NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5437

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Subject: NEWS: ANC exposes de Klerck's murderous plots/WW
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Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

              ANC exposes de Klerk's murderous plots

                       By Monica Moorehead

The African National Congress has uncovered an integral,
diabolical plot by the de Klerk regime to thwart any plans for a
peaceful transition from apartheid to a non-racial, democratic
South Africa.

The ANC monthly publication Mayibuye plans to release in its July
issue an expos of government plots called Operation Thunderstorm
and Operation Springbok. Each operation is part of a two-pronged
strategy to prevent the ANC from heading any South African
government. The apartheid state plans sheer terror and bloodshed
to carry out this goal.

What is Operation Springbok?

Ever since the ANC and its allies like the South African
Communist Party and others were unbanned in February 1990, the
ruling National Party under the leadership of President F. W. de
Klerk has been secretly figuring out a way to make the
negotiating process favor the racist ruling class.

Until recently, de Klerk had hoped to trick everybody into
thinking that he wholeheartedly backed Black majority rule, which
would transfer real power from a tiny elite of the most wealthy
and privileged to the masses of the disenfranchised and
oppressed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Ever since the
negotiations began last December, de Klerk and the National Party
have taken every opportunity to sabotage the talks, claiming that
the interests of the "minority" must not be threatened. By
minority, he means the owners of the gold and diamond mines and
the rest of the means of production who have profited handsomely
off the blood, sweat and labor of millions of Black workers.

White people make up 13 percent of the population and control 87
percent of the most arable lands. De Klerk has stated on more
than one occasion that the private property of this minority must
be preserved at all costs.

One way de Klerk wants to preserve this "right" is to establish a
30 percent white veto over any new South African constitution
written by a constituent assembly elected by one person, one
vote. The veto is aimed at insuring that the National Party
maintains a considerable amount of control and power in the
post-apartheid period and prevents the ANC from forming a
majority government.

In fact, to any clear-thinking person, the NP is an alien,
illegitimate organization that formally legalized apartheid back
in 1948. It therefore should be dismantled altogether.

Enter Operation Thunderstorm

The success of Operation Springbok rests in the hands of
Operation Thunderstorm. OT is a plan to create an atmosphere of
chaos and havoc to force the ANC to succumb to Operation
Springbok.

A senior ANC Intelligence Department official commented: "Every
plan and action, particularly on the question of violence, is
aimed at weakening the ANC so that it is eventually forced into a
constitutional coalition. At the heart of the plan is the NP goal
to be the main partner in a future government, controlling all
levers of power, particularly the army, police and intelligence."

The NP is hoping that the victims of the violence will be more
than happy to agree to such an "alliance" between the ANC and NP
just to see the violence come to an end.

Behind Operation Thunderstorm

The report states that OT is being carried out by the Department
of Military Intelligence, which overlaps with other arms of the
repressive apartheid state apparatus such as the National
Intelligence Service, the police and the South African Defense
Forces.

To cover its own sordid role, the NIS, a body responsible for
both foreign and domestic intelligence, has not issued one public
finding on the violent situation inside the country. Many
sources, including the ANC leadership, agree that OT could not
have been carried out without the involvement or least the
knowledge of de Klerk himself.

One important objective of Operation Thunderstorm is to interject
the idea of "Black-on-Black violence" into the consciousness of
people throughout the world. Since de Klerk took office three
years ago, over 8,000 people have lost their lives mostly in the
Black townships. The police were quick to attribute the loss of
these many lives to "random violence" based on "ethnic
differences."  The truth is that the structures used in OT were
guilty.

These structures include the Inkatha Freedom Party and
pro-apartheid mercenaries from Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and
the former Rhodesia.

The report explains how worker hostels are used as operating
posts and training centers for these terrorists. These hostels
were originally established for Black male workers forced to live
for months at a time while working in the mines and in the fields
for slave wages. Now they also serve as retreat sanctuaries for
these anti-social elements in the aftermath of their acts of
murder and mayhem.

In almost every instance, eyewitnesses report the South African
police transported these armed mercenaries from the hostels to
the unsuspecting townships targeted for massacres, such as the
one that took place in Boipatong June 17.

The Department of Military Intelligence not only infiltrates ANC
structures but oversees the day-to-day operations of their own
extreme right wing goons, whom the DMI considers unreliable and
out of control in many instances.

Another aspect of OT is to promote anti-ANC propaganda while
simultaneously unleashing the violence of the DMI and the South
African police. This propaganda includes attempted character
defamation of ANC leaders as well as blaming the ANC and Umkhonto
we Sizwe for the violence.

Other tactics include attempts to foment divisions between the
ANC and its allies, especially the South African Communist Party,
the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the ANC Youth
League. This tactic has had no major impact at all as relations
between organizations remain as strong as ever. Other repressive
measures envisioned by OT are selective arrests of ANC leaders
and possible restriction of newspapers strongly critical of the
government.

The NP has just recently passed legislation authorizing
wiretapping ANC cadres' phones and other violations of privacy.

Operation Springbok and Operation Thunderstorm are actions of a
regime in political crisis and turmoil. Despite all the forms of
intimidation and repression at their disposal, the regime has
been unable to stop the mass-action campaigns led by the ANC and
its allies. The latest call by COSATU for a general strike next
month made this clear.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@cdp!igc.org".)

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