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 patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-