SOUTH African church leaders have welcomed the result of the whites-only referendum which received a 69 percent “yes” vote enabling President F.W de Klerk to continue negotiations with parties representing the black majority but have warned that democracy in that country is still a long way off.
South African Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Frank Chikane, said the referendum was an indication of what the white minority was thinking but hoped that the referendum would not be used by the ruling National Party against other parties in the negotiations but, instead, be used to move the process of negotiations to “get out of apartheid”.
Bishop Wilfid Napier of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference said that he was encouraged by the high “yes” vote in the whites-only referendum but cautioned that de Klerk’s involvement in the negotiations must lead to democracy for all the people of South Africa, not just the preservation of “sectarian or group interests”. Like Chikane, Napier was deeply concerned with the orchestrated violence that is “wrecking the black community”.
He believes that President de Klerk has an obligation to rein in the “third force” of violent agitators in the police and the army. Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, said his immediate reaction was “a sigh of relief” since the possibility of a “no” vote had placed South Africa at “the edge of a precipice”.
He challenged de Klerk’s proud assertion that “the book of apartheid is closed” because on the “very same day the arithmetic of apartheid” had been applied the white Parliament again graded old-age pensions according to colour with blacks getting far lower than whites. Archbishop Tutu said the immediate priority in the country was to end the “scandalous incidence of violence. Even the most rabid skeptic must now admit that there is a rogue element in the security forces intent on subverting the negotiation process,” he said.
“De Klerk must purge his security forces for those who are yesterday’s men with yesterday’s morals and attitudes who are a grave threat to peace and freedom.”
Bishop Stanley Mogoba of the Methodist Church in Southern Africa said the present priorities for the white minority government must be to “accelerate the pace of negotiations and completely get rid of the violence in the country”.
Bishop Solomon Serote of the Evangelical Lutheran Church who lives in Pietersburg where the “no” votes were in the majority, however, said he feared for the future and the reaction from right-wing groups. “Will de Klerk be able to restrain these elements?”, he asked. One church leader, Bongani Finca of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, described the referendum as pointless and said it had been an insult to the black majority in South Africa.
“A consultation of white opinion on whether to continue negotiation says that it is for the whites to say this should be granted or denied,” he said.
The dismantling of apartheid should not be seen as a “gesture out of kindness of a white compatriot,” but a result of the long liberation struggle.
Chikane also expressed disappointment with the world’s reaction to the referendum. He criticised the tendency to see President de Klerk as a saviour of South Africa and said the international community was taking advantage of anything that could justify support for de Klerk. – EPS
(3 VIEWS)
