Lutheran Centre, Bonaero Park, 23 June 1993
1. We are meeting against a background of several meetings between our respective organisations. It is easy for us to cover old ground and engage in finger pointing.
The fact of the matter is that on both sides mistakes have been committed. Both parties have questioned each other's bona fides. Both have engaged in recrimination and vilification. Supporters and members on both sides have succumbed to the atmosphere of hostility.
Today all South Africa and the international community looks to us. The question is whether we are going to look to the future or whether we are to remain prisoners of the past.
We cannot miss this moment to change the direction of our relations in the interest of peace and democracy. I would like the two of us to stand above the hurly burly of daily events, to stand even above our party political interests and to attend to the business of this meeting on the basis of overriding national interests. These interests demand that the carnage is stopped, that a speedy transition to democracy is effected and that peace becomes an enduring condition.
Our two organisations have a long history of political rivalry. Yet both organisations, like all other political organisations, have a right to exist and we must work together to take our country to democracy and peace.
It is imperative that South Africa's transition from the present apartheid order to a non-racial, non-sexist democracy be arrived at speedily through the Multi-Party process.
3. Violence orchestrated by apartheid has been implanted in our society. The violence is now showing all the potential of becoming endemic in our country. It is also one of the most serious impediments to democratic transformation.
4. At the same time any delay or failure to arrive at a binding negotiated political settlement increases the dangers inherent in the violence raging in our country.
5. It is therefore necessary that the IFP and the ANC:
5.1 Reaffirm their commitment to finding a speedy negotiated settlement through the Multi-Party Process; and
5.2 Jointly and severally commit themselves to taking all possible steps to curb and eliminate violence.
6. The realisation of these two objectives requires that peace and democracy becomes the property of the people. For this to happen it is vital that both organisations actively promote a democratic culture based on freedom of association, assembly and other basic human rights.
7. In particular, urgent measures need to be undertaken to ensure free political activity in every part of South Africa. This involves inter alia:
7.1 The recognition by our members and supporters of the right of all individuals to hold and express their own views and belong to any party of their choice, without intimidation and violence, while at the same time eschewing mutual vilification;
7.2 Ensuring that where either of our organisations is in authority, whether as a consequence of running the administration or by strength of support, we shall ensure that both our organisations as well as other political organisations are allowed to canvass their views and that they are afforded the necessary facilities to do so. This shall apply to both urban and rural areas, including traditional settlements under the control of the traditional leaders of our people.
7.3 Both organisations recognise the right of people to assembly and give expression to their grievances or support, provided that such activities are in keeping with the letter and spirit of the National peace Accord, including in particular, that,
7.3.1 participation in such manifestation is on a voluntary basis;
7.3.2 given the atmosphere in the country today, traditional and cultural weapons are carried only on bona fide cultural occasions and that the public display of weapons on all other occasions is prevented;
7.3.3 the killings must be stopped;
7.3.4 the destruction of property is avoided.
8. In September 1991 we together with many other organisations signed the historic National Peace Accord. Despite its shortcomings the National Peace Accord remains the brightest beacon for peace in our land. No-one can say how many more killings would have occurred had we not given birth to this instrument. Experience since then has shown that the Peace Accord process and its structures need to be strengthened and made more effective. Proposals to this end are already being developed. Let us agree to convene a meeting of the signatories to the National Peace Accord without any further delay to ratify these proposals.
9. Recognising that the problem of violence and legitimate law enforcement should also be addressed in the context of the unfolding transition, we must commit ourselves to contribute constructively to multi-lateral negotiations on multi-party control of all armed formations and law enforcement agencies which would facilitate and lead to the creation of impartial, legitimate and effective security forces.
10. Recognising that the two organisations on the one hand share the common objective of removing the scourge of apartheid and its consequences, while, on the other hand they are distinct, independent and rival political organisations, it is necessary that such rivalry is expressed within the framework of free and peaceful political activity. This is only possible if we recognise the legitimate right of each of our organisations to exist and to participate in the democratic process.
11. At the same time in order to obviate some of the problems that beset relations between the two organisations after previous bi-lateral meetings, we should agree to strengthen and expedite the work of the joint liaison structures between our organisation. Such joint mechanisms should include measures aimed at monitoring progress in the implementation of programs agreed upon as well as dealing with such violations as may occur.
