HC Deb 05 November 1986 vol 103 cc450-1W
Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn of 23 October, Official Report, columns 973–74, he will list the official contacts since March 1983 with black leaders in South Africa generally and in homelands other than Bophuthatswana in particular.

Mrs. Chalker

Ministers and officials have had many official contacts with black leaders in South Africa since 1983. A comprehensive list is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn of 27 October, what evidence he has of a multiracial society in Bophuthatswana.

Mrs. Chalker

The policy of apartheid applied in other parts of South Africa does not appear to be applied within Bophuthatswana; but the latter's creation was itself an expression of the South African Government's policy of "grand apartheid".

Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn of 27 October what are the latest figures he has of the actual financial dependence of Bophuthatswana on South Africa.

Mrs. Chalker

I cannot add to the answer that I gave my hon. Friend on 29 October, at column 171.

Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn of 27 October, what efforts he has made to inspect the budget of Bophuthatswana to discover the actual dependence of Bophuthatswana on South Africa.

Mrs. Chalker

None.

Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if further to his answer to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn of 27 October, he will state the evidence to support his contention that the existence of Bophuthatswana is an expression of the practice of apartheid in South Africa as a whole.

Mrs. Chalker

Bophuthatswana was created by the South African Government to further their policy of separate development.

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