South African Black, White Leaders Agree on New Charter

JOHANNESBURG, NOV. 18 (THURSDAY) -- South Africa's white minority government and black political leaders approved a new constitution early today designed to eliminate institutionalized racism, reaching a historic milestone on their negotiated journey beyond apartheid.

Democracy negotiators also agreed that the coalition government scheduled to be elected April 27 in the country's first all-races election will rule in the "spirit" of national unity. But the governing cabinet will not be required to reach two-thirds majorities on major decisions -- a big, last-minute concession by President Frederik W. de Klerk.

African National Congress president Nelson Mandela, heavily favored to become South Africa's first black president, hailed the agreement for "restoring the citizenship" of millions of South Africans and "reuniting our country" after the forced fragmentation of apartheid.

Speaking in English, Xhosa, and Afrikaans -- three of the 11 official languages of the new South Africa -- Mandela also pledged to groups that boycotted the negotiations that "you have a place in our country."

The elaborately balanced package of measures, two years in the writing, represents an effort to both redress the oppression of the apartheid past and to reassure all segments of a racially divided society that they will have a secure place in the democratic future.

On the one hand, for example, it offers restitution to blacks dispossessed of land by discriminatory laws passed since 1913; on the other, it assures whites that landowners will not face a loss of property without compensation.

The package also calls for nine new regions to be created, each of which will be able to write its own constitution. After the election April 27, the 10 black homelands created under apartheid will cease to exist.

The question of division of powers between the central government and the regions has been left purposely vague, giving the new constitutional court considerable powers to interpret the kind of federal system that will prevail here.

The most difficult challenge confronting negotiators was drawing a blueprint for a democratic government in a society where blacks make up 75 percent of the population but whites own 98 percent of the wealth. Until the eve of the settlement, de Klerk had insisted that the new coalition cabinet could make major decisions only by a two-thirds vote -- a device to protect minority interests.

But in a final bargaining session with de Klerk on Tuesday night, Mandela was reportedly unmovable in his insistence that while the first democratic government should be made up of all parties on a proportional basis, it should not need special majorities to make policy.

According to polls, Mandela's ANC is headed for a solid majority in the first election.

Government negotiators acknowledged they had retreated. But, they said, they hope the stark realities of South Africa's power equilibrium -- the fact that the white minority will retain effective control over the economy, the security force and the civil service for the foreseeable future -- will serve as a more effective protection for minority interests than any numerical formula. "The first black-led government will find it just as difficult to govern without those forces as our government found it to proceed without the consent of the liberation movement," said government spokesman David Steward.

The package was approved without the consent of the Freedom Alliance, a coalition representing conservative whites and black homeland leaders. These groups, including the Afrikaner-based Conservative Party and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, walked out of talks in June, complaining that their demands for regional and ethnic self-determination were being ignored.

Tonight, General Constand Viljoen, leader of the Afrikaner Volksfront, said South Africa was "at the brink of war" and described the situation of Afrikaners as "disastrous."

Both the government and the ANC are continuing to negotiate with those groups in the hope of persuading them to take part in the April election. Most political observers here expect they will, but also expect that fringe elements will try to disrupt the election campaign with acts of terror and sabotage.

The package, which includes the nation's first-ever bill of rights and which eliminates all remnants of apartheid legislation, still requires approval by a special parliament session, which is expected next week.

In addition to creating transitional bodies intended to assure a fair opportunity for all parties in the election, the package calls for the establishment of a coalition government that will last for five years after the election. The legislature and the executive in that government will be chosen by proportional representation, and a new constitutional court will be appointed by the state president -- expected to be Mandela -- from a list of candidates provided by a nonpartisan judicial panel.

Anti-apartheid leaders who spent their lives either in jail, underground or in exile to bring about this day were both ecstatic and exhausted.

"This is not the time to crow; this isn't about victories and defeats," said Joe Slovo, leader of the South African Communist Party, his posture of above-the-fray impartiality betrayed by a broad grin. "The real winners have been the people of South Africa."

The final stages of negotiations unfolded as the liberation forces hoped they would -- so much so that a dispirited National Party negotiator was quoted in a local newspaper lamenting that the government had been reduced to "selling off the family silver gracefully."

When de Klerk began negotiations, he was holding out for mechanisms such as a rotating presidency to guarantee a minority veto. The government also appeared to believe that the longer talks dragged on, the weaker the ANC alliance would become. In fact, the reverse has proven true -- as the ruling National Party's position has been undermined by a sharp drop in the polls. One national survey came out last week showing that it would receive only 13 percent of the vote in a democratic election.

The process has spawned a culture of negotiation that has proven resilient enough to withstand some of the worst years that South Africa has ever faced. More than 12,000 people have lost their lives in political violence in the four years since de Klerk released Mandela from prison and lifted the ban on the ANC. During this period South Africa also has suffered its longest recession of the century -- although the economy has, in the past six months, shown signs of turning around.

The most dramatic challenge to the talks came last May when heavily armed members of the white Afrikaner Resistance Movement drove an armored truck through the plate glass panels of the World Trade Center on the outskirts of Johannesburg. They overwhelmed police and occupied the negotiating chamber for several hours to press their demands for a separate state reserved for Afrikaners. But the situation was defused -- by negotiation. And a few hours later, the talks were back on track, as if nothing had happened.