Elections Silence the Killing Fields : S. Africa: Inkatha decision to end boycott has Natal province busy with political doings.

Sam Nxumalo once campaigned warily for the African National Congress here on the lush, green hills where the Inkatha Freedom Party is strong--his own name rides a widely circulated hit list and violence has been a fact of life.

But Friday he decided to make a weekend campaign swing into two nearby Inkatha-controlled townships, confident that the ANC-Inkatha bloodshed is, if not over, at least taking a pause before next week’s elections.

“I’m going to go to the people,” said Nxumalo, a 36-year-old professional nurse and the ANC’s leader in this, one of the most turbulent sub-regions of Natal province. “Things have changed here in the past few days, and I want to test the waters. I’m not so scared anymore.”

The killing fields of Natal, scene of 14,000 political slayings since President Frederik W. de Klerk first began to dismantle apartheid four years ago, are mostly silent now, save for the sounds of politicians on the hustings and election officials teaching people how to vote.

The face of Inkatha President Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi appears on campaign posters, often tacked to lampposts next to pictures of ANC President Nelson Mandela. Excitement has replaced fear across vast sections of the region. And the talk in both camps is of political, not military victory.

At Inkatha campaign headquarters in Durban, the effects of Buthelezi’s decision to abandon his election boycott and urge his supporters to vote was clearly evident Friday. Thousands of newly minted posters were being dispatched to the far reaches of the province as staff members worked furiously at computers and the telephone rang constantly.

“It’s been crazy here,” said Ziba Jiyane, Inkatha’s national political director. A few moments earlier, he had been on the telephone himself, begging the South African Broadcasting Co. to change its decision to stop all political advertising at midnight Saturday.

“We’re begging for the whole day of Sunday,” he said to an SABC official on the telephone. “We’re desperately in need of more advertising time. Please. Please.”

With Sunday designated as the last legal day for campaigning, all the parties are racing to get their message out. That is especially true in Natal province, where Inkatha’s boycott had made it impossible for ANC leaders to campaign in dozens of communities. And many potential voters had been afraid even to consider voting because of possible revenge attacks.

Election officials, who had been prevented from creating polling stations in Natal areas controlled by chiefs loyal to Inkatha, now plan 1,500 sites, up from 1,000. About 200 of them will be mobile units. And virtually every one of the province’s 6.5 million residents will be able to walk to the polls.

Both the ANC and Inkatha are hoping that the elections, by secret ballot, will now reflect their true support in areas controlled by the other side. Independent opinion polls in Natal suggest that the ANC will win 50% of the vote, compared to Inkatha’s 19%. (Most polls give the ANC a 50% or better nationwide vote, compared to 5% or less for Inkatha, whose support lies primarily in Natal.)

But polls are not very reliable in Natal, where thousands do not have telephones and many more are afraid to reveal how they will vote.

Buthelezi, on the campaign trail Friday, predicted that his party will “win enough votes to take its place in a government of national unity,” but he added that he will refuse to become part of any such government.

In the Eshowe area, about 120 miles northwest of Durban, the race is likely to be close between Inkatha, the ANC and the liberal Democratic Party, which is supported by white farmers here.

Election officials only planned to open 11 polls in the area, which has about 100,000 potential voters. But chiefs supporting Inkatha now have welcomed polling stations in their communities, and 67 polling sites are planned.

“We still have a chance of winning here,” the ANC’s Nxumalo said. “All this time, people have been suppressed by Inkatha. They could not express their views. And we believe many of them support us. They are fed up with Inkatha, and especially the chiefs.”

Nxumalo hopes to increase ANC support when he takes his party’s promises of electricity, running water and paved roads into the Inkatha-held areas.

“We’ll just go and start speaking,” he said. ‘I don’t think there is anyone from Inkatha who would attack me.”

Of course, the ANC and Inkatha blame each other for the violence. And Jiyane, the Inkatha political leader, said tensions have diminished because “our enemies believe they can defeat us at the polls.”

But at the moment, the Inkatha political campaign is in disarray. It will be able to rely on its large network of chiefs and other party workers to help get people to the polls. But party leaders, working around the clock, are plagued by disagreements over how to use the few days remaining before the election.

“We don’t have time for a learning curve,” Jiyane said. “There’s disagreement about where to focus our energies.”

Will the peace hold? No one knows for sure. The violence in Natal was common long before any elections were planned, fed by political disagreement but also by the apartheid system, clan feuds and unknown forces trying to destabilize the country.

But the elections, if they are judged free and fair, will mark the first time in the region’s history that the mostly Zulu province has been able to choose sides democratically. And if the loser abides by the results, ANC and Inkatha leaders here believe that the peace may hold.

Said Jiyane: “There are no losers if lives are saved.”