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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

31 Jul 1990: Bam, Fikile

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(Summary)

. The government must protect white interests. Westminster is out. They will give as much as they can but will want to retain some control (power sharing).

. An interim government is very much on the cards. A Constituent Assembly using PR is in the government's interests because it would bring in the other groups and neutralise the ANC.

. My instinct is that the right wing is growing but it's not serious enough to take government.

. De Klerk is on nobody's hit-list. You might not have enthusiastic support from all blacks for him but there is no hostility.

. Re obstacles: I don't know enough about white politics. If he is too soft on SACP ... concerns about changes in the economic system. Whites would definitely want safeguards in the constitution and something on economics in a Bill of Rights. Whites fear socialism and nationalisation given what's happened in other African countries.

. There are high expectations among poor people; take Transkei/Ciskei.

. The youth are not followers of Mandela. They are expecting too much of him. PAC and Black Conciousness take the position of the youth.

. Zionist Church: for poor people from rural backgrounds coming out of tribal systems, illiterate, apolitical, the church provides them with security.

. If ANC becomes the government they will have to rely on people outside the ANC for skills etc. They will have to cast a wide net.

. An ANC government would make very little difference in the life of the average black.

. The differences the last six months have made in his life: more respect from police and magistrates and legal colleagues. "I can go to the beach."

. He would minimise black support for NP.

. Natal: The situation is within the power of the government and Inkatha to stop. The KwaZulu Police have to be disbanded. The government keeps Buthelezi in the wings to pressurise the situation, thinking that if talks with the ANC fail they can resurrect him. SADF has been praised by everyone.

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