[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      NELSON MANDELA AND JOE SLOVO

                                 ______


                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 12, 1994

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, while all of us are very pleased 
that violence has been reduced in South Africa and that a government of 
national unity is in place, we must not allow the euphoria of the 
moment to cloud our sober assessment of potential problems in the South 
African transition.
  I commend to my colleagues' attention this recent article from the 
Washington Times by William Stearman, formerly of the National Security 
Council staff, about the strong influence of the South African 
Communist Party within the new government.

                      Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo

       The most significant result of the recent South African 
     elections seems to have gone totally unmentioned in the world 
     media: The emerging dominant role of the South African 
     Communist Party (SACP) in the new government officially 
     announced on May 11.
       Known members of the SACP in the new government include: 
     The first deputy president (probable successor to 75-year-old 
     Nelson Mandela); minister of defense; minister of safety and 
     security (the police); and minister of posts, 
     telecommunications and broadcasting (a key position for 
     controlling the media). This is a textbook example of how 
     communist parties have always tried to secure control over 
     the military, the police and the media as an essential first 
     step to taking over entirely. SACP members hold other 
     important positions: minister and deputy minister of foreign 
     affairs; housing (which will probably dispense a large part 
     of the state budget); transport; sport and recreation; and a 
     minister without portfolio. Ten other ministers and six other 
     deputy ministers are African National Congress (ANC) members 
     who may or may not be in the SACP, but who owe their 
     positions to ANC committees controlled by an SACP majority 
     and, therefore, are beholden to the party. Thus, the 
     electoral victory has, in effect, actually brought the SACP 
     to power.
       I first learned of the SACP's control of the ANC when, 
     during my last stint in the White House, I prepared briefing 
     material on the ANC for President Bush. My research revealed 
     that, contrary to popular belief, there is more than just an 
     ``alliance'' between the ANC and the SACP.
       The ANC is run by its National Working Committee and 
     National Executive Committee, the present members of which 
     were elected in July 1991. The SACP controls majorities in 
     both committees. This dominant SACP role was confirmed in a 
     revealing speech, not reported on outside of South Africa, 
     given by the late Cris Hani, immensely popular ANC leader and 
     once a probable successor to Mr. Mandela, on Nov. 16, 
     1991: ``We in the Communist Party have participated in and 
     built the ANC. We have made the ANC what it is today, and 
     the ANC is our organization.''
       The ANC ws founded in 1912, and the Communist Party joined 
     it in 1921. For at least the last 50 years, the ANC has been 
     essentially a front for the party, with, of course, the kinds 
     of diverse groups fronts always put forward. A Communist, 
     Bram Fisher, wrote the ``new'' ANC Constitution in 1943. The 
     Freedom Charter, still the ANC's credot and manifesto, was 
     drafted in 1955 by SACP members Joe Slovo (who now heads the 
     party) and Moses Kotane. In testimony before a U.S. Senate 
     committee, in November 1982, Bartholomew Hiapane, former 
     member of the SACP Central Committee and of the ANC's 
     National Executive Committee, stated: ``. . . no major 
     decision could be taken by the ANC without the concurrence 
     and approval of the Central Committee of the SACP. Most major 
     developments were, in fact, initiated by the SACP. On Dec. 
     16, 1982, Mr. Hiapane and his wife were murdered in their 
     home in Soweto by an ANC assassin.
       Where does this all leave Nelson Mandela, who stated he has 
     been ``influenced by Marxist thoughts'' but is not a Party 
     member? Although he has been masterful and charismatic in 
     representing the ANC, he has never claimed to be running this 
     organization. Just after he was released from prison in 
     February, 1990, he quite accurately described his position: 
     ``I am a loyal and disciplined member of the ANC.''
       At that time, it would have been simple and logical to have 
     had him replace ANC President Oliver Tambo, who had long been 
     seriously ill, but instead, he was eventually given the 
     largely honorific post of deputy president. After leaving 
     prison, he was, in effect, on probation for a year and a half 
     before he was ``elected'' president. During this period, his 
     first major trial was entering negotiations with President de 
     Klerk at Groote Schurr, May 2-4, 1990. In these meetings, Mr. 
     Mandela's performance was closely monitored by a watchdog 
     contingent of four senior SACP members headed by General-
     Secretary Joe Slovo, who is both white and reputed (but not 
     proven) to have been a colonel in the KGB. The party 
     obviously thought this proctoring necessary, despite the 
     considerably political liabilities it entailed. At present, 
     Mr. Mandela is clearly more than just a front man and must 
     have no small amount of influence in the ANC, but he does not 
     have the final say. The party has.
       Unlike most of the reform-minded or disillusioned 
