S. African Plan for Transition Would Keep De Klerk in Charge

The South African government unveiled its proposal Monday for an initial transitional government that would keep power in the hands of President Frederik W. de Klerk. The plan differs substantially from an interim administration envisaged by Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress.

The two-phase government plan seemed to confirm expectations that Pretoria would take a much tougher stance in upcoming constitutional talks with the ANC and other black groups after its overwhelming victory in a whites-only referendum last week that approved De Klerk’s program to reform the country.

In the proposal, the government moves away in part from a tentative agreement reached early this month among the 19 parties at the constitutional talks. That agreement calls for a shift of power from the present Cabinet to a multiracial executive in the first phase of a transitional period leading to free elections. The executive was to have been appointed by the forum holding the constitutional talks.

Instead, the first phase of the government’s plan calls for the creation of De Klerk-appointed “transitional councils” that would only advise the existing government. The second phase would see an interim constitution and an elected temporary Parliament.

Furthermore, the proposal apparently calls for the interim constitution to be drafted primarily by De Klerk’s government in consultation with the other parties, rather than by an elected constituent assembly. The government signaled that it will place on the negotiating table by the end of April its proposals for a transitional constitution that the ANC fears may become permanent.

The ANC, the nation’s largest black political organization, condemned the proposed interim councils as “totally unacceptable” and charged that the government is reneging on the agreement to establish a body to oversee the transitional period.

They said such councils would leave all power with the present government and allow it to act as both “referee and player” in the negotiating process.