12. In order to ensure that relations among our organisations find expression among the people, we should undertake to initiate joint public activities among our structures at all levels in violence-torn areas. This should include joint mass rallies and meetings by local as well as regional structures and joint public appearance by the two presidents in such areas.
13. We should agree to immediately set up the necessary structures to ensure regular contact and communication between our negotiating teams to seek areas of commonality and clarify issues on which we may differ.
14. I hope that in my presentation I have not taken a sectarian approach and presented my organisation as angels and other organisations as sinners. When we meet to solve problems, we should avoid all recriminations. I would like to tell the world something constructive today. I believe that it is necessary that when we consider our problems I look into my own weaknesses as much as I look into yours. This is the approach we need to take.
It is not correct to portray the massacres in Natal and Transvaal as clashes between the IFP and the ANC. Some massacres could never have been committed by an African. They are the work of a Third Force. The fact that the Goldstone Commission has so far not found evidence of its existence is neither here nor there. This is not a new problem. South Africa kept on denying military involvement in Angola. It was only when the bodies of South African soldiers were returned to South Africa and when Hunter produced documents of the extent of SADF involvement that they admitted their presence there.
It is crucial that we work to end the violence and expose those who are responsible. I hope that at the end of this meeting we will be able to say that we have buried the past. We must look to the present and to the future. Both locally and internationally, I would like us to promote a new image of our relationship.
By Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Accompanied by the following delegations:
| African National Congress | Inkatha Freedom Party |
| Mr C Ramaphosa, Secretary-General Mr J Zuma, Deputy Secretary-General Mr J Modise, NEC Member Mr S Mafumadi, NEC Member Mrs B Kgotsisile, NEC Member |
Dr FT Ndlalose, National Chairman Hr VGJ Matthews, Chief Executive Officer Dr BS Ngubane, Central Committee Member Mr WS Felgate, Central Committee Member Ms Suzanne Vos, Central Committee Member Mr VB Ndlovu, Central Committee Member |
LUTHERAN CHURCH CENTRE, KEMPTON PARK, JUNE 23, 1993
We gather today in one of the increasing number of historically important meetings in the vital process of creating a new democracy out of the way in which we bury apartheid and erect instead a social, economic and political system which will satisfy the aspirations and needs of a nation.
Just how important we make this meeting today depends on ourselves. I, and the members of the IFP leadership who have accompanied me, have arrived at this meeting quite determined to do whatever we can to make it the culminating glory of what was started at the Royal Hotel in Durban on 29th January 1991.
The IFP and the ANC are political organisations with historically important deep roots in Black society. Both the IFP and the ANC are non-racial organisations seeking a race-free democracy, and in both organisations it is the calibre of people, and not the colour of skin, that counts.
This dimension of the two organisations however does not obliterate the reality that what is taking place in South Africa at the most fundamental level is the giving of political power to the hitherto disenfranchised Black majority. The IFP is very keen to get through negotiations and to move on to holding an election because this country desperately needs to know more about the who's who of politics.
I approach today's meeting with a deep awareness that during the first elections there will be a great shedding of political irrelevancies. What will emerge is what South Africa's people want. As two parties we have a duty together to make democracy work. Today we should work with each other with this impending reality in mind.
The Government and the National Party have an important role to play in this phase of politics and so does the PAC and all the other parties. It is, however, the ANC and IFP members who are at war with each other. Never before in the history of our country has there ever been a gathering of political parties such as those at the World Trade Centre, and there will never again be what one can call the luxury of a national gathering of all the important political parties in the country.
The making of the new South Africa will be an event in a millennium. There is something historically unique about what we are doing. Thus, when I say that it is up to the IFP and the ANC to make negotiations succeed, and to make democracy work afterwards, I am drawing attention to dimensions of our two organisations, and their relationship with other political parties at the World Trade Centre. Both the IFP and the ANC could wreck negotiations should we set our minds to do so. They are the two parties whose followers have been engaged for quite a few years now in internecine strife. Without peace there can be no democracy in our country.
I make these preliminary remarks in a sense to set the tone for what I have come here to say. I add to these preliminary remarks that it is my sincere hope that as the English expression goes, the IFP and the ANC may have by now eaten their bag of salt together. The past has been impossibly difficult for us. The present remains contaminated by those past difficulties, and is almost impossible to manage. I have come here to say that the future must be different. If we do not make it different, there will be no democracy.
