De Klerk, Mandela Get Talks Back on Track : S. Africa: Summit is called ‘milestone’ on path toward a new constitution after both sides make key concessions. Agreement ends 3-month impasse.

Constitutional talks in South Africa, suspended in anger three months ago by the African National Congress, were put back on track Saturday during a “milestone” eight-hour summit meeting between Nelson Mandela and President Frederik W. de Klerk.

A breakthrough in the lengthy deadlock was made possible by key De Klerk concessions, and the two leaders on Saturday gave their most optimistic predictions yet for a peaceful settlement of their differences.

“We have begun today to rescue our people from this chaos” of violence, said Mandela, the ANC president, speaking to reporters with De Klerk at his side. “There is no reason why a political settlement should not be achieved within a relatively short period.”

De Klerk said, “Today is a milestone on the way forward for South Africa and its people.” And, he added, “I’m confident that the channels of communication (between De Klerk and Mandela) are fully open again.”

An agreement reached by delegations led by De Klerk and Mandela included a De Klerk promise to free hundreds of political prisoners, to ban the carrying and display of dangerous weapons in public and to fence off certain migrant workers’ dormitories that have been identified as sources of violence in black townships.

The ANC made one important concession, agreeing to reconsider its program of protests, rallies, strikes and sit-ins that have caused turmoil in the country in recent months. During the most recent protest, troops from the nominally independent homeland of Ciskei opened fire on ANC marchers, killing 28.

Mandela said that denial of free political activity in some of the homelands, including Ciskei, “remains a major obstacle and must be addressed.” But, Mandela said, because of progress made in Saturday’s summit meeting, the ANC will urgently consult its constituents and reassess its protest campaign.

Under the agreement, about 150 political prisoners are to be released immediately, and several dozen were freed Saturday. An additional number, estimated at 350 by the ANC, are to be released by Nov. 15.

In addition, the government said it will shortly issue a proclamation outlawing dangerous weapons at all public gatherings. Exemptions to the decree will be granted, on a case-by-case basis, by panels of retired judges sitting in each of the country’s four provinces.

The ANC has long insisted on the dangerous weapons ban, which has been strongly opposed by Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC’s archrival.

Buthelezi, a De Klerk ally in the negotiations process, argued that Zulus should be allowed to carry spears at rallies because those implements are “traditional weapons” of the Zulu people. The ANC has countered that spears carried by Inkatha supporters have provoked violence and, in some cases, have been used to kill ANC supporters.

By allowing judges to grant exemptions to the ban, the government hopes to mollify Buthelezi. Exemptions are likely to be granted for traditional Zulu gatherings but not for Inkatha Freedom Party rallies.

The government also agreed to fence off migrant workers’ hostels, which have been implicated in much of the violence that has claimed nearly 8,000 black lives since De Klerk took office three years ago. When the ANC broke off negotiations in June, it had demanded that the government take concrete steps to end township violence. It originally demanded that the hostels, home to 500,000 people in the Johannesburg area, be closed. But the ANC eventually agreed to the compromise.

An attack staged from an Inkatha-controlled hostel near Boipatong township in June left more than 40 black men, women and children dead and prompted the ANC to break off direct talks with the white government as well as multi-party constitutional negotiations.

The ANC has contended that state security force members were also involved in the Boipatong massacre, and an independent judicial investigation is still under way. So far, no concrete evidence of security force involvement has emerged, although the national police force has been severely criticized by independent international police experts. More than 70 residents of the hostel near Boipatong have been arrested and charged in the deaths.

Saturday’s summit cleared away most of the ANC’s preconditions for resuming formal negotiations, in which the ANC, the government, Inkatha and other parties hope to draft a blueprint for writing a new constitution that will extend voting rights for the first time to South Africa’s black majority.

Mandela said his delegation would recommend to the ANC’s national policy-making body that the process of negotiations be resumed and that extensive one-on-one discussions between the ANC and the government continue. ANC approval of Mandela’s recommendation is considered certain.

In a “record of understanding” reached by Mandela and De Klerk on Saturday, the government and the ANC agreed on several important features of future negotiations. Among other things, they agreed that the new constitution will be written by an elected body, which will also function as a transitional government during an interim period.

Although constitutional talks were suspended by the ANC in late June, the negotiations had stalled a month earlier when the ANC and the government failed to reach agreement on the mechanism for writing a new constitution. Both sides have made concessions on that aspect in recent months, and political analysts believe that the two sides may be able to find common ground once multi-party negotiations resume.

The key to overcoming the current impasse, though, was De Klerk’s agreement to free political prisoners, including those convicted of killing whites during ANC guerrilla operations.

De Klerk freed nearly 1,000 political prisoners last year, but he refused to release prisoners convicted of the most serious crimes, arguing that such persons fell outside internationally accepted definitions of “political prisoners.”

Now the government has agreed to free all prisoners whose crimes were “related to political conflict of the past and whose release can make a contribution to reconciliation.” The ANC says that will cover at least 500 prisoners.

De Klerk originally had insisted that release of prisoners be twinned with a general amnesty that would also cover security forces personnel who have not yet been charged or tried for crimes they may have committed against anti-apartheid activists. The ANC has strongly opposed such an amnesty.

Now the government has agreed to continue discussions with the ANC on a general amnesty.