who had been on the Committee of Ten — Dr Motlana and Tom

Manthata. Obviously, those branches were

not thoroughly representative, but they

were as representative as they could be at

the time. It is not our fault that there were

no elections in '85 and '86. Meetings were

banned and many of our members detained.

"Now we are entering the third phase.

The new structure will be far more representative, and it is much more difficult for

the System to sabotage. Once it is fully

established, it will be impossible for the

System to put it out of action by detaining

leaders. There will be a fully organised

structure which can fill any gap."

How fully organised is to so far? The

SCA people duck the question, repeatedly. They state vaguely that "many" street

committees and "many" block committees

already exist.

Pressed, they guesstimate that "about

half of Soweto is now organised, and excuse the vagueness on the grounds that

their files have been confiscated.

11 seems evident though that with or

without files there is a very high level of

uncertainty. The SCA people say that

there are some freelance bands of youths

acting in their name, but without any actual contact with them. But even aside

from this factor, the SCA organisers have

no clear idea of what their own efforts

have amounted to.

Says one: "We know there is unacceptable behaviour by some people who call

themselves activists. We do not condone

this but we recognise it as part and parcel

of the kind of development we have to go

through."

He gives an example: a shop was burnt

down "before it was established beyond

dcubt that the owner was a collaborator."

Does that imply that if his collaboration

was established beyond doubt, the SCA

would condone the burning? "It is not up

to us. The street committee and the block^

committee would decide." \

Reception of the committees is extremely mixed. Tales of excitement are

common. Many people have had experi68
ences akin to the one Nomavenda Mathiane graphically describes above. Some go

further.

A Baragwanath nurse says that one direct effect of her committee has been to

enlighten people to services they can draw

from their neighbours. She has been introduced to a backyard greengrocer, and now

buys her vegetables locally at greater convenience, lower cost, and with personal

service. ("I wanted a pumpkin and they

said you don't need a pumpkin todqy, your

daughter already got one.")

A Zwide resident tells of the committee

sorting out a problem regarding one man's

troublesome dogs. He himself was reconciled with his wife after a 26-year separation. The furniture movers refused to

bring her goods into the township. The

street committee inspanned the local

comrades.

A Diepkloof man says: "It's wonderful

to see. It's a revival of the old African

tradition of the indaba — talking, and disagreeing, even angrily, instead of fighting.

Ours stays right out of domestic matters.

We don't go and beat up a guy who

doesn't give his wife money. But we have

put an end to the boys who used to threaten to beat you up if you didn't give them

money. We all put in R20 a little while

ago, and bought big pots which anyone

can use who is having a party."

Generally, the positive comments relate

to crime prevention. A woman in Mofolo:

"Our is only two weeks old. Already I feel

safer. There are patrols at night in case of

crime."

A man in Tladi: "We have had one for

a couple of months. It is good. One man

was caught stealing. He was sentenced to

clean everybody's windows. We feel safer.

Somebody cannot come to you and say he

is a comrade so he can take your car. Now

he has to go to the committee."

A woman in Molapo: "Before, if your

neighbour made a nuisance you could do

nothing. Now you can take it to the committee."

However, there is another side to it.

Take a selection of residents' comments:

• "Some boys I had never seen came

and said 'we are your democratic street

committee which you have elected. The

following are the decisions we have made

on your behalf . . .' (These decisions included instructions for bus and consumer

boycotts, observance of days of mourning

on December 16 and Christmas Day, and

closing of shebeens and curfews at certain

hours).

• "If you work with the street committees you become tied to the UDF, whether

you like it or not. I would like to have

order and organisation but I do not want

anything to do with the UDF. The street

committees become their puppets. They

pretend to be democratic but they are

there to carry out the UDFs instructions.

The people get sucked in."

• "At first I was excited. I thought we

were going to discuss issues such as removing the rubbish that is strewn ail over,

and the electricity loan repayment that we

make over and above the electricity bills.

But these things are not touched. Instead

you have the comrades running the show.

I And it totally wrong for them to call us

out of our houses to listen to them preach

their ideology and tell us how they will

deal with dissidents."

• "They make you take part even if you

don't want to. One person who tried to

stay out of it; they now have their meetings right in his house. To force people to

be activists is wrong."

• "They are great for domestic problems and practical problems, but when it

comes to political action there is no option. People who nobody ever elected to

anything come to the chairman one night

and say: 'The people have decided there

will be a boycott. Your duty is to make

sure that your street plays its part.'"

• "People who are not in tune with the

UDF ideology are treated very shabbily."

Paradoxically, the very process of trying to develop order has so far led to a

good deal of direct disorder. The SCA acknowledges various cases of committee intimidation, ranging from several where

youths called on householders to "pop out

some monies," usually for "funeral fees,"

or knocked up adults late at night to berate them for failing to attend meetings,

to one where a street committee pronounced a death sentence on an alleged

sorcerer. (The sorcerer opened fire on his

intending executioners, killing one teenager and seriously injuring another).

Despite this, it is clear that in many

areas a process is under way which has

acquired a momentum of its own — the

passing of power from ideologues to the

hands of genuine community leaders.

In one case told to Frontline, adults

revolted against the rule of a committee

dominated by hard-line students and demanded a secret ballot in which everybody, including the youth, voted. To allround surprise, a mainly adult committee

69
was elected by such a margin that it was

evident most of the youth had voted

against their own earlier leaders.

In another — a street of 44 houses (the

precise figure is an outflow of the resultant organisation) — less than twenty people attended the first committee meeting.

Many were there reluctantly, fearing retaliation if they did not attend, and many

were particulaly annoyed that they had

been summoned by comrades at only fifteen minutes' notice. (The comrades apologised and explained this was for security

reasons). The meeting went well. Word

got around. At the next meeting 32 households were represented even though there

was no longer a fear of reprisals.

What happens next? Do we have a huge

clampdown? Does the ideological element

triumph, with the committees turning into

tyrannical instruments for imposing a

"people's will" laid down from the upper

echelons'? Do we enjoy the unprecedented

sight of true order, fair and full, entering

township life?

In part, it depends on the government.

At present the approach seems to be to

hunt the committees down as just another

step in the communist plot. This approach

doesn't seem to have borne much fruit in

the Eastern Cape, aside from maintaining

full employment in the Prisons Department. Moreover, it has the ironic effect of

aggravating the very polarisation the government claims to be combatting.

One newly-elected committee member

whose main interest is in doing all he can

to make sure his child goes to school next

year, describes this experience. "I was sitting in a committee meeting when three

police cars came. I was so frightened I

couldn't move. In fact they were coming

for the house next door, where everyone

has known for years there is a theft racket. Long after they had gone we were all

still shaking. Afterwards I felt very

strange. They could have been coming for

me. I'm involved in fighting the system

now."

It surely doesn't make sense from the

government's point of view that a humble

burger like this should find himself a

"fighter against the system". If it left the

committees in peace then it would remove

much of the revolutionary ethos.

That too leads to problems. It is hard to

envisage a time ever coming when the

committee structure, no matter how stable

and orderly and peaceable, would actively

co-operate with government in respect of

civic administration. Whatever it might

do in terms of establishing calm and control, it is surely going to represent a force

for the end of white rule.

But there's going to be much the same

amount of force to end white rule whether

it comes from stones and necklaces or

from elected leaders of coherent constituencies. Government's choice is not between pressure and no pressure, but between orderly pressure and chaotic

pressure.

Right now its options are to try to snuff

out the committees and entrench the

power of the paraffin artists, or to live

with the committees and do what it can to

strengthen the democratic strain within

them in opposition to the manipulative

strain to which they risk falling prey.

The Civic Associations too might do

some constructive self-examination. For

one thing, are they aiming to be political

parties or are they aiming to be sheer

structures, like town councils? At the moment they are hybrids. They have no specific policy or programme and they profess to seek primarily the generation of

democratic order — allowing full and free

debate rather than insisting on a party

line. Yet they are affiliated to the UDF,

and they have "affiliation forms" of their

own for individual members.

Thus, if they are genuinely aiming at

simply providing a structure for democratic activity, they are also unnecessarily inflaming the Azapo/UDF conflict and setting themselves apart from everyone else

who has no taste for playing a UDF game.

It's not easy for the SCA, with the police breathing down their necks at every

turn, but nonetheless a good deal more

strategic planning and public disclosure

would seem to be in order. At the moment

the level of public disclosure is all but nil

and, unless there are some remarkably

convincing actors in the hierarchy, it

would seem that private planning is not

much higher.

They could for instance offer guidelines

of legitimate and illegitimate committee

action: methods of balloting; systems of

linking smaller and larger committees,

etc.. At present most committees apparently consist of utterly inexperienced

people finding their way entirely by feel.

Many seem to have jammed at the point

70
of rigging up community defence systems,

and the flow of constructive example from

those who have gone further — into mutual commercial support, for example — is

limited to happenstance conversations.

The potential is enormous, but so are

the dangers. The committees stand, for instance, to offer a thousand times better

administration of small-time justice than

does the existing combination of outsider

(and often unavailable) policeman and

outsider magistrate. But without a

broader order around them they can easily

descend to kangaroo courts. Above all,

there is the ever-present prospect of

thought-policing. Is the committee structure going to allow full voice to dissidents,

even political dissidents; or is it to become

a revolutionary Gestapo?

This question, like so many others, cannot be truly settled until the peculiar heat

induced by minority rule has been done

away with. But in the meanwhile, the torn

and weary townships have hit upon the

embryo of the only avenue yet in sight to

materially advance the quality of their

lives. If the warlords of either side destroy

the process for political aims, they'll have

even more to answer for than they already

do.

