S.A. blood-bath 'expected*

Press, 10 September 1985, Page 6

S.A. blood-bath 'expected*

NZPA-Reuter New York The African National Congress, fighting to overthrow the white-minority South African Government, would no longer try to prevent death or injury to white civilians in South Africa and expected a blood-bath in the country, said its president, Oliver Tambo, yesterday. Interviewed by “Newsweek” magazine in Lusaka, Zambia, where he is now based, he said: “In the past, when planning attacks on police and military installations, we have taken into consideration whether civilians would die. From now on, whether civilians are likely to die will not be a consideration. “We have held off in the past, but it has done nothing to save our people’s lives.” Asked if he felt the Government of President Pieter Botha would surrender to economic and social pres-

sure, Mr Tambo said: “I have never thought a blood-bath was not inevitable. I fear that it is not only coming but already here. We will fight, and we will expect a blood-bath.” Majority black rule in South Africa could be less than 10 years away, Mr Tambo told “Newsweek.” He said that while the A.N.C. could not control unrest from Zambia, “we have called on the people in general to make the country ungovernable and apartheid unworkable.” Young children taking part in the violence were “sustained by a hatred of the system.”

Mr Botha said it would be disloyal for a group of South Africa’s leading business executives to meet the African National Congress. He flatly rejected talks with the outlawed black guerrilla movement.

“Rapport,” an Afrikaans Sunday newspaper which

supports the Government, reported that top South African business people would go to Lusaka, for talks with A.N.C. leaders. President Kenneth Kaunda had helped organise the talks, which would be led by Gavin Relly, head of Anglo American, South Africa’s largest mining corporation, it said. Mr Relly’s office has refused comment on the report. Mr Botha acknowledged that a leading South African had suggested the talks to him a few weeks ago and he had strongly advised against it.

“As long as the A.N.C. is under Communist leadership and supports violence in South Africa, there can be no question of me approving discussions with them,” Mr Botha said. “I regard such attempts as unwise and even disloyal to the young men who are

sacrificing their lives in defending South Africa’s safety.”

A black Sunday newspaper, “City Press,” reported that Mr Botha was debating a plan to put half the country under black, or partial black rule, in an attempt to find a political solution to anti-apartheid violence and growing international ostracism.

“City Press” said that the plan called for the division of South Africa into four areas, three controlled, or Cartly controlled, by the lack majority, and one by the white, Indian and Coloured minorities.

Under the plan, whites would retain a 50 per cent swathe of South Africa, including the mineral-rich Orange Free State, the goldmining area around Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. No official comment was made on the report.