Message for South Africa

The meeting between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Oliver Tambo, head of the African National Congress, marks an important if belated move by the United States to support the kind of solution that makes sense for South Africa.

The ANC without question is the single most influential political force among the black majority of South Africa, and the efforts of the government of South Africa to outlaw and isolate it have only made it more important. Every significant element of the black community, conservative and liberal alike, has insisted that negotiations must include Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned ANC leader.

Shultz and Tambo agreed on the goal of a multi-racial South Africa with guaranteed individual rights. But Shultz made clear that he will resist Tambo’s plea for additional sanctions.

Shultz appeared preoccupied by allegations of Soviet influence in the ANC and the penetration of the ANC by the Communist Party of South Africa. There are Communists among the leaders of the ANC. Sympathy for the Soviet Union has risen as Moscow has supported the black majority and Western capitals have dithered. The isolation of the ANC by the largest Western democracies has given rise in the ANC to an increased interest in socialism and an increased skepticism about capitalism. But there is no indication that the nationalist movement is manipulated by or servant to the Soviet Union. The fundamental issue, as pointed out in the current Foreign Affairs by Prof. Thomas G. Karis, is not ideology but whether the United States is ready to trust the black majority in a truly democratic process.

Shultz, horrified with the rest of the world at the sight of the escalating killing in South Africa, appealed to Tambo to abandon violence. Tambo rejected the appeal, arguing that the ANC turned to violence only when denied peaceful alternatives by the government of South Africa. The first violence that must go is apartheid itself, the ANC leader said. Fair enough. But that is not an adequate response to the chilling impression he has left that innocent civilians are targets in the spreading warfare.

The legitimacy of the ANC claim to a place in negotiations has been upheld by the Shultz meeting. Tambo must understand that he can, through his words and ANC deeds, reduce the resistance of South Africa to that inevitable process.