S. Africa Blacks Ask Whites’ Aid in Reform Bid

Concluding the largest anti-apartheid conference inside South Africa in 34 years, black leaders Sunday invited South African whites to join them in an intensified campaign of civil disobedience to pressure President Frederik W. de Klerk to move more swiftly to dismantle apartheid and open negotiations with the black majority.

The 4,662 black, white, mixed-race and Indian delegates, in resolutions adopted late Saturday at a closed session, declared De Klerk’s reform initiatives “devoid of any substance. There have been no actions to back up his vague promises.”

“We want to end apartheid and exploitation as soon as possible,” the delegates said in a statement issued Sunday. “If De Klerk can convince us that he is serious about genuine negotiations, . . . we are ready to talk about the creation of a democratic South Africa.”

Although the Conference for a Democratic Future brought together representatives of more than 2,100 organizations, several major black organizations either boycotted the meeting or were not invited.

Among them was the left-wing Pan-Africanist Movement, an ideological twin of the outlawed Pan-Africanist Congress which opposes the African National Congress’ philosophy of non-racism. Also excluded was the Inkatha movement, headed by the moderate Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, who opposes the ANC’s guerrilla tactics as too militant.

Murphy Morobe, a spokesman for the conference, acknowledged that black unity remains elusive, but he said that “a firm basis was established for the political direction of all anti-apartheid forces well into the 1990s.” He described the 1990s as “the decade of the final onslaught against apartheid.”

The resolutions solidified the well-known position of mainstream anti-apartheid groups, led by the outlawed ANC and the like-minded Mass Democratic Movement. Those organizations have demanded that De Klerk dismantle racial segregation laws, release all political prisoners, lift the state of emergency and allow free political activity before negotiations can begin.

“We are convinced that the De Klerk government is not interested in creating a democratic South Africa, nor is it interested in genuine negotiations,” one resolution said. “Clearly, De Klerk is buying time to re-order the forces of minority domination and win over some of our people to his fraudulent schemes.”

Since taking power in September, De Klerk has pledged to create a climate for negotiations for “a new South Africa,” in which the 5 million whites will share power with the 26 million blacks.

In a series of conciliatory moves, De Klerk has released several prominent political prisoners, opened the country’s few remaining whites-only beaches, promised to do away with a law that empowers local municipalities to deny blacks access to public facilities, allowed dozens of protest marches through city streets and brought the nearly autonomous power of the security establishment under direct Cabinet control.

The one-day conference adopted a resolution demanding multiracial elections for an assembly that would draft a constitution establishing a one-person, one-vote system. De Klerk has rejected that concept, offering instead to negotiate a constitution that would extend limited political rights to the black majority. He wants to select negotiators for those talks in segregated elections.

Another resolution urged whites to “break with apartheid,” stage solidarity marches into black townships and campaign to create new municipalities by merging white cities and their adjoining black townships.

The conference also urged black labor unions to escalate their confrontational activities, suggesting that they occupy the Johannesburg Stock Exchange if necessary to prevent privatization of major state enterprises.

“We call upon our people to reject capitalism and (the) free market system,” a resolution on economics said.

Other resolutions urged parents and students to defy school segregation policies, demanded land redistribution and urged young white men to refuse mandatory military service.

The meeting was one of the largest anti-apartheid gatherings inside South Africa since 1955.