Word: klerk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...draft constitution giving equal rights to South Africans of every color. The last-minute delay was nothing to blacks who had waited generations for this moment. "We have reached the end of an era," declared a triumphant Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress. President F.W. de Klerk agreed: "South Africa will never be the same again...
...fear is that this interim constitution, which puts in place a government of national unity for the next five years, will not fulfill its promise of a reasonable balance of power to those who distrust Mandela and the A.N.C. De Klerk called the draft "a product of compromise" that could be either "a charter for peace" or "a prescription for powermongering." Ominously, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party and several white separatist groups -- which have rejected the negotiations, threatened to boycott the elections and even hinted at armed resistance -- stayed away from the signing. They continue to insist that regions...
...clinch the deal, De Klerk had to abandon demands for ironclad guarantees that whites and other minorities would share power indefinitely. He had sought a system in which whites would in effect have a permanent veto in such vital affairs of state as defense, foreign policy and the economy. But last week he gave up his insistence that the new coalition Cabinet could act only with a two-thirds vote. Instead the President will be required merely to consult the Cabinet in a "consensus-seeking" spirit...
Meanwhile, ANC supporters celebrated that a white man had been convicted of killing two Blacks and objected to de Klerk and Mandela sharing the prize...
Mandela and de Klerk, who have been working together more often in recent times, hope to stage South Africa's first multi-racial elections in April...