Mandela and Rival Buthelezi Finally Meet, Fail to Agree on Election Date : South Africa: Two leaders pledge to end violence that has killed 9,000. But there are ‘sticking points.’

Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, whose supporters are locked in a feud that has claimed the lives of 9,000 blacks, found little more than platitudes to agree on Wednesday during their first one-on-one meeting in more than two years.

More important, Mandela failed to persuade Buthelezi to accept April 27, 1994, as the date for the country’s first multiracial democratic elections, creating an impasse that will further delay ratification of that tentative voting date and the lifting of remaining international sanctions.

“There have been several sticking points,” Mandela admitted at a news conference after the nine-hour meeting here. But the president of the African National Congress added that “the very fact of our meeting is an achievement in itself. The sticking points will be sorted out.”

Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, agreed that although deep divisions remain, the disagreements were discussed openly. And the meeting, he said, will be a symbol to ANC and Inkatha supporters of the leaders’ commitment to peaceful coexistence.

After a long day of talks, the leaders issued a joint statement committing themselves to end violence and to hold joint peace rallies, the same promises that were made during their January, 1991, meeting and later broken.

But the leaders, and church officials sponsoring the summit, insisted that the talks Wednesday would contribute to ending political violence. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said they will send a crucial message to ANC and Inkatha followers that, “for goodness’ sake, the fighting must stop.”

Yet the meeting’s failure to resolve a key impasse in constitutional negotiations was viewed with deep concern across South Africa.

“The people out there are crying for peace,” Mandela said after the meeting. “Our economy cannot afford further delay.”

The ANC has promised to call for the removal of economic sanctions against Pretoria when negotiators agree on a date for elections and set up a transitional council to ensure a free and fair campaign. And many of the 166 states, cities and counties in the United States that still have sanctions against companies doing business in South Africa are awaiting the ANC’s call.

Negotiators from the ANC, the government, Inkatha and 23 other political organizations have tentatively agreed on the 1994 election date, which was to have been ratified Friday. But on Wednesday night, negotiators postponed a final decision on the election date by a week, citing a lack of progress in overcoming the remaining obstacles.

Inkatha, along with right-wing white groups, is insisting that key elements of the constitution be written by negotiators before an election date is set. In particular, it wants advance guarantees of strong regional autonomy, fearing a central government controlled by the much stronger ANC. And it has vowed to block any attempts to set a permanent election date until it gets those guarantees.

“Once there is a craze about elections, everyone will forget everything else, and I think that’s a recipe for disaster in this country,” Buthelezi said during an interview on state-run television Wednesday night.

“If we don’t entrench the powers and functions of regions before the elections, then we are asking for trouble,” he added. “We’ll have the same experience as Angola.”

Angola was plunged back into civil war last year when rebel leader Jonas Savimbi refused to accept his defeat at the polls.

The ANC wants a new, multiracial Parliament to make those decisions and govern the country while it writes a permanent constitution. President Frederik W. de Klerk’s government has agreed with the ANC proposal, as long as the new government includes a substantial say for minority parties, such as Inkatha and De Klerk’s National Party.

Recent opinion polls suggest that the ANC would probably get about half the vote in a free election, followed by the National Party with 25% and Inkatha with 10%. Right-wing whites, left-wing blacks and an assortment of other more moderate parties would make up the remaining 15%.

In many ways, the Mandela-Buthelezi summit Wednesday resembled the ill-fated 1991 meeting between the two leaders and their delegations. Mandela spoke of the need to end the violence and bury the past while Buthelezi bitterly rehashed past personal attacks by ANC leaders, including Mandela.

“When you look across the broad sweep of ANC attacks on Inkatha, they amount to the ANC denying the legitimacy of my leadership and the authority of the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) as a political force which contributed to the liberation of South Africa,” Buthelezi said.

Zulu supporters of Mandela and Buthelezi have been engaged in a bloody factional war in Natal province, Inkatha’s home base. Thousands have died there since the early 1980s, when Buthelezi’s opposition to sanctions and guerrilla war put him at odds with the then-exiled ANC. The bloodletting has continued; last weekend, seven blacks died in factional fighting in Natal.

Although Buthelezi frequently calls for peace in Natal, his vitriolic attacks on the ANC, which he contends is anti-Zulu, have been read by many of his supporters as an order to drive the ANC out of Natal. And the violence has contributed to Buthelezi’s power, making him a force that must be reckoned with in negotiations if South Africa hopes to avoid civil war.

Many analysts believe that Mandela could have headed off much of the ANC-Inkatha rivalry by meeting sooner with Buthelezi. But Mandela has been under pressure from his militant supporters in Natal, who consider Buthelezi a dangerous enemy unworthy of an audience with Mandela.