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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 2, 1985
PAGE 9
In fact, it is probably due to the conservative Reagan administration and
Thatcher government that the U.N. has not been able to go further. That
will change if and when the Democrats and the Labour Party come into power.)
State President Botha reacted sharply to the world community's call for
sanctions. In a speech delivered at the university town of Potchefstroom,
Botha said South Africa would not hesitate to repatriate hundreds of thou
sands of the 1.5 m
.
illion workers, a third of them gold and coal miners, from
neighboring countries should the U.N. Security Council ever adopt mandatory
economic sanctions against South Africa.
The sudden return of these
workers would cripple the economies of such countries as Botswana, Lesotho,
Mozambique and Zimbabwe and throw them into social and political turmoil.
Mr. Botha said South Africa would also end its economic and technical coop
eration with neighboring countries and refuse to allow them to use its
ports and rail lines for shipment of their imports and exports. Such moves
would badly hurt three or four more black-ruled African countries,
including Zambia and Zaire.
Most people in the West have little comprehension of the complex economic
interdependency of all the countries of southern Africa. Nearly all of
them may be compared to spokes of a wheel--with South Africa a giant hub.
Sanctions would hurt everyone in this African-style common market. Mr.
Botha replied to the hypocritical U.N. call in a most caustic manner:
Those countries that are attempting to institute punitive meas
ures against South Africa will probably, in.accordance with their
expressed concern about the welfare of the blacks, soon make
funds available to create employment opportunities for the
hundreds of thousands of workers who will have to return to their
countries should the S�curity Council·continue its present ille
gal action against.South Africa.
The Kremlin and Western Liberals--How Their Interests Coincide
There are two principal foes arrayed against South Africa: the Soviet bloc
and the Western world's liberal politicians. On this issue (and others,
such as the emerging crisis in the Philippines) liberal activists have
become, wittingly or unwittingly, allies of the Kremlin.
The aim of the Soviets in the region of southern Africa is well known; that
of the Western liberals is not as well understood. A few years ago, the
late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev boasted that the key to Soviet world
domination is the isolation of the mineral resources of the Middle East and
southern Africa from the West. Confirming this in his book, THE REAL WAR,
former President Richard M. Nixon explains:
The Soviet leaders have their eyes on the economic underpinnings
of modern society. Their aim is to pull the� on the Western
industrial machine. The Western industrial nations' dependence
on foreign sources of vital raw materials is one of our chief
vulnerabilities••••
The Soviets have not made the naive mistake of assuming that
African leaders automatically care most about economic develop
ment for their people. From their own experience the Soviets