S. Africa Whites Vow ‘Freedom Struggle’ : Reform: De Klerk offers assurances on minority interests, commitment against anarchy.

Only three days after lifting a ban on the African National Congress and other black guerrilla groups, the government sought Monday to reassure whites that it remains committed to fighting anarchy and will never sell out the white minority’s interests.

But the Conservative Party, the government’s strongest opposition in Parliament, warned that “the Afrikaner nation is not prepared to live under an overwhelmingly ANC government,” and it announced plans to undertake a white “freedom struggle.”

“This is the hour of truth,” Andries Treurnicht, an ordained minister and leader of the Conservatives, told Parliament in a speech castigating President Frederik W. de Klerk for his “revolutionary, left-wing announcements.”

The clashes between the ruling National Party and the Conservative Party, the two strongest forces in white politics, reflected the difficulty De Klerk faces in selling his reform plans to a wary white electorate. Complicating matters is the threat of a violent backlash from heavily armed white supremacist groups who have become increasingly militant in recent months.

In a nationally broadcast interview on state-run television Sunday night, De Klerk told South Africans that his decision to remove key provisions of the state of emergency and lift bans on about 60 anti-apartheid groups and 375 radical leaders was “justified from the security point of view.”

He reminded whites that only a new constitution “with majority support can make South Africa free from the risks that are staring us in the eyes.” But he promised that any changes in the constitution would first be put to white voters for their approval.

“Whatever new system you introduce must have the broad support of (white) voters,” Stoffel van der Merwe, a Cabinet minister and member of De Klerk’s reform team, told reporters Monday. “Before there are any constitutional changes, we would go back to the voters and ask them.”

The government’s internal propaganda offensive came after an attack Sunday on the British Embassy in Pretoria by right-wing extremists. The assailants shot out windows in the building and then ran the flag of a right-wing organization up the embassy flagpole. On Saturday, the embassy’s gates had been spray-painted with the slogan, “The right-wing struggle has begun.”

Government spokesmen and political analysts sought to minimize the significance of what they called isolated instances of violence from the far right. But they admitted to being worried about mainstream conservative whites who feel threatened by De Klerk’s decision to lift the 30-year ban on the ANC, the Pan-Africanist Congress and the South African Communist Party.

Many whites in the country, including some in the ranks of De Klerk’s National Party, were horrified by De Klerk’s moves, not least because the government has for three decades painted those organizations as terrorist groups that could not be trusted.

“Many South Africans are concerned about the attitude of the ANC, the PAC and the SACP, and they are concerned that this sudden freedom could lead to violence in the streets,” said Carl Noffke, a professor of political science at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg. “Hopefully that won’t occur. But that could slow down his whole process of renewal.”

Since De Klerk’s announcement, the police have broken up several black demonstrations across the country. Four people died in unrest Saturday, and a police station in Lamontville was attacked by people carrying ANC flags and demanding that the police withdraw from the township because the “ANC was in charge,” police said.

On Monday, policemen used tear gas and buckshot to disperse throngs of black protesters in Tembisa and Tokhoza, two townships near Johannesburg. Several people reportedly were injured in the confrontations, and youths erected street barricades in both places.

To stave off white fears, De Klerk took the unusual step Friday of meeting with his party caucus after his speech, party sources said. The source described the meeting as “a frank exchange of views” and said the party leaders supported De Klerk.

“But as far as the rank and file of Nats (National Party supporters) is concerned, one can expect that a number would be displeased” with De Klerk’s actions, the source said.

On Monday, senior Cabinet ministers tried to ease the shock among whites by repeating promises that the government intends to maintain residential and school segregation, among other vestiges of apartheid.

Herman Kriel, minister of planning and provincial affairs, said the government might place the Group Areas Act, which segregates residential areas, on the agenda in negotiations with black leaders. But he added that the right of whites to live in segregated neighborhoods is an “indispensable principle” of the governing National Party.

The country’s 5 million whites, about 60% of whom are Afrikaners whose forebears settled in South Africa from Europe three centuries ago, control Parliament and maintain the system of racial segregation. The 27 million blacks have no vote in national affairs.

The pro-apartheid Conservative Party, which won 31% of the vote in September’s general elections, said Monday it plans a rally Feb. 15 in Pretoria, the capital, to protest De Klerk’s latest actions.

De Klerk has said he wants a political system in which black and white South Africans have full voting rights. But he also wants special protection for the white minority. He has taken a number of steps in recent months to remove restrictions on black activists, particularly those aligned with the ANC, in the hopes of luring them to the negotiating table.