If President-elect FW de Klerk wants to meet US President George Bush, he will probably have to give United Democratic Front leaders permission to do so first. Three UDF leaders are waiting for the government to give them pass ports, Curnick Ndlovu, Titus Mofolo and Azhar Cachalia are due to leave on Monday in order to see Bush at the end of next week. They are part of a delegation led by UDF President Albertina Sisulu and Federation of Transvaal Women President Sister Bernard Ngcube, who have been granted passports and are already in Europe . If the three do not get passports, it is certain to prejudice De Klerk ‘s chances of being granted the same level of visit as the UDF.
De Klerk is due to meet US Secretary of Stare James Baker soon, but has not yet secured a meeting with the president. This means De Klerk may be obliged to allow the UDF leaders to see Bush first, making the president elect third in line behind the UDF and the opposition church leaders who saw Bush last month. UDF sources say the organisation has not yet decided what it will do if the three do not get passports. The US goverment is understood to be putting pressure on Pretoria to allow the resistance leaders to travel.
De Klerk is due for talks with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher this morning in a meeting that could be important to his campaign for the September election and the long-term prospects of negotiations in this country. It is expected that Thatcher will be tough with him. Sources in Pretoria indicate that she is not impressed with his reformist rhetoric so far and wants real signs of a movement to wards negotiations. Thatcher was tough with the two other South African ministers she has seen in recent weeks, Pik Botha and Barend du Plessis.
According to these sources, Thatcher will concentrate on putting across to the South African leader the degree of economic problems his country faces and its vulnerability to pressure t on this level. Though she will not threaten further sanctions, she will noint to the country’s debt situation. She is expected to warn him off any involvement in ”dirty tricks” in neighbouring states. On the positive side, she is expected to push hard for the release of Nelson Mandela soon after the SepÂtember elections and will suggest thathis colleague Walter Sisulu be released even before then. She will indicate that the release of political pris oners would make a major difference to her attitude to De Klerk’s government.
De Klerk is expected to spell out to Thatcher what he intends to do after the September election. He appears to have done this yesterday when he met for an hour with West German Chancellor Hel mut Kohl. He said afterwards that he had taken the opportunity to convey to Kohl his government’s vi sion of the future of South Africa. He had told the West German that this vision was based on building trust and consensus with a view to reform and a new constitutional dispensation for South Africa. Their talks took place ”in a positive and construc tive spirit”, he said.
During De Klerk’s visit, German anti-apartheid groups held a special meeting to highlight allega tions of illegal arms deals between the West Ger mans and South Africa in 1984/5. The British Anti-Apartheid Movement meanwhile claims that De Klerk’s visit has aroused widespread anger and protest At one rally earlier this week, Albertina Sisulu said De Klerk was ”going about trying to convince the international world that he is the new hope for South Africa. ”Yet at home, he does nothing that tells the people of South Africa of his grand plans. We know him as an apartheid man who is committed to separate development.”
She called on the British to ”send De Klerk home” to abolish the Emergency, unban organisa tions and individuals, release political prisoners, let exiles return and suspend the ”undemocratic” elec tions. ”Send De Klerk home to do all this, and afterwards talk to him,” she said. In the meanwhile, she called on them to increase pressure The ”mass democratic movement” in South Afrie2 is known to be concerned about Thatcher’s role in getting negotiations started in South Africa. It is be lieved that at a recent consultation in Lusaka, in volving leaders of the MDM, Cosatu and the ANC, the fear was raised that Thatcher would accept a po litical settlement in South Africa that excluded groups such as the ANC.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
