S.A. leader boosts his vote chances

Press, 12 August 1989, Page 11

S.A. leader boosts his vote chances

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg The ruling National Party leader, F. W. de Klerk, has boosted his political fortunes by arranging landmark talks with the Zambian leader, Kenneth Kaunda, only days before South Africa’s September elections.

Political analysts said they did not expect anything of substance from the talks between Mr de Klerk, who is expected to succeed President Pieter Botha after the elections, and Mr Kaunda, one of the fiercest critics of apartheid. They said the meeting would go down well with most white South African voters. It would deflate the challenge posed by the anti-apartheid Democratic Party, many of whose officials have travelled to black African countries to meet the banned African National Congress group fighting white rule. "It will be a good show for the folks back home ... but in fact the talks will be exploratory, nothing more,” said the publisher of the “Southern Africa Report” newsletter, Ray Louw. “The Afrikaner (Dutchdescended white) thinks it’s all right to talk to Africans as long as they don’t start throwing bombs.”

The National Party has been tipped to win most of the 178 seats in the white assembly in the September 6 poll but not necessarily the outright majority it has enjoyed for 40 years. It is fighting a strong challenge from conservatives and liberals. Some commentators have said a hung Parliament is possible because many white voters have begun to doubt that the National Party can rebuild the economy while it is burdened by anti-apartheid trade sanctions.

Analysts said the trip would also relaunch a South African diplomatic drive to win friends in black Africa, open trade links and impress Western countries with Pretoria’s acceptability among its neighbours. Since becoming party leader in February, Mr de Klerk has toured five West European countries and visited Mozambique. He had to turn down an invitation to Washington after fierce opposition from anti-apartheid lobbyists in the United States. A communications professor, Nina Overton, said the timing of the trip showed the party was more worried about the liberal threat than the Right-wing Conservative Party, which wants a return to hard-line apartheid regardless of international disapproval. Mr Kaunda, who announced the talks yesterday, said he wants to meet Mr de Klerk to discuss National Party plans for apartheid reform.