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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 It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

01 Aug 1990: Xundu, Mo

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I do not think De Klerk has conceded on majority rule. Our side is seeing what the Afrikaner will settle for. I don't think we can settle for less. If we did so our negotiators would lose all credibility.

De Klerk probably doesn't realise that the Africans are not going to drive whites into the sea.

There's no way to address economic imbalances without redistribution. The Afrikaner experience was that they got into power and began to nationalise the infrastructure because the English had all the wealth. So we need to appeal to them on the same basis. We will respect property rights as long as they don't impinge on others.

De Klerk appears to be dead earnest. He has not moved far enough because he has not acknowledged the hurt and brutality of apartheid. It has to be acknowledged. It would go a long way if he were to apologise to Africans. It would mean that he simply wasn't shifting the blocks.

Re going back to the white electorate: it is not acceptable to us. This would be the racist position of his predecessors. It would be like holding on to the armed struggle. The new constitutional dispensation should be put to all the people.

Racist to the core, the threat of the right could be formidable and last for a long time. The Conservative Party could split. The CP would be likely to lose an election today although it would increase its vote in some areas.

Mandela is going to lose his credibility if he doesn't produce the goods.

White liberals feel guilty about expressing their anxieties. They don't want to take responsibility for what might happen. They fear the Communist Party and are afraid that the ANC will be absorbed into the SACP. We say the Communist Party is of no consequence to our people. The SACP is not about atheism. It's about socialism and the redistribution of wealth.

White liberals always let you down in the crunch.

We believe De Klerk can move faster, that the majority of South Africans will move with him.

Mandela faces two obstacles: he can't move from one-man one-vote and he has to be careful on economic issues – not to move away from the economics of redistribution. Privatisation is all right but it must be regulated.

Expectations are not that high among poor people. What is needed is a plan to address housing, a timetable to address education, and most essential is the maximum involvement of people. Our leadership has to move away from status symbols like big cars and three houses.

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