PERSPECTIVE ON SOUTH AFRICA : ‘Book of Apartheid Is Finally Closed’ : But writing a new constitution is likely to be far more difficult for both De Klerk and Mandela.

South Africans woke up March 18 to what can only be described as a political miracle.

The rich, the poor, the voters and the voteless, those with jobs, and the many without, rubbed their eyes. They saw a strange sight: The same people who had dragged their country to near-ruin over many years of apartheid visibly changing heart.

The white voters, notably the Nationalist Afrikaners who had until recently supported successive apartheid governments, gave President Frederik W. de Klerk a thumping victory for his reforms. He was able to declare: “The book of apartheid is finally closed.”

The win, for now, places De Klerk in an unassailable position to forge a durable peace with Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress and other black nationalists. It is a tribute to De Klerk’s political skill and leadership that he pulled it off--in spite of growing last-minute doubt among many commentators as to whether he would get even a simple majority. The liberal-inclined, largely English-speaking Democratic Party pitched in to help the cause of reform.

Clearly, De Klerk knows his Nationalist followers. He has kept them behind him. He knows that they have, consciously or unconsciously, resented being classified as polecats of the world because of apartheid. He has capitalized on their wish to be freed from pariah status. Down deep, he seemed to know, these were potentially ordinary, even nice, people waiting to escape from the cage in which history had placed them. Now, out, they blink in the glare of world approval. Their cricketers now even make the semifinals in the World Cup in Australia.

All of South Africa’s 40 million people of various racial and cultural backgrounds have been given a new start, ironically, by those who oppressed them for so long: the 5 million whites. The vote signals the end of the country’s long march against history, and of its isolation in the world. It now marches with the democratization process sweeping so many regions of the global village.

In South African terms, it should mean that an interim government will be installed within months and all-race elections held not long after to introduce a constitution that is both non-racial and democratic. For the black majority, this is a whiff of power--at last. For whites, a bold leap in the dark--but preferable to the cataclysmic racial conflict offered by the right wing. Most whites trust De Klerk to secure a good deal for them.

Whether the sagging economy can be kick-started depends to a great extent on whether the world will invest once again in a country that used to offer quick and lucrative returns but was progressively impoverished by apartheid and repression. The 40% (mainly black) unemployment figure bandied around by some commentators is a pointer to the malaise.

What now, politically? Diverse racial constituencies are involved in serious negotiation at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) outside Johannesburg. Only the left and right fringes refuse to take part. The humiliating defeat for the right-wing parties in the referendum could split them, with some opting for the Codesa talks and others getting more violent as they acclimatize to the wilderness of politics.

The white minority is now, for all intents and purposes, united behind De Klerk. There is a much-chastened opposition Conservative Party, and to its right, sundry fascists likely to cause violence out of proportion to their numbers.

The black majority is probably still commanded by Mandela, but high unemployment and regional and factional problems, marked by horrific township violence, threaten his hold. Every time he is generous toward whites and their privileges, he runs the risk of losing black support. Every time he articulates black determination to secure a bigger piece of the economic cake, if necessary by government intervention, he scares local whites and international business.

It could be that Mandela still has to engineer his High Noon with left-wing extremists--as De Klerk has done with the right.

Somehow the fabric of society, broken by apartheid, has to be sewn together. That is the really difficult part for De Klerk and for Mandela. De Klerk speaks of power-sharing, Mandela of a transfer of power to the majority, who are black. Somewhere in between there must be room for a durable arrangement. De Klerk is now better placed to bargain. Mandela is impressed.

Racial minorities feel threatened by the black majority, and De Klerk is determined to reassure them. Mandela has shown himself big-hearted and willing to join in this.

A major question is what the right-wingers will do now. The more extreme ones are very dangerous, and have access to arms, explosives and ammunition--and are in cahoots with certain levels of the security services. They must be checked.

It is undeniable that De Klerk has clipped their wings. Instead of a knee-jerk retreat from reform to repression when he came under rightist threat, as did his predecessor P. W. Botha (who voted no this week, but had no influence), De Klerk challenged the right to a duel, which he won hands down.