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Vorster & Co. argue that under separate racial development the inhabitants of South West Africa, particularly the nonwhites, have never had it so good. Since 1964, when the program was initiated. South Africa has spent more than $200 million, much of it on Ovamboland, near the Angola border. During that time, the Ovambos have increased the number of teachers from 550 to 1,200, of schools from 130 to 220, and of pupils from 25,000 to 60,000 (nearly 60% of the school-age population). They have also acquired a $2.8 million hospital, and will soon receive $84 million for water supplies.
Of course, all the money does not go in one direction. Most of the $100 million-a-year diamond crop from the Skeleton Coast and offshore sea beds is harvested by South Africa's De Beers. The Pretoria government reaps roughly $50 million in taxes from diamond and other mining, including U.S. copper and zinc interests. An ambitious British-backed development in uranium mining is one of several new ventures in the region.
For the Best. Within South West Africa, the Bantustan plan and the World Court's decision have been greeted with responses ranging from indifference to incomprehension. Few of the 96,000 whites—chiefly Afrikaners, Germans and Britons—doubt that South African rule is for the best. Among blacks, there is tribal loyalty but no feeling of nationhood. Says Dr. Romanus Kapungu, a doctor in canon law from Rome University and chief councilor of the Kavango tribal authority: "If you asked most of our people, they wouldn't know what all the fuss is about."
That is undoubtedly true. So is Pretoria's contention that if a plebiscite was held, the vote would be overwhelming for continued South African rule. The whites are for it; the chiefs, who see its immediate benefits, are for it, and the tribesmen listen to the chiefs. Only outside force or the fall of South Africa's white-supremacist government could change the situation, and both are extremely remote possibilities.
* So named after the Namib Desert, a broiling blanket of sand where almost nothing can live but the gemsbok, an antelope-like creature that gets its moisture from desert grass.