MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela

Pact in South Africa Zulu Party to Take Part in Election

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GENE MUSTAIN, Daily News Staff Writers | Wednesday, April 20, 1994

PRETORIA—In a last-minute about-face that won him little more than he was offered 10 days and dozens of political killings ago, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi yesterday agreed to take part in next week’s first all-race election.

With Buthelezi and his Zulu-based party on board, the biggest obstacles to a free and fair election across the country—and the threat of civil war among 8 million Zulus—appear to have fallen by the wayside.

“It is my deepest hope this agreement will bring an end to violence,” President F.W. de Klerk said during a dramatic joint press conference here.

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DEMOCRACY MAY BE FACING A DIFFICULT BIRTH

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GENE MUSTAIN, Daily News Staff Writers | Sunday, April 24, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—After living much of her life with the perverse indignities of apartheid, voting in South Africa’s historic first all-race elections this week comes down to one thing for Louisa Rakale:

“I’ll vote if somebody comes to take me to the polling station,” the 85-year-old Soweto grandmother said.

By the reckoning of racial separation laws that governed their lives, Rakale and her sisters Jeanie Khali, 86, and Alsie Makgamele, 87, were born “colored” to a white (Scottish) man and a black (Xhosa) woman.

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