TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/021290/0212006.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.8 KB | 133 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 41

SOUTH AFRICA

At Least Half a Loaf


By legalizing the A.N.C. and pledging to free Mandela, De Klerk
leaves the antiapartheid movement to ponder negotiations


    State President F.W. de Klerk was still delivering his
opening-day speech before Parliament when an antiapartheid
leader interrupted a protest rally four blocks away to deliver
"a very important message." Some 3,000 demonstrators, massed
in searing sunshine across from the Cape Town city hall, fell
silent as she announced, "The A.N.C. has been unbanned." The
gathering seemed stunned at the news that the African National
Congress, the leading force in the fight against apartheid,
outlawed and in exile since 1960, would once again be a legal
participant in the nation's politics. Then someone shouted,
"Amandla!" (power), the battle cry of the movement, and the
crowd thundered back, "Awethu!" (is ours), and broke into a
chant, "A.N.C.! A.N.C.!"

    In his tensely awaited speech, De Klerk last week went a
long way toward accepting the demands listed by black
opposition groups as conditions for the start of talks on a new
constitution. Most important, he promised to release the
world's most famous prisoner, Nelson Mandela, now in his 28th
year of imprisonment, though he did not say when. De Klerk
legalized more than 60 banned organizations, lifted emergency
restrictions on the press and on 374 political activists,
suspended executions and put a six-month limit on detentions
without trial. He also promised to lift the remaining elements
of the state of emergency imposed in 1986 "as soon as
circumstances justify it." Said De Klerk: "The season of
violence is over. The time for reconstruction and
reconciliation has arrived."

    Although the government had made a "firm decision" to
release Mandela unconditionally and wanted to do so "without
delay," De Klerk said, there were "factors in the way,"
including considerations of his "personal circumstances and
safety." This sounds as if the government is still haunted by
its old fears of upheavals in the townships and possible
attempts on Mandela's life by extremists from left or right,
for which the government would inevitably be blamed. It is also
possible that De Klerk is still hoping for a formal
renunciation of violence from the A.N.C. In any case, black
leaders seemed confident that Mandela would be free in a matter
of weeks.

    It was not the whole loaf, but De Klerk's speech delivered
more than most veteran black leaders had expected. Popo Molefe,
Secretary-General of the United Democratic Front, the largest
domestic antiapartheid coalition, told the cheering Cape Town
crowd that of all the white leaders, "De Klerk has taken the
boldest step and is the most courageous." Anglican Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate, said the speech "has
certainly taken my breath away," and his fellow campaigner, the
Rev. Allan Boesak, was surprised "that he met so many of the
demands."

    Government leaders seemed convinced that De Klerk's
concessions would now lead to the bargaining table. Contacts
with black leaders will be "considerably broadened and
expanded," said Minister of Constitutional Development and
Planning Gerrit Viljoen. But he gave no specifics on how the
white government might be prepared to compromise on its own
fundamental policy of guaranteed rights for racial groups as
well as individuals.

    Jubilant crowds marched with A.N.C. banners in several
cities, but celebrations were short lived, giving way to second
thoughts about what remains to be done. U.D.F. spokesmen
pointed out that Mandela and other A.N.C. guerrillas remain in
prison and that if Oliver Tambo, the Congress's President, were
to return to South Africa, he could be arrested under
nonemergency laws such as the Internal Security Act. Patrick
Lekota, a U.D.F. leader, said the domestic opposition would
step up its defiance campaign and call for intensified
international pressure on Pretoria.

    The A.N.C. leadership's response was cool. In a statement
released in Stockholm, where Tambo is recuperating after a
stroke, the Congress said De Klerk's steps were important but
expressed concern that the state of emergency is still in place
and that some of the government's opponents would continue to
be detained. It said it would review the prospects for
negotiation, but in the meantime asked all countries not to do
"anything to lessen the isolation of the apartheid regime."

    Behind the stern talk, antiapartheid leaders conceded they
were searching for compromises that could get them to the
conference table. De Klerk has kept the final ace, the release
of Mandela, in his hand, and when he plays it, the antiapart
heid movement will feel heavy pressure to sit down and talk.
The question then will be whether any solution acceptable to
both the black majority and the white minority is negotiable.



By Bruce W. Nelan. Reported by Peter Hawthorne and Scott
MacLeod/ Cape Town.


____________________________________________________________
WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED

    In his speech, State President F.W. de Klerk met many of the
antiapartheid movement's conditions for negotiations on a new
constitution. He announced:

    1. The legalization of more than 60 opposition groups,
including the exiled African National Congress, the blacks-only
Pan-Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party and
the largest domestic coalition, the United Democratic Front.


    2. Nelson Mandela would soon be unconditionally released.

    3. State-of-emergency regulations would be relaxed.

    4. All executions were being suspended pending revision of
the laws on capital punishment.