Communists in S. Africa End Outlaw Years

With the red flag beating a retreat worldwide, the South African Communist Party was relaunched at a thunderous mass rally here Sunday, ending 40 years as an outlaw and unmasking a leadership corps that includes influential figures in the African National Congress.

“The South African Communist Party is reborn. We live, once again, in the sun,” declared General Secretary Joe Slovo. “If ever they (the government) make it a crime again to be a Communist, let me warn them: They will have to deal with millions of criminals.”

A mostly black crowd of more than 35,000, waving the party’s hammer-and-sickle flag and carrying banners reading “Forward to Socialism,” rocked a Soweto soccer stadium with cheers when four police cars escorted automobiles carrying Slovo and guest speaker Nelson Mandela, the ANC’s deputy president, onto the field.

The Communist Party’s public re-emergence, on its 69th birthday, came amid government allegations that party leaders have been using their positions in the ANC to secretly advance plans to overthrow the government if peace negotiations break down. About 40 activists, many members of both the ANC and the Communist Party, have been detained in recent weeks in connection with the alleged plot.

Both Slovo and Mandela denied any such plot, claiming that the accusations were an attempt to break up the 30-year-old alliance between the Communist Party and the ANC.

“We . . . believe a negotiated solution is, in the end, in the interests of all South Africans, black and white,” said Slovo, a white lawyer, who was part of the ANC delegation that agreed in talks with the government in May to pursue peaceful solutions to the country’s problems. “We as a party are committed both to the letter and the spirit of the process that has begun.”

President Frederik W. de Klerk has asked that Slovo be dropped from the five-man ANC delegation scheduled to meet the government for a second round of talks next Monday.

But Mandela expressed confidence in the Communist leader, saying “comrade Joe Slovo is an old friend, and there’s an old, established friendship between his family and mine. We share the same views about the vital importance and the urgency of arriving at a political settlement through negotiation for peace.”

The upcoming talks are expected to resolve remaining obstacles to an ANC cease-fire and formal constitutional negotiations. The obstacles include the ANC’s insistence that political prisoners be freed, exiles be allowed to return and repressive legislation be abolished.

When those conditions are met, Mandela said, “we are ready to discuss the suspension of our armed action to ensure peace in our country.”

The rally marked an important parting for the two movements, though. Despite dwindling support for communism in the rest of the world, the Communist Party in South Africa appears to have strong support among blacks and lesser numbers of whites, due in large measure to its anti-apartheid stance.

“The Communist Party is the reason for the success of the ANC,” Wim Booyse, a Pretoria-based political consultant, said in a recent interview. “It’s been the intellectual basis of the ANC. And it’s stronger than the ANC at grass-roots level, especially in the trade unions.”

Mandela called the Communist Party “a dependable friend” and wished it success. But he stressed that the ANC is the leader in the ANC-Communist alliance. The party “has fought side by side with the ANC for the common objective of liberation of our people without seeking to impose its views on our movement,” Mandela added.

In a speech that seemed designed to put the party at arm’s length, Mandela also pointed out that the ANC “has no mandate to espouse a Communist ideology. But the ANC will defend the right of any South African to adhere to the Marxist ideology, if that is their wish.”

Political analysts say that Communists make up one-half to two-thirds of the ANC’s 37-member national executive committee. Among the 21 Communist Party leaders introduced to the rally Sunday, seven are members of the ANC’s executive and four have been key leaders in the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

Party officials said they are withholding identities of some leaders as a “reserve force,” in case the government again drives the party underground.

Those introduced Sunday as Communist leaders included ANC military chief of staff Chris Hani, former ANC military intelligence chief Ronnie Kasrils, ANC auditor-general Dan Tloome and ANC national executive members Reg September, Sizakele Sigxashe and Mac Maharaj, who is currently in detention. Among others identified were trade unionists Chris Dhlamini, Moses Mayekiso and Sidney Mafumadi.

The Communist Party has been widely feared by many white South Africans throughout its history. About 100 of its members were executed by the South African government, assassinated or killed in battle during the ANC’s 30-year guerrilla war, Slovo says. Until recently, Slovo, who spent three decades in exile, was the ANC’s military chief of staff.

In appearances across the country recently, Slovo has been questioned repeatedly about the party’s ideology and its penchant for secrecy, which it maintained during 40 years underground.

Slovo, 63, says the party has learned from the failures of socialist systems in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and Africa.

“We know there are no fairy-tale models of socialism to follow,” he said Sunday. But he insisted that socialism will work in South Africa, where a new government will be forced to take more control of the economy to redistribute wealth to the black majority.

“If a tool is used badly, it is the fault of the workman and not the tool,” Slovo has said. The party supports a multi-party political system, and Slovo says he envisions an economy in which “there will be a place for private domestic and foreign capital.”

“What has failed in this country is capitalism, as far as the people are concerned,” Slovo has said.

Slovo said Sunday that the party will agree to the government’s desire to protect the rights of whites and other minority racial groups in South Africa, where blacks outnumber whites 5 to 1. But, he added, “we will never accept a constitution which protects minority privilege.”