Confusion over South African visas put paid to a meeting of Nigerian opposition groups in Johannesburg, writes Justin Pearce
A CONFERENCE in Johannesburg intended to bring together the fragmented Nigerian opposition groups had to be put on hold after the majority of the delegates failed to obtain visas to come to South Africa. The prospective delegates who failed to get visas included Owen Saro-Wiwa, brother of executed dissident Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.
A scaled-down conference went ahead in Johannesburg, as well as a parallel conference in Oslo in Norway which was organised at the last moment after the delegates could not obtain South African visas.
Speaking at the Johannesburg meeting last Friday, Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, a vocal critic of Sani Abacha’s military regime expressed disappointment at what he saw as the South African government’s failure to support the conference.
The ANC and Cosatu, who had discussions with the support group leading up to the conference, have both said they did not wish to stand in the way of the conference, though they had reservations about the way the conference was conceived.
Insiders at the Department of Foreign Affairs claimed that when approached by the South Africa-Nigeria Democracy Support Group in connection with the visas, the department had referred the request to Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, who in turn referred the applications to the ANC, which did not give the go- ahead until the eleventh hour. ANC deputy secretary general Cheryl Carolus strongly denied this, saying that the issuing of visas had nothing to do with the ANC.
Carolus said she had been told by South African ambassador to Nigeria George Nene a few days before the conference that no visa applications had been received by the embassy in Lagos, even though the South African government had given the go-ahead for the visas to be issued.
Those people who were to attend from inside Nigeria faced the problem of hounding by security forces which would have prevented them from showing their faces at a foreign embassy
Support group chair Raks Seakhoa expressed surprise that the visas had been delayed saying “at no stage did the government indicate to us that there would be problems with the visas.”
Other members of the support group echo Soyinka’s suggestions that the government had let down the Nigerian democratic movement by withholding visas until it was too late.
On March 20 the support group was summoned to Cape Town for a meeting with members of the ANC’s National Working Committee and Cosatu officials.
Two members of the support group — Earthlife Africa representative Richard Sherman and Freedom of Expression Institute representative Rashid Galant — told the Mail & Guardian that during the meeting Cyril Ramaphosa had left for a few minutes and then told the support committee members: “The president has asked me to prevail upon you not to let this conference go ahead.”
Ramaphosa could not be contacted to comment on this allegation.
“The support group is a civil society initiative. We can’t be expected to engage on government’s terms,” said Galant.
While the ANC says it had no objections to the conference going ahead, it is clear the decision to hold it was delicate.
Blade Nzimande said South Africa was party to Commonwealth initiatives to bring about democracy in Nigeria including building democratic forces within Nigeria.
Nzimande said the ANC was concerned that the conference concentrated on exiles to the exclusion of activists in Nigeria, a concern which was echoed by Cosatu’s Mxolisi Dlamini. Nzimande emphasised however that “the ANC was not against the meeting going ahead. We had discussions with the Nigerian comrades about shaping, though not dictating, the nature of the conference.”
He said the ANC was not responsible for the failure of prospective delegates to obtain visas, saying this was the responsibility of the organisers. There is clear evidence of chaos in the planning of the conference, which was organised jointly by groups in South Africa and the United Kingdom, with delegates from inside Nigeria facing logistical problems of their own.
The organisations which did manage to get to the meetings in Johannesburg and Oslo resolved to work together on matters of common interest in the restoration of democracy in Nigeria, but the original aim of achieving a united front for democracy has yet to be met.
Rights row over death of prisoner
Philippa Garson and Ricardo Dunn
RIGHTWING supporters of convicted bomber Lood van Schalkwyk, who died in custody two weeks ago, are campaigning for his death to be taken up as a human rights issue.
But human rights organisations, who have yet to be approached, have not taken up his cause. And questions remain about whether his death was a result of medical negligence or not.
Lawyers for Human Rights spokesman Laura Pollecut said her organisation had not been approached to take up the issue but would call for in investigation if an inquest found that negligence over his medical care had occurred.
Human Rights Commission deputy commissioner Shirley Mabusela said it was imperative that the rights of prisoners be protected but no investigation could be conducted by the HRC until its powers were gazetted later this month. “Soon we will have powers to act in instances like this.”
Van Schalkwyk, who had been seriously ill for some time, died in custody two weeks ago in the HF Verwoerd hospital after a gall- bladder operation.
An independent doctor, Tinus Maarten, who examined Van Schalkwyk at the request of his family, said the delay in medical treatment contributed to his death, contradicting a post mortem finding that he died of natural causes.
Maarten said he intended taking up the issue with the International Red Cross Society and was prepared to participate in a public debate about Van Schalkwyk’s death. “We are going to push this as far as the Biko family did over the death of Steve Biko. Fair is fair.”
Correctional Services spokesman Chris Olckers said his department respected the clinical independence of the district surgeon and could not comment on the nature of the medical treatment he received.
Added Olckers: “He was an ill man at the time that he was in the department’s care. He received a heart bypass in a private hospital by a private doctor which the state paid for. This is indicative of the quality care he received.”
A state doctor who admitted Van Schalkwyk to hospital two days before his death said he had been receiving treatment for pain and nausea and had undergone tests in the weeks preceding his death. Van Schalkwyk was apparently warned of the risks of undergoing a gallbladder operation given his severe heart condition.