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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 18, 1985
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organizations. That was surely not the way the Senator had planned it, but
then his main audience was not in South Africa, but rather in the United
States.
The various stops on his "anti-apartheid crusade" (as London's DAILY TELE
GRAPH called it) were carefully stage-managed in order to play well on net
work news programs back home. In the Senate, Kennedy intends to make South
Africa a major foreign policy focus--and to keep it and himself in the fore
front from now on� he readies himself to run for the presidency in 1988.
(An editorial cartoon by MacNelly showed Kennedy hunting big game in Afri
ca. Three Africans with him were carrying boxes and sacks on their heads
labeled "Apartheid Issue." A "thought balloon" over Kennedy's head showed
what kind of "big game" he was really after--the 1988 Republican Elephant!)
Senator Kennedy did not go to South Africa on a "fact-finding trip." His
own aides admitted this was not the case. His visits were well arranged
beforehand. They were mostly with government dissidents or involved excur
sions to some of the poorest areas in the country in order to present the
most negative, emotion-laden impact of the country. He did have one frosty
meeting with Foreign Minister Roelof "Pik" Botha, in which there was abso
lutely no meeting of minds. Afterwards, Mr. Botha took the unusual course
of composing an open letter to Kennedy on the day of the latter's departure
from the country. "Your motive," wrote the Foreign Minister, "was to use
your visit as a forum for a set of preconceived value judgments. You ar
rived with your mind made up and you will depart with it made up."
3y his own admission, Kennedy refused to see the South African situation in
any other light than that of his own liberal American perspective. He told
one anti-government rally: "I disagree with the present American policy to
ward South Africa precisely because it offends abiding American values."
The high-profile Kennedy team (nine aides plus six family members) did ap
pear startled, according to one report, by the complexity of South African
politics. They certainly did not expect to be greeted by black demonstra
tors such as those of the militant Marxist fringe, such as AZAPO (the
Azanian People's Organization) who angrily picketed Kennedy's meetings
yelling "Yankee Go Home" and carrying posters calling him "Imperialist" or
"CIA Pig." Kennedy told Reuters interviewers that he was saddened by the
divisions and polarizations among black groups.
The Senator and his band attempted to elevate the stature of Anglican Bis
hop Desmond Tutu, one of the two individuals who invited him. But they were
dismayed to see how little political power Tutu actually has in the coun
try, Nobel Peace Prize notwithstanding.
The bishop couldn't even calm
black protesters at a meeting Kennedy was scheduled to address on his last
day. It was scrubbed.
The Senator did not want to be influenced by black leaders who held ideas
different from his own. For example, he embarrassed one of the few genuine
African leaders, Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi, who enjoys wide support among
his own people (but not much among other black tribal nations). Buthelezi
is an outspoken opponent of the idea of U.S. "disinvestment," calling it
"madness.
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After their private breakfast meeting in Durban, Buthelezi
tried three times to persuade a reluctant Kennedy to greet hundreds of his
Zulu supporters outside. Finally, he yanked the Senator by the arm and pro
pelled him outside. Buthelezi said later he was
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flabbergasted" at the
Senator's behavior.