Zulu Leader Nears Deal to End S. Africa Vote Boycott : Elections: Buthelezi hints of announcement today. Accord would help halt violence in Natal province.

Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi appeared on the verge Monday of making a deal that could end months of battles with the government and the African National Congress and lift the biggest remaining obstacle to this nation’s first all-race elections.

In a surprise six-hour meeting, Buthelezi, President Frederik W. de Klerk and ANC Secretary General Cyril Ramaphosa hammered out broad outlines of an agreement to end the Inkatha Freedom Party’s boycott of next week’s elections and, South Africans hope, help bring peace to the warring people in Natal province.

Details were sketchy, and negotiators, worried about scuttling the accord in its infancy, were reluctant to say too much publicly.

But sources said that if ANC President Nelson Mandela agrees to the deal worked out by his negotiators, he will interrupt a campaign swing through the eastern Cape province and return to join the talks, due to resume today. And, late Monday, ANC officials in the Cape said Mandela was headed back to Johannesburg.

“The discussions have gone very well,” a smiling Buthelezi told reporters on the steps outside De Klerk’s office in Pretoria. And he added that “we may have something positive to announce” today.

Government and ANC officials also sounded optimistic, though they noted that only a week remains before the nationwide voting begins next Tuesday.

“Time is running out, but there is always time to find solutions,” De Klerk said. Added Ramaphosa: “We are dealing with very sensitive matters, as you all know. And we are trying everything to see what is possible.”

Hopes of a breakthrough in the impasse with Inkatha have been raised and dashed time and again in recent months, but Buthelezi’s position had hardened and the killing continued. Since De Klerk declared a state of emergency in Natal on March 31, almost 240 people have been killed there in attacks and counterattacks by supporters of Inkatha and the ANC.

An international mediation team, headed by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, gave up before it could even start its work last week when the parties could not agree on the ground rules for their talks.

But political analysts saw important differences this time. For one thing, Buthelezi made a major shift Monday in his bargaining position, backing down, for example, from his demand that the April 26-28 elections be postponed; that demand had sent the international mediation team packing.

“I don’t think there is any possibility of postponing the elections,” Buthelezi said. “I would prefer a postponement, but I am a realist.”

Buthelezi also apparently abandoned his insistence that the homeland of KwaZulu, which he controls, be given full autonomy under the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini--Buthelezi’s nephew.

The ANC has said it will give the Zulu monarchy greater powers and privileges as well as a secure place in the country’s new constitution. But the ANC and the government have refused to grant autonomy to the old Zulu kingdom.

Analysts said another positive sign was the decision of the Inkatha Youth Brigade to cancel a workers strike planned for today. Earlier, it had canceled plans to stage a march Monday to ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, which the police had declared illegal. But, taking no chances, police put up razor wire around the ANC building Monday and blocked off roads in part of downtown.

“When there are discussions, there is always hope,” said Roelf Meyer, the government constitutional affairs minister who joined the talks Monday. And De Klerk said he hoped “something constructive will come out of it.”

The only way to end the violence in South Africa is to remove its underlying cause, De Klerk said. In the past, he has identified that cause as the long rivalry between Inkatha and the ANC, which has resulted in 20,000 deaths in Natal province in the past decade. “We must remove that if we really want to bring reconciliation and peace to our country,” the president said.

Even as the talks were continuing Monday, violence flared anew in townships near Johannesburg. In Thokoza, southeast of Johannesburg, Inkatha supporters holed up in a hostel exchanged fire with ANC “self-defense units” and members of the new National Peacekeeping Force, deployed in the region just three days ago.

Among those killed Monday was Ken Oosterbroek, 31, a photographer for the Star newspaper in Johannesburg who last week was named South Africa’s photographer of the year. Hospital officials said he died of a broken neck while running for cover from gunfire.

Oosterbroek was the second journalist killed this year in South Africa. Another photographer, Greg Marinovich, a free-lancer for Newsweek magazine who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1991, was seriously wounded by gunfire but was reported in stable condition.

The resurgence of violence in Thokoza was a worrying development. A full return of the ANC-Inkatha war to the country’s largest urban area, which has been relatively quiet for months, could seriously damage the credibility of next week’s voting--the first all-race elections in 350 years of white domination.

It also marked a rocky beginning for the blue-uniformed National Peacekeeping Force, a unit of former ANC guerrillas and government army soldiers formed to combat township unrest. More than 1,400 of the heavily armed peacekeepers, riding armored vehicles, had been deployed in the region to replace South African Defense Force units. Army units were sent back into the area late Monday to restore peace.

If Buthelezi decides that Inkatha will participate in the election, it will raise difficult logistic problems for the Independent Electoral Commission. Most of the 80 million ballots, for example, already have been printed--without Inkatha’s name on them.

Although it might be too late for Buthelezi to be included on national ballots, the party could possibly contest elections for the regional government in Natal province. Analysts say the ANC and the government, while steadfastly opposed to postponing the election, might be willing to delay regional voting in Natal.

Natal includes the KwaZulu homeland. But after the elections, KwaZulu will become part of South Africa, and Buthelezi’s administration, including his police force, will be dissolved.

No one knows for sure whether Inkatha could muster a credible election campaign in the short time remaining. Some political analysts say Inkatha supporters might be confused by the sudden change in direction. But the party, which claims 2 million members, is a fairly cohesive group with a network of local chiefs who could get the word out quickly.

Recent public opinion polls in Natal, where Inkatha is strongest, indicate that about 50% of potential voters support the ANC, compared with 25% for Inkatha and 19% for De Klerk’s National Party. If Inkatha does not participate, analysts have said, at least some of its supporters might vote for the National Party.

Inkatha’s vow to boycott the election has cast doubt on the ability of election monitors to stage a free, fair poll in Natal province, Buthelezi’s home base and scene of years of bloody ethnic and political conflict. Many people in Natal have said they fear casting ballots in the region, where 26 people died in political violence over the weekend. Some worry that Inkatha supporters might attack polling stations and burn homes of people who leave on election days to vote.

At first, election officials planned to open 1,600 polling stations in the province. But the police and army complained that their force of 2,000 could not adequately guard so many sites. The number has since been reduced to about 1,000, mostly schools in the region. But the security forces said Monday that they would like to see the number brought down to 750.