National Party

VENTERSDORP, South Africa -- President Frederick W. de Klerk's political road show drove right through this town, past the signs calling for a white homeland, and headed out into the flat fields of corn that surround it.Proving that he has learned the new math of South African politics, Mr. de Klerk bypassed the white Afrikaners who were the backbone of his National Party as it ruled the country for the last 45 years. Instead, he went in search of support from blacks, who are expected to make up 80 percent of the voters in the April 27 election.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- James Mange has the same credentials sported by many in South African politics these days.He joined the the African National Congress (ANC) as a teen-ager, then signed up for its liberation army Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was arrested on treason charges and spent more than a decade on Robben Island, the country's political Alcatraz.But he also has something else -- dreadlocks. Mr. Mange, 40, a Rastafarian and successful reggae singer, is leading his own political party, the Soccer Party, into next week's elections.

MITCHELL'S PLAIN, South Africa -- President Frederik W. de Klerk, launching an unprecedented campaign to woo blacks to his party, was driven off a podium in this township yesterday by protesters who hurled gravel at him and yanked the plug on his sound system."

MITCHELL'S PLAIN, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela began the battle for the votes of South Africa's so-called colored population last week with a whistle stop tour through this sandy, wind-swept township.In polls last year, the mixed-race coloreds backed the ruling National Party over the African National Congress. Though that's been reversed in more recent polls, Mr. Mandela is taking no chances.This five-day trip to the Cape Town area marked his first major public appearances here since his 1990 release from prison, and he spent much of his time going after the area's significant population of coloreds, who often see the ANC as a black-based group responsible for the chaos that has become part of life in so many black townships.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- After years of deadly political conflict, South Africa's KwaZulu/Natal Province held its first free local elections last week, and now that the votes have finally been counted, it appears that the province's archrivals have neither gained nor lost much ground.As in the first post-apartheid general election in 1994, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi swept the province's vast rural areas. President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress triumphed in the cities and suburbs.

SOWETO, South Africa -- "The National Party? No, they do not have an office in Soweto. Their office is in Pretoria," Philemon Madi said of the longtime ruling party of South Africa.But all Mr. Madi had to do was step back and look up at the four-story office building above him.There was the National Party office, with a sign proclaiming its presence in bright blue and green colors.The surprise was evident on his face. "What are they doing there? They should not be here," he said.For Mr. Madi, 33, it was the same sort of awakening to the new South Africa that many whites have been getting for the last four years with banned and banished figures showing up on television and in the newspapers.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- President F. W. de Klerk marked the fourth anniversary of the launch of the new South Africa with a blistering attack against the African National Congress -- the very group he had allowed to come out of hiding.Legalizing the ANC and freeing its leader, Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison were the hallmarks of Mr. de Klerk's speech on Feb. 2, 1990. Now the ANC is the clear favorite to win the country's first multiracial election in April, thus handing Mr. de Klerk's presidency to Mr. Mandela.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The African National Congress, under its new leader, Thabo Mbeki, won a bigger victory in elections this week than five years ago and was headed for a commanding two-thirds majority in Parliament."

WASHINGTON -- The Republican National Committee plans to lay off about 25 percent of its full-time workers this week, party officials said yesterday.The staff layoffs, which could come as early as today, were termed a "restructuring" by RNC officials. They come barely a week after a midterm election many politicians regard as a disappointment for President Bush and his party.Mary Matalin, RNC chief of staff, said that the national headquarters staff of about 300 full-time employees would be reduced by at least one-fourth and that an unspecified number of part-time workers would also be let go.Those being dismissed will remain on the payroll until the end of next month.

WASHINGTON -- South African President F. W. de Klerk, winding up his first state visit to the United States yesterday, repeated his reservation about a one-person-one-vote system and declared that the governing National Party will continue to be a major force in a post-apartheid South Africa.Speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club, Mr. de Klerk said he had come to the United States to convey his "commitment to negotiate a new constitution for South Africa."He enumerated a number of goals that his government wants to achieve, including a "vote of equal value for all."