There could be a role, after all, for an outside ”mediator” in the process of negotiations in South Africa, according to a ”background” document issued in Windhoek yesterday by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Previously, government officials have reacted strongly against suggestions that outsiders would be involved – but the DFA document says ”the whole process could get off the ground through a mediator who calls all or some parties together for a first round of talks”.
The document – issued after President FW de Klerk’s address to the media at South West Africa House yesterday – sets out the possible ”strategy to be adopted in getting the negotiation process off the ground”. ”The government holds the view that there should be pre-negotiations about the form (of the negotiation process),” according to the document. ”The question of chairmanship will also have to be addressed. Various options ranging from an independent chairman to collective chairmanship can be considered.”
In addition ”facilitators and mediators may be used to play a bridging role but only when necessary in case of a deadlock. For example, Kenneth Kaunda may exercise an important influence on the African National Congress grouping if a deadlock should occur.” The document was issued in the wake of De Klerk’s astounding diplomatic coup during independence celebrations in the Namibian capital this week. At a media briefing held at South West Africa House in Windhoek yesterday, De Klerk revealed that he had held face-to-face meetings with no fewer than 19 top-rank international leaders – nine of them heads of state -in what was probably the most intensive bout of high-level diplomacy undertaken by a white South African in more than four decades.
A visibly delighted De Klerk, in impressive form at the briefing, signalled that the possibilities for international co-operation had never been so good for the Pretoria government. ”There was general acknowledgement of initiatives by the SA government which had created a totally new situation,” he said, and ”there was also general acknowledgement that SA has an indispensable role in meeting the challenges facing the region”. At the same time, however, the DFA document served warning that the ANC is in for a rough ride from the government in maintaining its pre-eminent position as the chief negotiator on the opposite side of the table.
While setting out practical – and open-ended -ways in which impetus might be provided to the pre-negotiation process, the document raises questions about the ANC under the heading ”Can the ANC control violence?” ”Does Mr Nelson Mandela control the voteless black millions in SA?” the document asks, saying ”the problem is that he may have far less influence … than anyone expected”. The document reiterates the longstanding government suggestion that such divisions can be characterised as being a result of the existence of ”two distinctive camps within the ANC and all its affiliated organisations.
”The wild hopes of an end to hunger, poverty and lack of housing, irresponsibly raised among the poor of SA by the ANC in exile now have to be met by an ANC legalised. ”At the same time the whole idea of negotiations does not go down well with the militants within the ranks of the ANC. They believe that negotiation and giving up the armed struggle is nothing less than ‘selling out’ the ANC.” All of this raises the question, say the government strategists, of ”how big is the ANC’s support?” Drawing on a survey by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Re search (of which no specific details are given), the document concludes that the ANC’s support is vastly overrated. For example, the ”survey” concludes that ”51 percent of all blacks don’t expect a good deal under a black majority government while 84 percent think that a government representing all groups, but where there can be no domination of one group over another, is the answer to SA’s problems. Â
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
