Word: indaba
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...what's left? Huntington offers "a small ray of hope" in the form of local or regional negotiations, along the lines of the Natal Indaba. There, he says, white officials and businessmen on one side, and Kwazulu bantustan chief minister Gatsha Buthelezi on the other, are managing to talk to each other. This, he suggests, provides an example for other local negotiations, a pattern that "could gradually build up from below and lead to national negotiations and more fundamental change at the national level...
...Dennis Worrall--main architect of the previously-mentioned proposals for the 1984 constitution, which followed Huntington's philosophy so closely--dramatically resigned from the ruling Nationalist Party early this year. Like Huntington, Worrall criticizes the pace of government-imposed reform, and calls for more concerted efforts at indaba-type negotiations. While no one knows quite where Worrall is heading, it's certain he is backed by a "reform constituency" looking very much like the coalition Huntington first suggested in 1981--including elements of big business and "enlightened" politicians...
Unlike Worrall, Huntington admits he is "not in any way an expert on South Africa" (p. 19), so perhaps he will allow some questions of his new agenda. The Natal Indaba, as he knows, does not represent most residents of Natal; in fact, none of the negotiators were elected by anyone. Buthelezi was appointed to his post by the Pretoria government and receives "a not-ungenerous salary from the South African state." (11) The original idea for a Kwazulu-Natal indaba came from the South African Sugar Association, seeking to protect its sugar estates from falling under the communal land...
...United Democract Front (UDF), an umbrella coalition including most anti-apartheid groups in South Africa, refused to participate in the Indaba, just as it refused to participate in elections for the triracial parliament. So did the Azanian People's Organization (APACO), a smaller anti-apartheid group, and the Congressof South African Trad Unions (COSATU), the largestnonracial labor federation. Undoubtedly, theirresponse was colored by dislike for Buthelezi,whose strong-armed followers are notorious forbrutal attacks on Black opponents. (13) The ANC,being illegal under the current regime, was notinvited, but it is as vehemently opposed to theprocess as the UDF, COSATU...
...Indaba, a South African observer wroterecently, continues to define political rights inracial terms, and involves "the maintenance ofeconomic structures and political control by ahighly conservative alliance with scant regard fordemocratic processes." (14) In fact, it looks verymuch like the "elite conspiracy" to whichHuntington referred back in 1981, as the probablypreferred outcome for his government-imposedreforms. Here we have assorted elites, negotiatinga settlement to which they plan to hold theirfollowers. The only difference is that theprocess, as he says in his 1986 article, can nolonger rely on a cooperative 'reformist' nationalgovernment...