/9317

CSO: 3400/788

71
SOUTH AFRICA

BLACK POLICEMAN DESCRIBES ORDEAL

Johannesburg FRONTLINE in English Dec 86 pp 18-19

[Article by Hilton Hamman]

[Text] The police symbolise and personify "the system" in all clashes

between establishment and radicalism. It's as true of South Africa as

anywhere else—but generalisations are no consolidation when you're black,

a cop and a current target in the township. And when your own colleagues

substitute lengthy procedure for timely redress you become bitter...as

bitter as Templeton Sibaca.

THE South African Police were asked for

their comments on the account given by

W/O Sibaca.

Brigadier Jaap Venter, Officer Commanding the Public Relations Division,

replied:

"Members of the Force whose property

was destroyed or damaged in the unrest

have been provided for through donations

and interest-free loans from the Benevolent

Fund. Donations have also been made by

the NG Church's emergency fund.

"The State has in the meantime provided

emergency housing for these members and

provision has been made for ex-gratia

payments by the Treasurey in which replacement values for destroyed property

will be paid.

"However, before any payment can be

made the member's claim must be properly

assessed. This is normal practice, even in

the private sector where any insurance

company thoroughly investigates a claim

before making payment.

"We will investigate this member's case

at the highest level and if there is an administrative problem we will certainly take

the appropriate action."

TEMPLETON Sibaca is the kind

of black man whom whites like

to classify "middle class". The

kind of person big business and

opposition politicians tell us we need to

"create" if the "Black" problem in South

Africa is ever to be solved.

The father of two school-going children,

he has high hopes for them and the future.

His wife holds down a good job, enjoying

status and Financial security. Sibaca has

seen 17 years service with the same

"firm" and many would consider the

Sibaca family comfortable.

Yet Templeton Sibaca, aged 45, is a

bitter man, ostracized by the community

he feels he has faithfully served for almost

20 years and spurned by a tangle of

bureaucratic red tape in whose cause he

lost everything.

Almost 18 months ago, the Sibaca family were forced to flee, taking with them

only the clothes they wore, while the community they still call their own torched

their house and all their possessions. The

crime? Templeton is a black policeman.

In a small office where the walls are

plastered but not painted he talked, at

first hostile but later almost nostalgic.

72
He told of how he had grown up on a

gold mine in the area. Of how, after completing his schooling, he went to college

and qualified as a teacher. But his passion

for detective and police novels would not

let him be and after five years of chalk

and blackboards he had decided to call it

a day in the classroom and enrol at the

police college at Hammanskraai.

"At first 1 did not join the Force because I wanted to serve my community,"

he said. "I joined because I thought the

job was exciting and I was interested. But

as time went by I began to feel I was

doing a worthwhile job. 1 was helping my

people."

For seven years he did duty as a member of the Security Police.

"Things were different in those days,"

he said nostalgically. He paused for a few

moments as he remembered those early,

exciting times.

"Then the security branch was accepted. If we attended a meeting in the old

days we would first introduce ourselves to

the chairman who told the audience the

security police were present."

Why did he leave the Spooks? His eye

narrowed.

"My reasons are personal and I would

prefer not to speak about-them."

He would not be drawn further. I

obviously touched a raw nerve. This is

something he is not going to speak about

to a stranger.

And so a transfer to the detective division where he felt he could be closer to the

daily criminal problems facing "his

people."

But things were changing. Black South

Africa was metamorphosising. The signs

were clear for all who took the trouble to

read them. People like Templeton Sibaca

were no longer seen by the community as

having a place there. They were enemies,

oppressors, enforcers of laws which had

been universally condemned.

Yet Templeton Sibaca could not sec it.

He felt secure.

"Sure, 1 had heard the rumours. People

told me some were planning to burn my

house down and my family and 1 were in

danger. But 1 did not believe it. How was

it possible? I had known these people for

years and they trusted me.

"I remember times when I was investigating a case and parked the car in the

township. Youngsters playing football in

the street would look after it for me; and

these were supposed to be the people who

wanted to kill me? ImpossibleJ"

And so when it happened, despite all

the warning signs, it still came as a shock.

A week before, the daughters of two

Duduza Civic Association members had

died fiery deaths when their homes burnt

down in petrol bomb attacks.

The township people were angry, very

angry. The day before the funeral, at the

night vigil, they summarily decided the

police had been the attackers and that

their homes be razed in retaliation.

"That Saturday morning I could see

something big was going to happen," said

Sibaca.

"In this job you learn to feel these

things. People stood around on street

corners just watching, all the time watching."

Sibaca decided the time had come to

get his family out.

"1 couldn't simply tell them to get into

the car, that would have been far too

risky," he said.

"1 told them not to take anything. Just

to climb over the back fence and meet

me outside the township."

That afternoon a group broke away

from the main funeral procession and in

quick succession torched the homes of the

black policemen in the township.

"You can have no idea how a person

feels when he hears that everything he has

worked for is being destroyed," he said.

He was right, there was no way I could

imagine it.

"The anger wells up inside you and

wants to explode but there's nothing you

can do.

"They burnt everything. Our furniture,

our clothes, even my little daughter's

dolls. My neighbours, the people I had

lived next to for years helped them. Can

you imagine that? They helped drag our

refrigerator into the street where it and all

our food was burnt.

"Explaining to my daughter was the

most difficult. She kept asking, 'why?

why?'

"How does a man tell his child that

people were once his friends now want to

kill him because of the job he does?

"1 have always tried to do the best I

could for my family. Sure, we were comfortable, but we worked for it. We owned

a colour television and I had just bought a

National video recorder. The refrigerator

was always full and the children always

had enough good food to eat.

73
"And suddenly it was all gone. In the

space of a few minutes all we had left

were the clothes we were standing in.

"Insurance? No, what did we need it

for? These people were our friends."

Later, a woman in Johannesburg heard

of their plight and sent R100.

"1 gave it to my wife so she could buy

clothes for the kids," he said.

The Police moved quickly. This was

good stuff from a propaganda point of

view. Soon the media was there.

"These people of ours who have lost

their homes will be fully compensated,"

said a police spokesman to a sagely nodding SABC interviewer. Good stuff this.

We look after our own. Man.

But as they say, "the road to hell" and

all that.

"It's almost 18 months now and all we

have are promises," said Sibaca.

"I don't think it is the police force itself

but somewhere along the line something is

breaking down.

"They interview you. God, how they interview you. But always it's the same. It's

as though they think we burnt our own

houses down.

"You have to sit there in front of an

officer while he grills you.

" 'Hoe kan jy se jy't 'n video? Ek's 'n

Kaptein en ek het nie so ding nie. Julie

will ryk word ne?'

"Nee, Kaptein, dis nie waar nie."

Scratched note on the side of the claim

form before it goes into the "out" tray:

"Die mense wil ryk word ten koste van die

Staat."

. "How the hell do we handle that? They

keep telling us, 'julle eis word ondersoek'

but I'm the one who has to go home and

lie to my wife and kids that everything is

okay.

"How can 1 tell them that the organisation which 1 have worked for for so long

and for which 1 lost everything now wants

to know 'probeer julle ryk word'?"

"I don't want my family to turn around

and say 'if you weren't a dammed policeman this would never have happened' so I

lie to them. When they ask, 1 say everything's fine, they're doing the best they

can and soon our problems will be over."

But Templeton Sibaca knows he is over

a barrel. It's a one-way ticket for him.

"No matter what happens, 1 can't leave.

There is nothing else I can do now. The

community will never accept me. I'm a

policeman for the rest of my life."

In the meantime his son is completing

his matric at a school in Natal. His daughter is in Standard 4 at a school in the

township where the attack took place.

"Sure, I worry about her, but there is

nothing I can do. She is staying with her

grandmother and we think she'll be okay

as long as the other pupils don't sell her

out."

/9317

CSO: 3400/764

74
SOUTH AFRICA

BUS BOYCOTT COSTING COMMUTERS MONEY

Johannesburg THE STAR in English 7 Jan 87 p 13

[Text]

Commuters In the black community are being hit

with big additional expenses because of the continuing Putco bus boycott.

The boycott began in November when Putco announced 17,5 and 15 percent fare increases in the

Transvaal and Natal.

Some members of the black community immediately opposed the increases, and announced buses

must be boycotted from November 1.

So far the boycott has resulted in a loss of work

by several hundred Putco employees, and an even

heavier financial burden for the average township

commuter.

Drivers and other workers have been retrenched,

the latest batch being some 240 employees in the

Transvaal.

• And, said Putco's director of public relations, Mr

Pat Rogers, speaking in a televised interview, it

was likely more employees would be retrenched if

the situation did not improve in the New Year.

Although Putco has lost hundreds of thousands of

rands since November, commuters did not save the

money, but spent it on taxis which have enjoyed

unprecedented takings in the past three months.

There are more brand-new minibuses on the road

nowadays than before. Transport is costing the commuter more than if he paid the increased bus fares.

The Pimville-city route is an example.

A Pimville resident working in Doornfontein

would, paying the new increased bus fares, spend

R7,50 on a season ticket valid for five days. He

would use the ticket for going to work and coming

back.

Since he must now use a taxi in compliance with

the enforced boycott, he must pay exactly double in

taxi fare what he would for a bus. This is because

taxis do not sell season tickets and charge a standard fare for each trip.

From Pimville to Doornfontein a taxi charges

R1.50 for a single trip. In the evening when the

worker returns home he must pay another R1.50 —

meaning every weekday he must put aside R3 to be

spent on travelling to work.

A five-day week at work, therefore, means he will

pay R15 in taxi fares — double the increased bus

fares.

