ANC: Go Back to the Table

South African President Frederik W. de Klerk must satisfy many competing constituencies to forge a new, nonracial and democratic government out of the legal system of racial segregation known as apartheid.

The African National Congress has suspended constitutional negotiations, and threatened to boycott the minority government’s peace summit later this week if De Klerk does not take additional steps to control the deadly factional violence. The murderous rivalry, that has pitted ANC supporters against supporters of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, has claimed an estimated 5,000 lives in five years.

Anti-apartheid activists, including Democratic members of Parliament, also want land reform to compensate for the losses suffered by 3.5 million black South Africans.

In response to these pressures, De Klerk has met with Zulu leaders, including Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi who heads Inkatha, to discuss how to control traditional weapons such as spears, fighting clubs and shields. Those talks should lead to a prohibition on all weapons in the townships--and wherever the killing is taking place.

De Klerk has also set up a land reform commission to hear claims from black families who were forced by the government, sometimes at gunpoint and often with no compensation, to give up their land and move to segregated “homelands.”

The government, which sold the choice land to whites, wants to let bygones be bygones. The white farmers have indicated they will fight to keep the land. How these disputes will be resolved remains unclear, but the new multiracial commission at the very least will give black South Africans a place to take their grievances.

These steps fall short of ANC demands, but they are steps in the right direction. Anglican Archbiship Desmond Tutu and 25 religious leaders met on Tuesday to discuss steps to resolve the impasse. But the answer should be obvious because talks without the ANC are meaningless.

De Klerk has made gestures to keep his government firmly on the side of progress. That should bring the ANC back to the negotiating table.