I also want to say in my preliminary statement that I am very aware that whoever governs after apartheid is going to be faced with perhaps insuperable difficulties. Apartheid has destroyed the real productive capacity of South Africa. It has destroyed the social fabric of Black society which should be wrapped around the decision-making and problem-solving capacities of our Black communities.
Apartheid has left a trail of devastation and a desperate need amongst our people. It has left millions of our youth as a marginalised new generation who will have to keep together for posterity the great victory over apartheid which our generation has produced.
The vastness of the poverty problem, the destroyed foundation for high levels of sustained growth, and the vast backlogs that there are in housing, social, educational and health facilities, combine to make a set of circumstances in which the aspirations and needs of the Black population of our country can not possibly be met even in the near future.
This spells out to me that both the IFP and the ANC should be facing up to the reality that growing mass poverty during the next decade will (ever-increasingly threaten to become the mortal enemy of democracy. It should make it clear to both the ANC and the IFP that the ongoing violence between our members has exacerbated the poverty problem.
No government will be able to satisfy the now very high expectations of the people. Nothing less than the experience of a rapid increase in the living standards of the masses will satisfy their expectations.
Whoever governs will need a loyal opposition, and whoever is in opposition will need an open and democratic government. if these two conditions are not there in the new South Africa, the blame that the people will lay on the government of the day for failing to meet their expectations, will thrust the new government into crisis after crisis.
I would like to add that we should be aware of another dimension of danger to the new democracy that we are establishing.. Here I want to mention the capacity of the disenchanted White right wing sector of our population to disrupt civil society, and to threaten whoever governs. The White right-wing masses must be reduced in number. We must convert them to democracy as we negotiate. If we do not do so we will face a threat far greater than that faced by the Mozambican or the Angolan Governments. The White right is militarily trained, it is highly mobile, it has vast communication advantages and could put together the technology of destruction, as well as being able to fund that technology.
The dissidents to the left of all the parties at the World Trade Centre are similarly a factor which must be taken into account. Seething discontent, with continued mass poverty, will create very ferthegrounds for attacks against the new status quo.
I say all these things by way of preliminary remarks to underwrite a statement that I, and my IFP colleagues, have come to this meeting to build on what we started on 29th January 1991. We have come here to make this meeting historically important beyond all the expectations that South Africans out there have for this meeting.
It became apparent to me shortly after our 29th of January 1991 meeting, that naivety was one of the greatest dangers that we faced. We were naive to draw up a beautiful Accord and perhaps consider its merits sufficient to guarantee its success. We never even got that Accord off the ground. To this day I can not understand how you, Sir, as President of the ANC, could have drawn up your Open Letter to the State President with such a scathing attack on my integrity, and the legitimacy of the IFP, so soon after January 29. I could not understand how you deepened the crisis of our relationship with the detail of your address to the Security Council.
I could not understand how you, Sir, in Lusaka could talk about my hands dripping with the blood of other Black people. Even less can I understand what really amounts to the serial killing of IFP leaders. My people will not allow me to talk with you, Sir, unless we begin with these things, to enable us to clear the air, so that our discussions can be meaningful.
I have thought long and hard about how to broach these matters in a way to indicate that it is necessary to do so in order to clear the air, but which will not make them disruptive of the success I have come here to achieve. There will be no success with me if I do not raise these matters. As I pondered upon the matter, I came to the decision that the most constructive way of dealing with the reality of our hurt and anger, would be for me to re-table documents, already tabled, which carry the detail of complaints and bitterness of every delegate here. Amongst these there would be:
There were also defamatory books by the ANC Research Officer, the late Mr. Nobleman Nxumalo and by the late Dr Francis Meli, former ANC representative in Germany, aimed at not just criticism of me but were also character assassinations of myself and my family.
I take these big strides through the last two and a half years of our failure to put the Accord we struck on January 1991, to work. I would also like to lay before this meeting my hurt, and anger at your refusal, Mr. President, to go to Taylor's Halt with me in April 1990, and your continued refusal to act against violence with me on the many occasions when I have called out to you to do so, because your people, and my people - all our people - were dying in their droves.
