From: vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mpthirus)
Subject: UPI: ANC says no to democracy
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 23:00:42 GMT



	JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (UPI) -- The African National Congress said
Thursday it would be pointless to resume multi-party talks on full
democracy while the South African government continued to delay the
transition to democracy with double-speak and vague assurances.
	However, the ANC said it would continue to hold the recently
initiated bilateral talks with the government to discuss the removal of
obstacles preventing the resumption of negotiations.
	The ANC withdrew June 23 from negotiations aimed at the creation of a
new non-racial constitution. The organization pulled out of the talks
claiming the government had been involved in politically motivated
violence. The government has denied the charges.
	``We have come too far in the negotiations process, too many South
Africans have been killed -- over 6,000 -- in political violence since
February 1990, for the people of our country to be lulled by continued
government delay and double-speak,'' ANC Secretary-General Cyril
Ramaphosa said.
	Ramaphosa was speaking at a news conference to announce the result of
three days of discussion by the ANC's 86-member National Executive
Committee, which ended late Wednesday night, on whether to return to the
negotiating table.
	``We simply cannot accept vague assurances that steps to be taken to
curb the violence, for instance, are 'receiving further attention.'
	``We have learnt the hard way that such assurances from the
(President Frederik) de Klerk regime mean very little. The point is:
visible and concrete steps must be taken,'' Ramaphosa said.
	The ANC's decision not to return to the pro-democracy talks came as a
blow to government optimism that multi-party negotiations would be
resumed in the near future.
	De Klerk told a meeting of his ruling National Party Wednesday that
he expected full-scale negotiations would be on track in the near
future.
	``I can with confidence say that I have reason to believe as I stand
here that within a reasonable time multi-party negotiations will be on
track again,'' de Klerk told his party's faithful at the meeting in
Bloemfontein, 267 miles south of Johannesburg.
	At the time of its withdrawal from the talks on democracy, the ANC
said it would only return to the negotiating table if the government met
a list of 14 demands aimed at ending the violence and hastening the
process to democratic elections.
	Without officially admitting to it, the government met aspects of the
demands, including allowing a U.N. observer team into the country and
disbanding controversial military and police units.
	However, the ANC said government's responses to the liberation
movement's demands were unsatisfactory on the key issues of violence and
the release of political prisoners.
	``The (National Party) government still lacks the political will to
stop state-sponsored violence,'' the ANC said.
	The ANC, however, welcomed the government's acceptance that a future
Constituent Assembly be democratically elected, be bound only by agreed
constitutional principles, have an agreed time frame, have agreed
adequate deadlock-breaking mechanisms and be elected within an agreed
predetermined time period.
	The ANC leadership said it would also endorse the intensification of
a mass action campaign launched July 16 in an attempt to force the
government to relinquish power.
	The ANC has used the suspension of negotiations to consolidate its
support among the majority of the country's black population with mass
demonstrations and industrial strikes.
	The government warned Aug. 20 it could no longer wait for the ANC to
return to the negotiating table, and said it would go ahead with
legislation to reform the country's constitution in October.
	The ANC hit back saying there was no future in negotiations that
excluded the ANC.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.african