Walvis Bay ours, says S. Africa

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 6

Walvis Bay ours, says S. Africa

<ZPA-Reuter Pretoria The South African Government announced yesterday that the Atlantic port of Walvis Bay would cease to be part of Namibia (SouthWest Africa) and would belong to South Africa from yesterday. A proclamation said it was expedient and desirable that Walvis Bay, the only deep-water harbour on the barren and dangerous Namibian coast, be administered as part of Cape Province, of South Africa. The Cape Province border is 640 km (400 miles) from the port.

The change of status for! Walvis Bay is linked to! plans to give independence to the disputed territory of; Namibia, administered by 1 South Africa in defiance of! the United Nations which' says its rule is illegal. i Walvis Bay was annexed I to the British Cape Colony, in 1884 and became part off the Union of South Africa in 1910. When South Africa took; over South-West Africa from ' Germany under a League of; Nations mandate it handed; over Walvis Bay to the territory’s administration in' Windhoek, the capital, in 1922.

, The South African Prime I Minister (Mr John Vorster) [told Parliament, after talks ; with Western representatives in June on Namibia’s ! future, that Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands would inot form part of the new I territory after independence, (planned for 1979. The United Nations-backed [South-West African People’s [Organisation, which is fightiing a limited bush war [against South African rule, [has demanded that Walvis Bay remain part of the ter- | ritory.