African Activist Archive

The mailing reports on the whites-only referendum in South Africa, which resulted in an overwhelming YES vote for President de Klerk's strategy for continued negotiation on ending apartheid. The majority of South Africans were once again excluded from the vote. De Klerk is taking the referendum's results as a mandate not for change, but for pursuing a white veto over South Africa's future. He campaigned on a platform that spelled out sharp limits in the powers of any new government, and he is already arguing in negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC) that he cannot compromise very far on key elements on the National Party proposals. At the same time his government and his party negotiate with Nelson Mandela and the ANC in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), his government is pressing a deadly assault designed to cripple the ANC and the democratic movement. The South African military and police have been directly responsible for some of the worst attacks; the government is also responsible for the vicious attacks carried out by Chief Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party and his KwaZulu police. Both the ANC and the South African Council of Churches (SACC) issued statements in response to the referendum, urging the international community to continue its support for the democratic movement, and the ANC urged the retention of all economic sanctions until the establishment of a fully representative interim government. The mailing includes "Statement of the African National Congress on the Results of the Referendum" issued by the ANC Department of Information and Publicity and "POST-REFERENDUM STATEMENT BY THE REV. DR. FRANK CHIKANE" issued by the SACC. The mailing discusses Africa Fund Trustee Peter Weiss, violence, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a democratic transition, the OAU (Organization of African Unity), the Commonwealth Summit, and a Constituent Assembly.

African Activist Archive

Re: White Referendum in South Africa

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