Mandela Rejects Meeting With De Klerk

African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela on Saturday rejected President Frederik W. de Klerk’s proposal for a meeting between the two leaders, saying that the president was ignoring “the gravity of our demands and of the crisis facing our country.”

“No good purpose will be served in my meeting him at this stage,” Mandela said after returning from a week of travels in Africa.

Mandela’s declaration ended hopes of a quick resumption of talks between the ANC and the government. The ANC broke off all constitutional talks two weeks ago and presented De Klerk with a list of 14 conditions for its return to the table.

Roelf Meyer, the government’s constitutional affairs minister, said late Saturday that the government was “greatly disappointed” by Mandela’s refusal to meet De Klerk.

Meyer said it appeared that the ANC and its allies “have decided to abandon the path of negotiations for the path of confrontation and conflict.”

In a bitter, 31-page letter to Mandela on Thursday, De Klerk sharply criticized the ANC for breaking off talks with the government and accused it of harboring a desire to overthrow the government rather than negotiate.

Mandela said the ANC’s national executive committee would study De Klerk’s letter and prepare a reply. He added that the ANC was committed to negotiations but said that De Klerk’s letter indicated that the president “and his government want to be both player and referee” in negotiations. And he contended that De Klerk “has chosen to drive South Africa into a collision course.”

“We have sought to ensure that the De Klerk regime responds to our demands positively and undertakes practical steps,” Mandela said. “The longer it takes to find a way out of the current impasse, the more difficult it will be to ensure peace and stability in the future.”

The ANC has demanded, among other things, that the government ban the carrying of all dangerous weapons, phase out the system of migrant-worker hostels in Johannesburg-area townships and allow international experts to monitor violence in the country.

Mandela also demanded Saturday that the government drop its insistence on “an undemocratic constitution aimed at addressing the fears of a minority party about its own future at the cost of democracy.” He said that was at the root of the negotiations deadlock.

That deadlock, followed by the massacre of more than 40 people at Boipatong township, led to the ANC’s decision to break off talks.

De Klerk has not specifically addressed the ANC’s demands, saying that those could be discussed in face-to-face talks.

But, hidden deep in his letter, De Klerk made several key concessions that had been at the heart of the negotiating deadlock. He agreed, for instance, that a new constitution could be written by a 70% majority of a National Assembly. The government had previously insisted on a 75% majority, which analysts said would give De Klerk an effective veto.

Mandela said Saturday that he welcomed the concession but that many differences between the ANC and the government remain. He added that talks would not resume until the government gives up its hopes for veto power in the constitution-writing process.

The deepest of those differences is over the role of regional governments. The government wants the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, the main negotiating forum, to draw up a “transitional constitution” that would establish a one-person, one-vote National Assembly and an equally powerful Senate elected by regions.

Under the government proposal, regions would have the power to veto any changes in the constitution affecting them.

The ANC contends that the result would be to entrench the transitional constitution and make it difficult, if not impossible, to write a new, permanent constitution over a white minority veto.