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[On the morning of January 30, 1981, South African troops attacked and killed a number of ANC refugees in Matola, Mozambique. The following is from an address by Mr. Tambo to thousands of members and supporters of the ANC in Maputo.]
The crime perpetrated against the people of Mozambique and the people of South Africa, members of the ANC in this city has a lesson for us. It was unprovoked. It was not covered by any of the normal excuses for aggression. There have never been ANC camps in Mozambique. There are residences like everywhere else in the world. If residences are liable to attack let us be told. We have not yet been told that every white household, every residence occupied by families in South Africa is such a base or camp. If the qualification to make a house a camp is that the people living in it can use a gun, we need to know.
There is no reason why this regime should be tolerated any more. Our resolve is a calm resolve. It is a cool resolve. It acknowledges that we are dealing with a kind of Hitler here, with fascism and Nazism. It is merciless, it is strong even, it can yet put up a fight. But let us rise like one man, as one people, to overthrow that regime.
The people of South Africa, the African National Congress and its allies, will lead in that assault. The onslaught that Botha and Malan have been crying about has been precipitated by their own recalcitrance and intransigence, by the deaf ears that they have paid to the appeals of the international community. Let there be that onslaught! What is the alternative? Mozambique will never grow, Zimbabwe will never - for as long as there is oppression and racist domination in South Africa we shall not know independence. And the enemy is attacking: Let us Reply!
ES Reddy