Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993 TAG: 9309240058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Medium
A special parliamentary session passed a bill to create a "Transitional Executive Council" of representatives from 20 to 23 political organizations, all but three or four of which are expected to be non-white. It will have a limited veto over governmental decisions affecting the political campaign, including matters of law and order and internal security.
The African National Congress, the nation's largest black group, hailed the 211-36 vote in the all-white Parliament as a "major victory for the forces of peace and democracy."
It said that when the council comes into being later this year, the ruling National Party no longer would be able to act as "player and referee" in the transition from apartheid to democracy.
The bill's passage is expected to clear the way for ANC President Nelson Mandela to call for the lifting of all remaining economic sanctions against South Africa. Mandela is to address the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid in New York today.
Though lopsided, the vote to create the council had some drama. During the final day of debate Wednesday, all members of the right-wing, all-white, Afrikaner-based Conservative Party had been ordered to leave the parliamentary chamber when, one by one, they denounced the government's chief constitutional negotiator, Roelf Meyer, as a "despicable traitor."
The Conservative Party members were permitted to return Thursday and, along with members of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, cast the dissenting votes. After the vote, the Conservatives staged a voluntary walkout.
The opposition of the Conservatives and Inkatha represents a profound threat to a smooth transition. Many political and diplomatic observers here have concluded the ANC will have to make additional concessions for South Africa to hold an election construed as free, fair and legitimate.
Although polls show the Conservatives have the support of less than 5 percent of South Africans and Inkatha less than 10 percent, they are powerful spoilers. Each represents an ethnically based constituency that harbors deep-seated fears of a ANC-led coalition government expected to come to power in April.
The Conservative Party's platform is creation of a homeland in which Afrikaners - the 3 million white settlers of Dutch, German and French Huegenot extraction - enjoy full political autonomy. Neither the ANC nor the National Party government is prepared to meet such a demand.
The ruling party and ANC are negotiating with the Afrikaner Volksfront, a broad-based Afrikaner group led by former army generals, in search of a compromise that meets the aspirations of Afrikaner self-determination.
Similarly, Inkatha is engaged in bilateral negotiations with the government in its quest for creation of a semiautonomous state in KwaZulu/Natal, the Indian Ocean province where most of the nation's 7 million Zulus live.
To accommodate Inkatha's interests, Meyer, the government's chief negotiator, said after Thursday's vote that the government would turn its attention in the weeks ahead to ensuring that an interim constitution now being drafted allows for the regions to hold many powers.
Until now, the National Party has gone along with the ANC's conception of federalism, which leans toward concurrent national and regional powers. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Inkhata leader, has said such an approach would lead to a tyranny of the center.
by CNB