Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990 TAG: 9004060815
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Medium
The Cabinet officer responsible for black affairs, Constitutional Development Minister Gerrit Viljoen, said four of six invited homeland chiefs withdrew under pressure from opposition groups.
He said the pressure amounted to "intimidation" but gave no details.
African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was still expected to meet today with de Klerk to consider ways to revive negotiations on dismantling apartheid.
Kwazulu chief minister Magosuthu Buthelezi and Kwa Kwa chief minister T.K. Mopeli turned up for the talks. Buthelezi heads the Zulu Tribe's conservative Inkatha movement and is seen as Mandela's main black rival.
De Klerk decided to go ahead with the talks, meeting first with Buthelezi and heads of the majority parties in the white, Asian and colored or mixed-race parliaments. He was to meet later with Mandela and other ANC leaders.
Allan Hendrickse, head of the Labor Party in the colored parliament, said Mandela had asked him to pull out of the talks with de Klerk. He said he would attend but ask de Klerk to adjourn until all homeland leaders could attend.
South Africa has three parliaments - for whites, Asians and colored voters. There is no parliament for blacks, who do not have the vote.
The homelands were set up by the white-minority government as separate areas for blacks. Most black opposition groups, including ANC elements, oppose the homelands' conservative governments and have helped organize resistance against them.
The ANC and other opposition groups want the homelands reintegrated into South Africa. The regions have been hit by major unrest and the military has seized power in Transkei and Ciskei.
Four homelands are officially independent nations - though they are recognized by no foreign government - and six are classified as self-governing and were invited to today's talks.
The South African government says the homeland leaders must be included in negotiations on the country's future.
Government leaders had hoped today's meetings would help revive efforts to start full-scale negotiations on sharing political power with blacks. De Klerk has pledged to end apartheid.
Talks set for next Wednesday collapsed when the ANC pulled out to protest the police killing of nine blacks during a March 26 demonstration in the black township of Sebokeng outside Johannesburg.
by CNB