1994: Friday roundup, Buthelezi interview

"Well, just four days remain until the people of South Africa begin voting in their first all-race election. CNN's Bernard Shaw is anchoring our coverage of this historic vote and he joins us now with some insight. Bernie?"

"Thank you, Bobbie. This is the final weekend of campaigning before next weeks elections here in South Africa. In the coming days, more than two dozen political parties, some big, some small, will make their final push for votes. They'll be trying to win the allegiance of more than 22 million South Africans, about three-quarters of whom have never voted. We'll be spending the next two weeks covering these events, leading up to the vote, the election itself and the difficult process forming South Africa's first post-apartheid government. It promises to be quite fascinating. Two of the major candidates in this election, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress, and F.W. de Klerk of the National Party met privately today in Pretoria. As he left the meeting, Nelson Mandela said the two men discussed the status of certain prisoners, a shared committment to maintaining law and order during the transitional period and the sensitive issue of prisoners voting.

Later, Mandela traveled to Johannesburg to visit the Stock Exchange. In that venue, he stressed the importance of unity, not violence, in ensuring economic strength in South Africa.

"To restore economic stability in this country, we have called upon our people, now, to end mass action. Mass action was the weapon of a community which had no vote, which had no basic rights in this country. The intention of mass action was that we should get our liberation. We have now got the vote and in six days' time, we will exercise that right."

President F.W. de Klerk's campaign trail wound through Cape Town today. Earlier, he spoke to the Cape Town Press Club, saying it is important for the people who fought against Apartheid to fight equally hard to maintain democracy in South Africa.

"We must rally all the genuinely democratic institutions of our society in a grand coalition for the defence of the constitution, its principles. Many of those institutions which were previously in the forefront of the campaign against Apartheid will now have to help to defend the democratic institutions which they, themselves, have helped to establish."

Meanwhile, the leader of the rival Inkatha Freedom Party is Mangosuthu Buthelezi. After threatening a boycott, the Zulu leader agreed only this week that his party will participate in the elections. So, now, he has some intense campaigning to do. Today, Buthelezi is in Durban, South Africa, in the Zulu-dominated Natal province. Our man Brent Sadler is there also. He joins us to talk about Buthelezi's campaign efforts. Brent?

"Thank you, Bernie. Well, perhaps the most significant development to come out of Natal today is news that the level of political violence is on the wane. That coincides with the decision by Inkatha's chief, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to contest the elections, although he's left electioneering until the very last moment.

Venturing outside his traditional power base, the Inkatha leader led his last-minute campaign into the Transvaal - traditional ANC territory. Looking relaxed among his own loyalists, Mangosuthu Buthelezi warned of the dangers of a sweeping ANC victory. Regional identities could be destroyed, he said, because the country would be ruled by a Communist-dominated government.

"If the ANC wins the majority, then South Africa faces a very bleak future, indeed. The ANC and their Communist allies do not want fedarlism in our country."

The closer the election, the greater the political mudslinging. President de Klerk labeled Inkatha an election enemy and accused Dr. Buthelezi of dirty tricks.

"He's trying to snare us with the selfsame political lifeline that we threw out to him."

"Who's carrying a firearm?"

"You had your firearm."

Although a state of emergency in Natal is still in force, the number of politically-motivated crimes has fallen.

"If you look at the trend in the last three weeks and compare the last two days, it's looking very, very positive."


People:
Bobbie Battista
Bernard Shaw
Mike Hanna
Brent Sadler
Nelson Mandela
Roy Andersen
F.W. de Klerk
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Inkatha Freedom Party Leader
Major Bala Naidoo, South African Police
King Goodwill Zweletini, KwaZulu

Organisations:
Johannesburg Stock Exchange

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NEXT WEEK IS THE 16
22
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PIONEER PNR
PRIMA PRM 59
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...RING GEMAAAK
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* At least 22.7 million people will vote on election day - 72% of these people will be voting for the first time.
* 80 million ballots printed
* The ballots would fill 10 jumbo jets
* Ballots printed in South Africa's 11 official languages
* 9,000 polling booths throughout the country

Category:

News & Politics

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• Buthelezi
• Natal
• South Africa
• 1994
• election
• ballots
• Johannesburg
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