Afrikaners, Unite!

THE 10,000 KHAKI-CLAD AFRIKANER FARMERS WERE seething. Demonstrating under a hot Transvaal sun in Potchefstroom last week, they shouted down a junior minister in President F.W. de Klerk's Cabinet when he rose to address them. Then they gave a standing ovation to retired South African Defense Force chief Constand Viljoen, who demanded a halt to De Klerk's negotiations with the African National Congress and other parties.

The gathering was called to protest black attacks on white farmers and the government's failure to increase the price of corn. It also provided a rousing springboard for the so-called Committee of Generals, who the next day formally launched the Afrikaner Volksfront, a bid to unite more than 20 political, cultural and worker groups. The aim, says General P.H. ("Tienie") Groenewald: to win an Afrikaner state containing roughly 16% of South African territory, if necessary by acts of civil disobedience or force of arms. Says Groenewald: "What we will contemplate . . . is to declare our independence and secede." Despite the threat, negotiators agreed that by June a date would be set for the first free elections, probably to take place in April 1994.