SOME MUST USE TWO TAXIS

In certain sections of Pimville there is no straight

taxi service to town, which means the worker must

pay for at least two taxis before he reaches the city.

He will pay 70c from his township to the Baragwanath taxi rank and hop into another cab, which then

costs him Rl,30 to travel to the city. He will pay

R20 for a week's fares.

People living in townships like Protea North pay

Rl,70 a single trip to town and those in Naledi pay

R1.80 for a similar journey.

Buses normally run as far as Randburg and Sandton to the north of Johannesburg and Roodepoort

and Krugersdorp in the West Rand, while taxis op

erate only as far as End Street in the city and turn

back into Commissioner Street to begin the return

trip to the townships.

For Soweto residents working in Roodepoort and

Krugersdorp, Sandton and Randburg as well as distant suburbs like Rivonia, Wynberg, Steeledale and

Rosebank it sometimes means at least three different modes of travel before reaching their jobs.

But commuters who complain about the large

sums of money they must now pay in taxi fares

blame the organisers of the boycott.

Says one man: "What these guys should have done

was study the implications of the boycott before

announcing it. After that they should have approached the taxi people and asked them to lower

75
their fares sw.-e there would be many more passengers using their service.

»As it is, bad organisation has how resulted in our

paying extra sums of money to the taxis. Whatever

the bus boycott was intended to save us has been

lost."

A woman, who also refused to be named, said the

taxi operators themselves should have noticed long

ago that the boycott meant a bonanza for the minibus operators.

"They should have decided without being prompted that it was in the passengers' interests to lower

fares. That way they could have demonstrated their

solidarity with us and showed they were not interested in profits only."

The organisers of the bus boycott could not be

contacted for comment.

/9317

CSO: 3400/771

76
SOUTH AFRICA

NEW REGULATIONS CLAMP DOWN ON ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION PLANS

Johannesburg THE STAR in English 7 Jan 87 p 13

[Article by Susan Pleming]

[Text]

Today is the first day of the school year for many, but for

black pupils school begins on an uncertain and shaky note.

They were expected to resume classes today following calls by

organisations representing pupils, teachers, parents, churches, the

community and political groups.

The return-to-school call has come at a time when the Government has introduced stringent new emergency regulations to control the movement and actions of black pupils.

The new regulations are also aimed at squashing people's or

alternative education.

Under the new regulations any person who contravenes the

orders will be liable for a maximum fine of R4000 or two years'

jail;

According to the NECC's spokesman, Mr Eric Molobi, these regulations would place an enormous strain on pupils resuming

classes*

The Bureau of Information refused to answer questions by The

Star on whether the security forces would be used at schools. A

bureau spokesman said the release of this information would "contravene the emergency regulations".

As schools open today, the relationship between the NECC and

the Government has deteriorated. Communication between the two

groups has broken down.

NECC negative, says Govt

The Government has strongly condemned the NECC, labelling it

as a "negative" organisation with little support. The NECC has

responded by calling these allegations "slanderous".

1987 had been earmarked as the year when People's Education

would gain momentum.

The NECC planned to launch alternative history and English

syllabuses in schools this term.

The Government has attempted to block this launch with the

introduction of the sweeping powers in the new emergency regulations.

77
/9317

CSO: 3400/771

Attempts to squash people's education have been met with opposition from the NECC and.pther groups involved in the People's

Education project.

, The closure of 73 schools at the end of last year and indecision

about whether they will be reopened for the new academic year

has sparked deep concern.

The NECC, the United Democratic Front and student organisations such as the Transvaal Students Congress and the South African National Students Congress have demanded their reopening.

"The most sensible beginning for 1987 is for the DET to reopen

all schools and allow our children to receive an education. The

DET will do well to refrain from impeding the return to school,"

Mr Molobi said.

It depends on the parents, says DET

The DET has responded by saying the reopening of these schools

depends entirely on the reaction of parents and the community.

The chief of public relations at the DET, Mr Job Schoeman, said

discussions on this matter were being held countrywide between

the department and parents and community groups.

"Only if the parents wish to have the schools reopened and if

they are prepare to take responsibility for their children's behaviour will the schools be reopened," he said.

Mr Schoeman could not estimate how many of the schools closed

last year would be reopened today.

Mr Molobi said he was unaware that the DET had approached

the NECC or the committees established by the NECC countrywide.

, "For example I know that the Soweto Parents Crisis Committee

has not heard anything from the DET with regard to the schools

closed in Soweto last year."

78
SOUTH AFRICA

OUKASIE RESIDENTS SAY DET MOVES SCHOOL

MB191655 Johannesburg SAPA in English 1646 GMT 19 Jan 87

[Text] Pretoria, 19 Jan, (SAPA)—"Foreign" pupils were apparently being

sent to Oukasie's remaining two schools to cause problems, following the

closure of a school there, the Department of Education and Training [DET]

said today.

Oukasie representatives said today that the DET had "moved" one of the Brits

townships two primary schools to the new township of Lethlabile without

warning, causing overcrowding at the remaining primary school.

They charged that this was a political maneuver to force residents from

Oukasie, 5 km from Brits, to move to the new resettlement area 25 km from

the town.

But DET spokesman Mr Job Schoeman said in Pretoria that the Itumaleng

Primary School had been closed after a survey had shown that the remaining

primary school would accommodate all Oukasie's primary pupils.

Now it appeared however that children from outlying areas were being

enrolled at the school "in an orchestrated attempt to cause problems"

he said.

Mr Schoeman stressed that the school had not been "moved" to force

Oukasie residents to go to the new township, but because a survey had

shown that a sufficient number of pupils had already moved with their

parents to Lethlabile.

Oukasie residents said there were still 10,000 people left in the township

abolished by the department of Constitutional Development and Planning,

while 5,000 had moved to Lethlabile.

Mr Schoeman said free school books were delivered to Oukasie today,

but parents charged that they had already bought books because it

appeared that the DET would not supply the books.

/12624

CSO: 3400/782

79
SOUTH AFRICA

BRIEFS

PUTCO RIDERSHIP DOWN—Johannesburg, 5 Jan, SAPA—The amount of passengers

carried by PUTCO [Public Utility Transport Corporation] had been reduced

by about 50 percent since the introduction of the boycott by commuters

in the Soweto area, a spokeswoman for the company said today. She said

it was difficult to assess to what extent the "large" reduction in use of

the buses was a direct cause of the boycott, because most factories were

still closed and schools only opened on Wednesday. Most of the factories

closed are due to open next Monday. The spokeswoman conceded the boycott

had been "partially effective," but added they were still running services

in many parts of Soweto. [Text] [Johannesburg SAPA in English 0851 GMT

5 Jan 87 MB] /12624

ANC ALLAYING U.S. CONCERNS—Political observers at the ANC celebrations in

Lusaka say the movement is allying U.S. concern over communist influence in

the ANC. (?This emerged from) remarks made by the ANC president, Oliver

Tambo. They say the new direction taken by the movement makes clear its

use of guerrilla violence, including the bombing of civilian targets.

The ANC has urged restraint in its struggle against the South African

Government, and says it is willing to discuss a future South Africa

with State Presdient P.W. Botha. Mr Tambo, who may not be quoted in

South Africa, is to meet U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz in Washington.

[Text] [Umtata Capital Radio in English 1600 GMT 8 Jan 87 MB] /12624

PAC CONCERNED ABOUT HUNGER STRIKE—-The pan-Africanist Congress, PAC, of

Azania, has expressed concern over the plight of one of its members.

Comrade Jeff Masemola, who is on a hunger strike in a South African prison.

Comrade Masemola, who is serving a life sentence under apartheid laws,

began a hunger strike 33 days ago. A statement released by the PAC chairman,

Comrade Johnson Mlabo, in the capital today said Comrade Masemola is

critically ill. Comrade Mlambo called on the international community

to exert pressure on the Pretoria regime for the release of all political

prisoners. [Text] [Harare Domestic Service in English 2000 GMT 9 Jan 87 MB]

/12624

BOPHUTHATSWANA SEEKS BOTSWANA RECOGNITION—Bophuthatswana, seeking diplomatic

recognition as an independent state, has begun barring Botswana citizens

from entering its territory. Analysts said the move 'choking' off

Botswanian traffic on its routes to South Africa could threaten the nation

80
with economic collapse. The border clampdown apparently began yesterday

when Bophuthatswana immigration officials turned back several Batswana.

