South Africa's little Lebanon
Richard West
Johannesburg
South Africa's raid last week on Lesotho, where 40 blacks were killed, was widely condemned by the outside world, including the British Government. It was not all that popular here in South Africa. The man in the pub, or kroeg, was of course in favour. 'Kill all the expletives, before they kill us,' was one of the milder comments I heard. The army itself justified its attack on African Nationalist Congress agents, living in the Lesotho capital of Maseru, by saying that ANC were planning more terror within
South Africa or its 'Homeland' territories.
The ANC had been responsible, so the army said, for sabotage of administration offices in Cape Town (one man killed), for the attempted killing of a policeman in Ciskei, one of the Homelands, for the sabotage of a railway at Mdantsane and of a South African police station at Port Elizabeth. The raid last week at Maseru was justified to prevent further ANC attacks in the days before Christmas. The army claims to have discovered plans to blow up Bloem- fontein railway station, to murder high- ranking South African officials as well as the President of the Transkei Homeland, Kaiser Matanzima. The actual terror attacks by the ANC are much less formidable than the ones they planned — or the South African army say that they planned; those of us who have suf- fered the terror attacks of the IRA might think that the ANC were innocuous by com- parison. Certainly one might think that the scale of last week's attack on little Maseru was disproportionate to the threat posed . The moral outrage expressed by South Africa's army was not altogether convincing. Some neighbouring countries, like Mozambique and even Lesotho, claim that South Africa is sheltering terrorists or subversives opposed to their own governments. Britain, above all other countries, has reason to be dismayed by last week's raid on Lesotho. Basutoland, as it was then call- ed, with Swaziland and Bechuanaland (now Botswana) were colonised by the British during the 19th century with the declared purpose of guarding them from the Afrikaners, or Boers, of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. All three of these small nations got better treatment and government than did the blacks who re- mained in South Africa proper. When Harold Wilson's government decided in 1964 to give these countries their in- dependence (whether or not they wanted it), there were those who feared the removal of Britain's protection against South Africa.
Although Wilson had said in May 1963, when he was still in opposition, that he was growing 'increasingly fearful' about the future of these protectorates, he quickly lost these fears on coming to power. He wanted to stay friends with South Africa. At the start of Basutoland's final-constitu- tional conference in June 1966, the Labour Colonial Secretary, Fred Lee, acknowledg- ed that the strength of opposition to in- dependence might be 'a bad omen' and the Observer's Africa correspondent, Colin Legum, called the decision to give in- dependence 'the most dishonest transaction in the recent history of the handover of British power in her colonies'.
'What is in fact happening', Mr Legum went on, 'is that we are abandoning [the territories] without any of the defences they need to stay independent of Dr Verwoerd's republic.' The Sunday Times wrote that, 'The combination of the Colonial Office's skilful lack of commitment to Basutoland and Dr Verwoerd's canny waiting game seems likely to squeeze [the Basuto prime minister] into a completely subservient policy of "neighbourliness".' And if he is lacking in neighbourliness, one can now assume, the Lesotho prime minister can ex- pect more raids on his capital.
While all the press reported the world's disapproval of the Maseru raid, only one paper, the Citizen, led its front page with 'Protest by UK', thereby reminding its Teaders that Britain has special respon- sibilities to Lesotho. The Citizen's editorial was less than enthusiastic about the raid: 'We have caused the terror forces to plan revenge against us... The question therefore is whether success in wiping out ANC targets in Maseru can justify the con- sequences in terms of the anger and con- demnation the raid has aroused, as well as the further alienation of blacks here and in adjoining countries. We are in no position at this point to give an answer.'
This guarded comment is startling because the Citizen is the only English- language newspaper favourable to the government: indeed it was set up and secret- ly funded by the Department of Informa- tion. Another pro-government newspaper, Beeld, was also critical of the Maseru raid. Does this imply dissension among the government ranks on how to deal with the threat of foreign terrorists? Or perhaps some falling out between the army and politicians? The latter does not seem likely since the Prime Minister, P. W. Botha, was Minister of Defence, and is very much in command of his army.
If the government and its supporters have doubts concerning the raid on Maseru, the opposition are still more puzzled. The Pro- , gressive Federal Party did not condemn the raid: indeed, with qualifications, it seemed to consider it justified. The Rand Daily Mail, which has a largely black readership and is normally shrill in condemning everything done by the government, came out in favour of pre-emptive strikes against terrorists in an adjoining country, even if this meant the unfortunate loss of life of civilians caught in the crossfire. That was the gist of a Rand Daily Mail editorial hedg- ed with vagueness and qualifications.
The response to the Maseru raid from the PFP and the liberal press becomes more comprehensible when one remembers the influence of South Africa's Jewish com- munity. Johannesburg is almost as much a Jewish city as New York. And South African Jews tend to be more loyally Zionist than any others of the Diaspora. It is reckoned that 80 per cent of the Jewish community supports Mr Begin, and most of the others favoured the recent invasion of Lebanon. Inevitably, the South African Jews tended to see an analogy between Israel's invasion of Lebanon in order to smash the Palestinian terrorists, and South Africa's raid on Lesotho in order to wipe out the ANC. In Maseru, as in Beirut, the terrorists were living among civilians, and many innocent people were killed.
The shelling of West Beirut and the massacre of the refugees caused less anxiety here than they did among Jews in New York, London or Israel itself. Even the liberal or left-wing intellectuals stood by Mr Begin. For instance the journalist Benjamin Pogrund, the arch campaigner against the apartheid system, reported from Lebanon with what seemed to his readers to be praise for the Israeli invasion. The Jewish students at the Witwatersrand university demonstrated in favour of Israel — and so got involved in fisticuffs with the Asian students, who tend to support the Palesti- nians. This incident caused much dismay, since white and Asian students at Wits are normally joined in enmity to the South AfriCan government.
It . may be that Israel's invasion of
Lebanon has inspired more fellow feel between South African Jews la Afrikaners. The Afrikaners have long ha of complex attitude to the Jews, made 102, crass anti-semitism plus an identificatlai with Old Testament Israel. The Boers of last century spoke of their great trek na of as the flight from Egypt. The President; the Transvaal republic, Paul Kruger, nt, preferred the Jews to the English of .1011; nesburg, even although he once, :lie augurated a synagogue 'in the name Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. r'n, Afrikaners today, even those who sap ported Nazi Germany, now look on as their only friend in the outside viar It is most puzzling.
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