Exporting Apartheid to Sub-Saharan Africa. The Legacy of Nelson Mandela
This article was first published in French in the Monde diplomatique in April 1997. It was subsequently published in the African Journal of Political Economy and in the author’s book: The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order.
The policy of land expropriation in
Mozambique leading to the establishment of White Afrikaner farms using
indentured Mozambican farm workers had the support of the ANC
government. It also had the the personal blessing of President Nelson
Mandela “who had delegated Mpumalanga Premier Matthews Phosa to the
SACADA Board of Governors. Premier Phosa, a distinguished ANC politician
and among the most prosperous black businessmen in Mpumalanga province
(East Transvaal), contributed to laying the political ground work for
the expansion of White Afrikaner business interests into neighbouring
countries.
The SACADA project was coordinated by the leader of the right wing Freedom Front and former South African Defense Force Chief General Constand Viljoen
Viljoen developed a close personal
relationship with Nelson Mandela. He had convinced Mandela that
promoting White Afrikaner farms in neighbouring countries “would
provide food and employment for locals”. What was not discussed was
that this ANC government policy implied a de facto process of land
expropriation which went against the basic tenets of the ANC’s struggle
for land rights for African peasants.
From the outset, international
corporate agribusiness and the World Bank were involved in this
project. It is worth noting that during the period of “Transition”
preceding the 1994 presidential elections, General Constand Viljoen had
been “plotting an Afrikaner guerrilla war against multiracial rule”.
(Financial Times, December 5, 2013)
While Mandela “believed in action” …
at the core of [his] militancy was always a desire to get the white
colonial regime to come to the table and talk.” (Mail and Guardian, December 12, 2013). This stance largely characterized his relationship with General Viljoen.
It is worth noting that in the 1980s
General Viljoen as Chief of the South African Defence Force led South
African troops into Angola. In 1993, he participated in the
establishment of the Right wing racist Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF). He
later formed the Freedom Front Party which presented candidates to the
April 1994 elections.
The article on Exporting apartheid was the object of controversy.
Its publication in Le Monde diplomatique in
April 1997 coincided with the hearings of the South Africa Truth
Commission led by Rev Desmond Tutu, which focused on the role of General
Constand Viljoen as South African Defense Force Chief during the
Apartheid period. (General Viljoen testified in May 1997 before the Truth Commission
The article was the object of a June
1997 law suit claiming defamation directed against the author and Le
Monde diplomatique by the South African Chamber for Agricultural
Development (SACADA) and the leader of the Freedom Front and former
SADF Chief General Constand Viljoen.
The law suit launched in Paris was subsequently thrown out by the Paris Court of Justice.
Michel Chossudovsky, December 12, 2013