African Activist Archive

The letter explains that the South African government has abandoned plans to cede the bantustan KaNgwane and the section of KwaZulu known as Ingwavuna to Swaziland. This decision came while the Rumpff Commission was considering whether to cede this land. The proposed cession would have resulted in the denationalization of 800,000 Black South Africans. The Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had filed an amicus curiae brief to the Rumpff Commission at the request of attorneys for KaNgwane. The brief focused on the international law implications of the proposed cession with particular regard to the rights of self-determination and racial non-discrimination. The mailing says there was a strong indication that the Commission was about to reach a decision not inconsistent with the position pleaded before it by KaNgwane and Ingwavuna, which would have put South Africa in the position of overruling its own internal commission in order to carry out the proposed cession. The mailing includes a newspaper article "S. Africa Abandons Plan to Cede Tribal Lands" by Allister Sparks. The article mentions Pieter G. Koornhof, two Supreme Court rulings, a seven-nation tour by Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha (P.W. Botha), apartheid, Enos Mabuza, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, homelands, nominal independence, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Judge F.L.H. Rumpff, a bill in Parliament, a Cabinet meeting, the African National Congress (ANC), Foreign Minister Richard Dlamini, Finance Minister Sishayi Nxumalo, and tribal territories.

African Activist Archive

[Dear Friends: Enclosed you will find an article stating the South Africa has abandoned plans]

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