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Dashing Pretoria’s Hopes, ANC Decides to Stay Away From Table

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Leaders of the African National Congress, after three days of closed-door meetings, opted Thursday to maintain their 11-week-old boycott of constitutional talks and maintain pressure on the white government to end violence and free political prisoners.

The decision, reached by the ANC’s 86-member policy-making body, was heavily influenced by rank-and-file ANC members who are angry about ongoing violence and who doubt that President Frederik W. de Klerk’s government is willing to surrender political power.

The announcement dashed government hopes for a quick end to the stalemate, which began shortly after the June 17 massacre of more than 40 blacks in Boipatong.

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The ANC, South Africa’s main black opposition movement, also vowed Thursday to step up its “mass action” campaign of protests and rallies until the government takes “visible and concrete steps to deal with the violence and release political prisoners.”

De Klerk said he was disappointed by the ANC’s decision, but he added that the government will continue to try to clear the obstacles to talks and halt the violence, which has claimed nearly 8,000 black lives in the three years since De Klerk became president.

Most political analysts in South Africa believe the gap between the government and the ANC has narrowed in recent weeks. And when talks do resume, the parties may well move swiftly to create an interim government and write a new constitution that will extend voting rights to the black majority for the first time.

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