I do not table these things simply as statements for the record. I table them expecting a response. And in expecting a response, I make a plea. As you, Mr. President, have done in the past, you will counter these things I lay before us with your own list of complaints and problems, and I will feel obliged also to respond to them.
MY plea is for both of us, and for both of our sides, Sir, to respond within the framework of that which is beginning to emerge in the negotiation process in the Technical Committee on violence, and in the National Peace Committee's subcommittee drawing up proposed amendments to strengthen the National Peace Accord.
And I have brought with me Mr. VB Ndlovu and Dr BS Ngubane, respectively, from the Pietermaritzburg and the Empangeni areas, who will carry to this meeting personal experiences of onslaughts by MK cadres. They will have their say, and then one hopes the air will be cleared by your response, Sir, as President of the ANC, and by your colleagues.
I propose a two-phase discussion. Let the first phase be the tabling of grievances and constructive responses within the parameters of what should be said as encouraged by the Technical Committee on Violence at the World Trade Centre, and by the teamwork which is reviewing the Peace Accord.
Let the second phase be discussion under the agreed-to Agenda items, and let the second phase begin with the resurrection of the 29th of January Accord, and putting its key elements to work for the sake of negotiations and for the sake of peace.
In order to get onto discussions about the way forward, may I, suggest the following.
There are volumes of detail in which unfair and scathing attacks against my own integrity, and against the integrity and democratic legitimacy of the IFP and the Kwazulu Government. BY right one should examine the detail to dispose of the barriers for open and free discussion between the IFP and the ANC.
I would propose however that when you look across the broad sweep of those attacks, they very dominantly amount to the ANC denying the legitimacy of my leadership, and the authenticity and legitimacy of the IFP as a political force which contributed to the liberation of South Africa, and which has a role to play in bringing about change and establishing a new democracy.
The charge of illegitimacy or surrogacy made by you, President Mandela, in your Security Council Address perhaps sums it all up. I also noticed, Sir, that after your meeting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. John major, that you kept on referring to "surrogate organisations" that are not a threat, but that it is White right-wing groups that are a threat. You were at the press conference, and even on return from this trip, the sentence kept on cropping up. I want to state that it would be unfair for me to assume that this is a reference to the IM All I am saying, however, is that it only became noticeable to me because this pejorative had been flung at the IFP before such an important world body as the United Security Council.
If we could now, for once and for all, bury that issue, and if for once and for all the legitimacy of the IFP as a political party and as a phenomena that rose out of the people, could be accepted, there would only be the need to be vigilant now, guarding against future recriminations and accusations and counter-accusations.
I make the point that these recriminations must now end. We can not have Mr. Peter Mokaba, the President of the ANC Youth League, writing to me the kind of letter that he sent me recently, in which further insults were hurled at me, if we seriously want peace to prevail. Nor can we have the repeats of Mr. Harry Gwala's continuing attitude, in which he said again yesterday, "Mr. Buthelezi must not be seen to be talking peace to President Mandela, while he allows his people to attack our members". The statement comes at the end of a scandalously long and false set of accusations that the IFP is killing ANC members in Natal. I do not deny that IFP members have become involved as well in hideous violence, but this, as I have emphasised in the past, has not been orchestrated by me or the leadership of the IFP.
If we have to become bogged down at looking at the details of the IFP's claim that it has been unfairly and scandalously attacked by the ANC over decades, then so be it. I leave it up to you, Mr. President, to either call for detailed examination of who was wrong and who was right on what occasion, when who said what, or to accept that we should endeavour to let the past be the past, and look forward to the future in which past accusations will just not be permitted.
In going on to deal with the agenda that has been prepared for today, it is my hope that we will constantly bear in mind that it is the ordinary people, the men and women in the street, and men and women in rural areas, for whom we are attempting to establish a democracy. However each of us, as an organisation, can rightly claim to have played a role in liberating South Africa from apartheid, it was the millions of ordinary Black South Africans who suffered so hideously under apartheid.
For decade after decade, at any one time, tens upon tens of Black South Africans were in jail for pass and influx control offenses. That in itself amounted to a Black civil society onslaught against apartheid. For many decades, at any one time, millions of people were cold and hungry because they were excluded from the benefits of our cash economy.