It followed an announcement last December by Botswana that the independent

South African homeland had demanded recognition and threatened to block

Botswana's exports and imports trade to South Africa. Botswana has until

now refused to recognize Bophuthatswana; and analysts believe that the

territory is acting at the instigation of South Africa. [Text] [Umtata

Capital Radio in English 1500 GMT 10 Jan 87 MB] /12624

MASKED GUNMEN SHOOT UCASA PRESIDENT—Mr Steve Kgame, prominent

Dobsonville councillor and president of the trouble-torn Urban Councils

Association of South Africa (UCASA) is fighting for his life at Baragwanath

Hospital after being shot in his shop on Friday night. Four masked

gunmen burst into his Dobsonville Hostel shop and fired two shots,

one hitting Mr Kgame in the forehead and the other in the chest. The men

then vanished into the darkness in their get-away car, leaving the former

Dobsonville mayor in a pool of blood. He was rushed to hospital where

he underwent an emergency operation Police confirmed the shooting of Mr

Kgame. They said Mr Kgame was shot at 10 pm on Friday at his Lapalioga

restaurant in Dobsonville. He was then rushed to hospital where he is

in a serious, but stable condition. Police said they were investigating

and did not know the motives for the shooting, but did not rule out

robbery or an attempted assassination. [Excerpts] [Johannesburg THE SUNDAY

STAR in English 11 Jan 87 p 1 MB] /12624

BLACK SCHOOL ENROLLMENT GOING WELL—Pretoria, 1 Jan, (SAPA)—Re-enrollment

at black eastern cape schools — which were hard hit by the stayaway actxon

last year — was progressing very well today, department of Education and

Training [DET] spokesman Mr Job Schoeman said in Pretoria. Enrollment levels

at higher primary and secondary schools exceeded 60 percent when they

reopened today, he said. Schools could be filled by tomorrow, Mr Schoeman

said. No unrest was reported to the department. Thirty six of the 60 schools

closed by the DET last year reopened today at the request of parents. A

further six would reopen soon, while parents from the 18 others would soon

meet to discuss them being reopened. Mr Schoeman said over 1.8 million pupils

was expected to register at the countrys 7,400 black schools this year. There

were 1,817,500 black pupils last year. [Text] [Johannesburg SAPA in English

1604 GMT 19 Jan 87 MB] /12624

ELITE BLACK HOUSING PLANNED—An ambitious R10-million black suburban housing

development outside Pinetown of 200 luxury and individually designed homes

is under way. The development has been initiated and managed by National

Homes, a subsidiary of National Investment Corporation (NIC) which is 90

percent-owned by black shareholders. Fourteen houses are under construction

and another 40 have been sold off-plan. The services and infrastructure

for another 140 will be completed by middle of 1987. Ambrose Nzuza, chairman

of NIC, says the houses are designed to the tastes and requirements of the

prospective owner. "It is a complete departure from the traditional concept of black housing. The homes will grow together and form a unique

community—a suburb not a township." The 200 bungalow-style houses, priced

between R30 000 and R60 000, will be supported by a shopping centre and two

schools. [Text] [Johannesburg SUNDAY TIMES in English 4 Jan 87 p 1] /9317

CSO: 3400/764

81
SOUTH AFRICA

COMMENTARY NOTES U.S. OPPOSITION TOWARD MOVE TO ANC

MB200521 Johannesburg Domestic Service in English 0500 GMT 20 Jan 87

[Station Commentary]

[Text] Up to now the American policy shift on the ANC has been surprisingly

quietly managed, for a country that prides itself on subjecting official

actions to the most intense public scrutiny. While Congress and the

State Department have set about virtually reversing former policy, the

media have displayed none of their usual enthusiasm for creating public

debate on the implications of a change that affects fundamental premises

of American foreign policy. Evidently that silence is now being broken.

In Washington yesterday 34 conservative groups — among them highly

influential bodies — were represented at a conference sponsored

by the Coalition Against ANC-Terrorism. The purpose of the conference,

led by a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

Senator Jesse Helms, was to draw public attention to the nature of the

ANC and protest against the policy change on it.

But the first big salvo was fired a day earlier, in an article in THE

WASHINGTON POST. It came from Mrs Jeane Kirkpatrick, whose name has

been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate, and is no

apologist for the South African Government. In her article she accused

it of short-sightedly refusing to share power. About the ANC, however,

she is unequivocal. The new consiliatory policy being followed by the

State Department towards the ANC (she states) is undermining democratic

elements in South Africa and reducing the chances for a peaceful solution.

Obviously any change in American policies on southern Africa has important

repercussions for individual countries and the region as a whole. But

the realities of the international power play in the region dictate

that changes will also affect the United States itself in a much more profound

sense. It is to this dimension that Mrs Kirkpatrick refers, in arguing that

American foreign policy must make sense in terms of American values and

interests. Her contention is that the present State Department approach

does not make such sense. The department itself is aware of the ANC's

close ties with the South African Communist Party, and Americans have

learned — in Nicaragua, Cuba and elsewhere — what happens with broad

coalitions in which Leninists have control. They establish Marxist

governments.

82
Mrs Jeane Kirkpatrick and others are concerned that the United States

should not repeat past errors. Policies that have the potential for

subverting the aspirations of entire peoples, and significantly weakening

the United States as a world power, should not be allowed just to unfold

quietly. If the State Department is going to adopt a policy of conciliation

towards the ANC the American people have a right to be informed about

the organization — to know about its terrorist methods and Marxist

affiliations.

If what is happening in America now is the start of a clearer and more

knowledgeable public focus on the ANC as it really is, the development

is to be welcomed. It is as important to supporters of democratic

principles in South Africa as it is to Americans.

/12624

CSO: 3400/781

83
SOUTH AFRICA

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ASSESSES POST-APARTHEID SCENARIOS

FrardcEurt/Main FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE in German 16 Dec 86 p 4

[Article by Robert von Lucius, datelined Ebenhausen, 15 December: "There Will

Not Be Any Violent Overthrow of the Government in South Africa for Some Time.

Moscow Proposes Guarantees for Whites.11]

[Text] There will probably not be any violent overthrow — a takeover of

power by the black majority in South Africa — for at least the next decade.

The reason for this is that the preconditions that had always been present in

the revolutions of this century, for instance in the Soviet Union, China, Iran

and Portugal — an army which defected to the other side or got out of the

fight in the final stage — are lacking in South Africa. This was the view of

nearly all participants of a talk circle which discussed "black politics" in

South Africa at the Foundation of Science and Politics in Ebenhausen. There

would not likely be any apocalypse at least in the short or medium term. The

foundation on Starnberger See — a research institute which advises the

federal government on political action possibilities from an independent

perspective — succeeded in bringing some of the best-known analysts of South

African policy, including professors Heribert Adam, Theo Hanf and Hermann

Giliamee, as well as the journalist Colin Legum, from South Africa, the United

States and Western Europe together with representatives of the foreign

ministries in Washington and Bonn, as well as people politically active in

South Africa, such as Nthato Motlana, spokesman for the urban blacks in

Soweto. The editor-in-chief of a Catholic weekly newspaper, Zwelakhe Sisulu,

who was also to have participated, did not get a passport; he had been

arrested in South Africa over the weekend.

A South African in exile in Ebenhausen is convinced that President Botha is

currently the only white politician of importance who could maintain the

backing of his white compatriots for further unpopular reforms. On the other

hand, other participants at the talks, also white South Africans, did not

believe that Botha would undertake further basic reforms for the time being.

They thought he had reached the end of his willingness and ability for

reforms. They expected Botha to step down after a parliamentary election

which should take place between March and June of next year, as soon as the

technical prerequisites for that, for instance drawing up boundaries for new

constituencies, are concluded. Rumors from Botha's immediate surroundings in

South Africa, on the other hand, have it that, different from what was the

84
case just a few months ago, Botha does not intend to step down, but wants to

hold office several years more. He is said to be physically fresh, but

mentally immobile. The appointment of former vice president Schlebusch as

minister in the presidential office in early December was for the purpose of

his taking office as a provisional president in the event Botha should

suddenly become incapacitated, and keeping the power struggles among Botha's

four conceivable successors, which are currently crippling government policy,

away from Botha beforehand. The imprisoned nationlaist leader Nelson Mandela

is said to still be in a position to win most blacks over to a possible policy

of reconciliation. But a black South African in Ebenhausen thinks this would

have to happen very soon, or else it would no longer be conceivable for the

ANC to be without communist influence. In numerous townships of urban black

South Africans there are already "lawless areas," sometimes also called

"liberated areas," from which the police have completely withdrawn. There

are street and regional committees of young blacks there, as well as "people's

courts;" but these are hardly still functional, as most of the leading

committee members have been arrested under the state of emergency which has

been in effect since June. There was also uncertaintly at the conference as

to what extent the African National Congress still had influence over these

youths and the street committees.

While the ANC is seen by most Western observers as having close ties with the

Soviet Union, Soviet African researchers have been restrained in their

comments about it. Even though the ANC is the most important force in black

South Africa, a solution would not be possible without other groups,

particularly Gatscha Buthelezi's Inkatha movement. Black South Africans in

particular were surprised by these statements of a German and two American

scientists who reported on several weeks of talks in Moscow. The scientists

found more interest in white than black South Africa at the Africa Institute

of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The Soviet African experts mention

Zimbabwe as a model for a future South Africa; they did not have any "theory

of transition," nor did they have hardly any foggy and Utopian concepts of a

quick change, which is customary in Western thinking on South Africa.

"Slogans" like armed struggle without compromise against whites or the

establishment of a black government were "adventuresome plans" which led the

masses away from the struggle for their independence and did irreparable harm

to the "liberation movement." This is not to be read in a "rightist"

document, but in the lecture of the deputy director of the Moscow Africa

Institute, Gleb Starushenko, before a Soviet-African conference in Moscow in

June of this year, which was reported on at Eberhausen. At this lecture,

which, however, does not tally with official Soviet African policy,

Starushenko said there were possibilities of the groups approaching each

other. For that purpose, the ANC could work out "extensive guarantees" for

the whites, which could be put into effect after apartheid was abolished. The

parliament could consist of two chambers: one on the basis of proportional

representation and one, in which the four communities (population groups) are

reprsented with right of veto. "Broad nationalization of capitalist property"

would not be an indispensable prerequisite for a solution in South Africa.

The deputy director of the Soviet Africa Institute said in his speech in

Moscow that "antiracist forces" could give appropriate guarantees. A peaceful

solution to the conflict could be facilitated by falling back on international

guarantees and selecting guarantors, respected international organizations and

countries.

