TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/122589/12258900.025

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 4KB | 64 lines

WORLD, Page 28

SOUTH AFRICA

Meeting of Different Minds

Plagued by feuding colleagues, Mandela confers with De Klerk


    From his prison quarters in South Africa's wine-producing
region near Paarl, Nelson Mandela has been conducting a quiet
diplomatic campaign. Last July he accepted an invitation from his
adversary, former President P.W. Botha, for a historic face-to-face
meeting. Mandela has since received a series of visitors at the
Victor Verster Prison Farm, where he is serving his 26th year of
a life sentence for plotting to overthrow white rule. Most of his
powwows have been with leaders of rival antigovernment groups. But
last week Mandela, 71, a leader of the banned African National
Congress (A.N.C.), traveled under escort 30 miles to Cape Town for
his first meeting with Botha's successor, President F.W. de Klerk.
By granting his request for a meeting, De Klerk signaled that
Mandela will play a crucial role in proposed negotiations aimed at
giving black South Africans the right to vote.

    Mandela's prison dialogue with the government on one side and
antiapartheid forces on the other is making him ever more
indispensable in efforts to bridge the gap between the country's
5 million whites and 26 million blacks. "He is the man who can
create a basis upon which the authorities and the liberation
movement can come to terms," says Yusuf Cachalia, a veteran
antiapartheid activist.

    Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee said the two men explored "ways
and means to address the current obstacles in the way of meaningful
dialogue." The government did not say when it might release
Mandela, muting hopes of a Christmas homecoming, but Coetsee said
De Klerk wants to resume talks with Mandela next year.

    Not all of Mandela's A.N.C. comrades were pleased by the
exchange. Many were similarly disgruntled over the July meeting
with Botha, an encounter of less import, considering that Botha was
a lame duck. Some A.N.C. members seem to object to Mandela's taking
a supreme role in the organization, officially headed by the ailing
Oliver Tambo, 72. Still, none suggested that Mandela had
compromised the A.N.C. goal of one-man, one-vote black majority
rule, although younger militants are afraid that he has grown too
soft and too accommodating. The group officially opposes talks with
the government until several preconditions are met, including an
end to the 1986 state of emergency and the legalization of the
A.N.C.

    Mandela's top priority might be negotiating peace among blacks.
A unity conference held by the A.N.C.-allied Mass Democratic
Movement in Johannesburg last week was most notable for its failure
to include its two main rivals: Inkatha, the Zulu-based
organization led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who heads a
Pretoria-created homeland; and the Pan-Africanists, an A.N.C.
splinter group that seeks to crush white "colonialists." Much of
the tension stems from the A.N.C.'s insistence that it alone can
negotiate on behalf of blacks.

    As Mandela and De Klerk chatted, a virulent outbreak of
black-on-black violence continued to spread in Natal province.
Officials said at least 71 people have been killed since Dec. 1 in
a turf war involving A.N.C. and Buthelezi supporters.
Pan-Africanists have warned that they would join in fighting the
A.N.C. if it strikes a separate deal with De Klerk. What Mandela
can do to unite blacks and lead them into negotiations will be
better known when he is out of prison and able, for the first time
in a quarter-century, to act freely.