The Black struggle, that just to stay alive and remain committed to democratic decency, was also in itself an onslaught against apartheid. The way our Black congregations in churches did not give up hope, and the way Black society showed the true indomitable spirit of man in refusing be crushed into to submission, has earned the masses the right to claim that they made their own contribution to the liberation of this country.
In our discussions it is my sincere hope that we will carry before us a vision of the future in which, finally, liberation is about ordinary people being able to live in a democracy, and not about the future of either of our political parties.
Within this perspective there is a need for us, as protagonists of our philosophies and beliefs, to begin relating to each other as leaders and parties seeking to normalise relations between us, so that we could be of greater service in normalising society around us.
I plead for the recognition that the IFP and the ANC will have to take extraordinary measures to normalise relations between ourselves before a normalised society forces us to do so. The normalising of our relationship will have to become normalisation in abnormal circumstances to begin with.
I would like to explain one dimension of IFP thinking which very often gets lost in debate and in political conflict. The IFP in fact has never objected to ordinary democratic activity in areas in which it dominates. The normalisation of relationships between the IFP and the ANC will in part depend on normalising political activity an the ground. Not once have I, as President of the UP, or as Chief Minister of KwaZulu, ever issued any decree forbidding the political activities of the ANC, or any other organisation, in KwaZulu. Contrary to all the propaganda that is trumpeted about me, on the basis of this accusation, all over the world, the ANC has had meetings, rallies and marches in KwaZulu areas. Conflict that has occurred in some cases has flared from the conflicts that exist in each particular area between members of the IFP and the ANC.
I want to reiterate what I have said before in this regard. It has been virtually impossible to normalise political activity on the ground because of the IFP's experience of violence. How can we expect mayors and councillors of Black townships to open the doors of their facilities to a political party which they know calls for the killing of councillors and mayors in a political vendetta against the institution of Black councils? How can we expect normalised action on the ground when parties seeking that normality come into Black communities and kill for political purposes, But I have never officially endorsed any policy that such facilities should not be made available to anyone. In many instances, in KwaZulu, school buildings were built with money collected from people by Amakhozi and tribal authorities.
Whoever the party or organisation is my observation remains valid. I also make the point that in seeking normalisation, it is not only acts that matter. People who are convinced that another party kills for political purposes will behave in a particular way whether or not their beliefs are rooted in fact.
I would like to suggest that in thinking about the way forward, and in thinking about normalising relationship between ourselves, we pay a great deal of attention to the vicious role that rumour plays in heightening levels of violence. Let us understand that we will not succeed unless we pay a great deal of attention to the communication problem between leadership and grassroot membership, and between political parties and organisations, at every level.
I believe also that we should have a very clear grasp of the reality that this meeting we are having today will itself be quite inadequate even to give peace initiatives a significant boost.
On the 29th of January we recognised that what we decided at national leadership level would have to be permeated right down to the lowest levels of grassroot society. We recognised that this could only be done if our accord at leadership level were translated into visible joint action in strife-torn areas, and if you Mr. President, and I, acted together in high profile attempts to bring peace to strife-torn areas by ourselves going there and sharing platforms in testimony to our joint commitment to peace.
Lutheran Centre, Banaero Park, 23 June 1993
The Presidents of the ANC and IFP met together with their respective delegations for wide-ranging discussions.
Discussions were frank, meaningful and productive and were conducted in a sprit of mutual respect and concern for the future.
Out of these discussions there has come a determination to seek ways and means of bringing about peace and success in negotiations.
A joint undertaking between the two leaders has been drawn up and is attached.
In addition it was agreed that it is time for the ANC and the IFP to bury the past and to look to the future.
We will work together to promote national reconciliation and a democratic future for our country.
Both the ANC and the IFP, like all other political parties who are helping to make a new South Africa, have a right to exist and must cooperate in the creation of the new society.
We recognise that each of our organisations has a legitimate right to exist and to participate peacefully in the democratic process.
We agree that a meeting of the signatories to the National Peace Accord should be convened as soon as possible in order to ratify recommendations for the strengthening of the Peace Accord.
We recognise that if we are to set an example of reconciliation for our people, we must make it clear that both the ANC and the IFP support free political activity and reject the concept of no-go areas.
We have agreed to ourselves conduct joint symbolic visits to persons and places which are of great significance to our respective organisations and to share joint platforms in strife-torn areas to bring about peace.
