Mr. Chairman,
Esteemed Heads of State and Government,
Distinguished Ministers and fellow delegates,
Comrades leaders of the liberation movements,
Ladies and gentlemen,
A seemingly routine event has occurred in Harare. In keeping with the constitutional practice of the Non-Aligned Movement and the decisions of this, its Eighth Summit Meeting, His Excellency Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has handed over the baton of leadership of this Movement to His Excellency Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
But for us, as South Africans, the passing of that baton has a deeply historic significance. Rather than a change of leadership, it signifies the linking of New Delhi and Harare, the telescoping of the four decades between 1946 and 1986 into a moment of time pregnant with great meaning and hope for millions of people.
Almost the pioneer after the Second World War in signalling the breakup of the colonial system - and that after an epoch-making struggle - India has passed its chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement to Zimbabwe, which is virtually the signpost heralding the final collapse of colonialism, thanks to its victorious war of liberation.
Forty Years' Solidarity
As a direct consequence of the victory of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle in India, the question of racial and colonial oppression in South Africa was placed on the agenda of the very first General Assembly of the United Nations in 1946. The new India was responsible for that early and outstanding act of solidarity, not only with our people, but also with all those who were oppressed and colonised.
As a direct consequence of the victory of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle in Zimbabwe, the Non-Aligned Summit meets here to discuss, among other matters, the question of apartheid. The path we have traversed from the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 to the Summit Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1986 can only have true meaning if, at this historic gathering, we sound the death knell of the apartheid system. That we meet here must surely underline the fact that here, in this capital city of the anti-colonial struggle, Harare, the apartheid system will meet its day of reckoning.
Time, place and circumstance demand that this eighth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement should go down in the annals of history as the Summit for the Total Liberation of Southern Africa. The situation in South Africa, Namibia and southern Africa as a whole imposes an obligation on this movement to use its enormous power and influence to sue for victory over the apartheid regime, now.
Move on to Victory
From this handsome Conference Hall it is but a stone's throw to the obscene and brutal reality of the apartheid system. The very fact of that proximity should make it plain that it is within collective power of all of us in this hall to ensure that the time span between racist barbarism and national emancipation, peace and happiness in this region need be no longer than the period which will separate the eighth from the ninth Summit of this Movement.
The ground already covered in the long struggle to liberate South Africa and Namibia makes it both possible and necessary that we achieve success without delay. When the ninth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement convenes, as the last decade of the twentieth Century begins, it should be to celebrate the historic triumph of all humanity over the forces of racism, colonialism and war in southern Africa.
We come from, and represent, a people that has for centuries known the bitter fruits of tyranny. Death by starvation or by the bullet has been our daily fare. The practice of human degradation and bestial subjugation is the common experience of millions of South Africans.
We have seen the bodies of black people so grossly and deliberately tortured and their souls so warped and stunted that these victims of crime begin to doubt their own humanity. Presiding over these unspeakable horrors, which beggar all description, have been white men and women who have themselves been transformed by the theory and practice of racism into monstrous caricatures of the human species.
A people that has known so much pain cannot but be sensitive to the suffering of all other people. Accordingly, we feel completely at one with the Non-Aligned Movement in its resolve vigorously to confront the many issues on the agenda of the Summit. We, too, whatever our own national condition, have a duty to contribute our best towards the realisation of the objectives of this Movement.
Fraternal States and Organisations
We therefore take this opportunity to salute the esteemed Heads of State and Government who are present here, the distinguished ministers and diplomats, leaders of the liberation movements and the other delegates. We join our honoured Chairman and comrade-in-arms, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, in extending a warm and fraternal welcome to all who came from outside this region of the globe.
Speaking from this important rostrum, and conscious of the significance of this occasion for us, we extend our greetings to our sister movement, SWAPO of Namibia, and to the heroic people of that country. Between our two movements and peoples, there exist indissoluble bonds of common purpose born of the same heritage of suffering under the yoke of apartheid colonialism and racist oppression. We are proud that we march side by side with such a movement and people, because we know that in SWAPO and the people of Namibia we have a steadfast ally and that, together, we shall win.
