On The Edge of Disaster

The delicate surgery required to remove the cancer of apartheid was always deemed highly risky. Last week the ambitious operation was put on hold after a bloodbath in the black township of Boipatong set off a searing dispute among South Africa's various parties, black and white.

A breakdown had been brewing since May. But the negotiations, known as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, collapsed altogether when the African National Congress withdrew from the talks after the Boipatong massacre. The A.N.C. also called for South Africa's team to withdraw from the Olympic Games. The Congress accused the government of negotiating while fostering violence and charged supporters of its rival, the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party, with carrying out the massacre with the aid of government security forces. President F.W. de Klerk denied both allegations. But late in the week, a black mine-security guard told a government-appointed commission that police from a former paramilitary unit had joined in the Boipatong killings.

Despite the deadlock, the A.N.C. expressed a wary readiness to rejoin talks, though it remained unclear whether De Klerk would meet their demands. The A.N.C., meanwhile, vowed to forge ahead with its "mass action" campaign to force De Klerk to hand over power to an interim government of national unity. (See related stories beginning on page 42.)