We have also agreed that there is a need in both our organisations to ensure that agreements reached at national and regional levels find expression among the people. Peace and democracy must become the property of all South Africans.
We commit ourselves to taking active steps to ensure the agreements we have reached today are communicated to all of our members and supporters and are implemented at all levels of our organisations.
We have both agreed that the elimination of apartheid and the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, democracy through the Multi-Party Negotiating Process are vital steps which must be taken to improve relationships between us and to bring about peace in South Africa. We have agreed to establish constructive bilateral relations between our respective organisations at the negotiations process. We will seek through this mechanism to resolve the differences which remain outstanding between us, including differences over constitutional issues.
We reiterate our agreement that there will be prohibition on the carrying of dangerous weapons, which are detrimental to the peace process, to political meetings and rallies. We also deplore the proliferation of arms which are being acquired freely and which are being used to decimate human life. We call for tighter control of all illegal arms by all persons and parties.
Together we commit ourselves to lead for peace and democracy and to make the agreements reached here today historically significant.
I. BASIC PRINCIPLES
1 South Africa has reached a crucial stage on the path to democracy. After centuries of colonial domination and apartheid, our country is poised for a major breakthrough leading to the establishment of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic order and a government based on the will of the people.
2. The achievements made thus far are a result of the efforts and sacrifices made by -the people of our country and international support for a democratic settlement. The people's aspirations will find expression in democratic elections for a government of their choice, and measures aimed at reconstructing our country to the benefit of all and bringing about national reconciliation.
3. The ANC and the IFP recognise the historic importance of this moment. We jointly reaffirm our commitment to the speedy resolution of the problems that remain so that our society can at least find peace and occupy its rightful place among the world community of nations.
4. Violence remains one of the most serious impediments in the endeavor to realise these objectives. The ANC and the IFP acknowledge that every life lost is a serious indictment on the system of apartheid, our own organisations as well as other political leaders; and that it behoves all peace-loving South Africans to engender within our communities the spirits of peace and tolerance.
5. On behalf of the ANC and the IFP, we hereby reaffirm our commitment to the agreements reached in previous bilateral meetings as well as the National Peace Accord. We jointly commit ourselves to reaching an agreement together with the other signatories to strengthen the National Peace Accord, and to abide by its strengthened provisions. We hereby commit ourselves to the peaceful resolution of the problems of our country, and to a constructive approach in dealing with matters under discussion in multi-party negotiations.
In order to help contribute to the atmosphere necessary for a peaceful transition to democracy, we commit ourselves to the following principles:
II. ORGANISATIONAL RELATIONS
1 The IFP and the ANC are two independent organisation founded to pursue what each organisation perceives as the interest of the country and its people.
2. The two organisations share the common objective of ridding SA of the scourge of apartheid and its consequences. Insofar as we share these common perspectives, we are duty-bound to co-operate in their realisation.
3. Where the ANC and IFP differ on mechanisms to this end, we commit ourselves to discuss these differences in a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect, taking into account that the interests of SA and its people transcend these differences.
4. It is therefore the responsibility of both organisations to ensure that our supporters, members and particularly leaders at all levels, promote a healthy relationship between them based on such mutual respect and tolerance.
III NORMAL POLITICAL ACTIVITY
1. The common objectives that the two organisations as well as other parties share, require that there be an atmosphere of peace among all South Africans, freedom of association, assembly and other basic human rights.
2. We therefore commit ourselves to promote the creation of such an atmosphere, and to do all in our power to prevent violations of these principles by our members and supporters. In particular, urgent measures need to be undertaken to ensure free political activity throughout SA. This entails, inter alia;
2.1 The recognition by our members and supporters of the right of all individuals to hold their own views, and their right to express these views without intimidation and violence; while at the same time eschewing mutual vilification.
2.2 Where either of our organisations are able to do so - we shall ensure that other organisations are allowed to canvass their views and that they are afforded the necessary facilities to do so. This should apply to both urban and rural areas.
