South Africa Testing the Waters

Testing the Waters Though the temperature is not yet right, the white government and black leaders are tiptoeing closer to negotiations over the fate of their country

Outside the tan stucco shoe-box house in a dusty corner of Soweto, bands of shouting youths draped the black, green and gold banner of the outlawed African National Congress over the driveway. Others hoisted a smaller version up a makeshift flagpole atop the roof. Inside, Walter Sisulu, 77, the liberation organization's former secretary-general, conferred by phone with the A.N.C.'s exiled leaders in Lusaka, Zambia. Then he walked across the street to an Anglican church that had been transformed into a meeting hall. Hundreds of supporters were gathered there, celebrating Sisulu's release from prison after serving more than 25 years of a...

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