Seventh Session of the OAU Ad Hoc Committee of Heads of State on Southern Africa

"It is crucial to remember that the whole struggle against Apartheid is a matter of restitution of the fundamental rights of the African majority, including the right to vote. This would confer on them a place in the main steam of political life. So far, however, the regime has continued to employ the main weapon which it has used over the years against the Black majority. This is the Constitution, from which all Apartheid laws have derived their legitimacy. It follows, therefore, that the determination that substantive and irreversible repudiation of Apartheid has been effected can be made only when a Constitution, in whose elaboration the representatives of the presently disenfranchised majority have participated, comes into force, subsequent to a progress of genuine negotiations."