Constitution Issue Stalls South Africa Talks

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Negotiations to end white rule in South Africa suffered a significant setback Friday when a key committee of black and white leaders abandoned attempts to reach agreement on the percentage of votes that would be necessary to adopt a new constitution.

The stalemate, after five months of closed-door talks, put the future of the negotiations process in the hands of President Frederik W. de Klerk, African National Congress President Nelson Mandela and 17 other political leaders in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa.

Their negotiators have reached substantial agreement on a variety of other contentious issues. But all those agreements hinge on the work of the one committee charged with deciding how to draft a new constitution.

Mandela and De Klerk met privately for an hour late Friday night in a bid to resolve the impasse, and the two are to address convention delegates today. The convention is likely to send the outstanding issues back to committees for further discussion.

“I have no reason to be pessimistic,” Mandela told a news conference Friday night. “We should have the will to break the deadlock, and all our efforts are directed to that.”

The government’s foreign minister, Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, sounded a similar note of optimism.

“The gap has been closed. Progress has been made,” Botha said. “There are major problems to iron out. But we have no choice. The ANC has no choice. We must come to an agreement for the sake of all South Africans.”

Many foreign governments are watching the negotiations closely. Some have indicated they will lift sanctions against Pretoria once agreement is reached on the full transition to a new constitution that will give blacks a vote for the first time in 350 years of white rule.

The stalemate came on the first day of a two-day session of the convention leaders, who had been expected to rubber-stamp agreements reached by their five negotiating committees and formally end exclusive white control of the country.

The difficulties cast a shadow over significant progress by other convention committees, which have agreed to interim councils that would oversee the country until national elections and give blacks a say in national affairs as early as July or August.

Colin Eglin, a negotiator for the liberal white Democratic Party, blamed the deadlock on “a lack of mutual trust” between delegates from the government and the ANC.

“It is not the time for political posturing or for the fainthearted,” he said after a day in which sharp words were exchanged between the government and the ANC.

Agreement already has been reached, though not yet formally approved, on the first stage of the transition process. During that phase, the interim councils would oversee important government departments, including the security forces and the state-run broadcasting company, to ensure a level playing field for national elections.

But the key area of disagreement was over the second stage, in which a nationally elected legislative body would take over the transitional powers and write the new constitution.

Until Friday, the deliberations had been held in secret and little of the give-and-take among the parties was known.

But frustrated negotiators from the ANC and the government opened up on each other Friday in separate, nationally televised news conferences.

It emerged that a series of proposals and counterproposals had been put on the table during recent days.

By Friday, the ANC and the government had agreed that the constitution would be written by a “national assembly” made up of delegates chosen in both national and regional elections.

But the ANC and the government still disagreed about the percentage of votes required to approve elements of that constitution. The ANC wanted a two-thirds majority, or 66.7%, and the government, seeking to protect whites and other minorities from black domination, wanted 75%. (Blacks outnumber whites 5 to 1 in South Africa.)

Negotiators tried to resolve their differences by suggesting different percentages for different elements of the constitution. And the talks broke down with the ANC proposing that a 70% majority be required to approve the sensitive question of regional powers in the new constitution; the government wanted a 75% majority on that issue.

Although the ANC agrees with the government that regions must have some political power in the future, it wants to limit that power, arguing that a strong central government will be necessary to meet the rising expectations of blacks.

The government prefers a federal state, similar to the United States, in which regions have substantial autonomy. Government negotiators fear that a strong central government would allow the ANC to run roughshod over the country.

And they are joined in that fear by Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party, whose support base is centered in one region.

But the disagreement over percentages goes deeper.

Recent public opinion polls indicate that 25% to 33% of the country’s voters would back De Klerk’s ruling National Party in a national election. That would be enough to veto any constitutional proposals if a 75% majority is required for adoption.

“What has emerged is that the government has not, in substance, moved away from its desire to exercise a minority veto in the future,” said Joe Slovo, a negotiator with the Communist Party, the ANC’s staunchest ally. “We can only conclude that what they fear is democracy.”

Negotiators for the government and the ruling National Party, on the other hand, accused the ANC of wanting to prevent smaller parties from having a say in the new constitution.