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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 29, 1985
P.W. Botha said in a taped half-hour interview on the last evening, "one
sided and negative." It really took on that tone on the Thursday evening
segment after the eruption of violence in a black township called Langa,
near Uitenhage in the eastern Cape region. There, a demonstration held on
the 25th anniversary of the so-called "Sharpeville Massacre" of 1960 got
out of hand. Nineteen people were killed by police after an estimated 250
protestors surged forward out of a mob of 4,000, threatening less than 20
police with bricks, pipes and knives. One of the mob leaders declared, "You
won't stop us today."
Also at Uitenhage, about 500 stone-throwing rioters burned down buildings
and vehicles belonging to appointed black town council officials and black
policemen, who are increasingly attacked for being "stooges" of the
government. This is a strategy of intimidation that radical leaders are
employing with increased effectiveness. Then they demand that the white
government negotiate with the so-called "authentic leaders" of the peopla-
a tactic as old as that employed by Korab, who professed to speak "for the
people" of Israel.
The timing of the riot leaders was perfect: 25th anniversary of Sharpe
ville, plus a direct TV pipeline back to the U.S. The ABC crews, predicta
bly, fell for it hook, line and sinker. "Police violence," "oppression by
the white-minority government," "nothing in South Africa has changed since
Sharpeville"--the cliches came rolling out, one after another.
The last night, as mentioned earlier, State President Botha expressed his
displeasure at the tone of the ABC programming, specifically challenging
some skewed statistics as well as long-held misperceptions. "It is totally
wrong to create the impression in the United States that we are.a bad lot of
Nazis denying people their rights," he said, rather indignantly. "No white
minority anywhere in the world has done more to raise the standard of living
of black communities as we did over the years."
In reply to an assertion by Koppel that the government was "paternalistic"
to blacks and pursued an allegedly outdated policy of "white man's burden,"
Mr. Botha said he viewed it not as a burden but as a challenge. "I don't
believe you must leave your fellow beings living in squalor like Harlem and
some big cities of the United States" he said. With regard to South Af
rica's blacks, he continued, "They can't raise themselves up without our
help. The proof of that is the rest of Africa." Later on he asserted that
his nation wjs "the hope of the subcontinent."
As to the nature of recent violence in his troubled country, President
Botha said that black dissident groups, such as the outlawed African Na
tional Congress and the recently formed United Democratic Front, were un
witting pawns of Soviet-backed communists. "The ANC get their instruction
from the communist party•••under the leadership of Soviet Russia. We've
put the ANC so far in its place•••• Now they've started infiltrating•••the
UDF. Many of the actions of the UDF are communist-inspired, to overthrow
the state•••to make this country ungovernable."
Four days later, President Botha made a televised appeal to Parliament and
the entire nation for all South Africans to work together for peace and to
isolate those who, he said, "want to see the country go up in flames." He
ordered tough measures to "restore and maintain law and order." Mr. Botha