Would you buy a used alibi from this
The more President weeps crocodile tears protests his innocence, the more suspicious appears the sudden death in an air crash Mozambique President Samora Machel.
Only a week previously, South African military chief General Malan had been publicly boasting that Machel's had been driven to the brink of collapse at the hands of the ruinous economic sabotage and terrorism carried out by the South African-backed murder squads of the so-called "National Reistance Movement" (MNR).
Yet as the news of the air crash on South African soil hit the news around the world, South African ministers falling over themselves to pay tribute to Machel's statesmanship, and protest their own innocence.
There is no doubt that the overt and covert South African against Mozambique had taken a toll of Machel's willpower, and had forced the humiliating bi-lateral Nkomati aggression "pact" of 1984 in which Machel agreed to curb the activities of ANC forces within his borders - while the Pretoria regime has cynically continued to funnel weapons and cash to their mercenary MNR gunmen.
There is certainly some doubt over how much Botha actually wanted to remove the whole regime in Maputo rather than press-gang it into concessions. point of view there could be no way in which the MNR which popular base of support power without itself immediately embroiled in an protracted and expensive disruptive cold war against the ousted FRELIMO forces, who would have no choice but to tight for their own physical survival. attractive the concept of a pliable puppet government in Mozambique might appear to Pretoria, it is not a viable possibility: it would be a vast, open-ended economic and military commitment.
Botha argues he had no interest in killing off the most influential figure in the Mozambique government shown himself so willing to deal with South Africa.
The political succession in Maputo can be no certainty, and the impact of a new leader could even be to determined effort at finding international support for a stand against Pretoria — perhaps by a turn towards the Soviet Union.
Despite Machel's earlier more radical rhetoric and early policies nationalisation (later largely abandoned) the extent of Mozambique's "leftism" and challenge to apartheid
man? Botha and of regime of campaign Mozambique were suddenly 'pragmatisim" military offensive Botha LIONS Portuguese victory over standing economic South Africa. Unlike Angola, From a political finance extensive Cuban to lacks any - could take the most tokenistic becoming equally government has supportive than Moscow. But while the challenge from However armed might has not been great, and the pawn crude deception, there is another sense in which Mozambique, its very independence played a crucial role in the development of revolutionary struggle in Southern Africa after he had the MPLA that helped snap the brittle fascist regime in Portugal in 1974, and drove out the colonists from their most southerly make a more renewed impetus fresh the white against Rhodesia and in South Africa itself, which erupted into action in the Soweto events of 1976. of weaker internally and internationally, and eventually unable to resist imperialist rule has been black majority, the South African regime
governments. arms governments. which Botha restricted from the start by this grinding poverty in the aftermath of the FRELIMO colonialism in 1975, and in the light of the country's long- dependence upon which secured substantial Cuban military support in 1976 to repulse a co-ordinated attempt by CIA- South African-reactionary forces, and has been able to use oil and mineral revenues thus and Russian) support since the, Mozambique ha always stood largely alone, with only picture is Soviet military or aggressive economic backing. Even the Thatcher racists. recently been more their practical military Maputo Pretoria's to "front" hysterical denunication of Machel as a of the Kremlin has alwasy been a like Angola, has by guerrilla, The guerrilla victories of FRELIMO and For the territories in Africa, gave a to the black struggle settler regime In beyond economic Though the Rhodesian regime was far peasants for a deal with a much larger Socialist Viewpoint No. 14 November-December 1986 p32
By HARRY SLOAN has also been weakened by the existence of black governments on each side. It has consistently sought means to humiliate, destabilise and if possible overturn these
South African troops and planes have systematically violated the borders of each of its black neighbours - and maintained a prolonged occupation of whole areas of Angola, partly to pursue its war against the liberation movement in Namibia.
From the very outset, South African
Tand aid have backed the brutish activities of UNITA and the MNR -movements which have developed their own links with the South African military and political establishment, and have their own motives for pursuing the fight against
Angolan and Mozambique
There are real doubts as to the extent to
Scan dictate the precise policies and actions of the MNR, which he has apparently attempted to restrain
There must also be doubts whether some of South Africa's own hard-nosed army chiefs would not relish the chance to pull what they see as the lynch-pin from the Mozambique regime, and notch up their most spectacular step so far in rolling back the anti-imperialist gains of 1975 whose very existence they see as a provocation.
Indeed while Botha claims without great conviction that Machel was a centrepiece of South African plans for the region, a
emerging of an alternative, strategy by the Pretorian This would involve striking back against sanctions by seeking to impose
domination the nominally "independent" Mozambique, which could then be used as a grand sanctions-busting
Ior South African business dealings on the world market.
As we go to press, the riddle of the crash has not been solved — but the least likely variant appears to be a genuine accident. Only time will tell if Machel was the victim of bad weather, poor engineering, a rogue
Ta maverick general or a concerted Pretoria counter-offensive.
hard-pressed, starving and exploited black masses of Mozambique, the concluson in each case is the same.
The fight has to be stepped up to crush the vicious MNR, whose victims threaten further miseries: and it is vital to develop
Othe policies of Machel and 22e eclectic, zig-zag FRELIMO leadership to an economic plan controlled bylor which solidarity workers and poor
- and support can be developed internationally.