Word: klerk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...America, we never hear about groups like the PAC, a Black consciousness group, whose membership has increased drastically since President F.W. De Klerk unbanned all political parties in February and many exiles began to return home...
...understandable that Black South Africans and their liberal sympathizers are suspicious of De Klerk and the new overtures being made by the National Party, given the sneaky maneuvers implemented by the ruling minority in the past. And it is understandable why ANC leader Nelson Mandela has called for continued sanctions...
...that De Klerk has jump-started the negotiating process, the real question is whether he can engineer the final transition of power. One of the main stumbling blocks will be reconciling, as Mandela has put it, "the demand for majority rule in a unitary state" with "the concern of white South Africa over this demand." De Klerk's proposal for power sharing is to establish a constitutional mechanism that would safeguard "group rights," which sounds like a way of perpetuating privilege for the country's 5 million whites. Nonetheless Mandela recently endorsed the idea that the first post- apartheid government...
...more serious obstacle, perhaps, is the escalating violence. For months De Klerk has proved unable to persuade Mandela and the African National Congress to hold peace talks with rival leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi on ending the black-against-black fighting that has taken more than 700 lives since mid- August. Although the A.N.C. may include Buthelezi in talks with other black homeland leaders in October, Buthelezi has signaled that the discussions are not the direct talks with Mandela that he has been seeking for an end to the bloodshed. On the other hand, Mandela contends with some justification that right...
Hope remains strong that the current talks about talks will end and real negotiations begin by early 1991. Yet in the absence of a new constitutional order, De Klerk will have to face the white electorate again in 1994. He may thus feel increasingly pressured by party hard-liners to revert to the ways of Pretoria's repressive past if violence bogs down the process of reconciliation and seriously threatens white security...