Legislatures South Africa

South Africa's new, multiracial National Assembly, elected last week in the country's first all-race polls, will convene Friday in the former whites-only Parliament building in Cape Town. As its first official act, the 400 members are expected to choose Nelson Mandela as president of a government of national unity, based on the overwhelming election victory of his African National Congress. The current president, Frederik W.

South Africa's new, multiracial National Assembly, elected last week in the country's first all-race polls, will convene Friday in the former whites-only Parliament building in Cape Town. As its first official act, the 400 members are expected to choose Nelson Mandela as president of a government of national unity, based on the overwhelming election victory of his African National Congress. The current president, Frederik W.

President Frederik W. de Klerk opened what could be the final session of Parliament on Friday with his strongest pitch yet for right-wing whites to join talks with the black majority, promising to put their demands for a separate white state on the negotiations agenda. "In the interests of peace," he told his right-wing opponents, "I urge you to make use now of this open door."

Behind the Corinthian columns of Parliament, in the great debating hall, the paneling is South African stinkwood, the leather is English, the carpet is Irish and the honorable lawmakers come in nearly every size, shape and color--except black African. So it has been for 140 years in South Africa. In all that time, no black man or black woman has cast a vote in Parliament or given a speech on the floor.

Behind the Corinthian columns of Parliament, in the great debating hall, the paneling is South African stinkwood, the leather is English, the carpet is Irish and the honorable lawmakers come in nearly every size, shape and color--except black African. So it has been for 140 years in South Africa. In all that time, no black man or black woman has cast a vote in Parliament or given a speech on the floor.

President Frederik W. de Klerk opened what could be the final session of Parliament on Friday with his strongest pitch yet for right-wing whites to join talks with the black majority, promising to put their demands for a separate white state on the negotiations agenda. "In the interests of peace," he told his right-wing opponents, "I urge you to make use now of this open door."