JOHANNESBURG: Janata Party President Subramaniam Swamy arrived here Wednesday from London in a private plane owned by British Businessman tiny row lands to attend the official opening of the South African Parliament.
Rowlands also accompanied Swamy and his delegation a spokesperson for the South African department of foreign affairs in Pretoria said on Thursday. The spokesperson said the Indian delegation had already held a meeting with the Zulu leader Gatsha Buthelezi.
The African national congress meanwhile has criticized Swamy’s intention to attend the official opening of parliament saying “we are especially flabbergasted that an Indian MP is going to be at the racist parliament when the ANC is organizing a demonstration and a counter people’s parliament in Cape Town at the same time.
The ANC international spokesman Yusuf Salojee said the ANC took take a “dim view” of foreign1s coming here to attend the official opening of a parliament “which has caused so much suffering for the black majority”.
Salojee also denied that the movement’s leaders Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu had met Swamy at the airport as he had claimed.
“What happened was that because Subramaniam Swamy was an acquaintance of Tambo in London Tambo and Sisulu did meet them purely on a personal note early on Wednesday in Johannesburg Tambo then invited them to the ANC headquarters”. “We are angry that Swamy is using his acquaintance with Tambo to justify is visit to a racist parliament”, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1992