13084

CSO: 3420/5 85
SOUTH AFRICA

NATAL PFP, NRP AGREE TO ELECTION ALLIANCE

MB191808 Johannesburg SAPA in English 1803 GMT 19 Jan 87

[Text] Dubran, 19 Jan, (SAPA)—The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and

the New Republic Party (NRP) in Natal had agreed to form an election

alliance based on the acceptance by both parties of the recommendations

of the Natal Indaba, the parties said in a joint statement issued in Durban

today.

The Indaba consensus to which the parties had subscribed meant that

"philosophical differences" which had hitherto existed between them had

largely disappeared and an election alliance now could provide a concerted

spearhead for the endorsement of enlightened reform policies by the

white voters of Natal.

"We believe that such an endorsement can have a profound effect on future

race relations in Natal and set the pattern for reciprocal endorsement

in due course by other groups committed to peaceful negotiations and

enlightened reform," Mr Ray Swart, Natal leader of the NRP, said in the

statement.

They said they also believed that success for the alliance candidates in the

coming election would be the "most powerful signal" which whites in Natal

could send to the government.

They said in this way they would indicate their desire to move away from

the "present political paralysis" which, they said, National Party

policies had inflicted on South Africans at large.

The presence in the new white parliament of a numerically stronger

and enlightened opposition would provide continued impetus for a process

of real reform, they said.

To give practical effect to the election alliance, the parties had agreed

on an arrangement in terms of which they would not oppose each other

in any Natal constituency.

86
In terms of an agreement on division of constituencies, the NRP would

contest seats in Mooi River, Umbilo, South Coast, Amanzimtoti and Point,

while the PFP would fight Berea, Durban Central, Durban North, Greytown,

Pietermaritzburg South, Pietermaritzburg North, Pinetown, Port Natal,

Umhlanga, Umhlatuzana and Umlazi.

The parties had decided that all candidates would be committed to

propagating the Indaba policy and process during campaigns and to

continue pursuance of the same ideals after their election.

/12624

CSO: 3400/781

87
SOUTH AFRICA

EMERGENCY REGULATIONS COMPOUND NEWSPAPER CONTROVERSY

Durban POST NATAL in English 24-27 Dec 86 p 4

[Commentary by Ameen Akhalwaya in My View column]

[Text]

THIS column is not (yet) the Government Gazette. So it brings you the news that's fit to

print. Even if it has to be printed in way that

makes it fit.

A blank space can't be printed to fit the

news. But one thinks it fit to print what might

be news to you.

If you haven't worked for a newspaper, this

may be news to you: arguments are still raging in newspaper offices over the question of

filling blank spaces.

The arguments are over what takes precedence: editorial or advertising. They have

been raging since newspapers first accepted

advertisements many years ago.

Now a new element has been introduced

into the row in the form of the latest emergency regulations, which forbid publication of

blank spaces or any

obliteration or deletion

to indicate that reports

have been censored.

Traditionally, advertising executives and

reps have argued that

the function of reporters and photographers

is to fill the blank;

spaces between ads.

Reporters argue that

ads take up the valuable space in which

their immortal words

should appear.

Photographers claim

that a picture is worth

a thousand words, and

the ads and articles

needlessly take up the

space in which their art

can be properly displayed.

The advertising people say newspapers

won't survive if they

don't bring in the income from ads. Reporters say people buy the

product only because it

contains their words of

wisdom.

Photographers say

most people buy a

newspaper to look at

their pictures, especially those that have a

blank space where

clothes would have ap- >

peared.

It's a tricky business.

Most commercial newspapers let advertising

take precedence.

This is how these

newspapers work. When

all the ads are in for an

issue, the executives determine the number of

pages of the newspaper

according to the advertising volume.

Some newspapers

have an advertising to

editorial ratio of 90:10.

The bigger the newspaper and the more it

charges, the more

money it makes.

Other newspapers

that have little advertising have to rely on

income from the cover

price, or from benefactors. It is not unusual

88
for wealthy individuals

or companies to pour;

money into newspapers;

to keep them alive.

Once the number of

pages has been decided

on, the ads are marked

in, and the blank spaces

left over are what journalists regard as the

crumbs they have to

fight over.

And it is not surprising that civil war often

breaks but over who

gets the biggest crumb.

The editors or their

lieutenants decide how

much prominence each

story gets.

One journalist may

have written a 1000-

word article on a striptease show. Another

may have written ä

1000-word report on the

outbreak of the Third

World War.

Which report gets

precedence usually depends on the type of

newspaper it is written

for. A serious newspaper would obviously go

big on the war story

and cut the striptease

story to its bare essentials.

A mass-circulation

newspaper, as a fleshy

flashy one is sometimes

fondly called, would go

big on the strip story,:

and have another little

story with the headline:

"War declared: strippers run for cover!"

But that doesn't end

the newsroom war. A

photographer may

claim that his pin-up

pic of a stripper would

tell a thousand more

words than the report

— and sell more newspapers.

But another photographer could claim that

his picture of the

dooms-day mushroom

cloud is historic and

might sell more papers.

Then, of course, there

is the question of manipulation of news

items, be they articles,

headlines, or pictures.

Say a newspaper has

plenty of blank spaces

and nothing much to fill

them with. The manipulators in the production

department, known as

sub-editors, decide to

blow up the sizes of pictures to fill the space.

Or they may put bigger headlines on the

pages, or use bigger type sizes for articles. Or

they may use plenty of

"white space" (that is,

blank space) to get

away from the "grey"

image of too many1

words.

The reverse applies

when there isn't much

blank space to fill between ads. Pictures are

smaller, so are headlines, so are the reports.

And that's when reporters and photographers

really get mad with the

sub-editors and having

lost the fight, they end

up having a go at one

another.

In newspapers, this is

called "creative tension". The anti-sanctions, free-for-all enterprise crowd might call

it "constructive engagement".

It might also be an

onslaught of one kind or

another.

Now another argument is looming over

blank spaces, thanks to

the emergency regulations. Just as well they

have been banned, for

if they did appear, another royal battle could

break out between the

rival factions in newspaper offices.

/9317

CSO: 3400/770

89
SOUTH AFRICA

PERVASIVENESS OF CORRUPTION NATIONWIDE REVEALED

Johannesburg FRONTLINE in English Dec 86 pp 26, 27, 28

[Article by Jaap Boekkooi]

[Text]

GORRUPTION in South Africa

has its own language, one overloaded with euphemism. When

it was in the top, ministerial,

league, (during the Information Scandal)

the operative words were "lobbying", "defending South Africa", "patriotism" and

the old "making friends and influencing

people".

But that golden, ionospheric age of corruption seems to be past. Maybe sometime in the future a cabinet minister or

director-general of a government department, a provincial administrator or leader

of a tricameral house will be caught with

pants down, but it is less likely than before.

Bitter, sensational lessons have been

learned at the top. "Irregularities" now

find a more regular place among the middle and lower orders.

This was, in fact, forecast in Mr Dennis

Ethercdgc's famous attack on corruption

in South Africa after the Information

Scandal died down. The retired chairman

of Anglo's Gold Division pointed out that

the Info affair had involved very important people in public service and in business and had created the environment in

which lesser people felt that corrupt practices al their level were, if not defensible,

at least not without precedent.

Corruption is now settling down into a

murky bog at the lower levels, permeating

vast new areas of officialdom.

Shady apparatchiks whose power is in

the pen and rubber stamp have developed

a corruption-speak of their own.

"Pulling it off refers to the practice of

getting a roadworthy for your threewheeled car with cross-eyed headlights.

This old dodge has a history of exposure

— once by a Press photographer with gigantic telescopic lens who snapped the

precise moment of cash hand-over at

Johannesburg testing grounds. In a current case in Rustenburg it is claimed cars

without engines were declared roadworthy.

Another magic phrase is "doing a service." You pay for the "service" if you

want a Gazankulu driver's licence, a

homeland passport or just to climb to the

top of a housing waiting list.

A word used in black administration is

"bua". It means 'to talk'. It has a nice,

reasonable ring to it. The widow gets to

the minor bureaucrat's office window and

makes her request... for a house, for a

necessary rubber stamp, or to wangle her

son into a single hostel.

"Let's talk about it," says the bureaucrat with a heavy leer towards the cleavage. She knows what's coming. He will

help her, but only after sleeping with her.

In strictly monetary terms, to simply

join the housing queue the "goodwill" can

cost R100 plus.

To secure a bed in a single hostel on the

Rand is R300, and that's why young black

men from the country are still sleeping in

Johannesburg parks (walk through

Emmarcntia's botanic gardens at night)

until they save that sum.

Driving licences without tests come

cheaper.

90
One of the most persistent rumours;

concerns the "organising" of passports on

residence permits via the Department of;

Home Affairs. Investigations are continuing but one characteristic of the "new'

corruption is the clam-like silence of practitioners or those "in the know".

One of the better known media investigators who has been on the track of bigger

fish in the graft industry says "institutionalised" lower-rank corruption involves the

municipal or township clerk, the black

housing superintendent, the road haulage

people, the fund administrators and many

more buried in modest management

levels.

Corruption near the bottom of the pile

remains largely uncovered. It takes something like Professor Tjaart van der Walt's

one-man report on the cause of unrest to

lift the veil. An unprecedented 55 prosecutions for corruption, especially taking

bribes, resulted in the Vaal Triangle alone

when the report came out.

The Van der Wall report made it clear

the main problem in the Triangle was

not school unrest, but "township rents

first, and secondly, local authority corruption".

The Commission officially asked for a

commission of inquiry to investigate all

aspects of graft and maladministration in

black townships. The Minister responsible,

Dr Gerrit Viljoen, mentioned a possible

judicial inquiry into corruption, selfenrichment and maladministration in

January but no such enquiry has been set

up yet. .

