Oliver Tambo: Forward to a People’s Government
(Extracts from a Statement of the African National Congress by President Oliver Tambo, 18 March 1980)
“On March 9, 1980, the racist Prime Minister of South Africa, P.W. Botha, surprised the world with the announcement that his Government had decided to summon a conference representative of all races in our country to ‘deliberate about matters affecting South Africa’. He gave as the reason for this decision the fact that the election victory of President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF had changed the strategic situation of South Africa.”
“How should we understand this move? … The answer to the questions was of course given by Botha himself. For in the same speech of March 9th, he reaffirmed his racist Government’s opposition to the democratic principle of one person one vote. He also pledged to maintain white minority domination, declaring that ‘the National Party will defend the white man, his political rights, culture, and his right to self-determination’. A quarter of a century ago Botha’s predecessor, Hans Strijdom, made a similar declaration: ‘Our [the apartheid government’s] policy is white domination, baaskap, separate development, call it what you like’.”
“Botha is therefore looking for ways and means of strengthening his white minority regime and shielding it from the crushing blows the oppressed and exploited masses must and will deliver in the pursuit of liberty. By calling this proposed
