By Charlie van Gelderen Boipatong will rank with Sharpeville and Soweto in the pantheon of South African infamy.
The events of the past week will surey have brought home to the leaders of he ANC and the SACP that the leader of the white ruling class are not prepared to negotiate away their powers and privileges.
of the CODESA negotiations the ANC have bent over backwards as far as they dared to placate 'white fears'. They were prepared to drop their demand that the new constitution had to be agreed by a two-thirds majority.
Against the government demand of 75 per cent they proposed the compromise of 70 per cent. This was not acceptable to the National Party and its Inkatha allies. Concessions were made not only in the political sphere, but also over economic policy Some of the nationalisation clauses of the Freedom Charter have been watered down. In the last weekend in May, the ANC drew up its guidelines for a post-apartheid economy.
It emphasised that 'quick-fix solutions, so often proposed by liberation movements in the past, Nationalisation as promised in the Freedom Charter was their only option in relieving inequality and poverty.
It was more important to balance the priority of the needs of the poor witt concies actanta to attract and foreign investors. their need for flexibility, the document said The ANC envisages a dynamie. private sector. They would seek to reduce public sector spending. with enthusiasm by Derek Keys, the Minister Finance and Trade in the De Klerk government. All this was of no avail.
Better than the ANC leadership, the government perceived that mass pres ure on a government which included the ANC could bring about unwanted changes the social economic structure of South Africa.
The De Klerk government set out with a deliberate policy of destroying the process towards vote election by fostering mayhem in the townships in conjunction with Inkatha.
In April a judge in the Pietermaritzburg Appeal Court. Tustice Woolthen. exposed in more detail than ever berore in a African court of law the police strategy of employing blacks in collusion with the right wing Inkatha Freedom Party to do the work of the were out. state in their dirty work against the ANC.
The judge himself has since been subjected to having his phone tapped. ANC has suspended the armed strug oth loca gle, the government has reinforced the Emphasising security forces in preparation for a new assault on the liberation movement.
De Klerk has presented a picture to the world of a reforming government, of and South tices of apartheid. international sport. police harassment, including While the bug offices and houses. determined to bring toan end eye nish : is a policy which has already reaped dividends in terms of the abandonment of sanctions by the international community, and South Africa's readmission to the world of But at the same time the government has taken decisive steps to ensure that it can meet any renewed threat of armed resistance with massive force. He has introduced new legislation to make it easier for the police to listen in to telephone calls, open the post and He has allocated 205 million rand, 41 million pounds, for a new underground bunker for the airport. The dis. credited National Intelligence Service, which was invoive in siptorns sate funds off to Inkatha, has got a new headquarters costing 145 million rand As there are no external enemies in sight, these measures are obviously aimed at internal security - that is the liberation forces. Heis openly talking of reintroducing the state of emergency Conceivably Nelson Mandela could find himself back in prison.
No. 24 June 27, 1992
Ecology feature