Apartheid's Long Slow Death - Part 4

Violence and vacillation

In our last instalment, we saw that the South African government had made a tentative beginning at reconciliation with their black population, but by this time, Apartheid had been in place, both officially and unofficially, for centuries, and Mandela himself had been imprisoned for decades. Much has been written of the moral injury sustained both by the oppressed and oppressors, and the regime in South Africa was no exception.

Winnie Mandela serves as an excellent example of this. Her exile ended, Winnie was allowed to move back to Soweto, where she promptly gathered protection in the guise of a group of paramilitaries posing as a football club. While many may argue that such a measure is necessary when living in a country still very much occupied by a racist and violent government, the fact is that her toughs committed a great many crimes, the most famous of which was the murder of 14 year old Stompie Moeketsi. One of a group of teenagers kidnapped on suspicion of being police informers, Stompie was beaten and stabbed to death, a murder which caused disgust and outrage around the world. It was incidents like this that would eventually lead to the rift between Nelson and Winnie.

In the meantime, Coetsee continued to meet with Mandela, often at night, sometimes at his official residence, Savernake, a few miles away from the prison and sometimes at a guest house within the large grounds of Pollsmoor, among other places. These talks, however, were going nowhere fast. One of the issues was, of course, the long and shared history of violence between the bitterly divided population and government. The apartheid state was by its very nature violent and repressive and had proscribed almost all black organisations, a state of affairs that essentially amounted to a slow burning war between the government and its largest population group. International disgust at the excesses of apartheid was also growing, and South Africa had economic stagnation added to its growing list of woes - a condition that affected everyone - owing to the large number of countries who refused to trade with the regime.

Against this backdrop, the Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) sought to pressure the UK - South Africa’s virtual economic prop - to join the boycott. The then British PM, Margaret Thatcher, would hear none of this, but also recognised that change was urgently needed. So instead of boycotts, Commonwealth put together a group of seven called the Eminent Person’s Group (EPG), let by none other than former Australian PM Malcolm Fraser. The EPG was tasked with assessing South Africa’s prospects for change.

Naturally, this group was viewed with suspicion by hardline factions of the South African government, and it was some time before President Botha was able to broker a meeting between Mandela and the EPG, a process helped in no small way by EPG member General Obasanjo, a former military ruler of Nigeria. Eventually, a meeting was set at Pollsmoor house between Mandela and the whole group.

This meeting went extremely well. On the government’s side, they made sure Mandela was properly dressed and Coetsee, though invited to attend, declined in order to ensure Mandela’s status as the host of these dignitaries. The EPG, for their part, got along well with Mandela, describing him as ‘reasonable and conciliatory’. They proposed a possible negotiating concept for the release of political prisoners, the lifting of the ban on the ANC and other black organisations, the suspension of the ANC’s armed struggle and of Government violence against blacks and, most importantly, the start of all-party negotiations.

This was too much for some of the hard line members of the South African Government and on the day that the EPG was due to meet with a special cabinet constitutional committee, Malan the defence minister ordered a series of pre-dawn commando and air raids on supposed ANC bases in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. A state of emergency was declared and some of the security restrictions that had been eased were reinstated. These violent actions infuriated the EPG, who suspended their mission and called on the  Commonwealth to impose comprehensive and mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa.

Despite this setback, a still optimistic Mandela took the initiative and asked for a meeting with President PW Botha. Although he did not respond directly, the president told Coetsee to continue the discussions with Mandela, thus keeping the door open . The meetings continued in several different locations and were broadened to include Niel Barnard, the head of National Intelligence and others. In all forty seven meetings were held, all of  which dealt directly with the future of South Africa.

While these meetings were taking place, it suddenly occurred to someone in government that Mandela’s twenty odd years of imprisonment had completely cut him off from his own country. If he was to lead South Africa, he obviously couldn’t do so with no real idea of how the country functioned, or of the social and technological changes that had occurred during his incarceration. As a result, various officials began a process of re-integration, taking Mandela on drives around the countryside so he could see the changes and talk to the people. So cut off had he been that nobody recognised him, as nobody had seen his face for two decades.

Mandela suffered a bout of tuberculosis in 1988, but he had become resilient over many years of imprisonment and recovered quickly. After his treatment was over, he was moved to the Victor Verster prison near Paarl, and housed in the Deputy Warden’s own house. From this base, in the heart of the Cape winelands, he was able to range further abroad in his excursions, as well as turning his residence into a sort of de facto government in exile.

Despite these increased freedoms, Mandela was still not a free man, a fact which hampered efforts to reach a settlement. In his own way, Botha was also trapped between two political blocs - the moderates, who wanted change, and the hardliners, who were violently opposed to black emancipation, and were backed by parts of the government, as well as secret societies and paramilitaries. It was for this and other reasons that Mandela’s repeated requests for a meeting with President Botha could not be fulfilled. And in the meantime, with the feeling in the air that a settlement might be reached, white supremacist militias and elements of the government alike launched wave after wave of violence against the black population.

From Botha’s point of view, he was happy to release Mandela if he would undertake to eschew violence - a provision that seemed superficially reasonable, but which Coetsee knew was entirely unacceptable. The situation in South Africa was such that any black group, and especially the ANC, wouldn’t be able to function or even survive without arms and force as an option, viz Winnie and her secret militia. So when Botha made this offer publicly, despite Coetsee’s pleas for him to desist, Mandela’s daughter Zinzi addressed a huge rally in Soweto, where she dread out her father’s total rejection of the proposed deal.

Botha wasn’t the only one facing internal disquiet. As word of Mandela’s meetings began to circulate, various anti-apartheid groups and elements of the ANC itself began to suspect that Mandela was brokering a private deal with the government. This was potentially disastrous - if both sides fractured, then there would be no way of avoiding an appallingly bloody and protracted civil war. Fortunately, a former prisoner in exile, Mac Mahararaj, was snuck back into the country in disguise to investigate these rumours, and gave the negotiations and Mandela himself a clean bill of political health.

Finally, Mandela was able to have his meeting with the president. He was provided with new clothes, including some smart dress shoes. Having been shuffling around in prison slip-ons for years, Mandela had quite forgotten how to tie his laces, and it was the Director of National Intelligence, Niel Barnard, who tied the for him. They met in the president’s office, in the lodge adjacent to parliament, and odd as it sounds, the two men warmed to each other immediately. Although nothing of substance was discussed, and Mandela was returned to prison, both men knew the symbolic meaning of this encounter - the die was cast, and change would surely come.