Several sections of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, called, in a memorandum submitted Wednesday to the party’s Secretariat in Johannesburg, for the strengthening of bilateral relations with Morocco and to recognize the invaluable support of the Kingdom in the fight against apartheid.
“We call on the ANC to recognize Morocco’s pioneering support for the fight against apartheid, as recognized by President Nelson Mandela in his speeches, his books, his magazines and through several visits to Morocco,” underline the signatories of this manifesto of which MAP has obtained a copy.
They recall, thus, that at the time, before the independence of Algeria and the establishment of training programs in this country, the freedom fighters of the Algerian Liberation Army and the ANC , including Nelson Mandela himself, received training in Morocco.
This unequivocal support provided by the Kingdom, they boast, also consisted of financial and military assistance to the African National Congress and the creation of its military branch “uMKhonto WeSizwe”. It is also manifested in political support, through the reception of the ANC office and political promotion during the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), of which Morocco is a founding member, after the Casablanca Conference, which provided, among other things, strong and clear support for the fight against colonialism and apartheid, note the signatories of the Memorandum.
The ANC and South Africa, they emphasize, should seek ways to improve their strategic engagement with Morocco, in order to coordinate policies and programs for the benefit of African people and achieve the objectives of the Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the Progressive Agenda of the two like-minded countries.
Today, Morocco is an important economic player on the continent and home to significant South African investments and businesses, the signatories note. He added that greater synergies between the two countries can help realize the national economic interests of the people of the two countries and unlock the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Referring to the question of the Sahara, sections of the ANC affirm that the majority of African countries recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces. They therefore urge South Africa to continually call for a peaceful resolution of the dispute created around the Moroccan Sahara and to refrain from supporting parties who call for military actions. “The ANC and South Africa should support the conclusions of the Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 2756 adopted on October 30, 2024, which calls on Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the +polisario+ to negotiate good faith and in a spirit of compromise and to sit down around the Round Table to achieve a just, equitable and mutually acceptable political solution,” say the signatories.
The Memorandum adds that the ANC and South Africa should take stock and draw lessons from the great international support for the Moroccan Sahara Autonomy Initiative, which aims to resolve this artificial dispute, specifying that “more than 110 United Nations member countries support this Initiative.
And to conclude that “South Africa must call on Algeria, Mauritania and the +polisario+, as requested by the United Nations Security Council, to examine the Moroccan proposal for autonomy, submitted in 2007 to end the deadlock.
Alongside the delivery of this Memorandum to the ANC Secretariat, demonstrators gathered on Wednesday in front of the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg, to, they say, express their dissatisfaction with the ANC’s diplomatic approach to the with regard to Morocco.
