Hanging in Pretoria, assassination
T HE DULL THUD of the trapdoor
opening beneath the feet of Black militants on the gallows is no longer enough to quench the hatred of Pretoria's killers. State terrorism is an established method inside as well as outside their frontiers. The murderous military incursions against the ANC and South African refugees into Botswana, Zimbabwe or Losotho have provoked so little international reaction that they now seem commonplace.
By assassinating Dulcie September, Pretoria's agents have extended the scope of their terrorist actions, thus continuing their crazy escalation against the mass anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.
In one week, 11 ANC activists executed
The official repression (arrests, two years of state of emergency and censorship), accompanied by the gradual outlawing of all the forces opposing the racist regime, has not succeeded in annihilating the spirit of revolt of the Black population. In addition, the racist regime has had to resort to "clandestine" repression: liquidating anti-apartheid and trade-union leaders, blowing up union offices and so on. The murders of Black militants by death squads — usually including police or other government agents — have multiplied following threats made by the minister of defence, who recently declared: "The ANC can be hit anywhere in the world". Thus, in one week 11 ANC activists have been executed in different countries.
So there can be little doubt who was behind Dulcie September's assassination, or about the identity of those who have twice attempted to murder the ANC's Belgium representative.
What do the defenders of apartheid in France think about it now? What do the nine deputies of the right and extreme right, who recently visited South Africa and didn't see apartheid, think about it? We can expect nothing from these types, who fall over each other in the rush to denounce non-state terrorism. The same goes for Foreign Minister Bernard Pons or Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who are dishing out the South African whites' well-tested recipes in New Caledonia....
The minister of security, Robert Pandraud, knew very well that Dulcie September had been threatened over the last few months. The representative of SWAPO (South West African People's Organization) in France testified to this: "She had been getting death threats and insulting letin Paris
DULCIE September, the representative of the African National Congress (ANC) in
France, was assassinated on March 28 in Paris. She was shot down in front of her office, and was found with two bullet wounds in her head.
So far, nobody has been arrested for the murder, but it is widely believed that PW Botha's racist government is behind the string of attacks in Europe against the ANC and other anti-apartheid organizations. The following article is from
Rouge, the newspaper of the LCR, French section of the Fourth International.
### VINCENT KERMEL ters since last July. Someone snatched her bag, full of documents, in the métro. She had demanded protection from the French police, without ever getting a reply, either positive or negative". The authorities try to deny this evidence. But their past silence, like their present denials, makes them accomplices in this crime.
Underlying this, it is the political legitimacy given by France to the racist regime that is at stake. The pro-South African lobby is well represented, not only in the ranks of the extreme right, but also in the RPR and UDF [the two right-wing governing parties].... France's trade links with apartheid
Trade with apartheid is going well. Some nationalized or state supported companies are still active in South Africa. Total, which provides apartheid's fuel, is the most glaring example. Imports of South African coal and Namibian uranium continue. French sports men and women still play in Botha's country. According to the US State
FRANCE Department, France — which collaborates in the Koeberg nuclear power plant — was also reported to have delivered arms to South Africa, in spite of the international embargo that has been in force since 1977.
Even a kind normalization of relations occurred when President François Mitterrand formally recognized the South African ambassador in October 1987. Business trips follow one after the other, and the South African Chamber of Commerce acknowledges this when it says: "Some commercial loans have been renewed by French banks". The right has undeniably contributed to the "re-establishment" of relations with Pretoria. But this trend was already in evidence when the left government was in power.
Initial declarations of principle against apartheid by the Socialist Party government in 1981 were hardly followed by a political will to go beyond some symbolic measures (diplomatic sanctions, measures concerning sporting links and the suspension of new investments). The government of the time was to contribute nothing either to divulging the scope of economic links with the racist regime or to developing a mass protest movement against this shameful collaboration.
Complicit silence of left and right governments
Of his two visits to France, Botha made one when the left was in power. And was it not Roland Dumas, Mitterrand's foreign minister during the left government, who agreed in 1985 to meet his South African counterpart, Pik Botha? As the Quotidien de Paris noted at the time: "At the economic level, exchanges between the two countries have really not suffered from the political deterioration". What were they waiting for, those people who in 1981 made the denunciation of racism their battle cry and who hollered loudly and stridently for sanctions, and promised to put them into operation if they came to power?
In Pretoria they practice hanging; in Paris, assassination. All of this with the complicit silence of governments. The mixed reactions following Dulcie September's assassination also raises the problem of mobilization around this whole question. Isn't it about time to start building a massive, non-exclusionist anti-apartheid movement in our country?
For its part, the LCR salutes the memory of Dulcie September, who was murdered while fighting the racist regime. We pledge to redouble our efforts in solidarity with the ANC and all those forces fighting apartheid. * April 18, 1988 • #139 International Viewpoint
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