Negotiations and Intentions to Weaken the ANC
On 30 September 1990, leaders of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani, held a press conference in Umtata wherein they addressed matters discussed in the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on 18 September 1990, and were further articulated on a Radio Freedom broadcast from Addis Ababa on 21 September 1990. The meeting held by the ANC NEC also included representatives from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders.
Primarily, the matter of urgency that was discussed was to review the ANC’s strategic and tactical perspectives in view of the wave of violence that was gripping the country. According to the Radio Freedom announcer, the feeling of the meeting was that while the apartheid government was “evidently committed to political change in South Africa, it is becoming clear that it would prefer the change to occur on terms most favourable to it”.
The broadcaster further went to say that “in pursuance of that objective, the government has adopted a two-track policy which on the one hand accepts the need to negotiate the settlement of our country’s problems when, on the other hand, devising strategies to weaken the ANC and other democratic formations. The government has consequently adopted a laissez-faire attitude to the violence in Natal and in the Transvaal with the hope that it can generate a climate of insecurity, fear and
