unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/12/89)
National Party Suffers From Trying to Please Both Right And
Left
(Associated Press, September 7, 682 words, DATELINE:
JOHANNESBURG)
White voters sent mixed messages to the governing National Party,
but one point was clear: The government will get nowhere trying
to please both reformists and racists.
Following his party's record election losses to both right and
left, Acting President F.W. de Klerk will be under pressure to
signal clearly and quickly which way he will turn.
The result could well be a divorce between the government and
hard-line segregationists, whose gains Wednesday fell short of
their own predictions.
De Klerk implied such a split in his post-election news
conference Thursday, when he lumped his party and the
anti-apartheid Democratic Party together as advocates of
"renewal and reform."
But a break with the right will not guarantee success or
acceptance for the centerpiece of de Klerk's reform program - a
vague "five-year plan" to bring the voteless black majority into
national politics without jeopardizing white sovereignty.
The crucial political debate, at least within the realm of white
politics, now may take place within National Party ranks. Is it
serious about granting blacks political rights? Will it phase
out segregation laws? Will jailed black nationalist Nelson
Mandela be freed?
"The Nationalists can no longer attempt to satisfy, on both
sides, those who want reform and those who want regression," The
Daily News, the leading newspaper in Durban, said in the
editorial Thursday. "De Klerk has the clearest mandate for real
change. Will he act on it?"
Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, one of the country's most
powerful black moderates, said the election marked the start of
"an entirely new and very distinctive political era" in which
South Africa was moving inexorably away from apartheid toward
democracy. But Buthelezi said his optimism was dependent on de
Klerk "having the guts to go further than he ever thought he
would have to go."
Helen Suzman, who has retired after 36 years as standard-bearer
for the liberal opposition in Parliament, said de Klerk should
write off the far right and develop more concrete reform
proposals.
"He's now got to produce the goods," she said. "Otherwise both
locally and internationally his credibility will disappear."
A similar view was expressed by Alfred Nzo, secretary-general of
the outlawed African National Congress guerrilla movement. He
said at a summit of non-aligned nations in Yugoslavia that de
Klerk "now has to prove the honesty, sincerity and seriousness"
of his pledges to negotiate a solution to South Africa's
problems.
De Klerk, expected to be elected next week to a five-year term
as president, has called for all-party talks aimed at
negotiating a new constitution. But he says the ANC can
participate only if it renounces its use of violence.
Militant anti-apartheid leaders in South Africa reiterated their
rejection of segregated elections and dismissed suggestions de
Klerk be given an opportunity to prove his sincerity.
"De Klerk has spoken to us, the oppressed ... with tear gas,
with sjamboks (whips), with water cannons ... with all the
repressive instruments at his government's disposal," said the
South African Council of Churches. "We consider it folly to give
a chance to such a regime."
In the election, the far-right Conservative Party won 31 percent
of the total vote and increased its parliamentary strength from
22 to 39 seats.
But political analysts suggested the party had little potential
for further growth, in part because the parliamentary districts
are due to be redrawn in a way that will reduce the power of the
Conservatives' rural strongholds.
The Democratic Party won 33 of the 166 elected seats in
Parliament's dominant white chamber, a gain of 13, and received
20 percent of the total vote. It won decisively in the three
largest cities - Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban - where
segregation laws are crumbling most rapidly.
Like the Conservatives, the Democrats' prospects for further big
gains appear limited. But their successes Wednesday could
motivate de Klerk as he chooses his response to what Buthelezi
called "an epoch-making golden opportunity."
* Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501)
---
Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations
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