Meteoric ascent towards power

Press, 16 August 1989, Page 10

Meteoric ascent towards power

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg The National Party leader, F. W. de Klerk, has enjoyed a meteoric ascent to power. Mr de Klerk was not Mr Botha’s choice and came under constant sniping from the former leader who was apparently resentful that the young politician would take credit for political reforms Mr Botha began in the early 1980 s. The latest product of a prominent Afrikaner (Dutch descent) political dynasty, Frederik Willem de Klerk, comes from Transvaal, the province at the heart of South African political power, wealth apd influence.

The urbane Mr de Klerk was a key figure in reuniting his party after a damaging split in 1982 when the NP proposed introducing a three-chamber Parliament, giving limited political. power to Indian and Coloured (mixed-race) communities.

Rightist dissidents went on to form the Conservative Party, which is still a main threat to Mr de Klerk’s power base. Mr de Klerk, a strong advocate of Mr Botha’s cautious apartheid reform programme, is nevertheless identified as a leader of the party’s conservative wing. Analysts say this position may result in a split to the Left if he succeeds Mr Botha. Last October he reinforced his conservative image when he publicly upbraided senior officials of the South African Rugby Board for meeting banned black nationalist leaders in a bid to cut South Africa’s sporting isolation.