Breeders bounce back

Press, 1 August 1989, Page 12

Breeders bounce back

From the “Economist,” London

THE “imperial presidency” of Mr P. W. Botha, now drawing to a close, has not been good for the Broederbond, the secret brotherhood of about 15,000 Afrikaners who consider themselves responsible for protecting the interests and glory of their tribe. Mr Botha, a former Minister of Defence, tended to promote soldiers, policemen and intelligence people. The Breeders have been eclipsed.

Not for ever. Now the brothers are rising again and the “securocrats” are on the run. After the General Election in September, Mr F. W. De Klerk, the new leader of the National Party, is set to become South Africa’s president. He favours rule by civilians, or at least by the National Party. The party and the Broederbond overlap.

But the brotherhood is more compact and, some say, readier to move with the times. It formulates and debates new ideas for the party’s leaders, then propagates those that are accepted through its many members in influential places. i There is, for example, a close similarity between a secret Broederbond -document, dated June 1989, and the National

Party’s five-year “Plan of Action,” unveiled at the party’s special congress on June 29. The Broederbond chairman, Mr J. P. De Lange, says it is not the model for the action plan. Yet the similarities are striking, and the party’s plan was presented by Mr Gerrit Viljoen, a former chairman of the Broederbond and a confidant of Mr De Klerk, who is also a Breeder. Some of its main ideas are: • Power-sharing between all “groups,” including blacks, on "common affairs,” subject to precautions against domination by any one group.

• Decision-making on “common affairs” by consensus among the participating groups, meaning that a majority in any one. group — including the Afri- ■ kaners within the white minority — can veto the decisions of? majorities in other groups. / • Division of power to enable 4 each group to control its “own affairs.” f • Groups to be defined not only along the usual racial lines but also geographically; they could, for that matter, be voluntary non-racial associations. (“Participating units” was the Broederbond’s new term).

• The President should become a ceremonial office-holder again, instead of exercising the executive functions that Mr P. W. Botha took upon himself; the. job could then be opened to people of all races, with all groups having a say in the election of the President. The new Broederbond document refers to a discussion paper drafted in 1986, which sought to identify the conditions for Afrikaner survival. It concluded that the volk would not be put in peril by a black President, or even by a Government with a majority of black members, provided no one

group could dominate the other. The logical consequence of that is the proposal for a purely ? ceremonial presidency rotating among the nominees of “participating units,” and the consensus rule that would, in plain speech, give the whites a veto. This, needless to say, falls far. short of the demands of the outlawed African National Congress. Yet the brothers may be ready to negotiate. The chief Broeder, Mr Dr Lange, has already exchanged ideas, albeit informally in New York, with: one of the A/N.C.’s rising stars,' Mr Thabo Mbeki. Copyright — The Economist.