TransAfrica News

Contents: U.S. OPTIMISM ON NAMIBIA LOSING CREDIBILITY • NAMIBIA: US DIPLOMACY OR DUPLICITY? by Walter Fauntroy • GUYANA: GIVING SOCIALISM A BAD NAME • AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN NEWS BRIEFS • SOUTH AFRICA TO REQUEST IMF LOAN • HAITIANS BEING RELEASED • SOUTH AFRICA PLANS TO CEDE LAND • COUP ATTEMPT FAILS IN KENYA • SOUTH AFRICA INVADES ANGOLA U.S. MILITARY AIRLIFT TO SOMALIA RAISES CONCERN • LEGISLATION AND POLICY UPDATE *IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL *GRENADA HEARING *US-SOUTH AFRICA NUCLEAR TIES *CARIBBEAN BASIN INITIATIVE *CONGRESSIONAL ACTIONS AGAINST CUBA *SOUTH AFRICA INVESTMENT BILLS • PAN-AFRICAN UNITY SUMMIT POSTPONED • U.S. OPPOSED TO LAW OF SEA TREATY • The State Department speaks optimistically about prospects for a Namibia settlement, despite passage of a mid-August target date for concluding an agreement in the four-year-old talks and ending the 16-year-old military struggle against South Africa's illegal occupation of the territory. A leaked confidential State Department cable reveals that South Africa may soon request major assistance from the International Monetary Fund in order to relieve a projected balance of payments deficit of R4 billion, caused by the sharp fall in diamond and gold prices, its main exports. Heavy borrowing from the Fund in 1977 allowed South Africa to finance a massive military buildup. The South African government plans to transfer part of the KwaZulu homeland to neighboring Swaziland without the consent of the inhabitants. Ranking members of the House Africa subcommittee wrote to Secretary of State George Shultz cautioning him that shipment of military supplies to Somalia, currently engaged in a conflict with the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, could harm U.S. interests in the region. Black goldminers in South Africa conducted extensive strikes the first week in July. Two bills were introduced that could affect future U.S. nuclear relations with South Africa; HR 6318, introduced by Sen. Gary Hart and Rep. Richard Ottinger, HR 3513, introduced by Rep. Morris Udall and Rep. Jonathan Bingham are not specifically directed at South Africa but would affect the apartheid regime's nuclear plans by closing loopholes in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act (NNPT). On June 10, the Subcommittees on Africa and International Economic Policy and Trade approved two bills restricting U.S. corporate investment in South Africa. HR 3597, introduced by Rep. Bill Gray, would prohibit all new corporate investment in South Africa with penalties of up to $1 million and 10 years in jail for violations; the section prohibiting reinvestments by companies already in South Africa was dropped. HR 3008, introduced by Rep. Steve Solarz, would make mandatory a set of "fair workplace principles" for U.S. companies operating there. The Organization of African Unity's (OAU) 19th summit meeting, scheduled for early August in Tripoli, Libya, was postponed due to lack of a quorum. The newsletter mentions the Western Contact Group, South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), the Frontline States, United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, a Constituent Assembly, Sam Nujoma, the UN Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG), "constructive engagement," self-determination, Cuban troops, President Augostino Neto, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, the African National Congress (ANC), Bishop Desmond Tutu, forces loyal to President Daniel Arap Moi, Rep. Howard Wolpe, William Goodling, an Ethiopian incursion, Bantustans, Rep Charles Rangel, U.S. bank loans, the Krugerrand gold coin, Rep. Clement Zablocki, the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the POLISARIO Front, Col. Muammar Qaddafi, and Edem Kodjo.