What The Papers Say
Where are we going?
Peoples' Daily Graphic
Informal discussions seem to have assumed a leverage with OAU forums in recent times and this situation does not augur well for the very existence of this African body. For what does it profit the continent if at every meeting decisions reached cannot be binding on member states of the OAU? The OAU must snap out of this stranglehold if the myriad problems facing the continent should be systematically tackled and solved.We do not in the least believe that Africans have not discerned the subtle designs of those who wish to keep this continent divided so as to strengthen their own interests and security to the disadvantage of Africa.
The OAU has not found an answer to the fanning of internecine wars in selected areas of the continent. Neither has it stemmed the destabilising acts by external detractors. But perhaps what is more disconcerting is the organisation's inability to solidly unite and eliminate interstate quarrels which more often than not are the result of the machinations of external forces acting through proxies.
These cold and calculated acts are dismembering the continent faster than what actual physical wars are capable of doing. And so nothing gets done. African countries play it to the gallery without fruitful rewards while the mass of our peoples still hope that their salvation lies in a United Africa. For how much longer must the people wait?
Where are we going Africans? There is one factor which has led to this unsavoury situation. And it is this that until all the states of Africa begin to work in the interest of the mass of their peoples instead of clinging to selfish but useless class structures, our detractors will always get the opportunity to manipulate us like puppets. To work for the upliftment of all the peoples of Africa is the key to unity.
Kwame Nkrumah put it more succinctly. Said he: "I do not know of any greater satisfaction than honest and efficient service rendered to the people in the best interest of all the people."
Sectional interests must give way to populous interest. Therein lies Africa's salvation.
The Boers' Wrong Sums
The Herald, Zimbabwe
Most South African officials who brutalise blacks can expect no more serious punishment than a mild rebuke. The people who murdered Cde Steve Biko have never been punished.Many blacks are killed daily in South Africa, some for no other reason than that they are black. Others kill each other in the sprawling, dehumanising barrack-like existence that is Soweto and the apartheid regime is to blame for that too So, perhaps in this wide context, the brutal assault on our Deputy Trade Commissioner, Cde David Buyanga, must be seen in its proper perspective.
Cde Buyanga had his arm broken by the racist police for not allowing them to search the boot of his car. We doubt if policemen in other countries would break your arm for this especially if you enjoyed some kind of recognised immunity But then South Africa is not just any other country. It is a country ruled by frightened little men who see every black man as a threat to their brutal hegemony.
The government has demanded that the perpetrators of this cowardly assault on Cde Buyanga be punished, but it would not surprise the world if the thugs were actually awarded medals of bravery or courage, or some such outrageous honour.
South Africa, it must be remembered, survives today because of its commitment to violence, witness its shameless invasion of Angola. Pretoria should know that the battle for Namibia is being fought in Namibia and not in Angola, just as the battle for Zimbabwe was fought in Zimbabwe and not in Mozambique or Zambia.
The Boers, with their talent for getting their sums wrong are withdrawing from Angola, quite convinced that they have neutralised SWAPO. Everybody else in the world knows otherwise.
