De Klerk Signs Pledge to End S. Africa White Rule

In a historic moment, President Frederik W. de Klerk signed a declaration Friday promising to implement all decisions of South Africa’s first national black-white negotiating forum and end the white minority’s 110-year stranglehold on political power.

The declaration, co-signed by Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress and 14 other political groups, concluded the first day of formal constitutional talks and set the country on the path toward what De Klerk called “a new South Africa firmly based on the principles of fairness and justice.”

The talks, known as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), marked the opening of a lengthy process leading to a transitional government and, ultimately, a new constitution that will extend voting rights to the 28 million disfranchised black people.

It began in a cavernous conference center here with seven hours of high-minded speeches from delegation leaders, each outlining his party’s hopes for a new constitution and applauding the spirit of the talks.

But the rough road ahead was characterized by the occasional bickering, critical last-minute objections from Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party and a bitter parting exchange of words between De Klerk and Mandela over the ANC’s refusal to formally dismantle its armed wing and hand over its weapons caches.

All across South Africa, millions of blacks and whites tuned in to live television and radio broadcasts of the talks, sensing that the gathering of several hundred political leaders would bridge the deep divisions in their country.

“Today will be indelibly imprinted in the history of our country,” ANC President Mandela told the delegates. “If we respond to the challenge before us, today will mark the commencement of the transition from apartheid to democracy. All South Africans share the hope and vision of a land free of apartheid, where internal strife will have no place.”

Dawie de Villiers, a De Klerk Cabinet minister and leader of the ruling National Party’s delegation, said the convention was evidence that “the apparently impossible has become possible, the once-unthinkable has indeed become a reality.”

“It is a wonder . . . that for the first time in history the leaders of South Africa can discuss the future together and accept responsibility together for the release of South Africa’s full and exciting potential,” De Villiers added.

CODESA’s declaration of intent was a watershed for South Africa, marking the first time that the white-minority-led government had agreed to relinquish its total control on the country’s future.

In it, the ruling National Party, the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the 13 other groups, including black homeland leaders and Indian and Colored parties in Parliament, committed themselves to working toward a unified South Africa “free from apartheid or any other form of discrimination or domination.”

By signing the declaration, the delegates agreed to work for a free and open society based on democratic values, equal opportunities and social justice, and to create “a climate conducive to peaceful constitutional change by eliminating violence, intimidation and destabilization.” They also agreed that a new constitution should have provisions for a multi-party democracy, regular elections based on universal adult suffrage, and a legal system overseen by an independent judiciary.

The declaration also empowered CODESA to set up a mechanism to draft new legislation to implement the convention’s agreements.

In a separate attached declaration, the government promised to be bound by CODESA’s agreements and committed itself to implementing those decisions “within our capacity, powers and authority.”

CODESA’s decisions will be made by the principle of “sufficient consensus,” which, given the political landscape in South Africa, means that the government and the ANC, as the two most important participants, will have an effective veto over all decisions. But both are under substantial pressure from their constituents, and international observers, to make the compromises necessary for agreement.

The talks are only the first step on what will be a difficult road toward a new constitution. From here on, CODESA will be grappling with several contentious issues, including who will draw up a new constitution and what form of government will rule the country in the interim.

CODESA delegates also promised to try to woo groups still boycotting the talks, including left-wing black organizations such as the Pan-Africanist Congress and right-wing white groups such as the Conservative Party.

The talks were to resume today, when the conference will break into working groups where the hard bargaining will be behind closed doors. The working groups, composed of representatives from each delegation, will have several months to draw up proposals for the next formal sitting of CODESA, tentatively scheduled for mid-March.

The CODESA declaration, the product of several weeks of behind-the-scenes debate, was expected to be signed by all 19 organizations present. But at the last minute, Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party and the homeland governments of Bophuthatswana and Ciskei refused to sign.

Although one of Inkatha’s members had been chairman of the committee that drew up the declaration, Inkatha proposed several last-minute amendments and asked that the signing be delayed until today.

Frank Mdlalose, the Inkatha delegation leader, proposed amendments that would effectively gut the declaration, removing key language that empowers CODESA to draw up legislation and binds all CODESA participants to help implement conference decisions. He contended that the declaration gives parliamentary power to the convention. Instead, he said, CODESA decisions should be submitted to a national referendum before becoming law.

Buthelezi, Inkatha’s president, was not present, having decided to boycott CODESA in a dispute over its refusal to grant full voting status to his Kwazulu homeland and the Zulu king.

Lucas Mangope, president of the nominally independent Bophuthatswana homeland, also declined to sign the declaration, saying he could not enter into an agreement “that may result in the abolition of Bophuthatswana, a sovereign and independent country.”

The issue of reincorporation of the homelands, created by the government’s apartheid policies, is one of the sensitive issues facing negotiators. The homeland of Ciskei also refused to sign, saying it needed time to study Inkatha’s amendments.

Mandela said that Inkatha’s objections were “a constructive approach” and that the ANC also had reservations about the declaration. But, he added, “in the spirit of contributing to the success of the meeting,” he had persuaded his colleagues to sign the declaration. And he said he opposed any delay.

“I am ready to sign the document on behalf of the ANC,” Mandela said. “And I would like to invite all other political parties that have no reservations about the document to join me.”

Delegates then decided to sign the declaration and allow Inkatha to propose its amendments in later sessions.

In an unusual public spat, De Klerk and Mandela clashed over the ANC’s refusal to completely abandon its guerrilla war and turn over the arms it still has hidden inside the country.

“A group that maintains an armed struggle cannot be fully trusted when it commits itself to a peaceful resolution,” De Klerk said.

An angry Mandela criticized De Klerk for calling into question the ANC’s commitment to peace and described the South African president as “the head of an illegitimate, discredited, minority regime.” Mandela added that the government, and not the ANC, is to blame for the black faction fighting that has claimed several thousand lives this year.

“It is completely unacceptable that we hand over our weapons to a government regarded by our people--rightly or wrongly--as being responsible for that violence,” Mandela added.