State President FW de Klerk’s opening address to parliament, to be delivered at 11am today, was the subject of a ”furious cabinet row”, according to senior National Party sources. The initial draft of the address, which has since been revised, caused Foreign Affairs Minister Pik Botha to express ”grave fears” that it was not offering enough.
According to the NP source, who asked not to be named, Pik Botha was ”terrified of a Rubicon repeat” and wanted Nelson Mandela to be released on Monday January 29 – a move which the cabinet came close to accepting. Arguing against him was Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee, who favoured Mandela’s release as part of a package and therefore proposed the move be delayed until some weeks after De Klerk’s speech.
The NP source said the possibility of being released on January 29 was conveyed to Mandela, who was ”angry” that it broke assurances his release would be accompanied by measures such as lifting the Emergency and the unbanning of the African National Congress. Mandela is said to have insisted that his release could not be an isolated event. Since the cabinet meeting the speech has been redrafted with a more ‘upbeat” tone, but has not been substantially changed in content, according to sources.
De Klerk is said to have left open the possibilities of further change following communications with Mandela. National Party, Democratic Party and top-level diplomatic sources say that De Klerk is seeing the speech a the first Slovo in a battle to wrest the political initiative from the ANC. ”He wants the package to unfold over a period of six months to a year, rather than to be released in a single, once-off speech,” said the NF source.
A senior Western diplomat said he had been led to believe that the speech would have a positive tone, which would suggest a process of substantial reform without many major announcements. Among the moves it is expected to include are lifting the Emergency media regulations and restrictions on various political organisations, changes to the Separate Amenities Act and the Land Act and a package of economic concessions to appease the business community.
Barring last-minute changes this morning’s speech will not include an announcement of the date of Mandela’s release or lifting the ban on the ANC and other organisations, though it may indicate an intention to do so. There will also be no announcement of a complete lifting of the Emergency regulations, he said. It is possible that an announcement will be made concerning the release of five ANC prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment 13 years ago. Some of them have served a total of 25 years behind bars.
De Klerk was said to be considering an announcement relating to the death penalty -possibly a commission of inquiry. He is also expected to provide an indication of the nature and extent of the forthcoming budget cuts. The speech will explain the need for cuts in defence spending, will praise the police for the role they are playing and will stress that ”law and order” will be maintained. Democratic Party national chairman Tian van der Merwe said he was not expecting any dramatic announcements, and much of the speech’s tone would be aimed at maintaining the support of the business community. National Party sources indicate, however, that today’s speech should not be seen in isolation.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Gerrit Viljoen is said to be keen to start the negotiation process in earnest by the end of the year, and the government recognises that before then the major ”obstacles” need to be removed. Unless there is large-scale ”unrest”, by mid-year the government is expected to have announced the unbanning of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, the lifting of the Emergency and a package which includes an end to political trials and the release of political prisoners not convicted of murder. Towards the end of the year provision is expected to be made for the return of ANC and other exiles. In return the government is expecting an immediate scaling down of the ANC’s insurgency, leading to a mutually binding ceasefire later in the year.
NP sources say they are moving in this direction because De Klerk feels that by taking the initiative they will be able to ”keep the ANC on its back foot”. They also recognise that such changes are inevitable and would prefer that they are not seen as concessions squeezed from the government through pressure. The government recognises that the ANC is a necessary party to negotiations, but insists that lnkatha be given equal status.
De Klerk is said to have indicated to Mandela that an acceptance of ”group rights” is negotiable and that the NP is no longer wedded to this concept. The future of the Population Registration Act would therefore be subject to negotiation. While the pace of his reforms is said to have caused disquiet in sections of the NP and among some ”securocrats”, he has now reached the point where such opposition no longer represents a major threat.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
