Zulu Leader Shuns Election Compromise : South Africa: Buthelezi calls efforts toward appeasement ‘utter hypocrisy.’ Transition from apartheid is at stake.

Zulu chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the most important member of a coalition of separatist parties opposing the terms of transition from apartheid to democracy, Thursday denounced a package of concessions offered to persuade the groups to drop their boycott of the April elections.

Buthelezi, who heads the Inkatha Freedom Party, lashed out at Nelson Mandela, his archrival and president of the African National Congress, for offering a sweeping set of constitutional amendments Wednesday to appease Buthelezi and his right-wing allies in the Freedom Alliance.

He said Mandela and the government of President Frederik W. de Klerk were describing as “a breakthrough” the same proposals that were rejected by the alliance before it broke off months of negotiations with the government and the ANC.

“What utter hypocrisy,” Buthelezi said in a statement. “Mr. Mandela’s statement amounts to no more than cheap politicking on life-and-death issues.”

Buthelezi warned that he and his followers will stay out of the April 26-28 election, the first in which the country’s black majority will be allowed to vote. He called the 2-month-old interim constitution “fatally flawed,” adding that “any election under it must be rejected as undemocratic.”

Mandela and De Klerk had announced in separate news conferences that they were endorsing a series of proposals that appeared to meet many of the demands of the Freedom Alliance. De Klerk said he would call Parliament back into special session early next month to amend the interim constitution, whether or not the alliance is satisfied with the offer.

The concessions include the use of two ballots, rather than one, so voters can choose different parties for the national and provincial assemblies; guarantees of greater provincial powers, including taxation, and recognition of the principle of self-determination to allow for greater local autonomy.

But Buthelezi insisted that he will not accept the broader democratic framework hammered out by 21 parties during two years of grueling negotiations. When the groups wrote the interim constitution, they agreed that it would be rewritten after a democratically elected government is in power. The ANC is expected to win the election in a landslide.

“No constitution which dictates that it be replaced by another constitution, drawn up and piloted through a new constitution-making process by a ruling political party, would be accepted by any democratic people in the world,” Buthelezi said.

Buthelezi, 65, is something of a tragic figure in South African politics. During Mandela’s 27 years in prison, Buthelezi emerged as one of the most visible black leaders, working within the system to oppose the white supremacist policies of apartheid. He won widespread support in Washington and Europe for his conservative policies and his anti-Communist rhetoric.

But Buthelezi, who long hoped that he would be the country’s first black president, has been marginalized since Mandela was released from jail in 1990 and began working directly with De Klerk to dismantle the apartheid regime.

Mandela and Buthelezi have not met since June. Buthelezi works from Ulundi, the capital of the KwaZulu homeland, which was created under apartheid, where aides say he nurses old grudges, harangues diplomats and the press and issues warlike statements.

His support has dwindled as his public profile has faded. Although he claims a fervent following among the country’s estimated 8 million Zulus, recent polls show he probably would lose to the ANC even in the area he considers his stronghold. Even De Klerk’s ruling National Party has gained at his expense.

At a meeting in Cape Town, De Klerk said he remained hopeful of a peaceful, all-inclusive election, despite Buthelezi’s rejection of the package. “My impression is that the initial negative reaction may still change,” he said. “It is not a final offer, but it is a substantial improvement from both vantage points. It addresses the heart and core of what was on the agenda for discussions.”

Speculation has mounted that the National Party is seeking a political accommodation with Buthelezi and his nephew, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, to win support of Zulu voters in case Inkatha continues to boycott the elections. Polls show that the National Party otherwise is unlikely to get more than a tiny fraction of black votes.

Inkatha is the largest member of the Freedom Alliance, a fractious coalition of right-wing white groups, the Bophuthatswana black homeland government and the pro-apartheid Conservative Party. Alliance leaders are expected to meet this weekend to come up with a formal response to the ANC and government concessions.

The alliance has threatened to use violence if its demands are not met for the right to create ethnic and racial homelands. Despite the concessions, Mandela on Wednesday repeated his opposition to those demands.

“Our position is that of a united South Africa,” he said.