Mandela, De Klerk Agree on 1st All-Race Election : Democracy: The vote next April will end centuries of white domination. Way will be cleared for lifting remaining sanctions.

South Africa will conduct its first all-race general election next April 27, ending centuries of white domination and ultimately clearing the way for the world to lift remaining economic sanctions, President Frederik W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela said Thursday.

The two South Africans started separate but parallel visits to the United States on Thursday.

De Klerk, the white Afrikaner who is presiding over the dismantling of apartheid, and Mandela, the black former political prisoner who is poised to inherit South African leadership, said negotiations are virtually complete on an election schedule and the makeup of a transitional executive council to supervise the voting. They said they expect the pact to be completed today by the multi-party forum that is meeting in Johannesburg.

However, in Johannesburg, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party said it is not yet ready to accept an election date. Walter Felgate, the Zulu-based group’s delegate to the negotiations, said his party will not agree to a date until an interim constitution is completed in about two weeks, the British news agency Reuters reported.

Although Mandela said the world should lift all remaining sanctions against South Africa well before election day, he pulled back from an earlier agreement by the ANC to urge an end to the restrictions as soon as an election date is set. Interviewed on CBS-TV in New York, he said the sanctions should remain in effect until the white-dominated South African Parliament passes legislation ratifying the election agreement and writing the powers of the transitional executive council into law.

“As soon as that legislation has been passed, we will then (agree to) lift sanctions,” he said. The Parliament is not scheduled to meet until September.

De Klerk dismissed Mandela’s reluctance to see the sanctions end.

“The world has made up its mind already that the crucial point is the date (for elections) and the transitional executive council,” he said. He explained that the action by Parliament is only a formality because the transitional executive can begin functioning as soon as the negotiating forum completes its work.

In Johannesburg, negotiators representing 26 organizations across the spectrum of South African opinion continued to work on details of the election plan. By announcing that agreement is only a day away, De Klerk and Mandela apparently hope to increase the pressure on Buthelezi’s party to go along.

Buthelezi has joined a tactical alliance with white rightists in opposing election plans backed by the government and the ANC. Both he and the Afrikaner right--which have regional power bases--want greater local autonomy than the government and the ANC--which have nationwide followings--have been willing to give.

Both De Klerk and Mandela said the new South Africa would have an extensive bill of rights to assure the free exercise of religion, the right to own property, the right of free movement throughout the country and other rights. Both also agreed to give substantial powers to regional governments but rejected the demands of Inkatha and the white right wing for Balkan-style ethnically based ministates.

“We have considered the creation of regions in our country and that such regions should be given certain powers to exercise,” Mandela said in an interview with NBC-TV. “We think that accommodates the demands of all population groups. . . . And beyond that, we are not prepared to go.”

De Klerk said that the regions will be assured a measure of independence and a percentage of state revenue. But he said South Africa must remain a single nation.

“Balkanization with small nation states was the goal of ‘separate development,’ ” he said, using the official term for apartheid. “But it could not work in South Africa.”

De Klerk, breakfasting with a small group of reporters here, vowed to remain an important political force in South Africa even after the country’s majority black population gains the vote.

De Klerk and Mandela are scheduled to meet separately today with President Clinton at the White House. On Sunday in Philadelphia, they will be awarded jointly the 1993 Liberty Medal and a $100,000 prize for their work in bringing democracy to their country.

Times staff writer Scott Kraft in Johannesburg contributed to this article.