Mandela at center stage - Nelson Mandela

National Review, May 28, 1990

NELSON MANDELA is the focus of most foreign reporting on South Africa, partly because of the near mythic status he achieved during his long prison term but also because he is the most unpredictable and in that sense the most newsworthy-player on the field. F. W. de D Klerk has moved much faster than anyone would have guessed a year ago; Mangosuthu Buthelezi can be counted on to say interesting things in regard to specific events-but both men are pretty much known quantities. It is Mandela about whom the questions arise, and underlying all the others is: Does he lead the ANC, or is he frantically trying to keep up with his followers?

The events of the past week follow the same pattern as other sequences in the three months since his release. On Wednesday, at a ceremony preceding his meeting with de Igerk, he delivered part of his message in Afrikaans, to reassure Afrikaners of his good intentions. On Sunday he was touring with Joe Slovo, head of the South African Communist Party, and saying that the ANC's demand for one man, one vote in a unitary state was non-negotiable, and that any talk of protecting "minority rights" meant perpetuating apartheid. This parallels the incident a month ago in which Mandela had arranged to appear publicly with Buthelezi in Natal, so that the two men could call together for an end to the internecine fighting between their respective groups of followers. Three days before the scheduled appearance, the ANC interim leadership core" persuaded Mandela not to appear with Buthelezi, whom they continue to vilify as a collaborator with the "apartheid regime." (Mandela had earlier described himself as a "loyal and disciplined member of the ANC.")

Some points to watch for in coming months are: How adept will de Klerk be at keeping communications open with Mandela, while not freezing out South Africa's other ethnic and tribal groups? Will the ANC leadership renounce armed violence, and how will its younger members and associates (such as the United Democratic Front, which is fighting in Natal) react if it does? Will Mandela agree to consider some form of minority rights (which would apply not only to whites but also to Asians, coloreds, and blacks of tribes other than whichever one might win an electoral plurality); or, if he doesn't, will he gradually be edged out of the limelight by black leaders who do?