RHODESIA Verwoerd Goes on Planning
From STANLEY UYS
CAPE TOWN
DR VERWOERD has denied that he has had anything to do with the tentative resump- tion of talks between London and Salisbury, but Ibis is probably just modesty. Before he issued the denial, one of the newspapers sup- porting him, in a 'tell all' dispatch, had disclosed that he had advised Mr Wilson and Mr Smith to meet 'unconditionally' and seek a settlement. Or Verwoerd played a 'key role,' said the news- paper, observing: `Mr Wilson took Dr Ver- woerd's hint because the alternative would have been a British-South African conflict which Britain cannot afford at this stage. Dr Verwoerd gave precisely the same advice to Mr Smith, who also accepted it, because in the circumstances be could hardly reject it.' We may never know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but at least one thing is fairly certain now : Dr Ver- welerd is still furiously at work behind the scenes. He has pleaded to be excused from engagements, even with VIPs, because he is preoccupied with the Rhodesian situation.
This is perfectly natural. If the Loudon- Salisbury talks break down again, South Africa will be dragged into the ensuing crisis. The pro- Verwoerd press has warned already that. if the talks fail, the situation will get out of control. Presumably, therefore, Dr Verwoerd is poring over ideas to break the deadlock. What kind of ideas? Here again secrecy descends. The public is left to assume either that Dr Verwoerd. feels Mr Smith should accept an integrationist settle- ment and ultimate black majority rule or that be has something entirely new up his sleeve.
Is there any significance in the fact that the two major pro-Verwoerd Sunday newspapers have each suddenly_ started thinking in depth on the Rhodesian crisis and have come up with approximately the same solution, an apartheid solution? One of them has even used the word 'partition.' This is Dagbreek (Dr Verwoerd is chairman of its board of trustees—although this does not necessarily mean that it always faith- fully reflects his thoughts), which has asked for a 'sub-continental solution' which will guarantee the position of the whites in Rhodesia. Dag- breek's solution is the physical partition of Rhodesia, with whites in permanent control of one part, and Africans in permanent control of *e other—and, hey presto! both Mr. Wilson and Mr Smith are satisfied.
The other pro-Verwoerd Sunday newspaper, Die Beeld, in an open letter to 'our friends' in Rhodesia, suggests that Rhodesia's main diffi- culty is that, while it is united over UDI, it is divided over its future race policy. 'We see this as the fundamental weakness of your position now that your government has entered anew into cautious negotiations with the British govern- ment,' writes Die Beeld. Many white Rhodesians have rejected partnership, integration and black majority rule, says Die Beeld, but they are not clear what the alternative policy is. We [in South Africa) are moving towards separate freedoms for white and black in separate states, and the Nationalists [Afrikaners] among us believe this is the only solution. . . . We see no other [solu- tion] for a white nation in Africa that wants is maintain its right of self-determination.'
After reminding the Rhodesians how they have leaned on South Africa for help during the UDI crisis, Die Beeld asks them whether they are really and potentially an extension of the white South African nation: if so, then they must make the connection. 'Such a linking-up, however, will necessarily mean acceptance of the basic prin- ciple of separate freedoms, which will involve discussion of which part of Rhodesia should be designated as permanently white and which part will become a free black homeland from which the whites will have to withdraw themselves pro- gressively.'
This could be a typically Verwoerd solution: meeting immense problems with immense solu- tions. If the solution were acceptable to Mr Wilson and the Rhodesians, white and black, South Africa would acquire an extension of its apartheid kingdom to the north, and the position of the whites in Southern Africa, indeed, would be consolidated.
There is, however, some scepticism in pro. Verwoerd circles over the outcome of the pre- liminary talks between London and Salisbury, and preparations to make South Africa as invul- nerable as possible to UN sanctions go ahead unremittingly. The whole emphasis now is on making South Africa as economically self- sufficient as possible, but this, of course, will take time. Meanwhile, a Radio South Africa broadcast has drawn attention to the dangers inherent in having foreign-controlled firms (like banks) acquiring too much power on the local scene: look what happened to Rhodesia, the .broadcast said.
But the immediate task is to prepare against possible oil sanctions. For this a three-point pro- gramme is being implemented: to acquire, by charter or purchase, a fleet of South African oil tankers; to promote the search for oil in South Africa at all possible speed—a giant new oil rig capable of drilling to 15,000 feet is due to arrive at Cape Town docks this week and will be fushed to the Beaufort West district of the Karoo; and to consider the establishment of a second oil-from-coal plant to bring South Africa's own -production of oil up to about 30 per cent of the country's requirements. Exciting times lie ahead for Southern Africa.
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