Dashed Hopes

By Wayne Svoboda

It looked to many like the last, best hope for peaceful change in racially tormented South Africa. Since last April delegates from 39 groups of blacks and whites from a wide political spectrum had been meeting in Durban, the main city of the coastal province of Natal, to find a way to transform the province from white minority rule to some form of multiracial government. In a land where passions run high and tempers are often short, they thought that successful power sharing in Natal might become a model for a national solution.

Last week, only two days after the conference issued a 33-page proposal for constitutional reforms, the prospect of change received a crushing blow. Stoffel Botha, Natal's ruling National Party boss, rejected the reforms, saying they failed to protect Natal's whites from "domination" by blacks. The last, best hope seemed destined to meet the same fate as so many other attempts to achieve racial harmony. The white opposition Progressive Federal Party, which had participated in the conference, termed the rejection "a reaction from bigots who seem to have a death wish for South Africa."

The Natal conferees had proposed a merger of white-dominated Natal and black-ruled KwaZulu, the government-designated Zulu homeland that is located inside Natal's borders. The area would then be ruled by a two-chamber parliament. One body would be based on "one man, one vote," which would mean black control and result in a black prime minister. The other would guarantee an equal number of seats to blacks, Indians, English speakers and Afrikaans speakers. Provisions to safeguard white rights, while allowing for eventual black rule, were also included. Dr. Oscar Dhlomo, a black delegate to the congress, called the proposals "South Africa's last chance for peaceful negotiations on reform, not only in Natal but for the whole country."

White and black South Africans who believe that racial change is inevitable had hoped to demonstrate in Natal that apartheid could be dismantled by ballots rather than bullets. The province, although it has a low proportion of whites, seemed an auspicious testing ground. Relations between the 569,000 whites, 6 million blacks, 675,000 Indians and 95,000 mixed-raced coloreds are better than in South Africa's three other provinces. A majority of Natal's whites are of British background and are generally regarded as more liberal on racial issues than Dutch-descended Afrikaners. Moreover, many whites respect the Zulus for their strong tribal loyalty, resourcefulness and reputation as fierce warriors. Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who would probably be the Prime Minister in a racially mixed government, is popular with many whites because he supports capitalism and opposes violence. Such positions have cost him the backing of more militant blacks.

Conference participants included moderate business, church and political groups, as well as officials of the all-white Natal provincial council and blacks from largely self-governing KwaZulu. The ruling National Party sent observers but did not participate in the sessions. The meetings in which the reforms were drawn up became known as the Indaba, the Zulu word for meeting.

The proceedings, however, were denounced by radicals in both the black and white camps. Black nationalist groups such as the banned African National Congress and the multiracial United Democratic Front, which insist on black majority rule rather than power sharing, heaped scorn on the Durban deliberations. Two far-right white groups, the Conservative Party and the Herstigte National Party, which oppose political concessions to blacks, de clined invitations to attend.

Despite the condemnation of the Natal proposals by the local leader of the ruling National Party, South African State President P.W. Botha, the party head, has been careful not to take a formal position. The recommendations go further than he would wish, but his government is reluctant to reject them outright for fear of setting off more racial unrest. Said John Kane-Berman, conference deputy chairman: "I have no illusions about the difficulties of persuading the government to accept the plan." The Indaba's proposal for Natal may be dead for the moment, but the idea of some form of power sharing in South Africa will undoubtedly keep coming back again and again.

With reporting by Reported by Peter Hawthorne/Johannesburg