Perilous Junction for South Africa : A U.N. role may be key to reviving negotiations

South Africa is on the brink of disaster, according to Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a moderate black leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent work to end apartheid. A massacre has prompted the African National Congress to boycott stalemated democracy talks, pummeled financial markets and filled many South Africans with a deep pessimism.

This crisis threatens the transition from white privilege to universal democracy. The situation is so bad that on Monday President Frederik W. de Klerk had to abort an official trip to Spain. Also, the ANC’s Nelson Mandela on Monday asked U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to mediate. Clearly, U.N. attention is warranted.

Boutros-Ghali is expected to discuss the crisis with Mandela next week during a meeting of the Organization of African Unity, in Senegal.

Appeals to stop the violence have been made by De Klerk, Mandela and Mandela’s chief political rival, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, who heads the Inkatha Freedom Political Party.

At least 39 black men, women and children were killed in their homes last week during a massacre in an ANC stronghold, Boipatong, a shantytown near Johannesburg. The ANC blames its Inkatha rivals. It also charges that South African policemen provided transportation for the killers; last year it was disclosed that $3 million in government funds had been paid to Inkatha in a scheme between white security forces and that party.

De Klerk’s government should quickly prosecute the five suspects arrested in the massacre. To further calm suspicions, the president should also take control of the security forces, the police and the army. And to persuade the ANC to return to the table, he must restore progress by giving up more in the debate over how to craft a new constitution, a point of dispute that has stalled the talks--formally known as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA)--since last month.

The ANC, in turn, must press for resumption of the talks. But Mandela is losing support in his bid for successful negotiations. He cannot return to the table empty-handed and still keep the loyalty of blacks who have grown angry at the violence and impatient over the lack of change despite the revocation of apartheid laws.

De Klerk needs the ANC’s cooperation to forge a democracy from the ruins of apartheid. Mandela needs the minority government’s cooperation to prevent a permanent breakdown in negotiations. At this critical crossroads, all sides in South Africa need the help of the world, particularly the United Nations.