South Africa At Least Half a Loaf

By Bruce W. Nelan

State President F.W. de Klerk was still delivering his opening-day speech before Parliament when an antiapartheid leader interrupted a protest rally four blocks away to deliver "a very important message." Some 3,000 demonstrators, massed in searing sunshine across from the Cape Town city hall, fell silent as she announced, "The A.N.C. has been unbanned." The gathering seemed stunned at the news that the African National Congress, the leading force in the fight against apartheid, outlawed and in exile since 1960, would once again be a legal participant in the nation's politics. Then someone shouted, "Amandla!" (power), the battle cry of the movement, and the crowd thundered back, "Awethu!" (is ours), and broke into a chant, "A.N.C. ! A.N.C.!"

In his tensely awaited speech, De Klerk last week went a long way toward accepting the demands listed by black opposition groups as conditions for the start of talks on a new constitution. Most important, he promised to release the world's most famous prisoner, Nelson Mandela, now in his 28th year of imprisonment, though he did not say when. De Klerk legalized more than 60 banned organizations, lifted emergency restrictions on the press and on 374 political activists, suspended executions and put a six-month limit on detentions without trial. He also promised to lift the remaining elements of the state of emergency imposed in 1986 "as soon as circumstances justify it." Said De Klerk: "The season of violence is over. The time for reconstruction and reconciliation has arrived."

Although the government had made a "firm decision" to release Mandela unconditionally and wanted to do so "without delay," De Klerk said, there were "factors in the way," including considerations of his "personal circumstances and safety." This sounds as if the government is still haunted by its old fears of upheavals in the townships and possible attempts on Mandela's life by extremists from left or right, for which the government would inevitably be blamed. It is also possible that De Klerk is still hoping for a formal renunciation of violence from the A.N.C. In any case, black leaders seemed confident that Mandela would be free in a matter of weeks.

It was not the whole loaf, but De Klerk's speech delivered more than most veteran black leaders had expected. Popo Molefe, Secretary-General of the United Democratic Front, the largest domestic antiapartheid coalition, told the cheering Cape Town crowd that of all the white leaders, "De Klerk has taken the boldest step and is the most courageous." Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate, said the speech "has certainly taken my breath away," and his fellow campaigner, the Rev. Allan Boesak, was surprised "that he met so many of the demands."

Government leaders seemed convinced that De Klerk's concessions would now lead to the bargaining table. Contacts with black leaders will be "considerably broadened and expanded," said Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning Gerrit Viljoen. But he gave no specifics on how the white government might be prepared to compromise on its own fundamental policy of guaranteed rights for racial groups as well as individuals.

Jubilant crowds marched with A.N.C. banners in several cities, but celebrations were short lived, giving way to second thoughts about what remains to be done. U.D.F. spokesmen pointed out that Mandela and other A.N.C. guerrillas remain in prison and that if Oliver Tambo, the Congress's President, were to return to South Africa, he could be arrested under nonemergency laws such as the Internal Security Act. Patrick Lekota, a U.D.F. leader, said the domestic opposition would step up its defiance campaign and call for intensified international pressure on Pretoria.

The A.N.C. leadership's response was cool. In a statement released in Stockholm, where Tambo is recuperating after a stroke, the Congress said De Klerk's steps were important but expressed concern that the state of emergency is still in place and that some of the government's opponents would continue to be detained. It said it would review the prospects for negotiation, but in the meantime asked all countries not to do "anything to lessen the isolation of the apartheid regime."

Behind the stern talk, antiapartheid leaders conceded they were searching for compromises that could get them to the conference table. De Klerk has kept the final ace, the release of Mandela, in his hand, and when he plays it, the antiapartheid movement will feel heavy pressure to sit down and talk. The question then will be whether any solution acceptable to both the black majority and the white minority is negotiable.

With reporting by Peter Hawthorne and Scott MacLeod/ Cape Town