- Title: BOPHUTHATSWANA: HOMELAND LEADER VOWS TO FIGHT RE-INCORPORATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
- Date: 5th December 1993
- Summary: MMABATHO, BOPHUTHATSWANA, SOUTH AFRICA (DECEMBER 5, 1993) 1. GVS GROWD INSIDE STADIUM (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. SV BAND PLAYING 0.20 3. GV PRESIDENT LUCAS MANGOPE WALKING ONTO DAIS 0.33 4. CU MANGOPE SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.32 5. SV MANGOPE SUPPORTERS SINGING 1.36 6. SV PULLOUT MANGOPE DANCING WITH SUPPORTERS 1.45 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 4: MANGOPE: "IS IT UNREASONABLE THAT WE WANT TO BE GOVERNED BY OUR OWN KIND AND NOT BY STRANGERS FROM FAR AWAY, WHO MAY NEVER HAVE EVEN BEEN TO OUR COUNTRY AND WHO CERTAINLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND US OR OUR NEEDS? WE ARE WELL AWARE OF THE WILD AND UNREALISTIC PROMISES BEING MADE TO OUR PEOPLE BY THE COMMUNIST AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS. WE KNOW ALL ABOUT THEIR DEVIOUS NOCTURNAL ACTIVITIES AND THE RUMOURS THEY ARE SPREADING. MOST OF OUR PEOPLE WILL DISMISS THESE EFFORTS AT UNDERMINING THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE AND THE BOPHUTHATSWANA GOVERNMENT WITH THE CONTEMPT THEY DESERVE. TO THOSE WHO MAY BE WAIVERING I SAY "LOOK AROUND YOU, AND COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 20th December 1993 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MMABATHO, BOPHUTHATSWANA
- Reuters ID: LVACL2NXWXDCKM2PU5GU4Z3HA27M
- Story Text: The leader of the Bophuthatswana black homeland vowed on Sunday (December 5) to fight reincorporation into South Africa.
Speaking at celebrations marking the homeland's 16th and possibly last anniversary of "independence" president Lucas Mangope told several thousand people at Independence Stadium in the capital, Mmabatho, to look around and count their blessings. He warned that the "communist" African National Congress (ANC) of Nelson Mandela would act as a dictatorship if it came to power and said even without international support Bophuthatswana was better off on its own.
More than 12 million black South Africans live in "homelands" set up by the former white Apartheid regime. Some were granted "self-government" but outside South Africa their independence has never been recognised. Two -- Transkei and Venda -- say they are ready to return to South African rule under the new democratic constitution now being negotiated in multi-party talks, but Mangope and Brigadier Oupa Gqozo, the military ruler of the Ciskei homeland, oppose the ANC and reject the idea of re-incorporation into South Africa.
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