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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 26, 1985
the blame on others, especially those who have accomplished much by compar
ison.
Assemblyman Uys, referred to earlier, comes from an area near the Swaziland
and Mozambique borders. He shook his head at the utter shambles Mozambique
is in today. Independence and continual warfare have brought nothing but
economic deprivation. South Africa has to run Mozambique's railroads and
harbor--in its own interest, of course.
But even before independence,
Mozambique was nothing to write home about. The Portuguese had run the
country for about 400 years, with relatively little development. Yet, said
Mr. Uys, forelornly, "Mozambique has tremendous potential," especially in
agriculture. Swaziland, too.
In contrast, look at South Africa's Indian community, centered primarily in
the state of Natal. Mr. Derrick Watterson, New Republic Party assemblyman
from Durban-Umbilo, recounted the early trials--and current successes--of
the Indians. Their forebears were brought to Natal to work the sugar plan
tations that the British had established.
(The local people, the Zulus,
refused to work the fields. A proud warrior race, the Zulus considered such
work demeaning.)
Eventually the Indians' womenfolk were brought over and a community was
begun. But it was not until 1961--only 24 years ago--that the Indians were
officially recognized as being South African citizens. And only this past
year did they get their own representation at the national level (they had
run their own local affairs long before).
But all along, the Indians had worked hard. So much so, said Mr. Watterson,
that there are probably now more Indian millionaires in Natal than white
millionaires.
Hard work--rather than depending upon the government to
redistribute someone else's wealth to you--is also producing millionaires
among Asian immigrants in the United States. Already, the average family
income of Asian-Americans exceeds that of white Americans by a considerable
margin.
In South Africa, even with past restrictions, the Indians have fared well.
They and their possessions have been protected by the state--in contrast to
periodic sufferings elsewhere in Africa where Indian tradesmen had settled.
How soon people forget that Uganda's Idi Amin abruptly ordered all Indians
out of his country in 1972. Uganda's economy has never recovered from this
brutal expulsion.
I was also introduced to another very fine Indian delegate, Mr. J.N. Reddy,
formerly the president of a bank in the Durban area. Mr. Reddy stressed the
importance of the new parliamentary set-up and the tremendous opportunity
it gave additional numbers of South Africans to solve their problems
together. Assemblyman L. Wessels, an Afrikaner from Krugersdorp, added
that, for the first time, whites, Coloureds and Indians were working more
or less equally and that it was a good experience. The biggest challenge
now is how to help the black African communities, to bring them into the
process through, as he hoped, "peaceful evolutionary change."
This is made all the more difficult by the image the country has in the eyes
of the world--and the news media. Mr. Wessels recounted that 47 of the 51
nations in black Africa are ruled either by dictatorship or minorities. No
one pays much attention to minority rule (black over black) elsewhere in
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