De Klerk Yields a Point on Constitution Drafting : South Africa: But he also accuses the ANC of using the Boipatong massacre to create an ‘artificial crisis.’

President Frederik W. de Klerk made a key concession to the African National Congress on Thursday, agreeing to allow a new constitution to be written with a 70% majority vote in a one-person, one-vote National Assembly.

The concession was contained in an otherwise bitter, angry letter to ANC President Nelson Mandela, in which De Klerk chastised the ANC for breaking off constitutional talks and accused it of using the massacre of blacks in Boipatong to create an “artificial crisis” in the country.

Buried deep in the lengthy letter, De Klerk outlined proposals that appeared to meet the ANC more than halfway on the crucial question of what percentage vote would be required to approve a new, permanent constitution for the country.

Talks at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, the main negotiating forum, had stalled in mid-May when the government and the ANC disagreed over that percentage.

Negotiators for both sides had agreed that a transitional National Assembly, elected by proportional representation in a countrywide election, would write the new constitution.

The ANC originally wanted a two-thirds majority to approve that new constitution but, in a last-minute compromise, it raised the percentage to 70%. Anything larger, the ANC contended, would give De Klerk an effective veto over all constitutional proposals.

The government had balked, though, insisting on a 75% majority. The government position reflected its own opinion polls, which have indicated that, although blacks outnumber whites 5-to-1 in South Africa, De Klerk and his allied parties would receive 25% to 30% of the vote in a national election.

Meanwhile, an independent judicial commission investigating the Boipatong massacre heard evidence Thursday that suggested an explanation for the large number of witnesses who said they saw white security force personnel and vehicles in the township during the attack.

Maj. Pieter Van Wyk, of the South African Defense Force, said he and a squad of soldiers were in the township during the nighttime attack and heard gunshots but did not know what was happening. Because they were outnumbered, he said, they parked their armored vehicle and hid behind boulders to escape the fusillade.

Later, Van Wyk saw a group of 80 to 300 men, wearing white headbands and armed with spears and sticks, crossing a road to a nearby migrant workers’ hostel. He said he thought the men were ANC supporters because of their white headbands; Inkatha Freedom Party warriors most often wear red headbands.

Van Wyk said that he and his officers stopped traffic to allow the group to cross the street and enter the hostel. Witnesses have said they saw armored vehicles in the township during the massacre and watched as police “escorted” the band of men back to the hostel. The government has denied any security force involvement.

Police said Thursday that they have made 81 arrests in the Boipatong killings. All those arrested were from the hostel, a base of support for the ANC rival Inkatha Freedom Party.

The ANC, in a statement, said it will withhold comment until its working committee has studied De Klerk’s letter, suggesting a desire to calm the growing tensions between the ANC and the government. The ANC said it would issue a response within seven days.

The ANC broke off talks last week over the massacre of more than 40 blacks in Boipatong and what it charged was government complicity in that and other instances of violence. It laid down 14 conditions for a return to the table.

President De Klerk, in an address to the nation on state-run television and in his letter to Mandela, accused the ANC of attempting to “sabotage negotiations and precipitate a crisis.” He charged that the ANC’s militant allies in the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions had engineered the breakdown in talks, using the Boipatong massacre as an excuse.

And De Klerk sharply criticized the ANC’s plan to embark on a nationwide campaign of “mass action”--demonstrations, marches and worker strikes designed to pressure the government to accede to ANC demands. De Klerk said “mass action” is a dangerous strategy designed to overthrow the government.

As he has in the past, De Klerk strongly rejected allegations of government complicity in the violence and laid much of the blame for the township carnage on the ANC. Tit-for-tat attacks by supporters of the ANC and members of the Inkatha Freedom Party have claimed nearly 8,000 black lives since De Klerk launched his apartheid reform program.

De Klerk called for an urgent meeting with the ANC, and a separate meeting among De Klerk, Mandela and Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi to discuss the violence. He said the three leaders should discuss setting up a joint monitoring body to defuse potential violence.