THE RAND fell sharply against the dollar yesterday, fuelled by conjecture that Mr F. W. de Klerk's National Party would withdraw from the Government of National Unity after South Africa's parliamentarians adopted a new constitution.
The new constitution received the overwhelming backing of 421 votes to two, with 10 abstentions, all from the Afrikaner dominated Freedom Front. The votes in favour included those cast by nearly 100 representatives of Mr De Klerk's NP.
Endorsement of the new constitution by the NP did not, however, prevent speculation that a withdrawal by the party from the coalition government was imminent.
These reports - which spread rapidly soon after the constitution was ratified - emerged from an amalgam of interrelated factors: the absence of a clause in the constitution to prolong the life of the Government of National Unity beyond 1999, adverse remarks about aspects of the constitution by Mr De Klerk and Afrikaans newspaper reports last weekend that an NP withdrawal long before then was under consideration.
The present interim constitution - which will remain in force until the general election of 1999 - lays down that parties which win 20 or more seats in the 400 member National Assembly are entitled to representation in the cabinet. The new constitution eschews constitutionally prescribed power sharing.
President Nelson Mandela yesterday compared it with the present interim constitution, describing it as a "higher form of consensus" against a "qualified form of democracy". Mr De Klerk warned, in contrast, that South Africa would pay a high price for adopting a majority rule model predicting that rejection of multi party participation in cabinet decision making would lead to a loss of confidence in the government.
Mr De Klerk, who serves as one of two deputy presidents, had a hardly made his prediction when "the rand began to fall, once again, against the dollar and, by extension, against sterling. In an interview with the Johannesburg based radio station 702, the NP chief negotiator, Mr Roelf Meyer, observed that the it was compelled to consider its future role in the national unity government because of the absence of a provision in the new constitution for its continuation.
During 11th hour negotiations the NP made no secret of its concern over what Mr De Klerk described as the ANC's "inflexible", stance, particularly on the issue of single medium schools. The NP wanted the continuation of, single medium schools to be guaranteed as a right, believing that future viability of the Afrikaans language depended on the preservation of the Afrikaans language, schools.
The ANC, however, persisted in its refusal to go beyond recognition of single medium schools as a policy option for education departments to consider.
The NP has long been under pressure from a faction within its ranks to withdraw from the coalition sooner rather than later. Its, rationale is that the party is failing to make an impact as a junior partner, and that instead it should pursue a high profile opposition role. The adoption of the new constitution could be seen as strengthening this argument.
Whatever the discordant notes emerging yesterday, they did not rise above the chorused approval which greeted the announcement by the ANC's Mr Cyril Ramaphosa that the new constitution established South Africa as a "nation of free and equal people".