Johannesburg, Wednesday
SOUTH Africa acted today to avert chaos in a second black homeland and
issued a stern demand to a third that it co-operate with preparations
for all-race elections next month.
The multi-party Transitional Executive Council (TEC), charged with
ensuring that elections now only five weeks away are free and fair, took
control of the nominally independent Ciskei after police in the black
homeland mutinied against military leader Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.
''He is out. His ministers are out. That is certain,'' TEC
representative Zam Titus told reporters.
In the self-governing homeland of KwaZulu, power base of Inkatha
Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his ally King Goodwill
Zwelithini, the head of the TEC's electoral commission demanded that
free campaigning be allowed.
Buthelezi and Zwelithini have so far rejected participation in the
April 26-28 poll, saying they refuse to legitimise what they call a
fatally flawed constitution that does not grant their region sufficient
independence.
Electoral commission chairman Judge Johann Kriegler received a stormy
reception when he told the KwaZulu legislative assembly in the homeland
capital of Ulundi that obstacles to free political activity had to be
removed.
''Can I ask you to afford me the same courtesy that the king and his
prime minister (Buthelezi) afforded me?'' an angry Kriegler told jeering
legislators.
In a memorandum to Buthelezi, Kriegler said his commission ''has
regrettably encountered serious difficulties in executing (its) mandate
in some areas of KwaZulu'', adding that ''we hereby request you to cause
instructions to be given forthwith'' that homeland authorities
co-operate with the commission.
A similar visit by Kriegler to the black homeland of Bophuthatswana
two weeks ago preceded South Africa's ousting of homeland leader Lucas
Mangope, who had also balked at allowing free campaigning.
Senior ANC officials from Natal -- where KwaZulu is situated -- called
on the TEC to take control of Buthelezi's homeland.
''The situation is explosive,'' Jeff Radebe, southern Natal head of
the movement, told a Johannesburg news conference.
''Unless the TEC moves quickly to seize control of KwaZulu, many lives
will be lost and the election process is in danger of being sabotaged.''
Rivalry between the ANC and Inkatha underlies much of the violence in
which about 15,000 blacks have died since President F W de Klerk began
dismantling apartheid four years ago. Police said 85 people had been
killed in Natal in five days.
ANC President Nelson Mandela said the election would go ahead as
scheduled in KwaZulu-Natal despite the violence.
''The people of Natal want an election . . . and they will have an
election,'' Mandela told about 200 people at a business gathering at a
Johannesburg hotel.
Zwelithini told Kriegler he could not advise his subjects to vote
because his demand for a sovereign Zulu kingdom had not been met.
''As the king of the Zulus proclaiming the sovereignty of KwaZulu, and
claiming recognition for it in vain, I have just not been able to
persuade my people that voting in the forthcoming election will be the
correct thing to do,'' he said.
An independent think tank, the Institute for Multi-Party Democracy,
published a survey which it said showed nearly 25% of South Africans
would react ''militantly'' if they thought their party was cheated in
the election.
''There is considerable pre-election stress . . . the period
immediately after the election could also be a danger phase,'' it added.
The survey found that in some places more than 40% of the electorate
believed the ballot would not be secret.
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