Blacks tell S.A.: reform or face uprising within decade

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8

Blacks tell S.A.: reform or face uprising within decade

NZPA Johannesburg Warning that growing black anger could lead to bloody rebellion, a multiracial commission yesterday proposed a new government elected by all races to replace the white government in one of South Africa’s four provinces. The commission, formed by Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, the Zulu leader, says 99 per cent of blacks surveyed predicted bloodshed and revolution within 10 years if race reform was not accomplished. . “While a revolutionary situation has not yet emerged in general terms, developments appear to: point in that direction,” the sevenvolume 1146-page report said.

Declaring 'the need for change urgent, it added, “revolution is certainly no longer the topic only of frustrated intellectuals and armchair - radicals.”

Chief Buthelezi set up the commission in August, 1980, to find alternatives to the South African Government’s plan to grant limited independence to Kwazulu, traditional homeland of the 5.5 million Zulus, the largest black ethnic group in South Africa. . ,

Chief Buthelezi has rejected the. policy of ; declaring quasi-

independence for South Africa’s 10 main tribal groups and refusing them citizenship rights for white areas. - ' Chief Buthelezi, Chief Minister of the Kwazulu Legislative Assembly, has been a constant critic of the apartheid system, but has been attacked by radical blacks for working within the system at all. The 47 scholars, business and labour leaders, and prominent blacks on the panel ordered two independent surveys in the coastal province of Natal, where Kwazulu is located. From those surveys the commission decided that the homeland policy should be abandoned and a new, multiracial provincial government formed. It would have an executive body with equal numbers of whites and blacks, elected separately, and include Coloured (mixed-race) and Indian representatives. Each minority would have veto rights. There would also be a legislative assembly elected by universal suffrage within each racial group. Only whites now have the right to vote for the provincial government. The Kwazulu Legislative Assembly!: elected by blacks, is nearly, powerless. The 557,000 whites in Na-

tal, on the Indian Ocean coast, are considered generally more liberal than whites in other provinces. Natal is also home for 647,000 of the 800,000 Asians of South Africa, most of whom are Indians. The white-minority South African Government was considered certain to reject the plan because it would mean scrapping the homelands policy — cornerstone of the apartheid system built up since 1948. The ruling National Party already , is facing a rebellion by ultra-conservatives for endorsing the concept of limited power-sharing with Coloureds and Asians, but not blacks. Nine of the 10 whites surveyed flatly rejected oneman, one-vote, - along with more than six out of 10 Indians. However, a near majority of whites and clear majorities of Coloureds and Asians accepted gradual extension of political rights to blacks. The commission itself rejected black majority /ule as “not realistic.” The proposed “consociational" government, with protection for . minority groups, was the best alternative, but still fell short of black aspirations, it said. < The commission said 78-79 per cent of-the 2600 blacks surveyed * “unhappy,

angry and impatient," while only 8 per cent were “very happy” or “just happy” — a sharp increase in dissatisfaction since 1977.

Asked what they thought would happen if there were no change in the next 10 years, more than half chose mass strikes, demonstrations, and boycotts from a list of possibilities provided. But a startling 99 per cent spontaneously added bloodshed, war, or internal revolution — not mentioned on the list — as likely developments. Nearly half believe that most black South Africans support or are willing to help guerrillas of the outlawed African National Congress, which is dedicated to the violent overthrow of the white Government. Up to four of 10 blacks, and in some areas 75 per cent of those under 30, favour militancy and confrontation. The panel also noted that the achievement of blackmajority rule in neighbouring Zimbabwe, after a sevenyear civil war, suggests to some that rebellion could work in South Africa as well. More than 60 per cent of the blacks surveyed thought neither the stronger military power of the South African Goverment nor the larger percentage of whites in South Africa could stop a similar black insurgency.