The South African embassy in Washington has been in extensive contact with a mysterious American lobbyist who plans to ”drive a wedge” between prominent South African church leaders on their sanctions stance. Documents emanating from the United States-based World Commonwealth Foundation – detailing contact with South African ambassador Piet Koornhof and Horace Van Rensburg, the former Progressive Federal Party MP who is now an official in the embassy in Washington – have been given to the Weekly Mail. The documents set out an ant sanctions strategy which seeks to ”divide” church leaders Rev Allan Boesak and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, resulting in a ”great wedge being driven into the armour of the opposition”.
The strategy is detailed in several letters written by WCF chairman Richard J Harty from April 10 to May 17 this year. In the letters, Harty refers to a dinner at Koornhof’s home, and says ”I have introduced Horace van Rensburg to top officials in the Republican Party and close friends of President Bush. ”Horace was well received and he will be going to the White House in the near future to brief Bush administration personnel.”
In a letter to Van Rensburg dated April 10, Harty writes: ”Allan Boesak wants to circumvent Bishop Tutu and develop a ‘selective sanctions strategy ‘ rather than the repeatedly called-for comprehensive, mandatory sanctions that Tutu advocates. ”Boesak wants pressure placed on the South African Treasury by a refusal to roll over the country’s foreign debt repayments. ”If Boesak gets his way, and persuades the forum of 90-some Americans to use this strategy and Tutu’s mandatory sanctions are overruled, then a counter-attack presents itself. ”(It) has a superb chance of finally bringing to the limelight the fact that the strategy of punishment is a scheme of insanity whereby the poor and oppressed are being exploited and offered as fodder in an experi¬ment to not benefit society as a whole, but to sacrifice the innocent so that one particular element of that society can interpret and dominate. ”Boesak could be played against Tutu and vice-versa. Sanctions now defined could be shown to have not helped end apartheid, but to have sown it deeper into the consciousness of a struggling nation.”
Asked to comment on the correspondence yesterday, Van Rensburg declined, saying it was ”private”. ”I see many people and write many letters,” he said. ”I have no comment to make on correspondence between myself and persons that I deal with.” Describing his modus operandi, Harty gives examples of his organisation’s operations in various Third World regions such as the Phillipines, where he says, he helped foster ”the People’s Revolution” which brought Corazon Aquino into power. ”At present, we have projects in Angola, the middle-east and the Pacific Rim. Our interest in South Africa supercedes most of this activity because we feel that the ‘timing is right’ and with the ‘right’ activity we can succeed in abolishing sanctions.” Reference is made to people of ”like minds” to meet to build a ”team that can carry this venture to a victorious culmination”. Harty wanted to arrange a meeting between himself and FW de Klerk, in order to ”make arrangements for him to meet key members of Congress and other influential people in the government and the private sector.’ It has been established that Harty visited South Africa from June 10 to 16, and that he met Tom Boya, Sipho Zwane of Umsa and Tony Leon and Elliot Kretzmer of the Democratic Party, among others.
According to Leon, ”Harty spoke vaguely of the ‘upliftment programmes’ his organisation was involved in here. He also wanted to know about the Democratic Party’s policies, and requested a manifesto.” A letter dated July 31 received yesterday by one of the parties who met him in June Slates that he will return in September, and was currently involved in a ”non-white trading company to promote import and export”. The name of the company is Chamdor Commodities. ”Under the veil of Chamdor Commodity Services,” he wrote,” American businesses can keep domestic pressure groups happy and still participate in the RSA market through ‘ a sales channel with no commercial and political risks’ because they are guaranteed payment by the USA government at time of shipment” ”With the help of Pat Collins (former President Reagan’s Assistant Under Secretary of Energy, high ranking Republican with close contacts to President George Bush), we were able to obtain official United Stales approval and were given US Exim Bank credit privileges.”
Other projects he says he is involved in are concerned with liquor distribution, the setting up of maize mills and cosmetic companies. Prior to coming to South Africa in June he said: ”I will be coming with a mind armed with ammunition which Bishop Tutu and the others will find quite alarming.” In one of the letters to Van Rensburg, Harty says: ”The credibility that you have as being ‘a liberal’ who has opposed apartheid since its inception is paramount in this en· tire episode. Harty elaborates on his connections with in the Bush Administration, and letters sent by various senators. ”We have a great deal of influence with the Bush administration … as well as leaders throughout the world who espouse democratic ideals.” – Audrey Brown.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
