New S. African Charter Endorses Rights for All

Black and white negotiators created a detailed blueprint for a democratic future early today with the formal approval of a sweeping new constitution guaranteeing “fundamental rights and freedoms” to South Africans of all races and ethnic groups for the first time.

A frenzy of last-minute political deals provided a dramatic climax to two years of stormy negotiations designed to dismantle the white-separatist laws of apartheid, and to ensure that the black majority enjoys equal rights with whites in a multi-party, non-racial democracy with universal adult suffrage.

After weeks of marathon talks, exhausted negotiators representing the African National Congress, the white-dominated government and 19 other groups at the cavernous World Trade Center here approved the historic accord shortly after midnight. They then applauded themselves in an emotional moment of triumph. It was after 3 a.m. when the leaders finished speeches and signed the document.

“We have reached the end of an era. We are at the beginning of a new era,” said Nelson Mandela, the ANC leader and former black political prisoner who will almost surely be chosen the country’s first black president after all-race elections next April 27.

“Whereas apartheid deprived millions of our people of their citizenship, we are restoring that citizenship,” he said. “Whereas apartheid sought to fragment our country, we are reuniting our country.”

President Frederik W. de Klerk, who may well be the country’s last white president after the advent of black majority rule, called the 158-page document “the distillation of the dreams of generations of disenfranchised South Africans.”

“It is capable of protecting individual and community rights,” he said. “It will prevent the misuse of power and will uphold the rule of law.”

The plenary session also formally created the Transitional Executive Council, a multiracial body that will begin overseeing key functions of the white-run government in the coming months and will supervise the election campaign. Although details remain to be worked out, the power-sharing arrangement gives blacks the first access to formal political power since whites landed here 350 years ago.

The constitution and first-ever bill of rights still must be ratified by the Parliament next month and will not take effect until the election in April. It is technically an interim constitution, to be superseded in two years by a permanent charter based on its principles, although the first elected post-apartheid government will stay in office until 1999.

After more than two dozen drafts, the final document creates a federal system with a strong executive, at least two deputy presidents and a 27-member multi-party Cabinet. Negotiators said the system is similar to that in Germany.

The bicameral legislature will consist of a 400-member National Assembly, elected under party banners in a system of proportional representation, and a separate 90-member Senate that will be elected by the nine provincial assemblies. The National Assembly will choose the first president as its first official act.

The constitution repeals 34 oppressive laws passed under apartheid and literally redraws the nation’s map. It abolishes the four so-called independent black homelands created in apartheid’s vain attempt to permanently separate blacks and whites and incorporates them into the nine provinces. And it creates an 11-member Constitutional Court, similar to the U.S. Supreme Court, and an independent judiciary.

It also establishes 11 “official” languages for the new government. They include the two current official languages, Afrikaans and English, plus nine black African ones. In practice, officials said, English will increasingly supplant the Dutch-based Afrikaans, which is spoken chiefly by whites.

The final plenary session started nine hours late in the heavily guarded hall as the ANC and the government hammered out a six-point compromise on issues that have divided delegates since talks began in November, 1991. The deal appeared to give Mandela and his party a newly strengthened hand for the day when, if polls are correct, they take office.

Repeated attempts by the government, for example, to force the ANC to accommodate other political parties in the Cabinet were swept aside in vague language calling only for “consideration to the consensus-seeking spirit underlying the concept of a Government of National Unity.”

But government spokesman David Steward warned that an ANC-dominated Cabinet will not be able to govern by itself. “If they don’t reach consensus and the majority runs roughshod over the views of the minority, then it will all break down,” he told reporters.

But Steward said an ANC concession allowing provinces to immediately write their own constitutions after the election, rather than waiting two years, would strengthen federalism and could lure back the Freedom Alliance, the main opponents of the talks.

The alliance, which includes heavily armed, pro-apartheid whites and several conservative black homeland leaders, including Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi and his Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, walked out of the talks four months ago and have warned against finalizing the constitution without their consent.

De Klerk is to meet Buthelezi, two other black homeland governments and white rightist leaders Friday. Among other demands, the alliance seeks a separate white state comprising 18% of South Africa and centered on the capital, Pretoria.

The only right-wing white party to stay in the negotiations, the Afrikaner Volksunie, was also the only one to register an objection when the constitution was put up for approval by the chairman, P.J. Gordhan.

“It appears we have indeed crossed the Rubicon irrevocably now,” Gordhan said solemnly after he announced its passage by “sufficient consensus.”

The ANC and the white-dominated National Party, which has run the government since 1948, also effectively secured their own survival by muscling through a provision requiring voters to mark only one ballot for both national and provincial assemblies. That prevents ticket-splitting and probably dooms many of the smaller, regionally-based parties.

“This is fraud and suppression of parties in the provinces,” complained delegate Patricia de Lille, chief negotiator of the Pan Africanist Congress, in an unsuccessful appeal to use two ballots.

The charter of fundamental rights is an ambitious document that protects against discrimination on the basis of “race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.”

New Rules in South Africa

Highlights of South Africa’s interim constitution:

BILL OF RIGHTS

* Provides that all South Africans are entitled to equal protection under the law.

* Outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.

* Provides for freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and association.

* Outlaws torture, forced servitude or forced labor.

* Provides for a right to strike.

* Provides children with the right to basic nutrition, health and social services.

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE

* The Parliament will consist of a 400-member National Assembly and a 90-member Senate. National Assembly members will be directly elected by the people; 10 senators will be elected by each provincial legislature.

* The National Assembly and the Senate will have two years to adopt a final constitution. They will sit for five years.

* The president will be elected by the National Assembly.

* A constitutional court will ensure that laws are consistent with constitutional principles.

* There will be nine provinces, each with its own legislature and premier and the right to write its own constitution.

SECURITY

* There will be national and regional police forces; regional forces will answer to regional authorities.

* The South African army, forces of black homelands and members of any other force under the control of political organizations will form a unified army.