Gelderen
SOUTH Africa's first general election based on universal franchise, scheduled for April 27 1994, is arousing none of the euphoria which greeted Nelson Mandela's release from prison two years ago.
The great hopes aroused by that historic occasion have been adulterated by the prolonged series of negotiations and the compromising positions adopted by the ANC leadership.
Indeed, most of the noise is coming from the white-racist right wing and its black allies, Buthelzi and his Inkatha Freedom Party, and the heads of the Bophuthatswana and Ciskei bantustans.
The white right are openly threatening armed resistance if their demands for an Afrikaner 'volkstaat' and regional autonomy are not met.
Armed forces
The right wing Freedom Alliance has considerable support in the armed forces and the police who have been drilled for decades to think of the ANC and Communism as the enemy. It has been further strengthened by the threat of industrial action by the racist white trade unions in support of their demands.
The members of these white unions, mainly affiliated to the South African Confederation of Labour (SACLA), while numerically considerably smaller than the non-racial unions organised in COSATU and NACTU, occupy key positions in economically important sectors, especially iron and steel. Action on their part could inflict serious damage to the country's fragile economy.
COSATU once showed some resistance to the compromises agreed between the ANC leadership and the National Party As recently as last June, the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) congress adopted a resolution calling for an end to COSATU's involvement in the Tripartite Alliance (ANC, the South African Communist Party and COSATU), measures to strengthen socialism and the possible formation of a workers' party.
But at the special COSATU Congress in September it was agreed that COSATU would put forward a list of candidates to stand on the ANC ticket.
Moses Mayekiso, former general secretary of NUMSA, and once the foremost advocate of working class politics, is one Not big fans of the deal: Afrikaner rightists of the AWB of the twenty people included in the list.
These people, if elected, will not be accountable to COSATU for their parliamentary activities. They will be subject to the ANC whip.
Careers Almost the entire COSATU leadership, including Jay Naidoo, the general secretary, have relinquished their posts, their eyes on a future political career.
The new Central Executive Committee has announced that it is planning a general strike tion was formed. Fretilin rapagainst some of the grosser elements in the agreements reached by the multi-party negotiations.
These are the so-called 'Sunset Clauses' first proposed by Communist Party leader Joe Slovo, which guarantee that all civil servants will keep their jobs after the elections.
The ANC and SACP leaderships are bringing pressure to bear to get this strike call rescinded. With Sam Shilowa, a loyal member of the SACP, replacing Jay Naidoo as COSATU's new general secretary, this pressure could well be effective.
In November 1991, a delega-