A.N.C. calls for uprising

Press, 29 June 1985, Page 11

A.N.C. calls for uprising

NZPA-AP Johannesburg The African National Congress issued yesterday its strongest call so far for a full-scale uprising against white-minority rule, urging black police and soldiers “to turn your guns against your masters.” “The end of apartheid is near,” the A.N.C. said. In a “call to the people” sent by telex from its office in Lusaka, Zambia, the A.N.C. urged blacks in the Army and police to “earn

your place in the free South Africa that is coming by organising to turn your guns against your masters.” The statement was issued on behalf of 250 delegates who attended last week the organisation’s first members’ conference since 1969. The document, more forceful than previous A.N.C. declarations, was issued after a sharp rise in rioting and bombings. “The black giant is rising to his feet, tall and strong,” the A.N.C. said. “He is breaking the chains that

have bound him for centuries. “Let there be no place where the enemy can rest.” On Tuesday the A.N.C.’s president, Oliver Tambo, said in Lusaka the conference had vowed to intensify guerrilla war. Mr Tambo said it would become increasingly difficult to distinguish between “hard and soft targets,” and that more civilians were likely to die. The A.N.C. formed in 1912, was banned in 1960

and abandoned its policy of non-violent resistance in 1961. In September anti-apart-heid rioting spread in black townships across the country. Although white areas have been largely unscathed, more than 400 blacks have died in the violence. The A.N.C. has said blacks are making large parts of the country “ungovernable” and, for the first time, the Army has joined police in township riot duty.