Word: mandelas
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What has become of the great white hope -- the man who saw the writing on the wall, dismantled the bars of apartheid and promised to shape a new South Africa? The harsh answer dawning on an increasingly militant Mandela and others is that De Klerk, despite his reforms, is not intent on securing justice and freedom for all; if that were true, he would be doing more to end the township violence. Instead, they believe, De Klerk has revealed himself as a ruthless practitioner of realpolitik, determined to preserve decisive white power and privilege...
What angers Mandela and the A.N.C. is that De Klerk's strategy is manifesting itself in his proposals for a lengthy transition process calculated to entrench the National Party in a system of power sharing. The A.N.C. believes that De Klerk revealed his true colors at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, which became deadlocked in May over his demand that, in effect, whites be given a veto in the proposed two-chamber constituent assembly that will draw up a post-apartheid constitution. When the President insisted on allowing a mere 26% to block any constitution favored...
When negotiations between De Klerk's government and Nelson Mandela's African National Congress collapsed last week, it was attributable as much to a collision between these diverging worlds as it was to the failure of the negotiators or the latest massacre of blacks. That is one reason why the breakdown has caused so much anguish among people of all races. After more than two years of progress, they were suddenly asking themselves whether their remarkable attempt at reconciliation might actually fail, and with disastrous consequences. "I can only say," wrote Allister Sparks, the South African journalist and author, "that...
...immediate cause of the breakdown was the A.N.C.'s indignation over the particularly pitiless slaughter of 42 people in Boipatong, near Johannesburg. Discontent has grown intense in A.N.C. ranks over the ceaseless violence. When Mandela visited Boipatong last week, he and his entourage were taunted by a song that included the lyrics: "While they kill our people, you behave like lambs...
...lost, however. At a meeting last week of the A.N.C.'s executive committee, officials recommitted the organization to negotiations, provided that De Klerk takes several practical steps to curb the violence: terminating covert operations, closing hostels, banning the carrying of cultural weapons. The committee also proposed that Mandela quickly meet with De Klerk to discuss the crisis, which suggests that the A.N.C. is prepared to bargain...