African Activist Archive

Mailing seeking donations. The mailing says after 300 years of struggle Black South Africans have finally won the right to vote for their country's leaders; but right wing vigilantes tied to the South African military and Black leaders paid by the apartheid government have unleashed a wave of killings to prevent free elections; they have murdered over 1,000 people since the elections were announced. The mailing says people were killed in attacks on commuter trains, in police raids on communities that support Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and in seemingly random assassinations; in many parts of South Africa, African National Congress members risk death if they even try to hold a public meeting; sometimes it seems as if every time the phone rings here at The Africa Fund it is a call from South Africa about new killings. The mailing says even without the violence, securing free elections in South Africa would be difficult at best; millions of people have never been allowed to learn to read or write; twenty million have never voted in an election or seen a ballot. The mailing says when Nelson Mandela came to the United Nations in September he told me that the South African people need our help very badly; he is afraid the violence will become a blood bath as the April election date approaches; he said that if it goes on like this people may be afraid to go to the polls on election day; Mandela asked The Africa Fund to mobilize Americans to help safeguard the elections; this won't be easy since so many people believe the media myth that the battle for freedom has already been won in South Africa. The mailing says time is short so we have had to move very fast: * An Africa Fund staff member, Aleah Bacquie, is in South Africa on the front lines of a church effort to keep the violence from spreading. I am enclosing a report she has just sent me. * We are recruiting American peace monitors to go to South Africa to work with the World Council of Churches. They will go to the worst trouble spots to try to stop the killing. * Special Africa Fund action alerts are reaching community, labor and religious leaders throughout the country, generating protests to the South African Ambassador. * The Africa Fund is supporting innovative voter education in South Africa including a theater group that performs in a different community virtually every day and popular voting guides in eight African languages. The mailing says protecting free elections is going to be very expensive; just this week we paid $7,000 to send an experienced U.S. organizer to South Africa to work with women who will run in the April elections; we are giving these brave women international support which can provide a measure of protection from the killing squads. The mailing discusses voter education, Thokoza, Katlehong township, Frank Chikane, the South African Council of Churches (SACC), ANC (African National Congress).

African Activist Archive

WILL KILLINGS STOP SOUTH AFRICA'S ELECTIONS?

Creator

Contributor

Place Created

Date

Type of Item

Length/duration

Description

Publisher

Organization

Coverage Africa

Language

Digital Format

Rights Management

Collection