S. Africa Ready to Begin Talks With ‘Radicals’

Frustrated by its past inability to open a dialogue with South Africa’s black leaders on the country’s future, President Pieter W. Botha’s government, in a major policy shift, says it is now ready to talk with those it once rejected as “radicals” and to discuss issues that previously were “non-negotiable.”

Stoffel van der Merwe, Botha’s new deputy minister for constitutional development, said in an interview that the initiative has the long-term goal of drafting a new constitution that for the first time would bring blacks fully into the national government.

But in the short term, he added, the negotiations themselves could help reduce the political tensions that, the white-led minority government has acknowledged, propelled the country toward revolution and civil war over the last three years.

Could Include ‘Radicals’

“Not all those people regarded as ‘radicals’ are ideologically committed to violence,” Van der Merwe said, stressing the government’s intention to draw as many black leaders into the proposed talks as possible. “People who use violence as a strategy are also not necessarily excluded, as long as they can be persuaded.”

The government is similarly ready to commit itself to an open agenda for the negotiations and will impose no conditions, Van der Merwe said. “If there are preconditions, there is no sense in talking to people,” he added.

And, although he will attempt to sell the Nationalists’ concept of “power sharing” as the basis for a new constitution, Van der Merwe said the government accepts the fact that black leaders will put forward much different proposals, including a demand for one person-one vote, and that major compromises will be necessary.

Van der Merwe, a political scientist from the ruling National Party’s liberal wing, also continues to serve as deputy minister for information. He said, however, that his new assignment reflects the government’s determination to speed up the search for a peaceful resolution of the country’s future and its hope that preliminary discussions, already dubbed “talks about talks,” will lead soon to full-fledged constitutional negotiations.

‘We Have to Get Along’

“The basic message to get across is that we are all South Africans and have to get along with one another,” he commented. “Then one has to listen--that is a major part of the whole process.”

The 47-year-old deputy minister reports directly to Botha, rather than to J. Christiaan Heunis, the minister of constitutional development and planning, who has long been the architect of the government’s step-by-step political reforms.

Once regarded as a likely successor to the president, Heunis was reelected to Parliament last month by a margin of only 39 votes, and he now appears to have been eclipsed by Van der Merwe as the government’s chief negotiator.

Botha pledged at the opening of Parliament here last month to become personally involved in negotiations with black leaders. He also renewed his proposal for a national council as a forum both for constitutional discussions and for interim black participation in the government.

Sees Mandate to Negotiate

The National Party’s victory in last month’s whites-only parliamentary election gave the government a mandate to negotiate with blacks, Van der Merwe said.

“If we have to go back to the white electorate without being able to prove substantial progress, then we are going to be in trouble,” he added.

But Botha’s offer has been met with considerable suspicion among blacks who saw the national council as a vehicle to prevent their inclusion in Parliament, and the negotiations based on “power sharing” as a further postponement of majority rule.

Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the influential Zulu leader whose participation could be crucial to any negotiations’ success, commented: “The state president must tell the world what his intentions about negotiations are. . . . Before we get on the train, we want to know where it’s going.”

Must Establish Credibility

Van der Merwe said that as a result of such attitudes among blacks, his first task will be to establish the government’s credibility among skeptical black leaders, most of whom have repeatedly refused to be drawn into a political dialogue.

The black leaders have set tough conditions for their participation, including an end to the year-old state of emergency, legalization of the African National Congress and the release of political prisoners.

These conditions, the deputy minister said, could become the topic for the initial talks, along with the agenda of fuller negotiations. He said his first discussions with individual black leaders will be at an “invisible level” to build trust and to lay the groundwork for broader talks.

“Inevitably, prolonging the emergency does have (an) effect on the willingness to talk,” Van der Merwe acknowledged, referring to Botha’s renewal last week of the national state of emergency. “But, on the other hand, if we ended the emergency, it might have an effect on the ability of people to talk.”

Focus on Community Leaders

In a further departure from previous government policy, Van der Merwe said that he will focus not on officials in South Africa’s black urban townships or rural tribal homelands--people often regarded in their communities as collaborators--but on community leaders, churchmen, labor union officials and, if possible, anti-apartheid activists.

“These people will have to be able to convince people on the ground that this is the best deal possible,” Van der Merwe said. “There is nothing to be reached by drawing in a lot of puppets. They wouldn’t be able to deliver the goods at the end of the day.”

A hint of a potential breakthrough for Van der Merwe came last week when Archie Gumede, co-president of the United Democratic Front, a coalition of 700 anti-apartheid groups, met with members of the President’s Council, a government panel that studies legislative proposals, to explain the front’s position on negotiations.

The United Democratic Front, widely regarded as an ally of the African National Congress, is “not unwilling to talk about the situation,” said Gumede, once a senior ANC official, but it believes there can be “no meaningful negotiations” without a number of actions that would “promote confidence in the motives of the government.”

Discussed ‘Material Issues’

The discussion, a first at that level, was “full and frank and directed at material issues,” Gumede said. “We talked, for example, of white and black fears, and there was no attempt to sidestep either side’s position. . . . The contact was important, as it should dispel the impression that we are not willing to talk.”

Van der Merwe, acknowledging that, as a symbol, the ANC represents the political aspirations of most of South Africa’s 25 million blacks, said that the congress’ supporters could join the negotiations provided they are not committed to the violent overthrow of the government.

“If the ANC’s attitude could change to such a point where it is possible to include it in this negotiating process, the whole thing would become so much easier,” he said.

The African National Congress has repeatedly refused, however, to abandon its 26-year armed struggle and to enter into negotiations without what it calls “matching commitments” by the government to end apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation and white minority rule, in favor of “majority rule in a democratic state.”

Nonviolence a Precondition

“I recognize that many people involved with the ANC are not ideologically Communists or ideologically committed to violence, but so long as the ANC remains committed to violence and to violent revolution, one would not be able to talk to the ANC as such,” Van der Merwe said.

“Our point of departure is that you cannot build a free society, a peaceful society, on the foundation of violence. We have to start peacefully. The offer (to participate in negotiations) is still open to anybody who agrees to this basic point of departure, whether he is in jail or not, whether he is outside the country or not.”

But this, he said, does not preclude discussions with ANC supporters who might negotiate terms--such as an end to its guerrilla attacks--for the organization’s later participation in full talks.

“If the present leadership of the ANC would find it possible to reform their own views to the same extent that Mr. Botha has reformed his views over the past number of years,” Van der Merwe said, “then I think it will change the situation dramatically.”

A Contrast With Botha

Van der Merwe’s views were all the more striking for their sharp contrast with Botha’s. In extending the state of emergency for another year last week, Botha denounced the ANC for trying to launch a revolution here.

“We will not talk to these people--we will fight them,” the president declared. “They are part and parcel of the terrorist curse besetting the world today.”

However, Van der Merwe appeared confident of his authority, noting that he had won Botha’s support for his previous efforts to broaden and accelerate political reform.

“Part of my job is to do some exploration,” he said. “If one explores, you have to move ahead in some ways. You have to advance ahead of the main body. That doesn’t mean that the main body will go along, and you may have to retrace your steps. . . . I expect I will get slapped down from time to time.”