
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 4, 1993                   TAG: 9310040015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA                                LENGTH: Medium

ANC CONSIDERS REGION FOR WHITE S. AFRICANS

In his most conciliatory signal yet to South Africa's white right wing, African National Congress President Nelson Mandela disclosed Sunday that his organization is reviewing a map for a new South Africa that includes a region where Afrikaans-language speakers would enjoy limited autonomy.

"They've [the right wing] given us a map," Mandela told the South African Press Association as he completed a 10-day visit to the United States. "We are studying that map now, and we are serious when we say we want to address the fears of all communities."

Mandela emphasized, however, that the ANC would never accept a political settlement in which race or ethnicity was the basis for citizenship, meaning that he is unprepared to meet the demand of hard-line Afrikaners who have threatened armed resistance to a black-led South Africa unless given their own ethnically based state.

Mandela's overture seems designed to split the ranks of the white right wing between those willing to talk and those determined to fight.

As the likely president of a democratic South Africa, Mandela appears ready to offer a region where Afrikaners - the descendants of 17th century Dutch, German and French Hugenot settlers - would have their schools, language and culture under their control, without apartheid-type laws.

Such a compromise will be the subject of intense discussion during the next six weeks as political negotiators try to complete an interim democratic constitution to prepare the way for the nation's first all-races election April 27.

A power struggle seems inevitable between the two dominant personalities of the right-wing Volksfront. Retired Gen. Constand Viljoen says he wants to avoid war at all cost; Ferdi Hartzenberg rarely gives a speech without raising the specter of guerrilla warfare or nonlethal terrorism.

by CNB