Blacks live close to corruption. Every

member of an extended family knows the

considerations paid under the table for

urban rights, housing allocations, and

other "favours". Many black councillors

and other system beneficiaries inflame

their communities' sense of grievance by

the wanton display of their new wealth —

all acquired by the bribes, the sweeteners.

White miscreants tend to hide their ill—

gotten wealth (one of the SABC officials

exposed in the corporation's corruption

probe piously planned to use misdirected

building materials to build a church).

But ask blacks and they will show you

high-living traffic inspectors and living

legends like disc jockeys with no inhibitions about gelling it, then flaunting it.

It is strange that the latter seem to have

by-passed all investigations. The number

of freshly-pressed records carried into

media offices yearly is enormous, and the

resultant publicity is free, based on commercial puffery and of no intrinsic value.

The immediate past president of the

South African Society of Journalists,

David Allen, referred to corruption's thin

end of the wedge in May when he

admitted: "There are those from our own

professional ranks who too readily accept

the perk, the trip, the payment in whatever form in return for a story here, a

mention there."

Some will say Allen only touches the tip

of the iceberg. Share-pushing by finance

writers, unacknowledged conflicts of interest and acceptance of favours for publicity

have journalism in an ethical spin. White

commerce faces parallel problems.

Chairman of the Central Business District Association, Nigel Mandy, says the

infrastructure in bureaucratic inertia and

obstruction can only be broken by moving

from allocation practices, in their various

forms, to a free market.

He adds: "There are persistent rumours

of corruption in housing allocations and

group areas permits. But I have no proof

of this. Bui as anywhere in the world, if a

junior bureaucrat can make decisions the

temptation is likely to be towards corruption."

It may depend on one's own definition

of "irregularity", but one could also add

to the litany of corruption cases those instances of whites acting for payment as

nominees for non-white, especially Asian,

shopkeepers in white group areas.

Others, as Nigel Mandy points out,

acted freely as nominees for reasons of

conscience, and still other white nominees

would argue that they took apartheid

money because of the risk of criminal

prosecution under the Group Areas Act,

with its savage penalties and forfeiture of

property from nominees caught in the act.

Even though the age of top government

scandals appears past, members of the

Cabinet are still at great risk. They are

perceived to have great influence and ability to "swing" or cover up deals, concessions, permits.

Well-known victim of that perception

was Minister of Labour Fanie Botha, who

sank in an ocean of debt. Best recent

example of the syndrome was that of

Hennie van der Walt, former Deputy

Minister of Land Affairs and the MP for

Sannieshof.

91
Like Botha, van der Walt mixed politics

and private business — a volatile mix.

Eventually, he plundered trust funds in

his attorney's practice, using the names of

National Party leaders John Vorster and

Connie Mulder to claim he was to be paid

R300 000 for a security project. As one

witness, a dominee, put it: "I believed him

because he was a Deputy Minister, and

because he was due to be paid R300 000

as a secret agent."

The Cassandra of corruption in South

Africa, who lifted the lid on local graft

repeatedly during the early 80s, was

Dennis Etheredge. now chairman of

Thomson Publications. He no longer gets

reactions to the charges made as president

of the SA Institute of Management.

Mr Etheredge stunned fellow executives by stating openly that business and

public administration in South Africa was

"shot through with dishonesty". Later he

repeated the allegations and added that

graft in business, local authorities, boards,

public service and para-statal organisations was more widespread than he had

realised.

The Etheredge charges don't seem to

raise eyebrows any more.

Are we ail learning to live with the

"system" or has cynicism just taken toll of

moral outrage?

[Boxed item p 27]

Potential payola with permits

ONE field of potential payola is

road haulage, what with SATS'

monopoly and subsidies, the Railway Police confiscating trucks,

and the thriving black market in

transportation permits.

Jack Webster, chief executive of

the Public Carriers' Association,

says that some hauliers pay up to

R20 000 under the counter for a

loosely worded permit that allows

a carrier to transport higher-rate

goods.

One example quoted in industry

gossip is of the haulier whose permit specified "coke" and ended up

transporting higher-profit Coca

Cola. Others were able to upgrade

goods by a missing or wrongly

placed comma in the permit specification.

With legislation still expected

this year, the unmourned permit

system should be on its way out by

next year or 1988.

[Boxed items p 28]

SOUTH Africa is becoming a

typical Third World country with

characteristics such as unrest, low

growth and a population explosion.

So said Mr Christie Kuun, president of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, last month.

One thing the country still

lacked was Third World corruption. As Mr Kuun said it, you

could hear a chorus of "Ahems!"

round the country.

/9317

CSO: 3400/787

THE embassy security man met

me at the gate in an oriental city.

"It takes three days to get a visa

for my country," he whispered,

"but I can get it for you by tonight

for 10 dollars. OK?"

Back at six, he took me behind a

palm tree in the embassy garden,

handing over the passport. "You

don't think this is a bribe?" he

asked somewhat anxiously as I

handed over the greenback.

I thought of the high hotel bill

for another two nights' wait, then

said firmly: "Oh, no bribe ... just

a service."

92
SOUTH AFRICA

BRIEFS

NRP DEFECTIONS CONTINUE—The New Republic Party [NRP] is still suffering

a rush of defections. This is despite yesterday's formal announcement

of the Natal election alliance between the party and the Progressive Party.

Carmel Richard has more: [Rickard] The pact applies to Natal where the

PFP and the NRP have agreed not to contest each other in any seats, with

the aim of electing an Indaba candidate in every constituency. But following

the announcement the spate of resignations plaguing the NRP has continued.

The latest batch of defections come the Umhlathuzana constituency where

all members of the NRP committee have resigned. Commenting on the

defections, Natal leader of the NRP, Derrick Watterson, said while the party

had thousands of signed-up members, resignations had come from only a few

dozen. By far, the majority were delighted with the alliance. Leaders

of the two parties said the pact would result in another (?indication) to

the ruling National Party that the people of Natal were no longer prepared

to put up with paralysis in true reform. [Text] [Umtata Capital Radio in

English 0700 GMT 20 Jan 87 MB] /12624

PFP ENDS BOYCOTT—The Progressive Federal Party has officially called off

its stay away from the President's Council. The three PFP members of

the council, Mr Robin Carlisle, Mr Peter Schoeman, and Mr James Rennie,

say in a statement issued in Cape Town that they will resume their

attendance of plenary sessions to, as they put it, force discussions on

the Group Areas Act and to inform the public of what is happening in the

coutry. They withdrew from participation in the activities of the council

last year after the steering committee refused to allow a debate on the

withdrawal of a report on the Group Areas Act. [Text] [Johannesburg

Domestic Service in English 0900 GMT 20 Jan 87 MB] /12624

CSO: 3400/781

93
SOUTH AFRICA

GOVERNMENT BLAMED FOR SHRINKING RAND

Johannesburg THE STAR in English 7 Jan 87 p 13

[Article by Michael Chester]

[Text]

The buying power of the cash

in your pocket has shrunk by

more than 55 percent in seven

years and the Rl coin of 1980

may be worth no more than 35c

by the end of 1987.

Disclosures of the dramatic

erosion of the consumer value

of the rand have emerged from

studies by the Econometrix research unit. They underscore

the mounting concern of economists over South Africa's failure to follow the lead of its

Western trading partners in

finding solutions to rampant inflation.

The director of Econometrix,

Dr Azar Jammine, believes, because of debatable weaknesses

in the composition of official

statistics, the full degree of

shrinkages to the rand may be

even worse than the cuts reflected in the consumer price

index (CPI).

Even the CPI concedes that

a basketful of household items

that cost R100 in 1980 now

costs around R240 with the annual rate of inflation running

close to 20 percent.

The result is that the purchasing power of the rand has,

toppled from Rl in 1980 down

to 44c, with a deeper slide

threatened as economists despair about the inflation spiral

and the long-term impact on

living standards.

Dr Jammine blames Government mismanagement of fiscal

and monetary policies as the

main cause of inflation.

He said: "The Government

has made a hash of it ever

since it wasted its opportunity

to set the economy on a dynamic jew course in the early]

1980s when an avalanche of

money came into the country

with the wild climb of the gold

price above $850 an ounce.

"Instead, it allowed and encouraged a mindless explosion

in buying on credit as the

money supply spun out of control.

"The way the private and

public sectors permitted wages

to gallop higher without any

comensurate increase in productivity is also to blame," he

said.

94
, "The ambition to start cloVlag the wage gap between}

White and blacK employees wa»

commendable, bat the error

was the failure to find simultaneous remedies for South Africa's dreadful productivity record.

"The numerous structural

faults in the economy are well

known, but the private sector

must_carry part of the blame

for our present inflation headaches.

Dr Jammine said: "The temporary boom at the start of the

decade set in motion a massive

movement towards bigness in

business, with big corporations

growing even bigger through a

succession of takeovers of

smaller companies and the

emergence of massive concentrations of corporate power.

"It's a controversial issue,

but I am convinced the sheer

size of business enterprises can

cause hiccups in classical economic theory.

"Theoretically, when demand falls, as in the prolonged '

recession we have been in,

prices should come down to j

bring demand and supply back

into equilibrium.

"Unhappily, it is obvious that

many giant corporations, rather than reduce prices, have

simply resorted to reductions

in production volumes, hoping

high prices will balance lower

sales volumes. However, they

have caused more unemployment and loaded the problems

elsewhere.

"Several companies in specific industrial sectors, such as

the motor industry; would have

been forced to make different

decisions on prices had they

not been under the umbrella of

huge conglomerates that virtually guaranteed their survival whatever their strategies,"

he said.

