Frontline States under Pressure
On 23 February 1985, Botswana Foreign Minister, G.K.T. Chiepe, was present when African National Congress (ANC) President Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki met Botswana President Masire, the Botswana Commissioner of Police, S. Hirschfeldt, the Head of the Security Branch, A. Hirschfeldt, and Army Chief, Major General Merafe, in Gaborone, Botswana. Masire indicated that Botswana had decided that all ANC military cadres in the country were to be removed, and only bona fide refugees were to be allowed to stay.
When the time came for Tambo to respond, he requested that the previous ANC Chief Representative, Isaac Makopo, and the ANC military representative be allowed back into Botswana to continue their tasks. Masire rejected both requests and then Tambo promised to withdraw all MK cadres.
The meeting followed another event the previous day, on 22 February 1985, whereby apartheid Foreign Minister Pik Botha and Botswana’s Foreign Minister, G.K.T. Chiepe, met in Pretoria as the heads of delegation of their two countries. Following the security pacts with Mozambique (1984) and Swaziland (1982), South Africa was seeking a similar success in Botswana through a bilateral agreement with the government.
Botha indicated that the meeting’s main purpose was to find agreement on the serious issue of the infiltration into South Africa of ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) “terrorists”. It appeared, Botha argued, that the two countries were not
