ANC Calls on OAU (Organisation of African Unity) to Increase Our Striking Power
Extracts of the Statement at the Ninth Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity, Dar Es Salaam by O. R. Tambo, 7 – 10 April 1975
At the outset of our discussion on South Africa, let us endeavour to establish a common understanding of what the true nature of apartheid is and hence, what the real issues before this meeting are.
Apartheid has often been equated with racialism. We need however, to understand that racialism cannot be separated from the political oppression and economic exploitation of the black people. It serves both and is in turn sustained by both. It is an integral part of a socio-economic system peculiar to South Africa, but one which has all except the geographic features of colonialism.
The difference between South Africa and other systems of colonialism is, therefore, that in South Africa, coloniser and colonised live side by side within the same country. Colour and race are used as a dividing line between the resident white army of occupation and their subject population - the black people. The extreme exploitation of labour is the raison d’etre of this system. A vast apparatus of restrictive laws and practices, coupled with the dispossession of Africans from their land ensures the availability of cheap and forced labour.
Above all, as a fundamental condition of its survival, the apartheid regime maintains a compl