"There's a weird mixture of

causes for all our inflation

woes. But in the final analysis

it is the Government that must

shoulder the bulk of the blame

because of its poor performance in economic management on so many scores."

/9317

CSO: 3400/772

95
SOUTH AFRICA

JOB OPPORTUNITIES SCARCE AS THOUSANDS ENTER JOB MARKET

Johannesburg SUNDAY TIMES in English 4 Jan 87 p 1

[Article by Udo Rypstra]

[Text]

JOB opportunities for the

1986 batch of school-leavers

and graduates have dwindled.

Many Job-seekers — especially

those with few skills - will be'

knocking on closed doors for some

time to come.

"No-vacancy" signs have gone up

In both the private and public sectors. Standard and Barclays banks

are turning applicants away or putting them on waiting lists.

Many Government departments,,

including the police, completed their

recruitment drives some time ago.

They will recruit from time to time

this year "as the need arises".

The Post Office confirms an oversupply of potential employees and

says it has only a few vacancies for

male clerks.

Too late

Drake Personnel says it has experienced problems in finding suitable

work for pupils matriculating from

its Drake College.

The prospect of obtaining a job are

especially bad for school-leavers and

graduates without some knowledge

of finance, data and word processing,

engineering and shipping because

these areas are the "niches" in the

stuf vacancies.

The mining industry has vacancies

for technically minded people, but

Escom says its requirements in this

regard have long been met.

"People are still applying for bursaries,' an Escom spokesman says,

"but they have left it far too late."

/9317

CSO: 3400/772

Unskilled

Economists say that against a

background of a continuing low

growth rate and an unemployment

crisis - 2-million people are believed to be out of work — the economy is Incapable of accommodating tiie 800 000 job-seekers expected

to enter the labour market In 1987.

Signs of how greatly the economy

has shrunk come from the construeSion, and metal and engineering inustrles which have reduced their

work forces by respectively 75000

and 175 000 in recent years. . What makes the outlook worse is ;

that as a result of sanctions, 2-mil- :

Uon jobs will have been lost by the

year 2000. Instead of 10-mlllion people, the economy will employ only 8-

million. The current work force is

7,7-milllon.

Virtually all the losses will be in

unskilled categories, and the number

of Jobs for people with skills — for

example, accountants and computer

personnel — will increase, particularly if the so-called brain-drain continues.

Rudolf Gouws, group economist of

Rand Merchant Bank, describes

work opportunities for school-leavers and graduates as "exceptionally

weak" this year because of the low

economic growth rate. He is worried

about the plight of unskilled and

semi-skilled blacks.

Mr Gouws says: "Half of the black

population is 1« years old and

younger, and that is a frightening

statistic."

Employment agencies advise

school-leavers and graduates to seek

on-the-job training with large firms.

If unsuccessful, they are advised to

seek training in financial, computer,

gold-mining and service industries.

Calls have also gone out to technikons from major employer organisations that they desegragate technical "I

courses for blacks and whites to

speed up training of Blacks.

The Government Is worried about >

the unskilled unemployment crisis

and has stopped foreign recruitment

campaigns. Immigrants were grant-

"ed permanent residence at the rate

of more than 1000 a month 18

months ago. The number fell from

14000 for the first nine months of

1885 to 5 355 in the comparabale time

last year.

Creeping

The Department of Home Affairs

says it is tracing illegal immigrants

and is liaising with the Department'

of Manpower to assess which categorles of professional and skilled

people are still required from

abroad. ,

The Department of Manpower is >

training the "up-and-coming" labour i

force in skilled and semi-skilled Jobs,

many of which would normally have!

been filled by recruiting foreigners.

Economists, praise the department's efforts, but believe the Gov-<

ernment's creeping pace of deregulation and privatisation is retarding;

the creation of jobs.

96
SOUTH AFRICA

BRIEFS

BLACK-WHITE WAGE GAP—Significant disparities in blacks' and whites' salaries

in a range of industries still exist, a Central Statistics report shows.

White officials at the control boards earned an average salary of R2 374 a

month late last year, while blacks earned R443. Whites in the motor trade

earned Rl 556 (against R384). White hotel employees earned an average of

R901 (R263). In the retail trade, whites earned R968 (R366) while in the

wholesale sector, whites were paid Rl 933 a month (R413). Income for

coloured and Asian people ranged in between these levels.—Sapa [Text]

[Johannesburg BUSINESS DAY in English 7 Jan 87 p 3] /9317

CSO: 3400/772

97
R4 ASSAULT RIFLE CAPABILITIES PRAISED

Pretoria SALVO in English Nov/Dec 86 p 7

SOUTH AFRICA

[Text]

FOLLOWING recent allegations about

various shortcomings in the performance ofthe R4 assault rifle, Armscor, in

conjunction with members ofthe SADF,

arranged a firing test between this rifle

and four others.

Together with the soviet AK47, the R1

and the American M16, the R4 was

fired under various conditions by nonbiased experienced end-users to

determine its effectiveness againstthat

ofthe other rifles.

The tests included firing each rifle

at concealed targets from a moving

vehicle, and at a quarter-inch armour

plate from about 35 metres. It is interesting to note that the R4that came out

ontop each time.

The Defence magazine, Armed Forces

recently wrote the following aboutthe

R4...

"Usually a number of standard points

are raised aboutthe alleged limitations

found in the 5,56 calibre, one being its

inaccuracy over tong ranges. The rifle

now being generally adopted by the

armies ofthe world, as has just been

done by the British, is the 5,56 mm

calibre. It is designed for battlefield

conditions and generally performs well

up to 300 metres. This is the military

requirement set by the various armies

who no doubt have considered all the

factors before making this decision."

Concerning deflections of the bullet by

light vegetation, Armed Forces wrote:

"Scientists at our Council for Scientific

Research find thatthey too are in the

dark on this aspect of the characteristic

ofthe 5,56 mm calibre bullet. There are

no known scientific tests available in the

RSA relating bullet deflection by foliage.

"What I do know about is the possible

reaction by a man hit by a bullet. We

read about an allegation that one ofthe

terrorists involved in the Silverton Bank

incident continued to fire after being

hit in the abdomen by two bullets fired

at close range from a 5,56 mm. In the

Silverton incident I understand that an

autopsy showed thatthe terrorist was

clinically dead after the first hit. Firing

after being hit is often whatthe medical

profession calls a reflex action."

The accompanying photographs

provide further evidence ofthe R4's

capabilities.

/9274

CSOs 3400/743

98
ARMCOR'S CLUSTER BOMB DESCRIBED

Pretoria SALVO in English Nov/Dec 86 p 11

SOUTH AFRICA

[Text]

Armscor's locally developed CB470

Cluster Bomb System features highlights which make it a unique weapon.

The air bursting cluster bomb system

is designed and proven for delivery as

low as 30 m above ground level in the

speed range of 850 -1 100 km/h

(460-600 knots). Forty 6 kg bomblets

are ejected from a container to provide

an optimised distribution pattern on

the ground. Bomblets bounce off all

surfaces including mud and water and

detonate typically between 3 m and 5 m

above impact points, dispersing lethal

shrapnel in all directions. Built-in safety

features ensure safe handling and use

under all kinds of situations, this highly

cost-effective system is unsurpassed in

performance against a great variety of

targets and has a lethal coverage of

250 m x 70 m.

The reliable system is immune to

enemy electronic interference. It

requires low maintenance and fits most

military aircraft. The cluster bomb

contains a number of built in features

which provide additional safety against

accidental damage to the delivery

aircraft by fragmentation from the

bomblets.

Typical targets for this system are

personnel, buildings, light installations

like radar, anti-aircraft and refineries.

It can also be applied successfully

against soft skin vehicles, parked aircraft and small boats.

The basic technical details are as

follows:

Mass

Overall length

Overall body diameter

Distance across tail

450 kg

2 600 mm

419 mm

fins 640 mm

Bomblet mass (fuzed) 6,5 kg

Number of bomblets 40

Suspensions Points Twin-lug Nato STD or

250 mm Warsaw Pact

Packaging and

Marketing

Twin-Lug STD

To suit user's

requirements

Release height 30-300 m

Release Speed Range 850-1 100 km/h

(At 30 m Height) (460 - 600 knots)

/9274

CSOJ 3400/743

99
SOUTH AFRICA

GRINAKER ELECTRONICS' ACHIEVEMENTS DESCRIBED

Pretoria SALVO in English Nov/Dec 86 pp 15-20

[Text]

When frequency

hopping military

radios were

announced tothe

world in 1978, a

little-known South

African company

was catapulted

directly into the

international

defence limelight.

That company was

Grinaker Electronics Pty Ltd, or

Grinel-aname

which has become

synonymous with

innovation.

In less than 20 years

Grinel has carved a

niche for itself as a

world leader in the

military and civilian

electronics communications

industry. During

that time it has

developed products

which not only

astounded the world

with their innovation and technical

excellence, but

placed South Africa

on the world map as

a manufacturer of

high technology,

high quality

equipment.

Bob Raggett, expert

writer on electronics for the

authoritative Jane's

defence publications, wrote this in

1983: "The SADF was one ofthe first

operational forces to use frequency

hopping radios...the latest generation

of products which, in the field of HF

hopping, are among the most advanced

currently available from any

manufacture'-."

The key to Grinel's success during the

past 20 years probably lies in the

inportance the company attaches to

research and development.

It spends almost 12 per cent of annual

turnover on R & D, making it one ofthe

largest privately-owned research and

development units in South Africa. This

commitment has resulted in regular

breakthroughs and technological

advancements which have often been

of world class.