2.3 Both the IFP and ANC recognise the right of people to assemble and give expression to their grievances and the parties they support provided that such manifestations are in keeping with the letter and spirit of the National Peace Accord. To this end the IFP and the ANC agree that if and when either party convenes a demonstration, protest or any other form of mass action, it will ensure that:
2.3.1 it has given priority to the need to promote peace;
2.3.2 the action will avoid deliberate provocation of opponents, injury to persons or damage to property;
2.3.3 the structures of the Peace Accord will be kept fully and timeously informed and will be utilised to maximum effect;
2.3.4 good faith negotiations will occur with all relevant parties and the security forces regarding the proposed action;
2.3.5 all agreements reached regarding the proposed action will be binding, and the convening party will comply with them and do everything reasonably possible to ensure its members are aware of the agreements;
2.3.6 sufficient marshals will be provided to ensure that the proposed action is peaceful and disciplined;
2.3.7 all reasonable steps will be taken to make sure that no weapons are carried with unlawful intent;
2.3.8 in making its decision as to whether the action would be embarked upon, the convening party will give due cognisance to the political climate prevailing at the time and the appropriateness of the proposed action;
2.3.9 the convening party will plan the route of any demonstration so as to provide for a specific place where it is to start, the route which is to be followed and a place where the march should end and where and how marchers should disperse;
2.3.10 provision will be made for effective means of communication between the conveners of the action, marshals, peace committee monitors, the police and any other relevant party during the action and immediately thereafter.
3. Realising that the problem of violence and legitimate law enforcement should also be addressed in the context of the unfolding transition, we commit ourselves to contribute constructively to the multilateral negotiations on multiparty control of all armed formations. In particular, we agree that all proposals regarding armed formations in the country should be considered in the light of a single, over-riding objective; to establish impartial, accountable, effective and legitimate security forces for a democratic South Africa. To this end, we specifically endorse the proposals made in the Fourth Report of the Technical Committee on Violence at the Multi-Party Negotiating Process regarding the adoption of a series of phased, confidence building measures within a common framework to achieve this objective. We recognise that within this common framework a clear distinction will have to be drawn between statutory and non-statutory armies on the one hand and police forces on the other during the transition to democracy and thereafter. This distinction is consistent with our view that policing functions should be clearly distinguished from military functions and our view that the various armies should play no role in the elections process which lies before us, while the various police forces and a multi-party peace-keeping force will be required to fulfil ongoing law and order functions.
4. Where there are disputes between us, including disputes regarding either party's freedom to canvass its views and be afforded the necessary facilities to do so or regarding the exercise of the right to freedom of assembly, we agree to attempt to resolve these disputes in a constructive manner. We agree that the primary mechanisms for dispute resolution between us are those contained in the National Peace Accord and direct meetings and liaison between our two organisations.
5. Realising that apartheid and the variety of struggles against it have had particularly serious consequences for South Africa's youth, and that there is a need to constructively channel the energies and hope of the youth, we commit ourselves to participate together in the development of a peace-corps/youth services under the auspices of the National Peace Accord.
IV JOINT MECHANISMS
1 In order to promote healthy and constructive interaction between our organisations, we commit ourselves to strengthen and expedite the work of the joint liaison structures between our two organisations. We call on these structures to speed up their work aimed at finalising detailed agreements on matters of mutual concern for ratification by the respective executives.
2. In order to obviate some of the problems that beset relations between the two organisations after previous bilateral meetings, we agree that such joint mechanisms should include measures aimed at monitoring progress in the implementation programmes agreed upon and dealing with such violations as may occur. Further, we pledge to ensure that problems that arise in this relationship will be handled first and foremost through the channels agreed upon rather through the media; and that such contact will not be broken off simply as a result of differences that might emerge.
3. In the endeavor to ensure that the relations between our organisations find expression among the people, we undertake to initiate and encourage activities among our structures at all levels. This will include:
3.1 Joint mass rallies, meetings and marches by local as well as regional structures - which should be undertaken as a matter of urgency to relate to one another in this spirit of co-operation, mutual respect and tolerance.
4. None among us should see it necessary, no matter how serious the point of disagreement, to resort to violence. Those who seek to exploit whatever differences may exist between the two organisations for their own ends, will then stick out like a sore thumb.
5. Great possibilities exist for the final resolution of the political problems that have gripped our country for decades and even centuries. We owe it to ourselves, our children and generations to come, not to squander this historic opportunity.
6. The future of peace and democracy for which many have sacrificed their lives is within reach. Let us grasp it with both hands.