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Opening to the North
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15633 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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2 / 1989 |
2,468 Words |
| Author
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Philip Nicolaides
Philip Nicolaides is director of the Foundation for Africa's
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The stereotypes of South Africa held by Americans on both the left and right of the political spectrum have been sharply shaken in recent months by events that few observers would have imagined possible a year ago.
At the center of these shifting perspectives has been a series of bold initiatives by the Nationalist government in Pretoria to break out of its long diplomatic isolation from the rest of black Africa and to convince its critics in the West that it is not only committed to domestic reform but is also willing to take considerable risks to stabilize the region and bring an end to the frictions that have bedeviled its relations with its northern, black-ruled neighbors.
Perhaps, the most striking evidence of this new "Opening to the North," or Noordwaardse Politiek was the recent visit by State President P.W. Botha to the capitals of Zaire, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, and Malawi, where he was cordially received by his counterparts. The Malawi visit was the least surprising, because that country, led since independence by the pragmatic and pro-Western President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, has for many years been the only black-ruled nation to accord full diplomatic recognition to Pretoria.
In Zaire, Botha discussed with President Sese Seko Mobutu the ongoing tripartitie negotiations for South African pullout from Namibia (South-West Africa) linked to a pullout of the 60,000-man Cuban expeditionary force in Angola, which has been supporting that country's Marxist MPLA regime in its 15-year-old civil war with the pro-Western UNITA insurgency led by Jonas Savimbi.
Botha and Mobutu have a strong common interest in seeing Cuban troops out of the region, since Zaire has a long border with Angola and has taken considerable risks by volunteering to be a principal channel for U.S. covert military aid to Savimbi. Mobutu wanted, and presumably got, assurances that South Africa was not abandoning UNITA and would not accept any agreement that did not provide for solid verification of a complete Cuban pullout. Mobutu, in turn, gave his blessing to the negotiations and also urged Botha to grant a release to Nelson Mandela, the ailing former head of the African National Congress (ANC).
Perhaps the most startling event to both Africans and Westerners was the cordial meeting between Botha and President Joaquim Chissano in the Mozambican capital of Maputo. Botha reaffirmed his firm commitment to the earlier Nkomati Accords, in which the two
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