South African History Online

19 June 1990

The message we bring to you is a simple one.

It is that we look forward to the time when you will join hands with our
people to form a partnership off freedom and prosperity for the peoples of South
Africa and the United States of America.

We hope this meeting will begin the process of consultation among ourselves
to determine what needs tom be done in order to turn that partnership into a
reality.

You all know that our life's work is not yet done.

We have still not attained our objective of transforming SA into a united,
democratic, non-racial and non-sexist country.

Our struggle therefore continues and will continue until freedom dawns.

The kind of freedom we seek is not difficult to define.

Its fundamental principles are not different from those which you hold dear
in this country.

We wants to see everybody enjoying the right vote.

The basic human rights of all our citizens have to be protected and
guaranteed, to ensure the genuine liberty of every individual.

The law before which all should be equal, should rule supreme.

The racial and ethnic divisions and discriminatory practises that constitute
the apartheid system have to be ended completely and without qualification.

We want to see the millions of our people build one SA Nation whose integrity
will be secured by the fact of the freedom of all its members to decide their
destiny, speak the language of their choice, enjoy their culture and engage in
any religious practice according to their conscience.

We cannot say with any precision how soon we will bring this democratic
society into being.

What however seems clear is that the road we still have to travel is
immeasurably shorter than the path we had to cover to arrive at the point where
we are today.

We are certain that the victory of the democratic cause is at hand.

Let me also say that non of us should seek to ignore or underestimate the
fact that if today we speak of victory being in sight, as we do, it is because
our people have wage a hard and long struggle to the end of the system of
apartheid.

The international community has also made an important contribution to this
struggle, not least through the imposition of economic and other sanctions.

We believe, and trust that you will agree with us, that since we have not yet
achieved the democratic transformation we all desire, the pressure must be
maintained, both internally and internationally, to bring about this result.

The processes leading to a just and lasting political settlement has
started.

At the meeting we held at the beginning of last month with President De Klerk
and his colleagues, it was agreed that the obstacles to negotiations that we had
identified would be removed.

We believe that these will indeed be removed.

It will then be possible to take the process further on, to identify the
parties to the negotiations and ultimately to draw up a new, democratic
constitution and a bill of rights that would be entrenched and justiciable.

We do not, of course, underestimate the difficulties that still lie ahead of
us.

We are fully conscious of the fact that our interlocutors, the ruling
National Party, have up to now been a party of racism, whose reason for
existence was to advance the interests of the Afrikaners specifically and the
Whites in general, at the expense of the black majority.

Even now, as it talks of a noon -racial democracy, this party has not yet
fully abandoned the notion that the SA population should be divided into
separate racial and ethnic political compartments.

It is still toying around with the idea of a white veto or a constitutional
arrangement which would give the White minority exclusive power over the various
elements of social activity.

In addition, there are many among our White compatriots who are opposed to
democratic change, either because of outright adherence to raw and unbridled
racism or because they fear democratic majority rule.

Some of these are armed.

They are to be found within both the army and the police.

Outside of these state agencies, other Whites are working frantically to
liquidate the ANC, its leadership and membership, as well as other persons or
formations which these right-wing terrorist group see as threat to the continued
existence of the system of White minority domination.

Despite all these negatives and worrying factors, we are still of the view
that change will come sooner rather than later.

The overwhelming majority of our people, including the Whites are in favour
of change.

The internal and international cost of maintaining the apartheid system has
to become too high.

De Klerk and his colleagues in the leadership of the National Party have
understood that they must act together with us and all other representatives
political forces, to bring about a new reality.

We believe that they hold this view honestly are ready to implement such
agreements as may be arrived at democratically.

The political settlement we have been speaking of will not, however, and
itself, end the massive poverty to which our people are heir.

I am certain that all of us present here will be familiar with the
catastrophe of misery which is the lot of millions of our people.

I do not have to list for you the enormous needs we are faced with in terms
of jobs, housing, education nutrition, health care, pensions and social security
and so on.

Naturally and correctly, our people expect that the democratic state will
take all necessary measures to address these issues  as a matter of
urgency.

The very fact that these masses will have political power in their hands will
increase the pressure on the Government, at all levels. to meet these
expectations.

Indeed, because the political and economic haves are White and the political
and economic have-nots are black, the very stability of the political settlement
depends on rapid and visible progress being made to improve the quality of life
of all the people.

The private sector, both domestic and international, will have a vital
contribution to make to the economic and social reconstruction of SA after
apartheid.

It will be critical that the economy grows rapidly and at rates that
supercede population growth.

This cannot happen without large in flows of foreign capital, including US
capital.

We will also to ensure that we achieve levels of productively which will
enable us to compete on the international markets successfully.

An important requirement to enable us to achieve this, is that we must have
access to the management skills, the body of technology and the risk capital
which make for the success of your own corporations in both the domestic and
international markets.

We are sensitive to the fact that as investors in a post-apartheid SA, you
will need to be confident about the security of your investments, an adequate
and equitable return on your capital and a general capital climate of peace and
stability.

That is why we share the common objectives of the total abolition of the
apartheid system and the institution of a genuinely democratic system in an open
society.

Further to this, it is also in our interest that all investors, like our own
peoples as a whole, should have confidence in the stability of the society we
will seek to build.

They should know it is a matter of fact that the investment they make today,
whether in the house they build, the child they educate or the savings they put
into a bank, is not likely to vanish tomorrow because of some arbitrary
Government action or a social upheaval generated by continuing social
injustice.

We do not have time to address other questions relating to our broad views
about the future SA economy.

We believe that it will be a mixed economy, though we have no blue print as
to the make-up of that mix.

The trade unions will have to enjoy the right to collective bargaining and
other privileges that are normal in any democratic society.

We are convinced this economy will have to be restructured, so that it is
able to serve the material interests of all our people, and not just the White
minority.

Ecological issues will also have to be attended to, to ensure against, among
other things, the degradation of the soil, as has happened in many parts of the
country, and the pollution of the atmosphere around many black urban
Townships.

We foresee the SA economy playing an important part in the regeneration and
expansion of the economy of Southern Africa as a whole.

We see this regional economy, so well endowed with human and natural
resources, as an outstanding growth point in the world economy.

Its good health would help to focus international opinion on the need for the
rest of the world to join hands with the African continent as a whole to address
the urgent needs facing the millions of people on our continent.

In summary, we count on you to take the decision that you will become part,
and an important part, of the future SA economy.

To reiterate what we said at the beginning, we hope this meeting will begin
the dialogue among ourselves about the system of co-operation we need to improve
the lives of the people of both our countries.

Immediately, we believe that there are some other things that you should and
can do.

You should continue to isolate apartheid SA.

You should reflect on what further contribution you can make encourage the
peaceful process leading to the transformation of SA into a democratic
country.

You should help us with the material resources which will enable us to
repatriate and resettle our compatriots whom the apartheid system forced into
exile.

You should help us with the resources which will enable us to carry out the
educational work among all our people which will encourage and enable them to
participate in the process of negotiations.

You should help us to train significant numbers especially of black managers,
both in business schools and the work place.

Together we should decide how to continue our dialogue intended to define the
content and parameters of our partnership for democracy and prosperity in
SA.

We trust that will be kind enough to consider the issues we have raised, at
your leisure, bearing in mind that they reflect the views of what is accepted to
be one of the principal political forces in our country, without which no
solution is possible.

We are very interested to discuss our common future with you, approaching all
issues in a spirit of give and take, but bearing in mind that our people, as
much as yours, value their freedom and independence.

But of course we also know that freedom and independence can only be
exercised, and can only have true meaning, in the context of an interdependent
world.