Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/081792/08179910.000

Text File | 1993-04-08 | 2KB | 42 lines

                                                                                THE WEEK, Page 15

WORLD

Marching to Pretoria


The A.N.C. sends De Klerk a message -- from below his window


    In its campaign to take power from the white government,
South Africa's black majority has two main weapons: mass protest
and international pressure. Most economic and sports sanctions
imposed from abroad have now been lifted -- as South Africa's
participation in the Barcelona Olympics attests -- so Nelson
Mandela and his African National Congress have increased their
efforts at home.

    After a two-day general strike by millions of black
workers last week, the A.N.C. and its allies in the trade unions
and the Communist Party turned up the heat with marches in
several cities. Most dramatic was the peaceful turnout in
Pretoria, the heart of Afrikanerdom and the administrative
capital of the country, where 70,000 marchers drew up in the
park below President F.W. de Klerk's office and chanted, "De
Klerk must go!" Said A.N.C. secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa:
"Next time, Mr. De Klerk, we are going to be inside."

    In his speech to the marchers, Mandela made it clear that
the protest was not intended actually to topple the President
but to press him into faster movement toward a multiracial
interim government. "We have not come here to gloat," he said.
"We are here to take South Africa along the road to peace and
democracy." De Klerk said later he had been talking privately
with the A.N.C. and was "confident that negotiations will be
resumed."