Oliver Tambo: New Year Message to U Thant

Oliver Tambo: New Year Message to U Thant

On 29 December 1964, the Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, Oliver Tambo, sent a New Year message to U Thant, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, which said:

“We wish, Sir, to place on record that the United Nations has this year shown a new firmness and determination in the handling of the South African question. We wish to express our deep appreciation of the unequivocal stand of the United Nations on many issues affecting our struggle against apartheid.

“The vigilance and swift reaction of the Special Committee on Apartheid, and its detailed, up-to-date and comprehensive reports deserve special commendation.

“We welcome the unanimous demand by the United Nations General Assembly that all political prisoners should be released and their trials abandoned. The murder of Vuyisile Mini, Wilson Khayinga and Zinakile Mkaba in the face of this clear demand by the General Assembly and the Security Council and in total disregard of your own appeals are sufficient proof of the suicidal intransigence of the South African white minority Government.

“The time has come to indict those countries which for the sake of profit have encouraged and aided the inhuman excesses perpetrated by the racist Government of Verwoerd in South Africa in pursuance of policies that constitute a serious threat to peace in Africa and the world.

“It is, therefore, our hope, Sir, that the New Year will see United Nations action of a kind which will unavoidably force the racialists in South Africa to heed world opinion and surrender political power to the majority of the people. Only so can mankind avert the unspeakable tragedy of the racial conflict which the South African Government is fomenting so assiduously.

“With the sincere wishes of the African National Congress and the oppressed people of South Africa for a successful New Year in your great work.”

– Oliver Tambo, ANC (SA) Deputy President –

(29 December 1964)

In September 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash on his way to to Congo. Within two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to appoint U Thant as the Acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld’s term. However, the two superpowers spent another four weeks arguing over the details of his appointment. On 3 November 1961, the Security Council recommended in Resolution 168 and the General Assembly voted unanimously to appoint U Thant to a term of office ending on 10 April 1963.

During his first term of office, U Thant was widely credited for his role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis and for ending the civil war in the Congo. Moreover, he also said that he wanted to ease tensions between major powers while serving as Secretary General at the UN. U Thant’s reappointment was assured when the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, made several favourable references to U Thant in letters to the President of the United States John F. Kennedy. Consequently, in November 1962, the General Assembly voted unanimously to promote U Thant from Acting Secretary-General to Secretary-General for a term ending on 3 November 1966.

Following his reappointment to his second term, U Thant oversaw the entry into the UN of dozens of newly independent Asian and African states. However, most importantly, as a firm opponent of apartheid in South Africa, U Thant ensured the adoption of Resolution 1761 (XVII) on 6 November 1962. The resolution was a response to the racist policies of apartheid established by the South African Government; and deemed apartheid and the policies enforcing it to be a violation of South Africa’s obligations under the United Nations Charter; and a threat to international peace and security.

The operative paragraph 4 of the November 1962 Resolution called upon all member states to take the following measures against the South African government:

(a) Breaking off diplomatic relations … or refraining from establishing such relations.

(b) Closing their ports to all vessels flying the South African flag.

(c) Enacting legislation prohibiting their ships from entering South African ports.

(d) Boycotting all South African goods and refraining from exporting goods, including arms and ammunition. to South Africa.

(e) Refusing landing and passage facilities to all aircraft belonging to the government of South Africa and companies registered under the laws of South Africa.’

Further, the General Assembly set up a special committee to keep South Africa’s apartheid policies under review and requested the Security Council “to take appropriate measures, including sanctions” and to consider taking action under Article 6 of the United Nations Charter which provides for the expulsion of a member-state which persistently violates the principles of the Charter. This resolution was adopted as a whole by a majority of sixty-seven to sixteen with twenty-three abstentions.

The countries voting against the resolution were made up of the imperialist and capitalist countries of North America and Western Europe and certain other countries, like Spain, which were renowned for their fascist and reactionary regimes. These countries were either members of the NATO or the SEATO war blocs. And they, together, as Eric Louw, the late South African Foreign Minister, was quick to calculate, “bought 79.8 per cent of South Africa’s exports, excluding gold, and provided 63.7 per cent of her imports”. The abstaining countries were largely South American – which were under the pressure of the purse strings of the United States, and the Anglo-American lobby at the United Nations, the bulk of the Latin American delegations were not permitted to vote for the resolution.

The resolution also established the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid (UNSCAA). The committee was originally boycotted by the Western nations, because of their disagreement with the aspects of the resolution calling for the boycott of South Africa. Even so, the committee found allies in the West, such as the British-based Anti-Apartheid Movement, through which it could work and lay the ground roots for the eventual acceptance by the Western powers of the need to impose economic sanctions on apartheid South Africa to pressure for political changes.

The 1963 session of the General Assembly added to its 1962 recommendation of specific measures for sanctions by calling upon member states to stop the supply of oil to South Africa. This resolution was adopted by a majority of eighty-four to six, which unfortunately included the United States, Britain and France, as the only suppliers of oil to South Africa.

The report of the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid of September 1963 went a step further in its recommendations to the Security Council and the General Assembly: “The Special Committee feels that they should consider, without further delay, possible new measures in accordance with the Charter, which provide for stronger political, diplomatic and economic sanctions, suspension of rights and privileges of the Republic of South Africa as a member state, and expulsion from the United Nations and its specialized agencies.”

In a message to the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), in London, in May 1963, the President-General of the ANC (SA), Inkosi A.J. Luthuli said, “On behalf of all the oppressed people and all freedom lovers in South Africa, I wish to make it clear that we welcome this resolution most joyfully: that we look forward to, and entreat, its most stringent implementation, and that we would encourage the most vigorous forms of action in protest against the apartheid policies which blight our country. At the same time I would urge citizens in all countries to be vigilant in ensuring that these resolutions are honoured in words as well as action, and to campaign energetically for their fullest implementation by their governments and by all private enterprises and individuals.”

Furthermore, Inkosi Luthuli asked the citizens of these countries “to unite in demanding that your governments should honour the resolutions taken at the United Nations. I would urge that you and your government be not deterred from any action by the excuse – often advanced by our oppressors – that boycotts and sanctions will bring to us, blacks, more suffering than the whites. We have been victims of suffering long before our boycott and sanctions call to nations of the world. We are committed to suffering that will lead us to freedom – as it has been the lot of all oppressed people before us from time immemorial. What we are determined not to do, cost what it may, is to acquiesce in a status quo that makes us semi-slaves in OUR COUNTRY.”

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
A.J. Lutuli, “No Arms for South Africa”, The African Communist, Vol. 2, No. 4, July – September 1963.
P. Tlale, “Sanctions Against Apartheid”, The African Communist, No. 16, January – March 1964.

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!