Zulu Leaders Agree to Join S. Africa Vote

In a stunning last-minute reversal, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi and the Zulu king finally agreed Tuesday to drop their boycott of next week’s historic all-race elections, sharply reducing fears of widespread political bloodshed during the birth of democracy here.

The unexpected end to the impasse brings the leaders of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, and the last major party of political holdouts, into the contest only a week before voters are expected to elect the country’s first black-led government. Only fringe groups of far-right whites now remain outside the democratic process.

“This agreement is a leap forward for peace, reconciliation, nation building and an inclusive election process,” said African National Congress President Nelson Mandela, who is expected to be elected the country’s first black president. He spoke at a crowded news conference at the Capitol with Buthelezi and President Frederik W. de Klerk.

De Klerk, who appeared ecstatic at the end of two days of intensive, closed-door talks, concurred. “It is my deepest hope that this agreement will bring to an end the violence in South Africa,” he said.

Zulu followers of Buthelezi and Mandela have fought an undeclared war for a decade, and their brutal clashes have killed a majority of the estimated 15,000 victims of South Africa’s horrific political violence in the last four years.

The bloodletting has escalated in recent weeks, despite the March 31 declaration of a state of emergency in Natal province, home of most of the Zulus.

The end of the militant boycott, which effectively began when Buthelezi stormed out of constitutional talks last June, is likely to ease soaring election-related violence and intimidation, as well as to console nervous investors.

But deep enmities and competition over everything from drugs to cattle have always been part of the Zulu fights and are unlikely to disappear now.

Buthelezi said he had finally consented to contesting the election “to avoid a great deal more bloodshed and carnage.”

But political analysts said Buthelezi had, as one Western diplomat put it, “finally recognized reality. They were about to lose everything. So they took the best deal they could get.”

Although Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party has not actively campaigned, it has prepared posters and other campaign materials. Despite the dwindling time, analysts in Natal expect Inkatha to win a sizable share of seats in the provincial assembly, although the ANC will almost certainly win a majority.

As the head of his ticket, Buthelezi also is guaranteed a place in the national Parliament and could well win enough votes--5% of the total is required--for a Cabinet seat in the ANC-led government of national unity.

Buthelezi still complained that both he and his party are “disadvantaged.”

“I’ve been given an impossible task,” he said.

The breakthrough signified a triumph for Mandela and De Klerk, the two men most responsible for leading this deeply divided country in the transformation from apartheid to black majority rule without detouring into all-out race war.

It marked a surrender by Buthelezi after months of bluster, brinkmanship and bellicose threats.

The deal actually gives him and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, his nephew, less than they were offered by Mandela and De Klerk during an unsuccessful peace summit nearly two weeks ago at a game lodge in Kruger National Park.

Buthelezi had repeatedly vowed to keep Inkatha out of the race unless the balloting was postponed and the interim constitution amended to enshrine the powers of the king and provide virtual autonomy to Buthelezi’s power base in the Zulu homeland of KwaZulu. The homeland will be abolished under the new constitution.

The final three-page accord commits Inkatha to joining the April 26-28 national and regional elections and to doing “everything in their power to ensure free and fair elections.”

In exchange, the ANC and government made only one major concession. They agreed to call the outgoing all-white Parliament into special session on Monday--the day before polls open--to amend two acts of the post-apartheid constitution to recognize “the institution, role, authority and status of a traditional monarch.”

The amendments are less than were offered at the summit, where the Zulu king was also promised his own royal constabulary force, an official coronation, a representative in the regional assembly and other inducements.

Mandela and De Klerk also agreed to reconvene international mediation, if necessary, after the elections to consider “any outstanding issues” regarding the Zulu king and the constitution. A mediation team led by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger quit last week after only two days when Buthelezi refused to back off from his demand that the elections be postponed.

Judge Johann Kriegler, head of the Independent Electoral Commission, the watchdog group that is overseeing the vote, told a separate news conference in Johannesburg that the country’s 80 million national and provincial ballots will not be reprinted.

Instead, he said, adhesive strips with Inkatha’s name and logo and color pictures of Buthelezi will be stuck at the bottom of each ballot, in the same size and style as the designations of the 26 other parties. “The printing of stickers will start tonight,” he said.

Kriegler said 700 extra polling booths will be opened, more election staff will be hired and manuals and procedures will be amended.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Buthelezi credited the secret diplomacy of a Kenyan politician, Prof. Washington Aggrey Jalang’o Okumu.

Okumu, who arrived last week to assist the Kissinger mission, stayed on when the other mediators left and called Buthelezi, a friend of two decades, to arrange a meeting before the Zulu leader flew home to KwaZulu.

Buthelezi said he had to leave the airport before Okumu arrived but that the plane was forced to turn back for a mechanical problem shortly after takeoff. “It was as though God had prevented me from leaving,” Buthelezi said. “I’ll never forget him waiting for me at the airport, larger than life.”

Okumu then reopened talks as a secret intermediary, shuttling messages and arranging phone calls among Buthelezi, Mandela and De Klerk.

In Washington, President Clinton praised the breakthrough as demonstrating “great courage and a capacity to compromise.”