Consul defends S.A.

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 16

Consul defends S.A.

The recent history of African States suggests that if the goal of majority rule is achieved in South Africa the country will be virtually unique in the continent, says the South African Consul

General in Wellington (Mr P. R. Lindhorst) in a statement to “The Press.”

Mr Lindhorst was replying to an editorial which suggested that the United States was insisting that South Africa’s internal policies must move in the direction of majority rule. In his reply Mr Lindhorst said:

“Your editorial, ‘U.S. Pressure on South Africa’ (May 17), focuses attention, inter alia, on the principle of majority rule, which one may define as participation by all adult members of the population in the central political process. “The recent history of African States suggests that the achievement of this goal would make South Africa

virtually unique m the continent, where for the most part participation by the vast majority in the political and elective processes is either irrelevant or meaningless, as in elections in one-party States. “It follows that the objective of self-determination for all the nations of South Africa could best be served by the recognition, by others too, of the existing political, geopgraphic and cultural divisions of South Africa rather than by attempting to force all the various societies into one artificial unity. The tragic experiences of

other parts of the world in attempting to enforce the unity of diversities encourages little optimism in South Africa that the attempt would have any greater chances of success there and should, I would suggest, not go unnoticed by others as well. “The second half of the twentieth century has demonstrated that the major fact in contemporary Africa is the

emergence of a deeply-felt African nationalism of which any solution in South Africa must take account or accommodate. The mere fact that white South Africa is aware of this phenomenon and is reacting to it positively and is indicative of the fundmental change in recent years.

“We believe that a just political dispensation can be achieved in South Africa by a division of political power, which can accommodate black and white nationalisms while at the same time introducing far-reaching changes in discriminatory measures based on colour.

“The West must prove that communist support for the liberation movements is designed first and foremost to establish a communist hegemony in Africa and must show that Western efforts to help bring about changes in Southern Africa by peaceful means can succeed — if Africa and the West itself are to survive; and this need not necessarily mean the imposition of pleasant-sounding formulae which have no practical meaning in terms of African realities. “White South Africans are an African nation which insists on the right to exist and govern itself. The whites do not consider themselves better than others. However, what is apparentlj’ demanded from them is that, on account of alleged inequalities, they should willingly accept their own demise, in their own country, on the altar of the demands on the overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world who know no freedom, no security of person and never particinate in any process to elect their governments. Where is the morality in this type of demand?”