How South Africa Aided Savimbi's Guerrillas
Whereas
the FNLA troops effectively disintegrated after losing the civil war,
on the contrary, the UNITA troops re-grouped and launched guerrilla
warfare against the victorious MPLA. Immensely aided by South Africa,
Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA followers established guerrilla bases in
the forests of central and southern Angola - the provinces the MPLA
government has hardly any control over.
In its relentless effort to destabilise the Angola government, South
Africa devised a strategy of sustaining the MPLA-UNITA civil war. Under
the pretext of pursuing SWAPO guerrillas (nationalist freedom fighters
of the South African-occupied Namibia), South African armed forces
invaded southern Angola and remained there. But the real reason behind
the invasion to prop up Savimbi's UNITA and hence to
bog down Angola in perpetual belligerence. South Africa provided
Savimbi with military equipment, logistics, transport, propaganda and
public relations facilities, and sometimes troops.
Jonas Savimbi
South African withdrawal definitely meant the effective collapse of
UNITA's military muscle-the cover under which Savimbi claimed that he
controled a large portion of Angola's territory.
Due to the presence of South African troops in Angola and a possible
massive invasion of Angola by South Africa, and to a lesser extent the
guerrilla activities of UNITA, the MPLA government decided to retain
the Cuban soldiers in Angola. In his prolific propaganda, Savimbi gave
the impression that his troops were almost daily fighting Cubans-
whatever the validity of the claim.
South Africa complicated Angola's problems further by refusing to
negotiate Namibia's independence before the Cuban troops were withdrawn
from Angola. Is the MPLA government gullible enough to succumb to such
a trick?
National Movements and New States in Africa