Margaret Thatcher was United Kingdom’s prime minister from
1979 to 1990. She was the first and only female prime minister in the UK. I
have a lot of admiration for her because of what she accomplished during her
tenure as prime minister. I am a conservative, so I would describe her and late
U.S. President Ronald Reagan as my role models. Some foreign policies of
Baroness Thatcher have been reviewed following the announcement of her death,
but the one that caught my attention was the apartheid policy. The current U.K.
Prime Minister David Cameron who belongs to the conservative party (same as
Baroness Thatcher) apologized for her apartheid policies and voiced his
disagreement. I am an African, the word apartheid only bring back bad memories
of fellow Africans being discriminated against in their own homeland. Anyone
who supported such a regime must be racist and doesn’t deserve to be admired or
respected by me. But I admire and respect the late Baroness, so I had to find
out myself what her true position was on apartheid.
The claim that
Baroness Thatcher supported the apartheid regime isn’t completely true; she
made it clear in several speeches that the discrimination policies of apartheid
regime should stop. She also voiced her belief that everyone should be treated
equal no matter the color of their skin while criticizing the apartheid regime.
When Botha, the apartheid South African leader visited her in Chequers, she
advised him to change his discrimination policy. Some asked why she received Botha
while other world leaders were rejecting him; I don’t think it was a show of
support for the regime but her belief that talking to him might help the
situation. Let’s not forget, it was the late Baroness who convinced Ronald
Reagan to talk to Gorbachev during times when tensions were high between the
Soviets and the U.S. She received ANC leaders such as Desmond Tutu and Nelson
Mandela after he was freed while she served as prime minister
The failure to support the enforcement of
economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa has also been
raised as evidence of Thatcher’s support for apartheid. I disagree with her on
this issue because if Britain had supported the sanctions, apartheid might have
ended earlier. But I might also be wrong and she might be right. She was
against sanctions because she believed sanctions would only harden the heart of
apartheid leaders of South Africa and the people who would suffer most are poor
blacks. We have seen many sanctions implemented against countries such as Iran,
North Korea, Iraq, Syria and Zimbabwe. How effective have these sanctions being?
They did not change the policies of these governments; we could say they have
only hardened their hearts. The people who are bearing the brunt of these
sanctions are the poor people in these countries. We conclude that Margaret
could have been right about her position on economic sanctions. She might have
also done it to
The branding
of African national congress (‘ANC’) as a terrorist organization by her
administration has been pointed as an evidence of her support for the apartheid
regime. The major reason why she branded ANC as a terrorist organization was
because they carried out attacks on both military and civilians and their
families. Some of ANC’ victims were also blacks. A lot of innocent people
suffered during this attacks and this led Thatcher to brand ACN as a terrorist
organization. Baroness Thatcher opposed people who killed other innocent people
no matter the cause they were fighting for. Her treatment of Northern Ireland
and Iran hostage crisis are evidence of hatred of political violence no matter
the purpose. And I agreed with her that bloodshed wasn’t the right way, no one
has the right to shed innocent blood in the name of liberation. I totally disagree
with her decision to brand ANC as a terrorist organization because they were an
organization seeking the liberation of the black people in South Africa.
Baroness Thatcher wasn't a racist, but a woman
who believed that dialogue was the way forward in South Africa. She demanded the release of Mandela and promised she would not visit South Africa unless he was released. In 1989, she paid a six day visit to different countries in Southern Africa but did not visit South Africa because Mandela wasn't released. She also demanded the release of of other 'ANC' leaders such as Walter Sisulu and Oscar Mpetha before any dialogue could take place. Baroness
Thatcher was slow to act in South Africa; not because she was racist but
because she thought the best approach was dialogue. The end of the apartheid
came about through dialogue just like she had proposed. Margaret Thatcher might not have been as aggressive as she should have been with the apartheid regime but it doesnt mean she supported it.
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