S. Africa Rivals Mandela, Buthelezi Meet

Political rivals Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi met for the first time in 28 years today and jointly urged their supporters to end South Africa’s bloody civil war for black political supremacy.

Mandela, of the African National Congress, and Buthelezi, president of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, each acknowledged the right of the other’s organization to exist and called on their followers to make peace.

“Let us get on with the job of finally liberating South Africa without thrashing out at each other as we move forward,” Buthelezi said in an address to the talks, later made available to the media.

“Violence must cease,” he said.

In his opening speech, Mandela said the two organizations “had no choice but to coexist.”

“We have treated one another as lepers, suspicion reigned supreme,” he said.

“Whatever the concrete outcome of our meeting today, contact among us must continue, precisely to nurture the areas of agreement and seek lasting solutions to areas of conflict,” he added.

Mandela and Buthelezi are bidding to end the bloody violence between their rival movements in South Africa’s black townships that has claimed more than 4,000 lives in the last five years.

Mandela and Buthelezi shook hands and chatted amiably before sitting down to the talks that South Africans hope will end the carnage between the country’s two biggest anti-apartheid movements.

“We’re hopeful, otherwise we wouldn’t be here,” Buthelezi told reporters. Later he left the hotel to greet a crowd of several hundred Inkatha supporters waving banners and singing peace songs.