Struggle for Southern Africa

Robert G. Mugabe

From Foreign Affairs, Winter 1987/88

Summary:  The Republic of South Africa is both engaging in a 'vicious and ugly' civil war and 'waging an undeclared war against its neighbours'. After reviewing RSA intervention in Mozambique and Angola, and arguing that the front-line states are opposed to apartheid, not to whites or to Western interests, calls for US policy-makers to match words with deeds, namely by backing a policy of economic sanctions. Then prime minister, now president of Zimbabwe.

Robert G. Mugabe is Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and currently chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Political and material support of desperate bandit groups, dissidents and self-seeking, discredited individuals by a superpower like the United States is a prescription for chaos and instability in the international political system. Calling such a hodgepodge of individuals "freedom-fighters" does not make them any such thing. The bandit groups that gathered in Washington in August 1986 have no such credentials.

Financial and material aid, and food, should not be used as levers in the conduct of the foreign policy of a superpower. The far right in the U.S. Congress focuses much attention annually on the foreign aid bill in order to deny financial resources to those states which seek to pursue an independent policy.

In Zimbabwe we have totally rejected any aid or investment from any quarter that seeks to change, influence or modify the policies that we have enunciated, based on our perception of Zimbabwe?s national interests. For us, this is a matter of principle. Although we have been blacklisted and denied financial aid by President Reagan?s Administration, we have stuck to our principles and strongly defended our sovereign right to define our own policies, and articulate them in any forum.

We will neither amend our policies nor change our behavior in order to please others, even if they are superpowers. My party is one of the few liberation movements in the world that fought a major war of national liberation, involving thousands of troops, without the support of a superpower. The sovereignty and independence we have now attained are so dear to us that no number of pieces of silver can ever buy them from us.

For me this campaign of the right goes over familiar ground. During our war of liberation I was accused of leading surrogate Russian forces, when in fact the Russian government adamantly refused to give us a single gun or ruble, and in 1978 they even refused me permission to pass through the Moscow airport in transit. The ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress of South Africa and SWAPO of Namibia are fighting for the same freedom and independence that we fought for.

We have been encouraged to see the U.S. State Department seeking to improve its relations with Mozambique. In his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa on June 24, 1987, Assistant Secretary Crocker said "no country in southern Africa has worked more consistently than Mozambique with the U.S.A. to further the cause of peace and stability in southern Africa." He praised Mozambique?s human rights record, and the strenuous efforts which we know are being made to revitalize the economy and strengthen institutional development.

The Reagan Administration now apparently regards the fate of Mozambique as a critical issue for southern Africa and for U.S. interests in the region. It is giving Mozambique $75 million in humanitarian aid and $10 million in economic aid. Mr. Crocker approvingly cited British training for Mozambican army personnel and new British economic assistance, and noted that Britain and the United States have recently assigned resident military attachés to Maputo. This should be a good signal to Pretoria. He also pointed out that all of Mozambique?s neighbors, with the exception of South Africa, support the government "against the insurgents and would regard official contact with them by Western governments as a hostile act implying endorsement of South African destabilization efforts."

In spite of the expressed support of the American and British governments for the Mozambican government, we were surprised that so little aid was granted to Mozambique, and that Angola was excluded from the list of those SADCC countries to be aided in the current year. As I have argued, these governments are the main targets of South Africa?s destabilization policies in the region. They are the legitimate governments of their respective states. They are greatly in need of political and material support. Denying them much needed resources means direct support for South Africa and destabilization.

We take note of the Reagan Administration?s commitment to operate within our regional consensus. But we remain concerned that the main objective of the Administration?s policy planners is not to stem Pretoria?s regional aggression; rather, their main fear is that the people of the region may turn toward communism and the Soviet Union. We are cognizant of the fact that both superpowers are searching for friendly port and/or military facilities in the region, trying to expand their political and economic influence and to deny that influence to the other.

But it should be noted that, in keeping with our philosophy of genuine nonalignment and true independence, no country in the region has permitted military or naval base facilities to either superpower, although Britain has provided military training to the Mozambican government and sent a military vessel to call at the port of Maputo last year. Britain also provides military training to the Zimbabwean army, and has done so since our independence in 1980. A British Special Air Service unit was sent to Botswana for a training exercise in 1986.