MEDIA STATEMENT BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK: ALLEGATIONS BY DEPUTY-MINISTER BANTU HOLOMISA, 09/03/95.
According to recent media reports, Mr Holomisa has apparently claimed that I had admitted to President Mandela that the former government had "made a mistake" by applying "punitive financial measures" against the Transkei military government.
Mr Holomisa is referring to a recent confidential discussion between President Mandela and me with regard to the efficacy of financial sanc-tions and the restriction of state transfers. I had pointed out that they were often ineffective and referred to experiences of the previous government in its relationship with Transkei. I did not say that measu-res of that nature would not have been justified in Transkei's case.
They would have been fully justified by:
Transkei's repeated breaches of agreements and understandings with South Africa; and by the widespread financial mismanagement of the country, often involving funds provided by South African taxpayers.
Although we considered withholding payments to Transkei, we never did so, because we believed that the results would have been counter-productive. We always dealt with Transkei in a fair manner in terms of the agreed norms and standards relating to transfer payments. Budge-tary allocations to Transkei were also dealt with at the same as those of the other TBVC states. Some payments were, on occasion, delayed pending the finalisation of negotiations within the budgeting structure that the two states had established. However, at no stage was there a cut-off of funds to Transkei.
South Africa also did, at one stage, impose strict border controls on Transkei. In this regard, I should like to remind Mr Holomisa of the findings of the Goldstone Commission on 15 March 1993 relating to the role of his regime with regard to APLA's armed attacks against South African citizens, long after the peace process had begun. Mr Justice Goldstone established inter alia that:
APLA used Transkei as a springboard for attacks into the Republic of South Africa. Arms and ammunition were stored in Transkei for use by APLA units. The presence of armed APLA members in Transkei was known to members of the Transkeian Police. The Transkeian Government had supplied APLA with arms, allegedly for VIP protection purposes. APLA's members had received training in Transkei. Arms and explosives were being smuggled into the Republic of South Africa and Transkei for use by APLA members. APLA's internal High Command for the Republic was based in Transkei.
Transkei's response to the Commission's report was entirely unsatisfactory, Mr Holomisa refused to co-operate with the Commission or to take any action to prevent APLA from using Transkei as a base for attacks against South Africa.
The backlogs and imbalances of which Mr Holomisa complains were not the result of any steps by the South African Government against his regime. On the contrary, they may be ascribed to a large extent to the mismanagement of the Transkei under his regime. Mr Holomisa should stop trying to shift the blame for the consequences of his own malad-ministration onto the former South African Government.
ISSUED BY: OFFICE OF DEPUTY PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK