Carte Blanche Denied Permission to Quote Oliver Tambo

Carte Blanche Denied Permission to Quote Oliver Tambo

On 30 January 1987, the Minister of Law and Order issued a message to the South African mainstream media denying Carte Blanche, an investigative television programme, permission to quote Oliver Tambo, the exiled President of the banned African National Congress (ANC), during his visit to the United States.

The communication from the office of the Minister stated that: “Please note that the Minister of law and order has not given Carte Blanche permission to quote Oliver Tambo. He has given permission to quote freely from three particular newspaper articles which appeared in the New York Times, New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.”

Carte Blanche was intending to broadcast portions of Oliver Tambo’s visit to Washington on 28 January 1987, where he endorsed the use of violence in the struggle against apartheid. “Apartheid is inherently a practice of violence”, he was quoted as saying in a speech at Georgetown University on the same day of the meeting with the United States Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

“We choose not to submit but to fight back, arms in hand. We have no alternative but to intensify our armed resistance because, as your Declaration of Independence says, in the face of systematic tyranny, it becomes a duty and a right to take up arms.” He told reporters that the ANC was indebted to the Soviet Union for providing arms, but he stressed that non-military assistance also came from Norway, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands and other Western countries.

Tambo criticised the US Administration’s “constructive engagement” policy, under which Washington had sought to exert quiet pressure on South Africa, as “unhelpful” in combating apartheid. The US Administration emphasised the Secretary of State’s desire “to work with all of the parties, to bring them together so they can start talking”. Sadly, the South African authorities had refused to negotiate with the ANC.

The session with Secretary Shultz came at a time when relations between Washington and Pretoria were at a low point and American influence with the apartheid regime appeared to be practically non-existent. In the course of a serious and substantive meeting with US Secretary Shultz, the ANC put its view of both the process of change in South Africa and the most effective contribution that the international community and the US in particular could make towards the liberation of the South African people. The ANC wanted to see strict observance of the US government sanctions and their extension to comprehensive sanctions.

The US Administration was also asked to extend substantial assistance to the independent countries in Southern Africa directly and through the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Increased action on the question of Namibia was necessary in order to compel the PW Botha regime to accept and implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 435. The situation required the US Administration to radically depart from “constructive engagement” and be seen to be acting on the side of forces working for genuine change in South Africa.

During their two-week visit to the United State in January-February 1987, the high-ranking ANC delegation, led by Tambo, met with a wide range of US political leaders, including those who had spearheaded US sanctions against the Pretoria regime, and solidarity movements, representatives of the Black community, trade unions, churches and businessmen. The delegation was advised of various plans to mobilise support in the US for the liberation struggle in South Africa and action to extend the sanctions legislation and increase support for the Frontline States.

The ANC had made no secret of its strategy for the armed seizure of power by the people in South Africa and that it intended to lead a government that shall establish a people’s democracy. It made it clear that it represented people who had been robbed of their birthright, who had no state of their own, who enjoyed neither liberty nor rights which citizens in a democratic order were entitled to.

Sources:
South African History Online (SAHO).
African National Congress, “Report of Meeting Between President of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, and the U.S. Secretary of State, George Schultz: State Department”, 28 January 1987.
Michael Getler and William Claiborne, “Tambo-Shultz Meeting Hurt ANC, Says Pretoria” The Washington Post, 29 January 1987.
L.A. Times Archives, “Message for South Africa”, Los Angeles Times, 30 January 1987.
Analysis, “Diplomacy: An Agreement to Disagree”, TIME Magazine, 9 February 1987.

Castro Khwela
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