JOHANNESBURG, Reuter: South Africa cracked on the country’s biggest antiapartheid movement, the United Democratic Front (UDF), by blocking its access to foreign funds
The UDF said it would go to court to fight the move, the latest in a tough campaign against internal dissent since Pretoria imposed a national state of emergency last June.
“We are definitely proceeding with a legal application to have this decision set aside”, UDF treasurer Azar Cachalia told a news conference.
In an order published in the Government Gazette, President P.W, Botha declared the two million strong multiracial movement an “affected organization”, making it illegal for the UDF to seek or receive funds from foreign.
Lawyers said the affected organizations act empowered law and order minister Louis Le Grange to make a detailed probe of UDF finances and activities and speculated that it could pave the way for a total ban on the organization,
Cachalia said he feared the next step would be a ban but he was adamant that this order would not cripple the UDF, a loose coalition of about 600 groups that has led opposition to government policies since it founded in 1983.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 17, 1986
