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: ANC considers coalition with National Party Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 15:45:13 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD ANC considers coalition with National Party \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT JOHANNESBURG JOHANNESBURG (AP) - The African National Congress is considering a plan to govern South Africa jointly with President Frederik de Klerk's National Party, an ANC official said yesterday. The disclosure came a day after ANC leader Nelson Mandela announced that the organization would meet with government leaders on Nov. 22 for further talks on ending white minority rule. Stoffel van der Merwe, national chairman of the governing National Party, confirmed a meeting was scheduled but said the date was not set. A report in the Sunday Times newspaper said a draft document on the power-sharing plan was distributed last week at a meeting of the ANC, the nation's leading black group, and its allies. ANC spokeswoman Gill Marcus called the document a discussion paper with "no standing whatsoever" in the organization. But she said it probably would be distributed to allied groups and regional organizations for study. Multiparty negotiations involving the ANC, the National Party and other groups broke down in May. Mr. de Klerk and Mr. Mandela met on Sept. 26 to get political talks restarted, but their agreements angered other political groups, which claimed the government and ANC were hijacking the negotiating process. The ANC has long called for an elected constituent assembly to serve as an interim government and draft a new constitution. It then wants democratic elections for a new multiracial government. But the document circulated at last week's meeting said a power-sharing arrangement with the National Party may be necessary, the Sunday Times reported. "Even after the adoption of a new constitution, the balance of forces may still be such that we would seek to establish a government of national unity in which the ANC and the National Party are the main players," it quoted from the document. Issues such as changing the security forces and all-white civil service, and creating regional governments, could be resolved by private deals between the ANC and the National Party, the document reportedly said. The national constitutional development minister, Roelf Meyer, said yesterday that the government wanted multiparty political talks to resume quickly but denied it would reach agreements with any single group such as the ANC. Chronic violence in black townships has blocked efforts to get the political talks restarted. Much of the violence stems from a power struggle between the ANC and the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party, its main rival. Two newspapers reported yesterday that an Inkatha official, Bruce Anderson, who was kicked out of South Africa this year for undisclosed reasons, said he helped buy weapons from Mozambican rebels to arm Inkatha supporters. Mr. Anderson, who now lives in London, said the South African police and military helped Inkatha obtain the weapons to help the group fend off ANC attacks. Inkatha and police spokesmen denied the allegations and called for the Goldstone Commission, a government-appointed panel investigating violence, to study the charges. 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