1980s

AA News headlined UDF leader Murphy Morobe’s appeal for support for the new defiance campaign rocking South Africa. Its editorial condemned the planned cricket tour of South Africa by a team led by England cricketer Mike Gatting and welcomed the ‘Conference for a Democratic Future’ bringing together a wide range of anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa. It reported on a meeting between a delegation from the UDF with Prime Minister Thatcher and on COSATU’s support for the Mass Democratic Movement. On Namibia, it carried a special report of a visit by Glenys Kinnock to monitor preparations for the country’s independence elections.

Namibia’s November election was a historic milestone in the Southern African freedom struggle, proclaimed AA News. The newspaper’s editorial called for pressure on British banks to refuse to reschedule South Africa’s debt. It hailed the launch of the Southern African Coalition in September as the largest ever grouping of British organisations opposed to apartheid. It reported that South Africa’s two-day stay away to protest against the whites-only elections was the most widely supported in the country’s history. In a special feature, Delmas treason trialist Tseko Simon Nkoli described his experiences as a gay anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner in South Africa.

This issue hailed the release of Walter Sisulu and seven other long-term political prisoners from Robben Island. It condemned the decision by international banks to issue a new loan to South Africa and reported on a meeting between South African church leaders and President de Klerk. The Wales Rugby Union finally severed its links with the South African Rugby Board after a 30-year campaign by Welsh anti-apartheid activists. AA News deplored Prime Minister John Major's meeting with UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. It featured the case of the Upington 14, sentenced to death for their presence at a demonstration when a policeman was killed.  

AA News hailed SWAPO’s election victory in Namibia as a new phase in the anti-apartheid struggle. It again exposed Israeli-South African collaboration in developing nuclear missiles. It condemned the new deal by international banks to continue lending to South Africa. In an exclusive interview, Walter Sisulu thanked supporters of the international solidarity movement for campaigning for the release of South African political prisoners. The newspaper exposed the Thatcher government’s refusal to back the sanctions measures imposed by the Commonwealth at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur. A report by Ian Bray featured South Africa’s proxy war in Mozambique.