Mandela, S. Africa President Hold Surprise Talks

President Frederik W. de Klerk and jailed black nationalist Nelson R. Mandela, leaders of South Africa’s most powerful opposing forces, met for the first time Wednesday, discussing obstacles to black-white negotiations and agreeing to further talks in the new year, the government said.

The surprise meeting between the 53-year-old president and the 71-year-old prisoner carried huge symbolic importance for the government, which has slowly begun to ease restrictions on anti-government activity and promised to end racial segregation in hopes of luring black leaders to the negotiating table.

Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee said the get-together at Tuynhuis, the presidential offices in Cape Town, “fit in with Mr. De Klerk’s program to consult with the full spectrum of political opinion (about) the future of all South Africans.” De Klerk was joined at the meeting by Coetsee and Gerrit Viljoen, minister of constitutional development and the official in charge of getting talks with black leaders off the ground.

The meeting, which the government said was at Mandela’s request, came only four days after a conference of 4,500 mainstream anti-apartheid delegates, meeting in Johannesburg, had called for an intensification of the struggle against apartheid. In a resolution, the delegates described De Klerk’s initial reform steps as an attempt to “buy time to re-order the forces of minority domination and win over some of our people to his fraudulent schemes.”

The talks came as a surprise to anti-apartheid leaders inside the country, as well as to leaders of Mandela’s exiled African National Congress (ANC). Murphy Morobe, spokesman for the Mass Democratic Movement, which shares the ANC’s political viewpoint, said his organization would have to wait for “a detailed report from our leader, Mr. Mandela” before commenting.

Millions of black South Africans consider Mandela their natural leader, and political analysts believe he is the only leader capable of bridging the gap between rival black groups in the country. Even many moderate black leaders who do not support the ANC have refused to negotiate with the white minority-led government until Mandela is free.

A founder of the ANC’s military wing in the late 1950s, Mandela has served 27 years of a life sentence for sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government. For the past year he has been held in a three-bedroom house ordinarily reserved for prison wardens at Victor Verster prison farm near Paarl, about 30 miles from Cape Town.

De Klerk has said he plans to release the ANC leader when the time is right, and government sources say Mandela could be free within the next two months.

The government has recently allowed Mandela to hold lengthy talks with dozens of anti-apartheid leaders in his prison home. He has been meeting with senior government officials for years and in July met outgoing President Pieter W. Botha in discussions the government specifically said were not “negotiations.” Mandela himself has said that “only free men can negotiate.”

De Klerk “welcomed the opportunity” to meet Mandela, and “follow-up talks in the new year were envisaged,” Coetsee said in a brief statement Wednesday. Among the issues discussed were “the ways and means to address current obstacles in the way of meaningful dialogue,” the justice minister said. He declined to elaborate, saying that “further statements at this stage would serve no positive purpose.”

The talks were “a realization by the government that there’s very little that can be achieved without the active involvement of Mr. Mandela and his organization,” Mandela’s attorney, Ismail Ayob, said in an interview. “But I still think there’s a long way to go. The government still works on the basis that white power does not have to be relinquished.”

Right-wing white opponents of the government criticized the meeting, saying it violated the government’s longstanding refusal to talk to the ANC until it abandons its guerrilla war. Mandela has steadfastly refused government pressure in the past to renounce violence in exchange for his freedom.

“As far as we’re concerned, Mr. Mandela is a criminal, responsible for the deaths of many innocent people,” said Moolman Mentz, the Conservative Party spokesman on law and order.

The ANC, the principal guerrilla group fighting Pretoria, has been banned in South Africa for 30 years. But since releasing Mandela’s 77-year-old colleague, Walter Sisulu, and other leading ANC figures in October, De Klerk has allowed them to represent the ANC at more than a dozen rallies. And the ANC flag has been displayed openly across the country for the first time in years.

De Klerk has promised to create a new South Africa by dismantling the legal system of racial segregation known as apartheid and giving the 26 million blacks a vote in national affairs. But he has rejected black demands for a one-person, one-vote majority government, envisioning instead a system of power-sharing in which the 5 million whites maintain an important say in national affairs.

The president, who took office in August, has tried to prove his sincerity by releasing some ANC leaders, loosening the police grip on anti-apartheid activity, allowing large anti-government demonstrations, opening whites-only beaches to all races, creating a few legally integrated neighborhoods and agreeing to talk with all black and white leaders about the country’s future. He also has promised to present a broad program of apartheid reform when Parliament convenes in early February.

De Klerk’s moves have drawn praise internationally, but anti-apartheid leaders such as Sisulu and Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu have said he needs to do more to create a climate for negotiations.

Their chief demands are that the government lift the 42-month-old state of emergency, release all political prisoners and remove restrictions on anti-apartheid groups. Sisulu has challenged De Klerk to allow a constituent assembly, representing all the country’s people, to draw up a new constitution.