We extend our greetings to all the Frontline and other independent States of our region. We pay tribute to the governments and peoples of this area who are standing firm in their opposition to the apartheid system and their support for our movement, despite aggression and destabilisation by the Pretoria regime. Our common members resident in this region have been victims of assassination, kidnapping and other crimes carried out by the apartheid regime. This campaign of terror has, on occasion, forced us to evacuate our members to other countries. Nevertheless, we are strengthened by the knowledge that the peoples of our region are deeply committed to do what they can in the struggle for liberation, aware that they can know no peace until the apartheid system is no more.
Pretoria-Israel-US Axis
We salute also the Palestine Liberation Organisation, with whom we are united in a common struggle against the Pretoria-Tel Aviv-Washington axis. These are forces that see both our peoples as nothing but disposable goods, a nuisance factor in their lives, semi-humans that can be disposed of without even so much as a slight twinge of conscience.
The concerted attempt to turn us away from the people of Palestine will not succeed. We recognise Zionism for what it is, a racist doctrine and practice which has turned the Palestinians into a homeless people, deprived the Arab people of their lands, turned the Middle East into a tinderbox of international tension and war, a threat to the independence, sovereignty and security of millions of people, as exemplified most recently by the invasion of Lebanon and Tunisia. Zionism and apartheid are but two sides of the same coin, twin forces of reaction which we pledge to fight, side by side with the PLO, the Arab people, the Non-Aligned Movement and the rest of progressive humanity.
We extend our solidarity to the people of the Saharaoui Arab Democratic Republic, under the leadership of the POLISARIO Front. We support the efforts of the OAU, the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations to find a political solution to this question. We join others in urging the Kingdom of Morocco to cooperate with the SADR and the international community to establish conditions of justice and peace in this important area of Africa, on the basis of the respect of the right of all peoples to self-determination and independence.
The situation in Central America also constitutes an issue of major concern to our movement and people. We would accordingly like to reiterate here our solidarity with the people and Government of Nicaragua, as well as with the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Similarly, we wish to express our support for the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front, the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) and the struggling people of El Salvador.
Counter-Revolution Exported
In these two countries, we have a concentrated expression of the confrontation between the peoples of the Americas who are striving for genuine national independence, democracy and non-alignment and, in opposition, the United States Administration which seeks to keep this area of the world as a dependent sphere of influence, with its decision-making capital in Washington, DC. It would seem to us that the Reagan Administration is carrying out and refining a policy of the export of counter-revolution in Central and Southern America and the Caribbean which it would like to duplicate in this region of Africa, if nowhere else. Apart from what we have said already about Nicaragua and El Salvador, the economic blockade and destabilisation of Cuba, the invasion of Grenada, the maintenance of Puerto Rico as a dependency, the use of Honduras against its neighbours, the continued support for the Chilean junta, the complete disregard of the views of the peoples in their region, such as those of the Contadora Group, all indicate what the United States Administration would like to repeat in southern Africa, a region it considers of strategic important to its global strategy.
We would therefore hope that the united weight of the Non-Aligned Movement will be brought to bear on the issues affecting the Americas, in the interest of the peoples of this continent, for the furtherance of the ideals which this movement holds dear and for the promotion of the cause of a just international order.
We Stand for Sovereignty of All Peoples
As this august assembly knows, there are other important questions to which it must address itself, including those of East Timor, Kampuchea, Afghanistan, the Iraq-Iran war and the issue of the unification of Korea. Like the rest of the progressive world, we would like to see a political solution of these conflicts in as short a time as possible.
Like others, we would like to avoid doing anything that would contribute to the exacerbation of tensions in these areas. However, we will continue to stand with those forces that fight for genuine national emancipation, for the sovereignty of peoples, for social progress and the resolution of international disputes by peaceful means.
The urgent need to save humanity from a nuclear holocaust demands that we too should be active participants in the struggle for world peace. For us, this matter is made particularly pressing by the admitted fact that the Pretoria regime has a nuclear capability, thanks to the assistance it has received, especially from the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Israel.
Disarmament and World Peace
We cannot but be gravely concerned at the positions taken by the United States Administration, which responds to every disarmament initiative with policies designed to accelerate the arms race and obtain nuclear superiority. The refusal to ratify the last SALT Treaty, to stop the testing of nuclear weapons, to make a solemn undertaking never to be the first to use such weapons, as well as the militarisation of space through the so-called Special Defence Initiative, are among decisions taken by the United States Government which indicate its unwillingness seriously to promote disarmament and world peace.
