12 June 1968, to the office of the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Tanzania

First and foremost I wish to congratulate Prime Minister Heath on his recent election win and wish your government the best. However, we have a pressing matter to discuss, that of the illegal and morally bankrupt apartheid occupation of South West Africa. Our land was assigned as a mandate to South Africa by the League of Nations, under the idea that they would nurture our people until we were ready for self-governance. Although the League is defunct, it’s successor upholds the same principles for our mandate, meaning that we the people of South West Africa have the right to independence once we can properly govern our lands.

To that end, the South West African People’s Organisation surely must satisfy the criteria. We operate a sophisticated party structure that engages in diplomatic meetings with recognised states; we enjoy wide support, from trade unions to the intelligentsia; we even have the beginnings of a professional armed force. The conditions of our mandate have been fulfilled, we are a self-governing people’s and under international law, we deserve to be treated as such. However, I understand that our independence from South Africa is a complex issue for Britain and are not expecting a declaration of the sort at this time.

What I wish to discuss is the unjust trial of 37 of our politicians on the false grounds of terrorism, despite never having set foot in a training camp nor firing a weapon. These men were in the towns of South West Africa, peacefully advocating for their right to be represented in their own country, to control their own futures. They were educating the masses on the political process, in the words of the mandate “preparing the population for self-rule”. The arrest and imprisonment of these men by South African authorities shows Pretoria’s desire to stifle the democratic will of the people and the development of governing capabilities, a clear violation of the mandate they’ve been entrusted with. Surely the government of Great Britain cannot allow this flagrant violation of the rules of the United Nations, an institution they pioneered. Washington has already promised to sponsor a bill condemning these actions.

What I ask today is that London join them in exerting the utmost pressure upon the South African government to ensure the release of these 37 political prisoners. Furthermore, I ask that you encourage Britain’s allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to do the same, to ensure that the international rule of law is upheld.