Word: mandelas
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When Nelson Mandela gathers his followers next week for their first conference inside the country in 30 years, they should be able to review their achievements with pride. The African National Congress, established in 1912, is nearer than ever to its goal of replacing apartheid with democracy for all races. Last week the last legal pillar of segregation tumbled when the Parliament revoked the Population Registration Act of 1950, fulfilling President F.W. de Klerk's promise to abolish South Africa's major discrimination laws...
These are not particularly good days, however, for the A.N.C. The meeting in the Natal province capital of Durban is expected to elevate Mandela to the movement's presidency, but his stature has been trimmed by the conviction of his wife Winnie on kidnapping and assault charges two months ago. The challenge for the 2,000 delegates is how to retake the political initiative that the A.N.C. has lost to De Klerk in the past year. Thanks to his democratic advances, Pretoria's international isolation seems ever closer to an end. Even in the U.S., where antiapartheid sentiment is strong...
...A.N.C. was doomed to fall short of the absurdly high hopes inspired by Mandela's release from prison in February 1990. But the organization has genuinely dismayed many South Africans with its increasingly strident demands, its role in township violence, its muddled ideas about nationalizing parts of the economy and its maddening bureaucratic sluggishness. Not long ago, A.N.C. leaders could be heard arguing that the government should simply hand over power. Now it is reasonable to wonder if the organization, even with its large number of sympathizers, could win a democratic election when one is finally held...
During the same period, De Klerk has shown impressive skill at outmaneuvering Mandela and maintaining control of the transition process. He enjoys strong support from whites and blacks alike. "This is not a regime that is collapsing," says Lawrence Schlemmer, director of Johannesburg's Center for Policy Studies. The government's competency has frustrated the A.N.C. Most galling of all has been the success that De Klerk has had in being welcomed by black African leaders the congress considers close allies...
...When we took a stand on something like divestment one week, we didn't know how to deal with another issue, like condemning Winnie Mandela's own excesses the next week," Gallagher says...