This is in keeping with the aggressive posture of the Reagan Administration, which has reserved for itself the right to attack any country to impose its will. This has already resulted in the invasion of Grenada and aggression against Libya, and the sponsorship of counter-revolutionary groups against the peoples of Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan.
All this gives encouragement to other forces of war, including the apartheid regime and Zionist Israel, which also carry out their own acts of aggression, sponsor bandit groups and keep in reserve the option of nuclear blackmail to stop the process of liberation.
We are certain that the Non-Aligned Movement will, during the current session, take additional measures to strengthen the movement towards disarmament and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, for the reduction of international tension and the establishment of world peace. In this context, we would like to take advantage of this occasion to salute the peace movement which is increasingly taking up the issue of apartheid, having recognised that this system constitutes a threat to international peace and security and that the imperative of peace demands that the cause of justice in South Africa and Namibia must triumph.
International Economic Order
The crying need to overcome the grievous consequences of an unjust international economic order also emphasises the urgency for the transfer of the huge material and human resources, currently committed to military purposes, to more humane uses.
In our own country large volumes of wealth created by the labour of our people have been diverted to the building of a huge military machine for the purpose of preserving a socio-economic order based on the enrichment of the white minority and the extreme impoverishment of the millions of black people. These masses are prey to death by starvation, to the ravages of disease and the blight of ignorance - and this in a country which boasts of being an important industrial power and food producer, the so-called Persian Gulf of minerals.
We therefore deeply appreciate the fact that the Eighth Summit must spend a good amount of time discussing the question of a new international economic order, of the growing international debt of the member States, of problems brought about by unfair terms of trade, natural calamities such as drought and desertification. The solutions that must be found to these problems will themselves constitute a material factor strengthening the capacity of the Non-Aligned world to help us end the apartheid system and reconstruct South Africa as a country committed to the upliftment of all peoples.
SADCC: Historic Effort
The independent countries of our region are, through the SADCC, themselves involved in an effort of historic importance to reduce their economic links with apartheid South Africa, to build strong and independent economies and make it impossible for the racists to use their economic strength to compromise the sovereignty of these States.
The ANC has welcomed these initiatives and is convinced that the international community must do everything in its power to contribute to the success of the SADCC which, naturally, the apartheid regime wishes to destroy.
The victory of the Non-Aligned Movement in the wider struggle for a new international economic order, radically to raise the material welfare of millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America permanently and continuously, would help the peoples of our region themselves to achieve these noble goals sooner rather than later.
Massive Destruction in Our Region
But, once more, we come back to the reality that we have as the southern neighbour of this country, apartheid South Africa, which also directly shares borders with four other independent States and, indirectly, with six. The fact of the matter is that, while this situation obtains, development and defence must of necessity be pursued side by side, with a consequent severe limitation on the very possibility of development.
Part of the history of our region during the last five years is a story of massive destruction. Pretoria's agents of death and destruction have repeatedly descended on Angola and Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Zambia and even as far afield as Seychelles with murder in their hearts and the weapons of war in their hands.
Botha continues to sit in Pretoria, an arrogant smirk on his lips, his continued presence in our midst the guarantee that we have yet to bury more people, see more buildings destroyed and witness the wherewithal for the livelihood of ordinary people wantonly laid to waste.
Enough is Enough!
The people of South Africa have now said: Enough is enough! The long nightmare of colonial and racist oppression and fascist terror must come to an end. The African National Congress has issued the directives to our people that we must now march forward to the capture of State power, the transformation of South Africa into a united, nonracial democracy. We are set on the path to victory.
We are fully conscious that success will not come easily. The apartheid regime continues to dispose of large military forces and material resources which will enable it to put up a desperate and costly resistance. We are also equally aware that the Botha regime still enjoys the support of powerful international allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and France, all of which see this regime as their ally and our movement as their enemy.
And yet we are convinced that our victory is in sight. That conviction is based on the reality that the balance of forces in our country and internationally has changed fundamentally in favour of our national liberation movement. Through struggle, we have forced the enemy into strategic retreat and have ourselves seized the strategic initiative permanently. In that process, we have built up the political and military forces which will enable us to keep that initiative in our hands and to stay on the offensive until liberation is achieved.
The message we are trying to convey to this historic Summit is that the strong winds that have been rocking the apartheid system are gaining in strength and will assume the force of a storm. No area of our country will remain untouched by the massive general offensive which we have to carry out to reach the situation in which the balance of strength tilts in our favour, sufficiently for us to carry out the final act of overthrowing the apartheid regime.
