Word: pretoria
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...Clearly," says U.S. Ambassador William Swing, who was a junior diplomat in South Africa in the mid-1960s, "there has not been a time in my association with this country that the prospects for a settlement along just lines have been as favorable." Yet Pretoria is notorious for its habit of taking two steps backward for every step forward. De Klerk is urging against unrealistic hopes. But if he fails to fulfill at least some of the expectations, he will risk a powerful backlash that could wreck any prospect for progress in the near future...
...answer is no, or at least not yet. Pretoria's calls for change are not a recent concession to foreign pressure. As early as 1979, long before economic sanctions were considered, President P.W. Botha told his Afrikaner volk to "adapt or die." In 1986 he described apartheid as "outdated and unacceptable." It was only later that year, to push for faster change, that the U.S. enacted its comprehensive sanctions bill. Those measures hit South Africa where it hurts: in the economy, and in the keen sense among whites that they are pariahs in the world's eyes and will remain...
...what is the government offering in exchange? De Klerk has released long- imprisoned black leaders and permitted black protest meetings, but these are relaxations of the security rules rather than political changes. In spite of sanctions and the new mood of optimism about negotiations for a new constitution, Pretoria remains essentially unyielding on the larger issue of one man, one vote. It insists that majority rule, the central demand of the African National Congress, is inherently "unjust" and would amount to black "domination" over the white minority...
...Christmas pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But Archbishop Desmond Tutu has never allowed his religious calling to prevent him from actively engaging in politics in South Africa, his home, and he behaved no differently abroad. To the studied discomfort of the Israeli government, which maintains close ties to Pretoria, Tutu used his visit to the Jewish state to air some outspokenly pro-Palestinian views...
Denard was flown to South Africa, but Pretoria made it clear that he could not stay. Not only are officials there embarrassed by Denard's latest alleged caper, but also rumors persist that the $3 million South Africa spent annually until recently on the Comoros' presidential guard has served largely to line the mercenaries' pockets. Denard expects an even cooler reception in France. There he faces charges stemming from a failed 1977 coup attempt against Benin President Mathieu Kerekou...