"So much so thatthe success of our

exports are due directly to the factthat

we can offerthe world at large new

products, with new innovations, which

were and are unavailable from anyone

- and that in spite of politics," said

Mr Tienie Steyn, chairman of Grine).

Mr Steyn, who is also chairman

and managing director of Grinaker

Electronics Holdings, Grinel's holding

company, is very proud ofthe factthat

Grinel won the Armscor Marketing

Award for two years running, and

this year several Grinel marketing „,

employees were nominated for the

Armscor Chairman's Marketing Award.

Grinel was originally formedto specialise in defence products. Today, the

company is primarily engaged in the

design, development and manufacture

of high gradecommunications and

specialist electronic equipment. Among

the successful commercial products it

has also developed are underground

communications systems, electronic A

threat recorders and radiotelemetry •

systems. Although defence contracts

still dominate the company's activities,

Grinel's commercial product base is

being continuously broadened.

Grinel is part ofthe Grinaker construction group of companies. Thedivergence between construction and

electronics strikes one immediately.

However, the competent way in "/hich

Grinel goes about its business has;

earned the respect of its parent-to

the extentthat today it is given a vast

amount offreedom to concentrate on

the business at hand- electronics.

"We have at least one thing in common

with our parent company -silicon,"

quips Mr Steyn. "We use a few

grammes a year in our industry (for

silicon chips), while they use many

thousands oftons. But that is where the

similarity ends."

When Mr Steyn rejoined the company

in 1980 (see separate story) Grinel was

a company that had been "technology

driven" in the previous decade or more.

"This meant it had been concentrating

on developing products which, although

100
with merit, were researched because

they were interesting.A product would

bedeveloped and then taken tothe

marketplace," said Mr Steyn.

This emphasis shifted subsequently

towards marketing- and the company

began developing products which

satisfied the needs of the customers in

that marketplace.

"I was fortunate in that my predecessors had developed a pool of

knowledge at Grinel with which we

could satisfy those market needs. The

company has always been renowned

for the innovative thinkers whoformed

the nucleus ofthe team.

"I won't say I inherited the golden egg.

Rather, I inherited the goose!"

according to Mr Steyn.

It was also after 1980that Grinel-

although it had exported its first radios

back in 1969-put into positiona threepronged diversification programme.

This programme, which was marketing

driven, consisted of: * Selling old products to new . customers; * Developing new products for old

customers; and

*A combination of both the above, i.e

;

new products to new customers.

"In other words, market diversification,

product diversification and conglomerate diversification.

"For market diversification, read export

programme. That we started in earnest

in 1980, and in percentage terms it

hac grown phenomenally. What is

significant aboutthe trend is that in five

years or so our exports will be bigger

than our local business- and that's the

oniy way we're going to sustain an

electronics industry in South Africa, by

firming markets elsewnere- because

our own market is too small to support

such an industry. Here I must give

creditto ArmsCor for the support and

encouragement it has given our company, not only in the development

programmes we have undertaken, but

also for the foresight it displayed in

encouraging the establishment ofa

local defence electronics industry.

"Secondly, we developed new

products, such as radar warning

receivers, electronic warfare equipment

and systems which wecould sell to our

old customers.

"Finally, wetook new products to new

customers- like the mine radio, which

can communicatethrough 300m of

rock, anda telemetery system we

developed for the Railways, that gives

the driver ofa kilometres long train vital

information relating to brake pressure."

The success ofthis marketing approach

can be measured in financial terms-

since 1980 the electronics group's

turnover has increased six-fold,

according to Mr Steyn.

"This type of growth is vital fora hightechnology company like ours because,

the moment you stop growing, you stop

attracting the right kind of people. It is

an essential part of our business plan to

continue to grow ata fairly high pace so

that we can attractthe best brains in the

country," said Mr Steyn.

Butthese financial achievements would

not have been possible without very

dedicated people, according to Mr

Steyn.

"We are lucky to have very innovative

thinkers working for us," said Mr Steyn.

Soon after taking over the hot seat at

GEH Mr Steyn also introduceda major

programme to establish participative

management asa culture within Grinel.

"It has given our peoplea tremendous

boost in morale and they have begun

to feel part ofthe company, instead of

merely being workers. Although we

haven't yet quite achieved full acceptance al all levels, the majority of our

employees have risen tothe challenge

and accepted that responsibility."

As is the case in any successful

business today, it is the client that is

king as far as Grinel Is concerned.

But to keep the "king" happy, the

product you offer him must beoftop

quality and beto his satisfaction.

"A further element of our business

philosophy is that we regard the entire

lifecycle ofthe product as our responsibility. So that when wedesign, we

design for reliability and serviceability-

and in addition providea service backup in the field as well."

Anexample of this approach can be

seen in the design of the latest radio

101
Communications equipment, which

forms part ofthe recently-announced

Defence Communications Network.

"Thecustomer decided, before

investing ina new communication

system for High Frequency communications, he wanted the assurance that

whatever he bought remained 'state-ofthe-art'. We knew that we had no way of

knowing what 'state-of-the-art' is going

to be, evena year from now. In the

electronics industry things move very

fast. To answer that question was

literally impossible," said Mr Steyn.

"We concurredthat, first of all, the

advances in the state ofthis particular

art were going to be component technology, rather than anything fundamental. Radio communications is about

the oldest art in electronics and the last

major advance was frequency hopping.

Grinel has certainly not hada major

breakthrough in high frequency communications since then, and neither

has anyone else in the world.

"The only thing we did know was that

components were going to get smallerand we decided to apply a basic idea

used in computer manufacturing: The

radio itself (the main frame) would

remaina constant factor, but the

circuitry inside would be made modular

making it easy to replace as technology

advances. Here we have created

something which really satisfies the

basic requirement. Our customer will

not have to throw away the radios once

they become outdated. We'll give them

new innards as the art develops.

"There have been two basic spin-offs

resulting from this approach. Firstly,

serviceability. The faulty module can be

replaced immediately, giving the

equipment maximum up-time atthe

front where the soldier depends on it.

"Secondly, it has enabled Grinel to

make remarkable strides in terms ofthe

reliability of equipment. Where it is

accepted internationally ihat sophisticated electronic equipment used in

a

military environment can be expected to

operate an average of2 000 hours

between failures, certain of Grinel's

equipment has been tested successfully for over 10 000 hours.

"All this is important to us. Ifa radio fails

it can cost not only one life, it can costa

number of lives.

"It is this aproach, where quality of

design and viability of design are part

and parcel of our philosophy, that has

enabled Grinel to manufacture the

reliable products it does."

Always warmly enthusiastic.. .always

proud.

In fact, Tienie Steyn is himself one of

Grinel's "lost sons".

He left Grinel in 1969 while Chief

Engineer to startthe operations of the

computer giant Hewlett Packard in

South Africa. But he contends thatthis

sojourn with Hewlett Packard was

merelya training ground for him before

returning to the fold at Grinel in 1980.

During this period he learnt good

business systems and good business

philosophy, collectinga degree in

business leadership along the way. A marketing expert who knows what he

wants, Mr Steyn is more proud ofthe

team's successes than his own. But it is

his style asa reconteur which leaves

the lasting impression. In short, he is

one ofthose quotable executives.

An open door addict, he is "supremely

available" to his people at all times-

"Lord! protect me from those who want

to protect n,31"

"What has made Hewlett Packard and

IBM great is also present in Grinel-the

switched-on people, the quality of

minds. All we have to do is createa

suitable environment for this to flourish

in. At the risk of sounding immodest, I

believe this company is going to bea

major international business in time to

come. It won't be in my time. Somebody

else is going to achieve that. But I

repeat, we have the seeds of success

right here. There is no doubt about

that."

Grinel's product range and the technologies used in these products say

much for the achievements ofthis

young and vibrant company.

Grinel (Waltloo and Durban) employs

about1 000 people, 15 per cent of

whom are involved in Research and

Development. The production facility

at Waltloo provides jobs for about

400 operators who are assisted by

supervisors and all the important

and related support services, such as

quality assurance.

102
Grinel is part of Grinaker Electronics

Holdings, part ofthe Grinaker Group.

Thecontrolling company, Grinaker

Holdings Limited, is part ofthe

Anglovaal stable.

In 1963 the founding company joined

the Racal group and.became the

largest and most successful overseas

entity in that group, particularly in the

field oftechnical innovation. That team

now forms the nucleus of Grinel's

Research and Development expertise.

Today Grinel's production and research

and development activities cover a wide

range of advanced high technology

communications equipment including

underground communications, HF,

VHF, UHF and beyond, as well as

tropospheric scatter meteor scatter,

microwave and data transmission

systems.

Current development activities include

agile frequency (hopping) HF/SSB and

UHF/SSB radio, avionic equipment,

speech security devices, telemeters

and hand held data terminals. The

latest microprocessor, integrated circuit

and thick film techniques are incorporated in equipment designs.

Some of its products are:

* Advanced HF Frequency Hopping

' Tactical Radios. The applications

for this wide range of voice

transmission equipment lies in

manpack and mobile radio

communication systems;

* Secure Data Communications. The

development of data derminais,

such as the Data Entry Terminal and

the Tactical Data Terminal ensures

reliable and securetransmission of

alpha numeric information and

messages by High Frequency, Very

High Frequency/Ultra-High

Frequency radio or telephone lines;

* Commercial products such as the

mine radio, which is capable of

communicating through 300 m of

rock. This equipment has been

licensed for manufacture overseas

and carries the stamp of approval of

various international authorities in

for use in "intrinsically safe"

situations.

/9274

CSOs 3400/741 END

103