Millions Engaged in Mass Struggle
The millions of our people - in both urban and rural areas - have been, and are, engaged in mass struggles aimed at the systematic destruction of as many organs of the apartheid State power as possible as well as the neutralisation of the personnel manning this State machinery. As can be expected, the racist State has resisted this offensive with all means in its power.
That is why in the past two years we have had the extraordinary numbers of casualties which even Pretoria could not hide. Clearly, this regime could never countenance the situation in which its capacity to govern is being challenged successfully. For it to continue to govern means the necessity to demonstrate that it is governing. But since we do not accept its legitimacy, for us to take the struggle further means that we must in fact break down its apartheid stranglehold. We have to make apartheid unworkable and the country ungovernable as part of our progress towards the establishment of people's power.
In the course of this mounting struggle we have lost tens of thousands of patriots killed, injured or imprisoned. We accept this price as unavoidable. But it is a price which is only acceptable because, at the end of the day, these enormous sacrifices must lead us to victory. And this is exactly what these sacrifices have been about.
They have also been about the organisation and training of a mass army of political and military combat, the preparation in struggle of millions of people for all-out war to dislodge the apartheid regime from power. Today these masses stand as firm as a rock, ready to make any sacrifice to achieve this goal. The enemy has lost all possibilities to subdue the people, regardless of the means of terror it might use and the extent of that terror.
Our People Call for Weapons
Openly our people are calling for modern weapons to enable them to march against Pretoria. In public demonstrations, they acclaim our people's army, Umkhonto we Sizwe. A great number of combat units has been formed inside the country and all of them have been involved in action, using the limited means available to them.
Thus our army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, continues to gain in strength and has available to it the forces to achieve our objective of developing our armed operations to the scale of a people's war. A critical requirement in all this, of course, is that we must ensure that the masses of our people are armed so that we can confront the enemy with modern weapons.
The mounting struggle has created enormous political and economic problems for the apartheid regime. The racist population is rent by sharp and worsening divisions and conflicts. These have spread into the ruling fascist party itself. The Pretoria regime can never succeed again to unite the white population to support its objectives.
Growing numbers of this population are speaking out against the apartheid system while others are joining the democratic movement as activists. Thousands of young whites are refusing to serve in Pretoria's armed forces. Various sectors of the white population are working to strengthen their contact with our movement, having recognised that the apartheid system must end and that the ANC is the decisive force that must bring about this result.
Collapsing Economy
At the same time, the economy is experiencing a very deep recession. Unemployment has become so endemic that it is also affecting the white population. Personal and business bankruptcies continue to grow in a dramatic way. The enormous problems facing the economy are also graphically illustrated by the continuing drop in the value of the Rand and the inability of the country to meet its international debt obligations.
Overall, it is obvious that the apartheid system is confronted by the worst general crisis in its history. This means that correspondingly this system has been seriously weakened. It has neither the political nor the economic strength to recover from this crisis or to recapture the strategic initiative. Instead, whatever the Pretoria regime does to solve the problems it faces only serves to deepen the crisis and thus further to debilitate the racist system.
An historic occasion that will further compound the general crisis of the Pretoria regime will be the observance by our people, both black and white, of the 75th anniversary of our movement, the ANC, beginning from our founding day, January 8th, 1987. During the course of that important political campaign, these masses will further reinforce the position of the ANC as their vanguard movement and reduce to an absurdity the ban imposed on us by the Pretoria regime. They will further consolidate their unity around our programme, the Freedom Charter, and our strategic and tactical line, as well as around the leadership.
In our millions, we shall, in action, bring nearer the reality of a democratic order in our country. We are convinced that the Non-Aligned Movement and the rest of progressive humanity will also take advantage of this historic anniversary further to increase their own involvement in the struggle for the birth of a united, democratic and nonracial South Africa.
Remain on the Attack
The situation in our country demands that we remain on the attack further to exacerbate the crisis of the apartheid system and thus weaken the racist regime. It is therefore clear that the objective conditions for an uninterrupted march towards liberation exist and that these conditions will improve as we intensify the struggle.
Similarly, as we have said, the subjective factor has also matured, with our people ready to mount any assault on the racist system, regardless of the price they have to pay in the process. All this confirms that we have reached the moment in our history when we must actually sue for victory by directing a concerted national and international onslaught against the apartheid regime, inspired by the knowledge that victory is indeed in sight.
