Debt that Pretoria 'must pay'

EVEN as South Africa's army is lauded for its peace-keeping role in the strife-torn 'homelands' a newly published book contains a reminder of its role during the 1980s in turning Mozambique and Angola into 'killing fields', writes Benjamin Pogrund . The army spearheaded South Africa's policy of regional destabilisation.

Barry Munslow, of the School of Politics and Communication at the University of Liverpool, says the people of these two countries suffered more than anyone from the struggle against apartheid, even compared with the black people of South Africa itself.

South Africa owes Mozambique and Angola an 'enormous moral debt' and the new democratic government to be elected this month must make 'every effort' to compensate them for 'the intolerable burden that they have carried for volunteering to be the rear base for the anti-apartheid struggle'.

Mr Munslow is among 17 experts who discussed sustainable development in post-apartheid South Africa at a conference at the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. Their papers are now published in a book, (Sustainable Development for a Democratic South Africa, edited by Ken Cole and published by Earthscan Publications Ltd, London), covering issues including jobs creation, energy, the courts, health, the media and education.

South Africa undoubtedly faces profound economic problems, Mr Munslow says. But comparison of the GNP per capita figures of dollars 2,500 ( pounds 1,700) for South Africa and dollars 80 for Mozambique shows the huge regional disparities in standards of living, even allowing for the gross inequalities within South Africa. He says the experiences of seeking peace in Angola and Mozambique can be applied to South Africa.

(Sustainable Development for a Democratic South Africa, edited by Ken Cole and published by Earthscan Publications Ltd, London)