Word: klerk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...government gave permission for the rally to take place, part of an attempt by President F.W. de Klerk to promote Black-white negotiations new constitution. But a magistrate had warned organizers that speakers should avoid promoting ANC aims...
Threatened by the possibility of additional Western economic sanctions, De Klerk appeared to be acting swiftly on his campaign pledge to lead the country into a new era through negotiations with the country's disenfranchised blacks. After allowing Mandela a pre-release reunion with his fellow Rivonia prisoners, the government permitted him to receive Mrs. Sisulu along with three other leaders of the antigovernment coalition known as the Mass Democratic Movement. Later the government lifted a 20-month-old order that barred Mrs. Sisulu from political activities. Also, De Klerk was the host for three hours of what he described...
...waiting ended later that day. President F.W. de Klerk ordered the release of Sisulu and seven others, including all the remaining Rivonia prisoners except Mandela, as soon as "the necessary formalities" could be arranged. There was a mixture of joy and sadness when Mrs. Sisulu later visited the 71-year-old Mandela in his stucco bungalow at the Victor Verster prison farm. As the 8 p.m. television news announced De Klerk's decision, Mandela embraced Mrs. Sisulu. "We want to take you with us right now," she told him. "Yes," Mandela replied. "I want to go home...
Nonetheless, the two sides are still far apart on such basic issues as the pace of change and who will speak for the black majority. The clergymen handed De Klerk a 13-point agenda for reform demanding that the government lift the state of emergency and free the hundreds of remaining political prisoners, and then within six months abolish apartheid laws and begin negotiations on a new South African constitution with the A.N.C. "If we were to get that kind of commitment," Tutu said, "we would be ready to say to our friends, 'Put your sanctions programs on hold...
There was no immediate word about the status of the three other prisoners named by de Klerk--80-year-year ANC activist Oscar Mpetha, who has been hospitalized in Cape Town; Raymond Mhlaba, a co-defendent of Sisulu and Mandela who lives in Port Elizabeth; and Jafta Masemola, a member of the Pan Africanist guerrilla movement who lives outside Pretoria...