Word: klerk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Others have also been rushing to reopen the door of the global community to South Africa ever since last spring, when President F.W. de Klerk asked parliament to repeal the last major apartheid laws; lawmakers did so before the end of June. The 12-nation E.C. voted in April to remove its ban on imports of certain products, though Denmark has been holding up implementation, and London will try to talk Commonwealth countries into doing the same at their annual conference in October. The International Olympic Committee last week decided to let South African athletes compete in future games, ending...
...that South Africa must "adapt or die," and such major apartheid legislation as the "pass" laws, which forced blacks to carry identity documents, began to fall even before the main wave of sanctions. Botha, however, could never face up to the necessity for truly radical change; his successor, De Klerk, has done...
...nation's whites so deeply that they went along with a faster and more thorough dismantling of apartheid than they might have countenanced otherwise. "It was the feeling that the country had become a global pariah rather than the economic pressures, however substantial, which seems to have given De Klerk the green light for reforms," says a British official. Laurence Besserman, a Cape Town importer-exporter, puts it in more personal terms: "Even when dealing with old and loyal friends abroad, I always had a sort of Phantom of the Opera feeling. Now we can all come...
Fearful of giving way on any of its long-standing demands, the A.N.C. could come to be seen as blocking progress toward a political settlement. Last week De Klerk told Parliament that a multiparty conference could be convened within a matter of months to decide exactly who would negotiate a new political system and how they would go about doing it. The A.N.C. has vowed to boycott any constitutional discussions until the government fulfills an agreement to free all political prisoners and allow exiles to return home. De Klerk has not yet extended a formal invitation to the gathering. When...
...test of the A.N.C.'s future direction will come when the committee decides how to answer calls to step up "mass action" campaigns of strikes, boycotts and marches. De Klerk charges that these inspire violence and intimidation, poisoning the atmosphere for talks. But A.N.C. hard-liners feel that mass action, like international sanctions, is a vital weapon. "If you look at how the East European countries changed," says Peter Mokaba, leader of the A.N.C. Youth League, "it was mass action that actually pushed the undemocratic regimes out of power...