New S. Africa President Vows End to Discrimination at Inauguration

Frederik W. de Klerk was sworn in as South African president today and pledged to end race discrimination in “a totally new South Africa.”

In an inauguration speech, the 53-year-old De Klerk balanced promises for apartheid reform with a stress on law and order and warnings to radicals that they had no role in a peace process.

He acknowledged that his National Party government had raised expectations of reform. “We intend to live up to them,” he said.

“The continued removal of discrimination remains an important objective,” De Klerk said, speaking at Union Buildings, the headquarters of South Africa’s white-led government overlooking Pretoria.

Constitutional Reform

“We are going to develop a new constitutional (arrangement) in which everyone will be able to participate without domination,” he said.

“I believe . . . we will break out of the vicious cycle of stagnation, distrust, division, tension and conflict and make a breakthrough to a totally new South Africa,” he said.

Although he has spoken out against discrimination, De Klerk opposes outright black majority rule, and favors segregated neighborhoods and schools for whites who want them. He has been vague on the role he would give blacks in central government.

De Klerk said he hoped to “gradually move away” from the three-year-old state of emergency, which has severely restricted militant anti-apartheid activity.

De Klerk’s eyes watered when a minister preaching at the swearing-in ceremony urged him to press forward without fear. Chief Justice Michael Corbett administered the oath before 1,500 people in a Dutch Reformed Church near the University of Pretoria.

In an indication of South Africa’s international isolation, no foreign heads of state were present.

A leading anti-apartheid activist, the Rev. Allan Boesak, said he would give de Klerk six months to prove that blacks’ skepticism toward him is unfounded.

“If he does not move by then, our fears will be tragically fulfilled,” said Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The new president made no mention of jailed black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, although a pro-government newspaper said today that De Klerk would probably free him early next year.

Conspicuous by his absence in the crowd attending the speech was De Klerk’s predecessor, Pieter W. Botha, who resigned angrily Aug. 14 when members of the long-governing National Party turned against him.

In a gesture to civil rights groups, the government commuted death sentences passed on seven inmates of Pretoria Central Prison.

Departing from his text, De Klerk appealed for understanding from foreign countries.

“Take note of what is happening in South Africa. . . . If ever there was a time to adopt a positive attitude to developments in South Africa, that time has arrived,” he said.