Among our people there is great confidence and expectation that the eighth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement will make a decisive contribution to the struggle to end the apartheid system. We are certain that the international community can and must deliver a body blow against the Pretoria regime in the form of comprehensive and mandatory sanctions.
This idea has gripped the minds of countless millions of people throughout the world. Everywhere the masses are demanding that the crime of apartheid must be brought to an end now and that, to do so, the Pretoria regime must be completely isolated immediately. In many of the Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the issue of apartheid has become a matter of national politics. Ordinary people respond to the calls of their anti-apartheid movements by demonstrating in their hundreds of thousands, demanding sanctions now.
Bold and Heroic Positions
We are particularly inspired and moved by the bold and heroic positions taken by the independent States in this region of Africa, not only to call for sanctions but themselves to impose them. This means that for the peoples of our region the economic war against apartheid is truly joined. We must expect that Pretoria will seek to multiply and extend its destruction of the economic infrastructures of the countries in this area, as it has already been doing with regard to Mozambique and Angola in particular.
Yet this Summit should know that the workers and the oppressed masses of South Africa will themselves be attacking the apartheid economy as part of the escalation of our own offensive against the racist regime. Further, as Pretoria increases its aggression to the scale of a generalised war, so must we, within our country, also deliver mighty armed blows in a generalised offensive against the common enemy.
Zimbabwe's assumption of the Chairmanship at this crucial hour means that, by virtue of her geopolitical position, she must, brave general that she is, lead the forces of this Movement from the front. That exposed forward position, which she shares with the countries grouped around her, including a distinguished and rightly-respected former Chairman of this Movement and the present Chairman of the Frontline States, the Republic of Zambia, demands that the member States of this great Movement, individually and collectively, and the rest of the international community, should take all necessary measures to protect Zimbabwe and her neighbours.
United Resolve in Our Region
The readiness of the countries of southern Africa to sacrifice for a speedy end to the apartheid system expresses the united resolve of the peoples of our region to pay whatever price is necessary to rid themselves and the rest of humanity of the scourge of fascism which, defeated in Europe and the Far East 41 years ago, was transplanted into African soil as the apartheid crime against humanity.
We are certain that the presence of so many distinguished leaders and statesmen on the very borders of racist South Africa will help to strengthen that resolve. We are also confident that, when these outstanding representatives of the Non-Aligned world leave us, they will transport that sense of commitment to the rest of the world, further to strengthen the international movement of solidarity with the peoples of Southern Africa and to galvanise it for the final assault on the bastions of racism, colonialism, fascism and war in this region.
We believe that the Summit has a task to draw up and adopt a plan of battle against apartheid reflecting the Movement's own commitment to end this system and the immense new possibilities that have arisen, making it possible for us, collectively, to achieve this objective.
We believe that the Summit should issue a Special Declaration on Southern Africa and Call to Action addressed to all governments and peoples throughout the world. Such a declaration should unequivocally denounce the apartheid regime as illegitimate, as a criminal formation and an international outlaw. It should contain a call to the world community making it clear that humanity has a special political, legal and moral responsibility not merely to condemn but to take action now to destroy the bandit Pretoria regime. It should also categorise the apartheid system as a threat to international peace and security, requiring the urgent imposition of comprehensive and mandatory sanctions under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
International Support
We believe that the Summit must solemnly resolve that its member States will, collectively and individually, come to the aid of the Frontline and independent countries of southern Africa to help them to withstand and repulse Pretoria's aggression, to cope with the effect of sanctions against apartheid South Africa and to face the inevitable reprisals by the racists. We are convinced that this Movement has the will and the resources to meet these objectives.
We believe that the Summit should send an unequivocal message to the Western allies of the apartheid regime and especially the United States, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Japan. That message should make clear the complete rejection by the millions of people represented by the Movement of the policies of so-called constructive engagement, quiet diplomacy and dialogue pursued by these governments to hide their continued collaboration with, and support for, the apartheid regime.
The Time to Choose
To this category belong also the stubborn attempt to link the presence of the defensive international Cuban troops in Angola to the urgent question of the independence of Namibia, as well as efforts to impose an East-West dimension on the struggle in southern Africa. We are convinced that this Movement must speak with one united voice in saying that if the Western countries wish to keep political, economic and other business with this regime as normal as possible, they would thereby have made a decision that they are prepared to sacrifice their relations with the Non-Aligned world. Now is the time to choose.
