Lesotho opposes Bantustans

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33962, 1 October 1975, Page 17

Lesotho opposes Bantustans

(N.Z. P. A.-Reuter— Copyright) NEW YORK, September 29. The Foreign Minister of Lesotho (Mr Joseph Katsokoame) warned South Africa today that its creation of Bantustans around his landlocked country could exacerbate relations between the two nations and lead to “imminent confrontation.”

His critical remarks about discriminatory policies in South Africa were echoed in the speeches of three other

African Government leaders who also addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Monday afternoon. One of those leaders, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Mauritius (Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam) also took the opportunity to call on all maritime users of the Indian Ocean to refrain from any further escalation of their military presence in that area. Sir Seewoosagur’s affirmation of the concept of the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace — one of the items on the agenda of the General Assembly this year — seemed to be endorsed in more vocal, but less direct terms, by another island nation in the Indian Ocean.

The Foreign Minister of Madagascar (Mr Remi Tiandraza) accused the Great Powers of fomenting conflicts throughout the world through their continuing rivalries and their “obsessive defence of their own interests.”

Mr Katsokame, of Lesotho, told the Assembly that his Government would not accept any dealings with neighbouring “Bantustans” — or black-ruled units of limited self-government — because such moves would imply Lesotho’s acceptance of what he called the “grand designs” of the South African Prime Minister (Mr John Vorster) to perpetuate the practice of apartheid. He also called on the people of Namibia, or SouthWest Africa, to avoid being swayed by what he termed: “bogus constitutional talks proposed by the Vorster regime, and urged Rhodesian blacks to close their ranks against minority-rule in their country to avoid a repetition of the civil war in Angola.”