Government

This memorandum from the Liaison Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movements of the European Community expressed concern about the EC’s plan to send a high-level troika of government ministers to South Africa. It proposed terms of reference for the mission. The Liaison Committee was set up in the late 1980s to co-ordinate anti-apartheid action in the European Community.

After the lifting of the bans on the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, the AAM argued that the British government should press President de Klerk to create a climate conducive to negotiations. This submission to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee called for the maintenance of sanctions and the recognition of the central role of the African National Congress.

In the immediate aftermath of the lifting of the bans on the liberation movements in February 1990, the AAM accused the British government of allowing President de Klerk to dictate the scope and pace of change. This memorandum showed how Britain was encouraging the apartheid government to hold out for a constitution that fell short of universal suffrage in a united South Africa. It argued that the lifting of the State of Emergency and release of political prisoners were essential to create a climate conducive to genuine negotiations.

Submission to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee showing Britain’s failure to enforce the limited restrictive measures it had placed on trade and investment in South Africa.

This memorandum to the Foreign Office and Overseas Development Administration described the impact of apartheid on the countries of the Southern African region. It argued that Britain had a special responsibility to help them overcome the legacy of aggression and destabilisation.

Memorandum prepared for a meeting with Lynda Chalker, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, in May 1993. It asked the government to put more pressure on the Pretoria government to end the violence in South Africa. In the aftermath of the murder of Chris Hani, it urged the government to press for a breakthrough in negotiations and to stress that the only acceptable outcome was a universal franchise in a united South Africa.

Lynda Chalker was MP for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992 and served as a minister in successive Conservative governments from 1979 to 1997. Since 1992 she has sat in the House of Lords as Baroness Chalker of Wallasey. As Minister of State in the Foreign Office from 1986 to 1997, her responsibilities included relations with Africa and the Commonwealth and she was one of the key figures in the British government’s relations with South Africa in the period 1986–94. From 1989 she served as Minister for Overseas Development. Baroness Chalker now travels widely in Africa as Chair of the consultancy Africa Matters.   

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Frank Judd was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1979. During the 1966–70 Labour government he was one of a group of Labour MPs who opposed the government’s attempts to reach a settlement with the illegal regime in Rhodesia that fell short of majority rule. He was also on the Executive Committee of the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné. He served as a Minister in the 1974–79 Labour government. Since 1991 he has sat in the House of Lords as Baron Judd of Portsea.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by Christabel Gurney in 2000.