Major Current Issues in Southern Africa

The document has five questions and answers. Questions include 1) Is South Africa changing? 2) Are the South Africans trying to bring about a Namibian settlement and end their illegal occupation of that minerally rich country in accordance with U.N. Resolution 435? 3) Is the Reagan Administration policy of constructive engagement in South Africa a viable policy? 4) What is South Africa's role in the military conflict in the Southern Africa region? 5) What is the implication of the conflict for the overall economic development of the region? 6) What is the possibility of the war in Southern Africa emerging into a major world conflict, employing nuclear weapons? The report says the move to legalize Black unions, give Blacks political rights in the "homelands" and extend the vote to Coloreds and Asians are all meant to change the image and at the same time strengthen the South African system of apartheid. The document says the South African Parliament will soon consider a bill which will further restrict the movement of Blacks in the urban areas. The document say the Reagan Administration has now linked the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola to a Namibian settlement; the Reagan Administration assumed office and vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning South Africa for its invasion of neighboring Black countries; it's 1981 invasion and occupation of Southern Angola was to weaken the SWAPO forces engaged in trying to end South Africa's illegal occupation of their country; South African attacks into Lesotho and Mozambique are to attack ANC members whom the South Africans claim are trying to overthrow the apartheid government. The report says South African attacks into Angola continue; since 1976, over 10,000 people have been killed and over 11 billion dollars of damage has been done. The report says it is believed that South Africa has nuclear capacity which the U.S. has helped it develop; U.S. corporations have provided South Africa with the technology, equipment, materials and scientific training needed to create the nuclear bomb. The report discusses ANC (African National Congress), Samora Machel, MNR (Mozambique National Resistance), UNITA., petty apartheid, constitutional "reforms", Black political rights, citizenship, removal to the desolate and barren homelands, constructive engagement, human rights violations, torture and deaths in detention, export controls, electric shock batons, repression, church organizations, trade unions, destabilization attacks, the frontline states, Namibian negotiations, South African air raid on Maputo, Mozambique in May 1983, people killed, South African invasion of Maseru, Lesotho, South Africa's continued military occupation of Southern Angola, bombing forays deep into central Angola, conventional war, nuclear conflict, the Koeberg nuclear power plants, the Valindaba uranium enrichment plant, South African nuclear scientists and technicians, the Southern Africa Development Coordinating Committee (SADCC), the Orderly Movement and Resettlement of Black Persons Bill, white areas, troops, a new constitution, and internal settlement, the militarization of Northern Namibia, the United Nations, Resolution 435, free and fair elections, a ceasefire, separate legislature chambers for Coloreds and Asians, political power, and apartheid laws.