[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
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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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