We believe that the Summit should elect and dispatch a mission to the peoples of the world to visit as many countries as possible to talk to governments, political parties, trade unions, religious communities, anti-apartheid organisations and the people at large to put the case for mandatory as well as people's sanctions, for special assistance to the independent States of southern Africa and for support for the liberation movement of Namibia and South Africa. The decisions of this Summit can be the clarion call which bonds together the world anti-apartheid movement to act with a new, concerted determination, a united purpose and intensity consonant with the urgent demands of the day.
We believe that the Summit should decide to request the Security Council of the United Nations to impose comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against apartheid South Africa under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. If necessary, in the light of possible vetoes by Pretoria's allies, the General Assembly should convene for peace, itself to impose these sanctions.
War Materials and Funds
We believe that the Summit should agree that all member States of the Non-Aligned Movement will increase their all-round assistance to the liberation movements of southern Africa, SWAPO and the ANC, to increase our striking power so that we can carry out our historic mission of leading the millions of our peoples in a continuous and victorious assault on the apartheid system. Of particular importance are war materials and funds to enable us to mount and push through that assault.
Bearing in mind that victory once attained has to be defended and consolidated, we believe that the Summit should resolve that all member States of the Non-Aligned Movement have a duty to help us prepare for that future which is certain to come. This applies especially to the training of personnel in very many specialities, and the provision of possibilities for this trained cadre to gain experience in their chosen fields.
A few days ago, the Pretoria regime carried out yet another massacre in Soweto. This latest crime was the racists' continuing response to the demand of our people for justice, including the very right to life. It is also Pretoria's arrogant welcome and challenge to this Summit emanating from the same fascist contempt with which the racists received the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons, the racists who invaded and bombed Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe on May 19th this year.
Commonwealth Initiative
This new crime confirms the truths so brilliantly and honestly stated by the Group of Eminent Persons about the stubborn attachment of the Pretoria regime to its murderous apartheid policies, and its utter refusal to enter into any meaningful negotiations. It also confirms the correctness of the position taken by six of the seven Commonwealth countries that met in London last month to impose sanctions against the regime, among them members of this Movement. We would like to take this opportunity once more to salute the Group of Eminent Persons, the countries of the Commonwealth and the Secretariat of this organisation, for the position they have taken to advance the cause of justice, democracy and peace in this region. We know that the British people, like those of the other major Western countries, will draw the right lessons from this latest Soweto massacre.
We are also certain that the eighth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement will respond to this brazen challenge in a fitting manner. For our part, we commit the African National Congress and the fighting people of our country to a pledge never to retreat, never to surrender and never to slow down the offensive which will result in the transfer of power to the people of South Africa and the restoration of peace to southern Africa and our continent as a whole.
If for no other reason, those of us who are of sound body and mind owe it to the thousands who have died and are dying throughout southern Africa, to do everything in our power to end the nightmare of apartheid. We owe that duty to Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Harry Gwala, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi and the thousands of leaders and activists who are imprisoned or detained by the Pretoria regime. We have to achieve this objective in the name of our comrades who have been captured by the enemy and today face death sentences, as well as those who are forced to answer to illegal treason and other charges.
Sharing the Same Trench
We have reserved to the last our congratulations to our dear brother, Comrade Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, on his election as Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement. We did so the better to convey the measure of our appreciation of this important decision, taken on the historic occasion of the 25th anniversary of this Movement.
Together with you, Mr. Chairman, and the heroic brother people whom you lead, we share the same trench of struggle. The fact that our peoples are bound by a common destiny does not need to be demonstrated. Nobody needs to be convinced about the reality that, under the leadership of your Party and Government, the people of Zimbabwe see themselves as faced with tasks that are no different from those confronting their brothers and sisters in Namibia and South Africa. This could not be otherwise, because, during the struggle to liberate yourselves and to extend the frontiers of freedom in Africa, you had physically to confront the apartheid regime in battle and reduce to inconsequence its support for its partner racists and colonialists of the Smith regime.
As Chairman, you have taken over as Chief-of-Staff of a movement that has transformed itself into a task force that will fight in both the forward and rear echelons, to complete the process of the total liberation of Africa to which the victory of the struggle in Zimbabwe made, and is making, such a historic contribution. Under your courageous, experienced and farsighted leadership we are certain to march to victory.