     communists and ex-communists in Europe, the South African 
     Communists are true believers, less than Stalinst, but 
     certainly, pre-Gorbachev. This became abundantly clear from 
     the positions taken at the last Party Congress in December 
     1991. Time magazine (May 9, 1994) quite correctly stated it: 
     ``While they [SACP members] have forsworn Stalinism, Slovo 
     still argues that `only under socialism could you have a 
     combination of political and economic democracy'.'' Mr. Slovo 
     has got to be the most influential and powerful mover and 
     shaker in South Africa today. The Freedom Charter, mostly 
     drafted by Mr. Slovo and still to this day gospel for the 
     ANC, states: ``The national wealth of our country . . . shall 
     be restored to the people; the mineral wealth beneath the 
     soil, the banks and monopolies shall be transferred to the 
     ownership of the people as a whole; all other industry and 
     trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the 
     people.''
       When elections became certain, the ANC virtually dropped 
     all the references to nationalization or any other 
     ``socialist'' programs both to keep the favorable (to them) 
     political process moving to encourage foreign investments and 
     aid. The ANC did, however, briefly show its hand when it 
     announced on Jan. 14 an economic program which seem to harken 
     back to the Freedom Charter in claling for the 
     nationalization of the ``strategic areas'' of the economy. 
     However, on May 1 Mr. Mandela insisted there was nothing 
     about Marxism or nationalization in the ANC's economic 
     program.
       One can, indeed, expect the new ANC regime to move slowly 
     and deliberately in changing the economy, except for 
     massive expenditures on housing (which Mr. Slovo will 
     directly supervise) and other social programs. At this 
     point, they do not want to destabilize the economy, 
     encourage white flight or discourage foreign investment. 
     Eventually,however, any Marxist-Leninist regime can be 
     counted on to give higher priority to attaining, 
     exercising and maintaining political control than to 
     fostering a free and healthy economy. Such political 
     control inevitably requires the kind of state-controlled 
     economy the SACP and ANC have been advocating for decades. 
     Moreover, such a move is not likely to encounter much 
     opposition from economically deprived voters who gave the 
     ANC its smashing electoral victory.
       While one can expect little change in the economic field in 
     the near future, there are ominous signs that human rights 
     might be affected much sooner by the new government. Bill 
     Keller, New York Times correspondent in Johannesburg reported 
     on April 24 that there were ``nagging doubts about how 
     devoted the next, presumably ANC-led Government will be to 
     the rule of law. . . . Already the ANC has had minor 
     skirmishes with human rights groups over its support for 
     detention without trial and other extraordinary powers now 
     that power is flowing into its hands.'' This recalls the 
     revelation in October 1992 about widespread use of torture in 
     ANC prison camps in Angola, Tanzania and Uganda. Geoffrey 
     Wheatcroft, longtime British observer of the South African 
     scene, warned in the Wall Street Journal on April 21: ``Press 
     Freedom is visibly under threat. Already there is a high 
     degree of self-censorship by newspapers.'' He also noted 
     increased ANC influence in the state-owned South African 
     Broadcasting company now headed by an ANC member (who will 
     now be working for a Communist minister.) In this regard, it 
     is a fine irony that the SACP/ANC came to power only by being 
     granted a freedom of expression and assembly rarely, if ever, 
     enjoyed by such a powerful opposition in any other African 
     country.
       There are other things to worry about in South Africa. 
     After the South African government announced, in march 1993, 
     that it had a nuclear program, The Washington Post quoted a 
     U.S. official as saying, ``There are some members of the ANC 
     who see all this (nuclear) materials as a large and useful 
     toy, while there are others who would like to see it 
     eliminated.'' (Under the new Communist defense minister, the 
     former are likely to prevail).
       The same Post piece also stated that, in this connection, 
     the United States is concerned about the ANC's close ties 
     with Moammar Gadhafi. As a matter of principle, one should 
     not only worry about the ANC's ties with Mr. Gadhafi, but 
     also with Fidel Castro and, in the recent past, with the 
     Soviet union which, until 1990, had for decades been the 
     ANC's main source of financing, arms, training and guidance. 
     Such a long and close association had to have left its mark. 
     The events now being set in motion by the ANC electoral 
     victory should have become obvious when in a speech on Feb. 
     11, 1990, immediately after his release from prison, Nelson 
     Mandela was so lavish in his praise of the South African 
     Communists that a Washington Post editorial found his remarks 
     ``passing uncomfortable,'' and presently asked whether the 
     ANC ``is about to create another of the cruel, undemocratic 
     and inefficient state-centered regimes that are collapsing in 
     other parts of the world.'' Preventing this may well require 
     at least as much international pressure as that which helped 
     to end apartheid and to bring about the political process 
     which brought the ANC to power.

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