Major S. African Leaders Fail to Reach Compromise

This country’s three major political leaders and the Zulu king failed to reach any significant compromises or agreements in a make-or-break summit Friday, dimming hopes for a peaceful election this month and long-term stability after the dawning of democracy.

In an indication of the rising tension, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela openly bickered with Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi during an acrimonious late night news conference. It followed daylong meetings at a secluded game lodge among the two, President Frederik W. de Klerk and the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini.

A somber-faced Mandela was the most openly pessimistic of the four, telling reporters that he holds little hope that the Zulu leaders’ anti-election or other intractable demands can be met and the deepening crisis defused before the April 26-28 balloting.

“I cannot see a political solution before the elections,” said Mandela, who is expected to become the first black president in a post-apartheid government. “We are unable to place before you any tangible results of these discussions.”

The only “achievement” he could cite, he said later, was that the contentious group met at all.

The collapse of the last-ditch, high-level attempt to forge an accord that would bring Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party into the campaign is likely to spark further factional fighting in the bitterly divided Zulu strongholds of Natal province, where a week-old state of emergency has been unable to stop record levels of political and ethnic violence.

After more than 12 hours of talks, the four leaders issued a terse, one-page statement that said nothing about the two burning issues on the agenda: whether the elections would be delayed, as Buthelezi and the king demand, or whether the defiant Zulu leaders would guarantee to allow free campaigning and balloting in their areas, as Mandela and De Klerk insist.

Instead, the statement pledged only to form a task force to “deliberate further,” to use still-unformed plans for international mediation and to appeal to supporters to “end the killing.”

“You might say, ‘Oh, another task force,’ ” De Klerk said, hoping to cast a positive light on the day. “This one is different. . . . It has a task.” He said it would report back by next Thursday on proposals to accommodate the Zulu king within the interim constitution to guarantee his property, wives and some form of sovereignty within the new South Africa.

But Mandela clearly didn’t agree that another task force would make much headway. He warned three times that no one should have “exaggerated expectations of what this task force is likely to achieve.”

Both Mandela and De Klerk have made unsuccessful overtures to the king in hopes of luring him from the tight control of Buthelezi, his uncle and prime minister. Their close relationship was apparent when Buthelezi repeatedly whispered into the king’s ear as he spoke.

“I won’t advise my people to go to elections,” the king said as Buthelezi leaned over and whispered. “I won’t advise them to go if this matter is not settled.”

Mandela virtually ignored Buthelezi except for a bitter exchange between the two longtime rivals after the Zulu chief read a statement that repeated his grievances and appeared to blame the ANC and government for the impasse.

Mandela complained the statement “comes to me as a complete surprise” and then rejected Buthelezi’s points. Buthelezi, in turn, argued back twice, illustrating the deep gulf that has developed between the two former friends.

Aides have said Mandela was furious after he and Buthelezi last met on March 1 in Durban and the fiery Zulu chief finally promised to register for the elections, drawing headlines around the world. His party did so, but then was disqualified for the ballot because it failed to provide a list of candidates.

The atmosphere for the long-awaited summit has been soured by the clash on March 28 in Johannesburg between the ANC and Zulu demonstrators loyal to the king, which led to a day of conflict that claimed 53 lives.

The four leaders and their aides met in small thatch-roofed huts at the secluded Jakkelsbessie game lodge along the Sabi River. It lies deep in the vastness of the Kruger National Park, one of Africa’s most spectacular reserves of lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos and other majestic animals.

Flanked by their delegations, Mandela first joined the king for 4 1/2 hours, more than twice as long as originally scheduled. It was their first meeting ever after several failed attempts in the past.

Spokesmen said the four leaders ate lunch together at 2 on a patio beside a hippo pool, then met without their aides for an hour. They then joined the 40 or so lawyers, politicians, princes and other aides in a plenary session that lasted past 10 p.m.

About 70 reporters and photographers were flown at midafternoon from Pretoria to this remote airport in a South African air force C-130 transport plane, and emergency landing lights were brought in to allow a nighttime departure.

The ANC offered a formal proposal that would give largely ceremonial powers to the king but stopped far short of his demands for full sovereignty within the South African state. The proposal, for example, would have allowed the king a formal coronation, let him open the democratically elected provincial legislature, appoint someone to represent him at the assembly and even rename the province.

But it left the king’s budget and police--and, indeed, most of his official powers--under direct control of the provincial assembly. And that is almost certain to be dominated by the ANC.

The initial, rambling statements of Buthelezi and the king to Mandela and De Klerk, released to the press before the news conference, gave little reason to expect a breakthrough. Both men said their demands were non-negotiable.

Buthelezi, for example, insisted that elections be postponed, that the new interim constitution not go into force until their demands could be written in and that registration of parties be reopened.

“Violence is escalating, the possibility of political accords recede into the background, and the ANC and the South African government still regard fixed election timetables to be more important than averting the escalation of the present civil war and eventual total disaster,” Buthelezi said.

Although he is chief minister and police chief of KwaZulu’s repressive one-party government, Buthelezi claimed he had “no authority” to arrange for voting booths to be placed in schools or tribal buildings or even to allowing telephones to be installed at voting sites, as the nation’s independent electoral commission has asked.

And in a remarkable diatribe, the king chastised Mandela in his 12-page opening speech--which he read in Zulu--for alleged slights “to my person and to my dignity” over the last four years. He seemed especially irritated that Mandela had not followed what he called proper protocol for seeking meetings. “A Zulu king is not just another black leader who should be approachable by just anybody,” he complained.