Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Disenchantment, self-interest drive whites to ANC Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Disenchantment, self-interest drive whites to ANC \BY Neil McMahon \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT CAPE TOWN, South Africa CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Fully 99 percent of their white countrymen disagree with them, but a growing number of white South Africans are holding hands with the enemy - they have joined the African National Congress. Throwing off years of hatred against the ANC, some white South Africans joined the party that almost certainly will be in charge when nonracial democracy finally arrives. But it is not just the idea of being on the winning team that appeals to the tiny group - opinion polls routinely show about 1 percent support among whites for the ANC - that many fellow whites view as traitors. For some of those who made the leap, their sympathies for the ANC, which is led by Nelson Mandela, are spawned by hatred for the ruling National Party. For others, it is a genuine belief in the ANC's anti-apartheid agenda. The most prominent among this rare brigade is Jan van Eck, a member of the country's apartheid-era Parliament who, along with four colleagues, this year abandoned the liberal Democratic Party to join the ANC - giving the organization five representatives in an institution it is committed to destroying. He says he and his fellow defectors became disillusioned with the Democratic Party as it became harder and harder to distinguish it from President Frederik de Klerk's government. "We have to accept the reality that South Africa is predominantly nonwhite and, therefore, a future government will be predominantly nonwhite," said Mr. van Eck, who has had a long association with black political leaders. "We're trying to make it clear to [whites] that resisting this reality will not be in their own self-interest. "The ANC is actually the big good news story for whites. What I mean by that is that it has a firmly established culture of nonracialism. At no stage have whites been threatened by the ANC." [Yesterday in Johannesburg, a former intelligence agent denied that the government acted on his suggestions to run a "dirty tricks" campaign to subvert the ANC, Reuters news agency reported. [Ferdi Barnard, a former policeman and intelligence agent convicted in 1984 of killing two drug addicts, said in a statement issued through his lawyers that army intelligence had in fact rejected his proposals to enmesh the ANC's armed wing in common crime through the use of prostitutes, homosexuals and drug dealers. [Judge Richard Goldstone, heading an inquiry into political violence in South Africa, said in a report Monday that his officials had seized files from a military intelligence house that disclosed an army campaign to discredit the guerrilla wing of Nelson Mandela's black nationalist group.] Mr. van Eck's disaffection with the Democratic Party began when Mr. de Klerk unveiled his reform package in 1990, effectively stealing the Democrats' policies. It reached its peak when the party joined forces with Mr. de Klerk to fight for a "yes" vote in the whites-only referendum on the reform process earlier this year. Mr. van Eck found the reaction from fellow whites "mostly negative," but he believes he and his colleagues can help re-educate the white community after years of anti-ANC propaganda. One of Mr. van Eck's constituents, Rose Wapnick, says she joined out of a desire to be a part of South Africa's transition from apartheid. Ms. Wapnick found reactions to her ANC membership mainly negative - "You're crazy, they're hardened communists, terrorists, murderers" - but got some positive feedback, "where people were actually interested and wanted to find out more." Members doing door-to-door canvassing among Mr. van Eck's mainly white electorate also get a mixed reception. "Sometimes you get an interested person who wants more information and sometimes they set the dog on you," Ms. Wapnick says. Another high-profile white member is Marilyn Keegan, the deputy mayor of Cape Town, who had several reasons for joining: a desire to be on the winning side, a long-held loathing of the National Party, sympathy for many ANC objectives and admiration for Mr. Mandela. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM