Historic Conference Offers S. Africans a Reason to Believe : Apartheid: The sight of black and white leaders in the same room, negotiating the division of power, gives ordinary citizens hope that their country will one day heal.

Eight years ago, the white-minority government hanged Frank Rivers for crimes against the apartheid state, leaving a family of four without their father in this bleak township.

So it was with suspicion, but also hope and even forgiveness, that his widow sat glued to her television Saturday as that same government promised to begin negotiating to surrender its grip on power.

“I forgive them,” Louisa Rivers said, pausing to jot notes from each historic speech at the first Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). “We have to talk about the future now, not the past.

“If the things they say from their mouths are the things they believe in their hearts, then South Africa could change,” she added.

On her TV screen, a government official was talking to blacks like Louisa Rivers when he said his party “deeply regretted” its apartheid policies, which had deprived millions of their human rights and “contributed to their misery.”

As the opening session of CODESA ended successfully Saturday, ordinary South Africans watching in their homes sensed that an important bridge had been crossed with the formal launching of negotiations expected to lead to a vote for the black majority.

The unprecedented sight of the country’s top black and white leaders in the same room--agreeing and disagreeing, arguing and making amends--offered millions of blacks hope that South Africa’s deep divisions would one day be healed.

“It’s not just a white thing anymore,” said Thomas White, 26, a black teacher watching the convention on a department store TV. “Every South African of all shades is involved now.”

The two-day convention, at a heavily guarded conference center on the edge of Johannesburg, ended Saturday afternoon with a decision by the 238 delegates, representing 19 black and white political organizations, to set up five working groups to debate solutions to each of the key issues affecting the immediate future of the country.

Among those questions are how to draw up a new constitution, how to establish a transitional government and what to do about the four black homelands that have operated as independent countries since their creation by apartheid a decade ago.

The groups will begin work in mid-January and present their reports at the next session of CODESA, tentatively scheduled for mid-March. African National Congress President Nelson Mandela said he believes a new constitution could be in place by next Christmas.

The tone of the conference was best characterized by the closing remarks of President Frederik W. de Klerk and Mandela, who spoke of their shared commitment to the country’s future only a day after a heated personal exchange over ANC arms caches.

Mandela acknowledged their differences but warned right-wing whites, who have boycotted the talks and been sharply critical of De Klerk, “to disabuse (themselves) of whatever illusions they might entertain that we can in any way approve of their efforts to undermine the ANC, the National Party, the government or any other CODESA participant.”

Mandela concluded by saying that the ANC is committed “to ensuring cooperation between all parties and the government,” and he walked over to De Klerk and shook hands warmly as delegates applauded. Aides said the two men had met privately Friday night to discuss their differences.

CODESA still faces many serious obstacles to a new constitution, however. Among other things, the government and the ANC differ sharply over how to go about writing that constitution and on what it should say.

And while the conference includes many of the most important black and white leaders in the country, several key figures from both sides of the political spectrum have so far declined invitations to attend.

On the left, the Pan-Africanist Congress and other radical black groups have refused to attend, reflecting the feelings of radical blacks that the ANC is making secret deals with the government and that CODESA will sell out the aspirations of the black majority. The ANC denies those allegations.

On the right, the Conservative Party and other extremist groups, which represent at least a fourth of the white electorate, have refused to participate without guarantees of a separate white state. One particularly vocal group, the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, has warned that any attempt to enforce the decisions of CODESA will “be considered as an act of war and will be treated as such.”

Among several dozen protesters outside the CODESA meetings were rightists, who carried signs saying, “SA Whites Won’t Give Up Their Rights.”

Hopes for CODESA were higher than expectations Saturday in places such as Alexandra township, where 300,000 blacks are crammed together in shacks next to the walled compounds of Johannesburg’s most exclusive white suburbs. It is South Africa’s most glaring example of the vast economic gap between the black majority and the white minority.

“I think maybe things will get better for us and for Alexandra,” said Rivers, 58, who lives with her four daughters, their husbands and six grandchildren in a three-room house.

But she recalled the peace accord, signed with such fanfare three months ago by many of the same political groups, which has yet to slow the killing of blacks in Alexandra and other townships. And she began to change her mind.

“We’ll see,” she said.

Her friend, Nkele Ntingane, said CODESA was “a great leap, considering how intransigent the government has been in the past.” But, she added, “If only the government will honor its side of the deal.”

At a nearby department store, White, the black teacher, tempered his high hopes with similar suspicions about the government and memories of promises unkept.

“The thing is, we know this government,” White said. “They will always find a way out. I mean, the whites have the power, and they’re not going to relinquish it just like that.”

Taking Steps Toward Democracy

Highlights from two days of South African democracy talks: * 17 of the 19 parties present vowed support for multi-party politics; one-person, one-vote elections; a human rights bill, and an independent judiciary.

* A second round of talks is to be held by the end of March.

* Five working groups and a five-member managing panel will begin work next month, preparing recommendations for the next round of talks.

* The white government said it is ready to accept blacks in Parliament, paving the way for a multiracial forum for constitutional debate.

* The ruling National Party, which instituted formal race segregation, publicly apologized for the first time for misery caused by apartheid.

* The African National Congress predicted a non-racial constitution will be in place by Christmas, 1992.