Forty Years of the Kabwe Conference: Pretoria Regime Alone in Africa
(Portions of the Political Report of the National Executive Committee to the National Consultative Conference, which was presented by the President of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo, 17 June 1985, Kabwe, Zambia)
Pretoria Overrules Bantustan Leaders
“But, in fact, P.W. Botha inherited and continued the policies of his predecessor, carrying to their conclusion initiatives that Vorster had taken. One of these concerned the bantustans. When Angola and Mozambique attained their independence, the Pretoria regime decided to accelerate its plans with regard to the bantustans. In a so-called Summit Meeting in November 1973, the bantustan leaders had agreed that they would not accept ‘independence’. Three years later, in October 1976, Pretoria proclaimed the Transkei an independent State. Clearly, the paymaster had the power to change the minds of his employees as he wished. The Transkei was followed by Bophuthatswana in 1977.
“The Pretoria regime represented this process as one of decolonisation, and wanted the world to accept that the African majority was regaining its right to national self-determination. For our part, it was vitally necessary that we ensure that the international community should reject these bantustans as the mere extension of the apartheid system that they are.
“During its ‘détente’ offensive the Pretoria regime had used some of the bantustan leaders to
