South Africa Peace a Slow Process

The agreement to pursue preliminary negotiations, in anticipation of drafting a democratic constitution for South Africa, has won praise from all but the extremists in that country, and so it should. The meeting Thursday between South African President Frederik W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress leader, substantiated their commitments to a peaceful transition.

Events of the last few days have demonstrated the difficulty of the process that lies ahead. Police continue to use excessive force despite De Klerk’s efforts to bring them under close control. The recent shooting of as many as 17 blacks in a single demonstration was cited by the ANC in canceling plans for the first formal negotiating session. De Klerk has proposed an inquiry into the shooting and the ANC has accepted that with an appropriate proviso that leaders respected by the black majority be included. That suggestion could set a useful precedent in the transition period that lies ahead, expanding the role of blacks in governing South Africa even before the structure of a non-racial state is devised.

The press and government officials have speculated that the ANC used police brutality merely as a pretext for delay because of differences within its ranks. That would hardly be surprising. Mandela himself has been out of prison less than two months. Repatriation of ANC leaders is not yet complete. And deep divisions remain within the black majority, most conspicuously in the war that still rages in Natal among the Zulus, pitting those committed to the ANC against those loyal to the Inkatha movement led by Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi. Furthermore, the Pan Africanist Congress, by refusing to negotiate with whites in planning South Africa’s future, is as racist as the neo-Nazi movement within the Afrikaans white community.

Mandela has demonstrated his good faith in agreeing to formal talks at the end of the month. He has yet to recognize, however, that the ANC does not speak for all black South Africans. The authority of those coming to the negotiating table needs to be clarified lest the white National Party, which now governs, exploit black divisions.

The ANC is right in insisting that these talks be limited to removing the remaining obstacles to negotiations. The government has an opportunity to show its commitment by doing just that. The violence in Natal is not a valid reason to maintain a national state of emergency. The time to release the rest of the political prisoners has long passed. This session of Parliament will set back the clock unless it acts decisively to end apartheid. There is no need to perpetuate the Group Areas Act, which has been a key instrument of segregation. And steps to end school segregation would signal a real commitment to end apartheid. Unless those obstacles are cleared away, negotiations on a constitution would be doomed to failure from the start.