Struggle for S.A. ‘already on’

Press, 9 May 1981, Page 1

Struggle for S.A. ‘already on’

The armed struggle to overthrow the white Government of South Africa had already begun, said an exiled black trade-unionist, Mr Andrew Molotsane, in Christchurch yeste.-ay. On the day that he had left South Africa members of :the para-military wing of the African National Congress had attacked and blown up a transformer installation outside Durban, depriving the city of power for a day.. . Mr Molotsane said “People outside South Africa don’t know that the struggle has begun. But it has and it will go on until the racist regime there is overthrown.” Mr Molotsane said that all th .t the black, of South Africa wanted in the way of outside help was weapons and materials.

He is a quiet, slightly

built, articulate . lan who has a passionate commitment to his cause, which he said was the “liberation" of South Africa at any cost.

He was prepared to return to South Africa “with thousands of others like me” to help with the “liberation.” In the meantime fear of further imprisonment has driven him 0.. t of the country to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, where he lives v;”’i several other exiles and where he works as a field officer for the South African Congress of Trade Unions. : •/

Mr Molotsane, aged 28, was born and educated in South Africa. By. the age of 23 his involvement in black youth movements and political groups had brought him to the atteniton of the security . olice.

He said that he had been . held incommunicado for three months without a trial and in solitary confinement in a Johannesburg prison. He had been interrogated daily and had frequently been beaten up.

He said that he and five other black prisoners had then faced several charges of alleged offences against the Government in a trial which had lasted eight months. He had been found not guilty. Most black organisations were committed to peace and had hoped to oust the present Government and destroy the apartheid system through the ballot box and majority rule. But the activities of the Government had exhausted the peaceful options. The only option left was armed struggle. To page 6.