Blacks watch In frustration as whites debate South Africa' future
'One
,:IY GREG MYRE
JlSSoaAfBDl'DSSWRlDR
I SOWETO, South Africa (AP) _
. In Johannesburg, the lightposts are
covered with voting posters. In
Soweto, the all are spray-painted
With angry graffiti.
While white South Africa debates
�hether it will end partheid in a
�arch 17 referendum, many Blacks
watch with �tration and warn they
. on't tolerate any b cktrKking on
political teform.
. "We've grown up and we can't
"e pushed down again," said
Jerimiab Simango, 54, who works at,
a hospital in Soweto, the huge Black
lownship just outside Johannesburg.
�imango, like many Blacks, ap­
plauds President F.W. de Klerk for
his 'reforms' over the past 2 1fl
fears, though the 6':Ountry's 30 mil­
liOn Blacks remain disenfranchised.
, BLACK POLITICAL groups
have denounced the referendum as
racist but have helped de KIerk by
not organizing any resistance to the
for Haiti
campaign.
Whites are apprehensive about
Black factional fighting and soaring
crime. A urge of public demonstra­
tions and Black-white confronta­
tionscould wayfence- ittingwhites
to cling to the apartheid system of
racial segregation and white domina­
tion.
Nelson Mandela, leader of the
moderate African lional Coo-
gress, �ared, "The ANC
the notion of an ethnic referendum. ..
He' warned last Monday, or a
renewed armed struggle by the ANC
if whites vote to uphold apartheid.
If he loses, de Klerk has pledged
to resign and call a whites-only elec­
tion wbich would likely bring to
power the pro-apartheid Conserva­
tive Party. DeKlerk promised dwing
campaigning he would not allow the
rights of whites and oth minorities
to be ignored under a new constitu­
tion.
DeKlerk also said his refolDlS
would not lead to communi t
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
ASSOCIATED rRESS WRI1'ER
SELMA, Al (AP) _ With an
eye on luring African American
voters in the murky Democratic
presidential race, Jerry Brown
vi ited a civil rights landmar in
Alabama.
Jerry Brown walked arm-in-arm
with a munber of key figures in the
truggle for Iacial equality as they
cro ed the Edmond Pettus Bridge,
where violence 27 years ago on
"Bloody suncSay" horrified a nation
and hastened ge of the Voting
Righ Act.
"I ant to emphasize the impor­
tance of civil rights, hieb the other
presidential campaigns have virtual­
ly ignored," Brown said from atop a
. Oat-bed truc where he poke to an
, esdm ted crowd of 1,000 after mar­
ching wi. them over the Alabama
.
btor in �e day, the former
c.nfOrma gowmor managed to win
the Nevada at clearly Ignal-
ing t long-sbot candidacy
pic
government or seizure of land and
wealth.
Most of South Africa's wealth is
held by whites, whose ancestors
stole the land from Blacks just as
settlers in the United States took this
country from Native Americans.
"I have a much better record on
civil right than Biil Clinton,"
Brown insi ted.
LATER HE AID of Clinton'
upport among Bla voters, "We'l1
catch him."
Brown 0 suggested . that
J e Jac n, who invited him .to
attend the "Bloody Sunday" com­
memoration and dedication of the
National Voting Rip useum,
would be his fil'It choice for vice
president
, 'A hou e divided cannot
stand," he ld, "We must unify
Blacks and whites. I ould like to
see more white facea in this
and more Black faces, too. I want to
see more diversity."
Jackson, who ran for president in
1984 and 1988, said be w bonored
that Brown would consider him for
the nation's second-higbest office,
but was not ready to make a commit­
ment
J n, in I.till leaving
open door that be could 0 the
pmldcntial race, even tbouJb this
late in the campaign be ould be
ho 1 11 0
IN WmTE AREAS such as
JohanDesburg, there is no escaping
the referendum. It is the front-page
newspaper story, the main conversa­
tion topic. The tree-lined suburbs arc
plastered with posters that range
See, BALLOT, P,ge A·10
DIlllila.llts and 1S Ho e seals r I:
di rlct 'Yith a majority of
norities.
A panel made up of three judges
drew up the new plan after hearing
that rejected the Democrats and
Republicans plans. The courts
mapped out the districts in their plan
with the information from the 1990
census data.
Nelson said that, according to that
census data, minorities make up 13.8
percent of the population. He added
that the judicial panel establi hed an
unproprtionally low number of
minority districts in relation to the
census statf tics. However.
Saunders added tha . this is not an
issue.
The National office of t e
N�CP is also disappointed in tIM:
outcome of court-co 10
panel be they felt t court
proposed a plan that diluted
minority voting strength by creatiDa
fewer districts, aid Samuel L. Wal.
ters, Assistant General Council at the
National Office of the NAACP.
The panel, which was composed
of Courts of Appeals Judge rolcl
Hood, retired Appeal Judge T J
Lesinski and Circuit Jud lUam
Porter of Gaylord" wro that the
party plans established veral dla.
tricts "whose configura 0 would
challenge both the camida and
the voters to unders where their
S e TRASH, A10
Media ignore
By LEAH SAMUEL
",,, Wttt!r
-It's an unrecorded holocaust that's taking place
in South Africa,· said Prexy Nesbitt recently.
Nesbitt, U.S. senior consultant to the government
of Mozambique, and the Rev. Ben Chavis of the
United Church of Clurcb of Quist Commission for
Racial JUitice, were at a conference ponsorcd by the
Michigan Coalition for Human Rights. They ad­
dressed the topic "Apartheid and Racism in the
199Qs.-
Nesbitt focuIed on the lack of media attention
given to events in South Africa. .
u
"The stories of disaster after disaster (in South
Africa) ate not being picked up," he said. "I am
impressed with the systematic way in which press in
this country refuses to tell the tory of what is happen-
Ing in South Africa. .
"Since 1980, we've seen 1.1 million people die .
Mozambique, and 1.6 million have died in the region
of southern Africa. I think that (the American press)
must not be able to COWlt. Those numbers must not
mean the same to them that It does to me.
"TO THIS DAY, there has not been a story on
S • IGNORE, A10
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