Pretoria Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

Afrikaner Memorial gets new owners

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Wednesday, April 13, 1994

PRETORIA—The prospect of black majority rule has resulted in the privatization of this country’s most famous monument.

In a move akin to turning the Statute of Liberty over to the Manhattan Institute, the departing white minority government has transferred ownership of the Voortrekker Monument to a conservative citizens group.

The monument, a huge stone monolith atop a hill overlooking this capital city, celebrates the Afrikaners—whites of Dutch, German and French descent who “trekked” into the interior and defeated black Zulus 150 years ago.

May 2, 2009

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Pact in South Africa Zulu Party to Take Part in Election

By michael o. allenHomepage, 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.

April 28, 2009

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Harlem Rev Snubs de Klerk

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GENE MUSTAIN, Daily News Staff Writers | Thursday, April 28, 1994

SOWETO—The preacher from Harlem paid no mind when the president from Pretoria made a surprise visit to a church here yesterday.

While dozens of people, including some of his fellow American preachers, crowded around South African President F. W. de Klerk and even shook his hand, the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker of the Canaan Baptist Church stayed to the side.

“How can you shake that man’s hand?” Walker asked members of the group here with him to observe the first election in this country in which blacks have been able to vote.

April 18, 2009

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