comments were among the signals that his administration wanted to send to Congress and the public to ring in the coming US policy changes towards South Africa. But, at the same time, Pretoria had to be constantly aware that Washington was bent on pursuing its own power politics and interests and would, no doubt, be wary of embracing South Africa in the diplomatic sphere. Many American interest groups had been strongly influenced by the ANC and believed firmly that the NP regime was not to be trusted. They believed that we wanted merely to break the stranglehold of international isolation and would then do an about-turn and continue the struggle to maintain the apartheid state.
We had good confidential information about this. But, at the same time, one needs to note that this was the umpteenth intelligence error from some in Washington. Had their information been accurate, they would certainly have known that, by now, the die was cast – there was no chance of turning back to the ancien régime.
When the Hantam took off on the evening of 25 September from the Andrews Air Force Base, it was with a satisfied team of South Africans on board. We were making our way towards full membership of the international world. At the very least, a breach had been made in our international isolation and a blow against the acceptance of the ANC as South Africa’s face in the world.
For South Africans, the main challenge was now, without international prescription or pressure, to make peace between ourselves.
About eight months after this visit, American sanctions against South Africa were lifted. Harry Schwarz, at the time a prominent member of the Progressive Federal Party, had been part of the South African group. A few months later, he succeeded Dr Piet Koornhof as ambassador to the United States.7
* * *
Late in January 1991, about fifteen thousand farmers from virtually the entire country descended upon Pretoria with tractors, harvesters, bakkies, cattle trucks and caravans … and paralysed the city centre.
While, according to the organisation known as the Boere Krisis Aksie (BKA, the Farmers Crisis Action), their protest action was a response to higher input costs and lower prices for their products, there were also clear signs of right-wing sentiment among many of the protesters. The leader of the Conservative Party (CP), Dr Andries Treurnicht, and eighteen members of his caucus put aside their parliamentary activities in Cape Town and flew to Pretoria.
‘The CP stands behind the farmers,’ declared Andries Beyers, chief secretary of the CP. Eugène Terre’Blanche, the leader of the Afrikaner-Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), also turned up in the capital city to support the farmers.
Quite apart from their dissatisfaction about agricultural conditions, the farmers were also unhappy about labour legislation that would afford farmworkers more protection, and about the proposed land reforms. ‘Once farmers, now share-croppers’ was one of the slogans seen on a caravan.
The farmers were determined to hand over a petition listing their grievances to President De Klerk at the Union Buildings, but this did not happen.
The city council had approved the protest action subject to ten conditions, including that no more than five thousand people were to take part; that road and pedestrian traffic should not be disrupted; and that no speeches were to be made. The farmers were unconcerned by any of this. Emergency supplies of blood for urgent medical operations had to be flown by helicopter to hospitals because major roads had been blocked or occupied.
The city council eventually obtained a court order to force the farmers to leave the city.
A volatile situation arose when this order was ignored and about two hundred farmers were arrested. Some policemen were injured when farmers who refused to move their vehicles from the streets were involved in scuffles with police.
Meanwhile, the farmers had not lost their sense of looking after themselves. In addition to gas barbecues, fridges, canvas chairs, folding tables, portable toilets and generators, at least one farmer had brought along a slaughtered sheep, a frozen sheep and one that was still very much alive. Boeremusiek rang out; braais were enthusiastically held on the pavements; and much ‘Klippies’ and Coke was enthusiastically consumed.8
Despite this bonhomie, the siege also sent out a clear message: Do not ignore the rightwing in white politics. Furthermore, many of the farmers were part of the South African Defence Force (SADF) commando system, which increased the potential of right-wing violence.
1 Report from a covert source, National Intelligence.
2 Siphiwe Nyanda, in The African Communist: Journal of the South African Communist Party, First Quarter, 1990, pp. 35–43.
3 Connie Braam, Operation Vula (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2004), pp. 28–270.
4 Ronnie Kasrils, Armed and Dangerous (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2004), pp. 246–250.
5 Padraig O’Malley, Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa (New York: Viking, 2007), pp. 244–256, 260–284, 287–291, 365–388.
6 Available at www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley, accessed 14 October 2016.
7 E-mail with additional information: Derek Auret, 28 July 2016 and 2 August 2016.
8 Eugène Terre’Blanche, My storie (Cape Town: Griffel Media, 2010), pp. 156–158; ‘Pretoria plofbaar ná Boere-beleg’, Beeld, 30 January 1991; ‘Regter verklaar protesaksie onwettig’, Beeld, 30 January 1991; and ‘Slagskape, trekkers dra by tot karnaval-gevoel’, Beeld, 30 January 1991.
Chapter 6
Violence – and talk of peace
Today, many seem to think that the South African settlement process was peaceful and orderly. Nothing could be further from the truth. A host of fierce assaults from all quarters besieged the country for the entire period.
According to some estimates, about 14 000 people died in political violence from mid-1990, when the negotiations began, until April 1994. KwaZulu and Natal, in particular, became a battlefield where a bloody conflict raged between IFP and ANC–SACP supporters. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) statistics, 3 699 people died in this unrest. In 1991, this number decreased somewhat to 2 672. The Human Rights Commission claimed that, in KZN, an average of 101 people died each month in incidents of political violence between July 1990 and June 1993. Furthermore, the political violence and bloodshed spread to the PWV area, where 4 756 people died in this same period.
Attacks on police officers also escalated dramatically. From January 1991 until the end of December 1993, there were 6 369 politically motivated attacks on members of the police force, resulting in 412 deaths. In incidents of political unrest between July 1991 and June 1993, where the police intervened, 518 members of the public died.1 In so-called necklace murders – in which an activist would place a burning tyre around the neck of a person suspected of collaborating with the regime – 469 people died between 1986 and 1992.2 Hostel violence also took its toll, mainly between IFP and ANC supporters. According to ANC sources, between July 1990 and April 1992 there was a total of 261 attacks by hostel dwellers, in which 1 207 residents of various townships were killed.3