Hews and Motes £14
and the ;'ortug.'.ece colonies Mac in the past been unfavorable to lortugal,
increased bradp with South Africa is being encouraged by the Portuguese
government* A recent article in Portugal's business newspaper called
for a "forceful injection of enthusiasm" "co step .xp  trade with South
Africa.
Development Proiec
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The Cabora bassa Dam project is a powerful symbol of the new
economic cooperation between South Africa and Portugal, with South
Africa having about a two-thirds stake in the financing of thc project.  The growing international campaign against the Cabora bassa
project has resulted in Portugal's virtual silence on two similar plane,
one in Angola and northern Manibia, the other in Mozambique on the South
African border.  The former, in Angola and Namibia, is the Ounene Fiver
ireject v/hich calls for the construction of a large number of dams and
hydroelectric plants and for the settlement of at least half a million
immigrants in the region.  The latter, in Mozambique, is the Massinger
Dam Project which will irrigate approximately 240,000 acres of land and
will serve as a railway bridge on the uourenco Marques-Rhodesia railway
line.  All three of those schc .ies are part; of what the Mozambican
Governor General referred to as the plan for an "inter-African power
transport grid", a grandiose plan to strengthen white power in the entire region of Southern Afrit
.. ^ Oo ,
Growing out of the need to suppress the expanding liberation movements, the Vorster-Oaetano alliance is now being successfully hindered
by African action.  In Mozambique, a South African mining company,
Comicmin, has already withdrawn its workers froa certain zones of Tete
province because it considered the Portuguese authorities incapable of
ensuring the physical security of the workers against the guerrillas.
The Johannesburg Star of May 20, 1972 recently carried an article suggesting that tiie apparent "goodncighborliness" uetween lortugal and South
Africa really conceals considerable anxiety about FRELIMO's activities
near the Cabora bassa Dai project.  The article said:
...These activities, it is reliably learned here, have
caused some disquiet in South Africa.  At least one contractor
working on the oroject is known to have made his protest felt
about v/hat he believes is a lack of protection from insurgent
mine laying operations.  No less important has oeen  the state
of morale of :aen  and their families at the dam site...It is
toointed out that some workers and their families (by no means
all South Africans) have chosen to opt out and return home.
The same sources make it clear that insurgent operations have
come as close as 20 Km. to the Cabora Bassa site, in spite of
official insistence that their range has never oeen  less than
60 Km.
The future military and political effectiveness of PRELIMO and
the other movements will draw" Portugal and South Africa even closer
in an attempt to tide the inevitable. The ability of these regimes
to hold out"will also depend on the backing each receives from the
U.S. and Europe. In spite of the opening quote they both need more
than themselves, for alone and isolated they would be sooner vulnerable
to the power of the African majority.