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This issue led on COSATU’s call for a general strike following the Boipatong massacre and the breakdown of negotiations. Natal rural development worker Thabi Shange told AA News how South African women were shielding their families from political violence. Sadie Forman wrote about women’s attempts to change patriarchal attitudes within the ANC. A centre spread catalogued Inkatha’s township massacres. AA News reported on the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique. It recorded the historic decision by the South African Council of Churches to disobey ‘unjust laws’.

AA News headlined the ANC’s refusal to resume negotiations until the South African Government ended political violence. Gerald O’Sullivan reported on the ICJ’s fact-finding mission on the breakdown of law and order in Natal. British trade union leaders told AA News about their recent visits to South Africa. In an interview, NUMSA General Secretary Moses Mayekiso called for the maintenance of sanctions. A centre spread reviewed ongoing trade union struggles in South Africa.

AA News exposed the South African Government’s renewed support for UNITA, in breach of international agreements on Angola. It reported on British trade union support for an Emergency Fund for Peace and Democracy in South Africa. Dave Craine highlighted the importance of continuing financial sanctions. Mike Terry explained how the impasse in negotiations had been broken by a meeting between Nelson Mandela and Prime Minister de Klerk. Geoffrey Bindman reported on hopes for the release of South Africa’s last political prisoners. 

This issue led on the UN Security Council’s condemnation of UNITA in Angola and the resumption of civil war. It reported on the continued stalling of negotiations for a new South African constitution and on the Goldstone Commission’s enquiry into ‘black on black’ violence. The first in a new series looked at the Bophuthatswana Bantustan. In Britain, AA News featured the Anti-Racist Alliance’s campaign against the Asylum Bill, which would take away the right of appeal for visitors refused a visa at their port of entry.

AA News headlined de Klerk’s admission that South Africa had developed a nuclear bomb. It announced the resumption of negotiations for a new constitution in South Africa. It reported on the ANC international solidarity conference held in Johannesburg in February and publicised an AAM conference ‘Southern Africa: Making Hope a Reality’, planned for June. Sean O’Donovan explained the ANC’s plans for a transition to democracy. The ANC’s Popo Molefe told AA News that voter education was key to ensuring free and fair elections.

AA News listed points of conflict to be resolved before South African elections proposed for 27 April 1994 could go ahead. It reported on the latest developments in the search for peace in Mozambique and Angola. In the third in its series on South Africa’s Bantustans, it looked at KwaZulu and the growth of the Inkatha Freedom Movement.  The newspaper pictured Nelson Mandela’s visit to the family of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence and carried tributes to Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani. 

‘Election breakthrough’ proclaimed this issue, announcing 27 April 1994 as the date of South Africa’s first one person one vote. It carried a four-page feature on the AAM’s conference ‘Southern Africa: Making Hope a Reality’. SADC (Southern Africa Development Conference) Secretary Dr Simba Makoni told AA News that regional growth must be a post-apartheid priority. The newspaper reported on the delay in holding elections in Mozambique and on ‘the worst war in the world’ in Angola.

AA News led on the UN Security Council’s condemnation of UNITA for re-igniting the civil war in Angola. It reported on escalating political violence in South Africa in the run-up to the April 1994 election and on the launch of the AAM’s international campaign for free and fair elections. It urged the UN to send a big observer mission to the South African election. Alan Brooks reported on COSATU’s Programme for Economic Reconstruction and Development. COSATU General Secretary Jay Naidoo previewed COSATU’s Special Congress.