SOVIET POLICY TOWARDS SOUTH AFRICA

SOVIET POLICY TOWARDS SOUTH AFRICA

SOVIET POLICY TOWARDS SOUTH AFRICA Kurt M. Campbell Fellow, Center for Science and International Affairs John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University M MACMILLAN

Kurt M. Campbell 1986 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986 978-0-333-39628-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyrights Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1986 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2l 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Campbell, Kurt M. Soviet policy towards South Africa. 1. Soviet Union-Foreign relations-south Africa 2. South Africa-Foreign relations -Soviet Union I. Title 327.47068 DK9.4.S6 ISBN 978-1-349-08167-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08165-3 ISBN 978-1-349-08165-3 (ebook)

For my family

Contents Preface Abbreviations INTRODUCTION 1 THE HERITAGE OF RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 8 2 THE SOVIET UNION AND THE GROWTH OF RESISTANCE POLITICS IN SOUTH AFRICA 23 3 SOVIET DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AFRICA, 1942-56 48 4 THE SOVIET UNION, SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED NATIONS 70 5 MINERALS: THE SOVIET-SOUTH AFRICAN NEXUS 94 6 SOVIET ESPIONAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA 127 7 THE SOVIET UNION AND THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL SITUATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 140 8 CONCLUSION: SOVIET POLICY TOWARDS SOUTH AFRICA 153 POSTCRIPT 166 Notes and References 169 Selected Bibliography 201 Index 218 IX xi vii

Preface My interest in Soviet policy towards South Africa began during an undergraduate year spent at the University of Erevan in Soviet Socialist Armenia in 1978-9. The State University of Erevan, like Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, offers places to students from the Third World, and I attended lectures with several students from the newly-independent countries in southern Africa. Research on the topic began at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1981, where I was the holder of a Marshall Scholarship from the British government. This book has been adapted from my D.Phil. thesis which was accepted by Oxford University in October 1984. The final reworking and revision of the study was undertaken while I served as a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and during a post-doctoral year with the Russian Research Center at Harvard University from 1983 to 1985. My work has benefited immeasurably from two journeys to southern Africa, from several extended visits to the Hoover Institution Library at Stanford University, and from one trip to the Soviet Union. In South Africa, I was fortunate to gain access to the official files containing the diplomatic correspondence between the Soviet Union and South Africa housed at the Ministry of External Affairs Archives in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. I also visited the Africa Institute in Moscow as a guest of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Whilst in Moscow, I served as the Rapporteur for a discussion between American and Soviet specialists concerning the contemporary situation in southern Africa which was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. I am grateful to a variety of organisations and institutions for providing financial assistance in the course of researching and writing this book. First and foremost, a scholarship from the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission enabled me to attend Oxford University. A Graduate Award Fellowship from St Cross College helped meet maintenance expenses during 1983-4. The International Institute for Strategic Studies provided funding for an extended journey IX

x Preface to southern Africa in the spring of 1984. Further, the Rockefeller Foundation of New York covered my transportation costs to the Soviet Union. Miscellaneous grants from the Cyril Foster Fund, Brasenose College, and the South African Institute for International Affairs were also useful. Finally, a fellowship from the Russian Research Center at Harvard, which was funded by the Olin Foundation, gave me the opportunity to transform my dissertation into a book. This study, in addition, owes a considerable debt to several colleagues, friends and relations. I should like to thank especially my thesis supervisor, the late Professor Hedley Bull, for his encouragement, guidance and patience. Professor William Gutteridge was also instrumental in the preparation of the book. My friends, Mathew Guerreiro, Robb London, John Chipman, Mitch Reiss, James Clifford and Eric Greer, all read and commented on the text during various stages of its preparation. I am particularly grateful to Neil MacFarlane, Christopher Coker and Tom Lodge for their efforts on my behalf. Two librarians, Hilja Kukk at the Hoover Institution and Jacqueline Kalley at Jan Smuts House, gave me every assistance in tracking down obscure publications and documents, for which I am appreciative. My thanks go also to Hilary Parker and Alma Gibbons at the London School of Economics for their typing skills, displayed admirably in the preparation of this manuscript. Finally, my family has been an endless source of inspiration during these past five years, and it is to them this book is dedicated. K.M.C. Harvard University

Abbreviations ANC BOSS CI CIA CMEA COD CPC CPSA CPSU ECAFE ECCI EPTA FNLA FRELIMO ICU ILO ITUC-NW KGB KPD KUTV LAI MPLA NIS OAU ONUC OPEC PAC PAIGC RILU African National Congress Bureau of State Security Communist International (Comintern) Central Intelligence Agency Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) Congress of Democrats Communist Party of China Communist Party of South Africa (before 1950) Communist Party of the Soviet Union Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East Executive Committee of the Communist International Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance Front for the National Liberation of Angola Front for the Liberation of Mozambique Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union International Labour Organisation International Trade Committee of Negro Workers Soviet Committee for State Security German Communist Party Communist University of the Toilers of the East League Against Imperialism Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola National Intelligence Service Organisation of African Unity United Nations Peace-keeping Operation for the Congo Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Pan-African Congress African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde Red International of Labour Unions (Profintern) xi

xii RSA SACP SACPO SACTU SADCC SAFSU SUNFED SWAPO UDF UN UNCTAD UNESCO UNITA USSR YCL ZANU ZAPU Abbreviations Republic of South Africa South African Communist Party (since 1950) South African Coloured People's Organisation South African Congress of Trade Unions South African Development Coordinating Conference South African Friends of the Soviet Union Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development South West Africa People's Organisation United Democratic Front United Nations United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations Economic Scientific and Cultural Organisation Union for the Total Independence of Angola Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Young Communist League Zimbabwe African National Union Zimbabwe African People's Union