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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994                   TAG: 9402180106
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA                                LENGTH: Medium

GROUP STILL TO BOYCOTT SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS

Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the most important member of a coalition of separatist parties opposed to the terms of transition from apartheid to democracy, Thursday denounced a package of concessions offered to persuade the groups to drop their boycott of the April elections.

Buthelezi, who heads the Inkatha Freedom Party, lashed out at Nelson Mandela, his rival and president of the African National Congress, for offering a sweeping set of constitutional amendments Wednesday to appease Buthelezi and his right-wing allies in the Freedom Alliance.

He said Mandela and the government of President F.W. de Klerk were describing as "a breakthrough" the same proposals that the alliance rejected before it broke off months of negotiations with the government and the ANC.

"What utter hypocrisy," Buthelezi said in a statement. "Mr. Mandela's statement amounts to no more than cheap politicking on life-and-death issues."

Buthelezi warned that he and his followers will stay out of the April 26-28 election, the first in which the country's black majority will be allowed to vote. He called the two-month-old interim constitution "fatally flawed," adding that "any election under it must be rejected as undemocratic."

Mandela and de Klerk had announced in separate news conferences that they were endorsing a series of proposals that appeared to meet many of the demands of the Freedom Alliance. De Klerk said he would call Parliament back into special session early next month to amend the interim constitution, whether or not the alliance is satisfied with the offer.

The concessions include the use of two ballots, rather than one, so voters can choose different parties for the national and provincial assemblies; guarantees of greater provincial powers, including taxation; and recognition of the principle of self-determination to allow for greater local autonomy.

But Buthelezi insisted he would not accept the broader democratic framework hammered out by 21 parties during two years of grueling negotiations. When the groups wrote the interim constitution, they agreed it would be rewritten after a democratically elected government is in power. The ANC is expected to win the election in a landslide.

"No constitution which dictates that it be replaced by another constitution, drawn up and piloted through a new constitution-making process by a ruling political party, would be accepted by any democratic people in the world," Buthelezi said.

by CNB