South Africa has missed another deadline, and broken yet another promise, to formally recognise the exiled government of the Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony.
Neighbouring Morocco occupied two-thirds of the Western Sahara after Spain, the former colonial power, withdrew in 1976. The Organisation for African Unity (OAU) and a majority of member states recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) government, headquartered in Algeria, as the legitimate representative of the territory’s people.
Since Spanish colonial times the African National Congress has been close to the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement. The ANC as a party supports recognition of the SADR. But, out of step with its own constituency, the ANC-in-government has repeatedly delayed recognition. A second written promise since 1995, made last year by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has come to naught.
Sceptics say that behind the South African paralysis is a vexatious choice between diplomatic expediency, money and morality.
Sahrawi officials, desperate to have South Africa on board when the African Union (AU) is launched to replace the OAU in Durban next month, are growing increasingly frustrated and vocal. The United Nations Security Council is considering options for the Western Sahara that would retreat from long-standing promises of an independence referendum. Sahrawi authorities are rallying all possible support to prevent that.
Morally, senior South African government officials seem to agree with the Sahrawi cause. At the ANC 1997 national conference in Mafikeng, President Thabo Mbeki remarked that “the aspirations of the peoples of Palestine, Western Sahara and East Timor [have] not yet been fulfilled”. He said: “We kept these matters in sight because we are the ANC.”
But both South Africa’s post-apartheid presidents, Nelson Mandela and Mbeki, have failed to implement formal promises to recognise the Sahrawi republic.
Mandela angered Sahrawi supporters when, shortly after his inauguration in 1994 and en route to an OAU summit in Tunis, he stopped in the Moroccan capital Rabat to meet the then king, Hassan II. Rumours still do the rounds that the ANC accepted campaign funding from the king — a figure of $13-million is mentioned — and that this may have influenced the government’s stance.
Morocco has played the diplomatic game well: it has persuaded France and the United States, both acutely aware of Morocco’s physical and diplomatic proximity to Europe, that ending the occupation will increase instability. More recently the “war on terror” and the West’s hunger for “moderate” Arab and Islamic allies has arguably strengthened Morocco’s hand.
And the Arab monarchies — particularly Saudi Arabia’s royal family — will go to any lengths to shore up the shaky throne of Morocco’s Mohammed VI, the son and successor of Hassan II.
One of Mbeki’s closest advisers on North Africa explains: “South Africa wants to be in step with the overwhelming majority of African states who recognise or support the SADR. But in doing so we risk alienating the entire Arab world except Algeria.”
Thus Morocco had a number of counters to call in when, in June 1995, Mandela wrote to the Sahrawis: “With a view to consolidating the relationship and deepening the friendship between our peoples I have issued instructions for steps to be taken immediately to establish diplomatic relations between South Africa and the Sahrawi Republic.”
Among those urging Mandela to stay his hand was Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, another recipient of Moroccan financial aid. Arafat’s argument, echoed by then French president Francois Mitterrand and then UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was that the repeatedly delayed referendum on the future of the occupied territory was “just around the corner”.
When in May last year Dlamini-Zuma made another written commitment to recognise the SADR, the Arab states again appealed to Mandela. He asked the government to stall the recognition while he visited Morocco to pay his condolences on the earlier death of Hassan II. At the same time, President Jacques Chirac of France and UN secretary general Kofi Annan repeated the now increasingly empty assurance that “a referendum is just around the corner”.
As a result, Mbeki sent South Africa’s ambassador to Algeria, Mo Shaik, to ask the Sahrawis to be patient until the latest last December. That deadline has passed and Sahrawi officials say they are still in the dark in spite of repeated requests for clarification.
Last October Mbeki confirmed at a press conference: “Yes, you are right we have agreed to recognise the SADR. I have discussed the matter with the [secretary general] of the Polisario Front and the president of the SADR and we agreed that we needed to move to work together to respond to the latest positions adopted by the UN Security Council.”
Mbeki reaffirmed his commitment to “the inalienable right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination” and to “the holding of a self-determination referendum under the auspices of the UN with co-operation of the OAU/AU”.
As OAU/AU host in Durban next month, Mbeki faces the embarrassment of greeting SADR President Mohamed Abdelaziz without recognising the state he represents.
Abdelaziz’s impatience was apparent in an interview at his headquarters near Tindouf in western Algeria earlier this month: “Mbeki notified us as late as last July that the principle of recognition has been decided. Only the formality remains. South Africa told us that some circles have requested a delay of three to four months. Those circles said the delay would give some time for the implementation of the referendum.
“We are now well beyond that delay. Since then, the Moroccans have actually renounced the referendum itself. Clearly the Moroccans are using the delay as a gimmick to gain time to legitimate the fait accompli and their illegal occupation of Western Sahara.
“We feel now that any delay requested to implement the referendum has come to an end. The time is therefore ripe for South Africa to formalise the decision that it has taken but has not yet made official.”