S. Africa Vote Plan Gives Whites Veto

President Frederik W. de Klerk, opening a countrywide debate on a post-apartheid South Africa, unveiled a constitutional proposal Wednesday that would give blacks the vote--but grant whites and other minorities effective veto power over decisions by the majority.

The plan was immediately criticized by Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress as “a recipe for disaster . . . designed to deny a future South African government the power to truly liberate the country from the misery of apartheid.”

The ANC, the largest black opposition group, added that De Klerk’s proposal was designed to “prevent effective government by a majority party” and would create a government “hamstrung by arrangements requiring broad consensus among small interest groups.”

The complex constitutional plan, adopted unanimously by a federal congress of the ruling National Party, was the first detailed outline of De Klerk’s vision for a new South Africa and his position at the bargaining table.

Formal constitutional negotiations among the government, the ANC and other major political forces in the country could begin by the end of the year. Although De Klerk said the National Party is willing to compromise on its constitutional vision, he warned that “it should not be expected that we will easily move away from it.”

The president strongly disagreed with the ANC and other critics of his proposal, saying it has no racial overtones and contains “no trickery or secret agenda.”

“This does not mean apartheid in another guise,” he told 1,200 National Party delegates meeting in Bloemfontein.

He said the plan would give “full rights for the majority, but not the ability to trample down or destroy the rights and values of others; a vote for all, but not the right to dominate or oppress.”

“This is a workable constitution that can guarantee democratic values,” De Klerk said. “It offers a place in the sun for the cultural diversities of our country.”

The proposal calls for a weak central government, a collective presidency and a two-chamber parliament in which majority parties, likely to include the ANC, would be prevented from dominating minority parties.

It would also include numerous checks on the political power of any majority party in federal, regional and local governments.

It would do away with the powerful office of president, replacing it with a three-person “presidency” composed of the leaders of the three largest parties. The three could elect one of their number as the country’s ceremonial president on a rotating basis. However, all decisions of the presidency would be by consensus.

It also would create two houses of parliament. Seats in the first chamber would be allocated to political parties based on the amount of support they earn in a one-person, one-vote nationwide election.

In the second house, each of nine regions would be allocated an equal number of seats. But with that regional allotment, an equal number of seats would be alloted every party that receives “significant” electoral support. Thus, a party that gathered 70% of the vote in a region would be allocated the same number of seats as a party with only 20% support.

Most legislation would require the approval of both houses. But the second house alone would have the power to pass any laws that amend the constitution or “relate to the interests of minorities.”

Under one of the more controversial provisions, De Klerk proposed that in city council elections, the votes of homeowners, renters and taxpayers be given more weight than the votes of other residents.

The ANC contends that the effect of that proposal would be to ensure that whites, who own the overwhelming majority of the property in the country, “would retain the accumulated privileges of apartheid under the guise of constitutional principle.”

Most political analysts believe the ANC would easily win a one-person, one-vote election in South Africa, although support for De Klerk’s National Party among blacks has been growing. One of the other minority parties opposed to the ANC is Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party, whose support is primarily concentrated among Zulus in Natal province.

Many whites, who are outnumbered 5 to 1 by blacks in South Africa, fear that an ANC-controlled government would use its power to run roughshod over them and other minorities. De Klerk must take those fears into account because he has promised not to relinquish power until a new constitution has been approved by the whites he speaks for.

The ANC’s constitutional proposals, released recently, would create a strong central government, which the ANC says is necessary to redress the wrongs of apartheid. It also envisions a two-chamber parliament, similar to that recommended by De Klerk. But in its version, the regional chamber would only have the power to delay, and not block, legislation.