South African History Online

1 August 1990

This morning I met the State President, Mr. De Klerk, having established in
an earlier meeting with him that he was gravely concerned about recent alleged
events that are now public knowledge. I understood his concern in this regard.

In my discussions with the State President today I reiterated the total
commitment of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe and the SACP to the Groote Schuur
Minute. I also made an undertaking that I personally, together with the National
Executive Committee, will do whatever we can to ensure that steps are taken to
guarantee strict adherence to the Groote Schuur Minute. The problems raised by
President De Klerk with regard to the recent events will be will be discussed
during the meeting of 6th August.

I also want to clarify a misunderstanding as a result of which I thought that
the State President had demanded that Joe Slovo be excluded from the delegation
of the ANC. The correct position is that the State President was disturbed by
evidence placed before him suggested of statements and actions which went
against the spirit of the Groote Schuur Minute. These were seen to go against
the trust which has been built over the past months. I therefore inferred from
this that the State President was no longer prepared to sit at the same meeting
with Joe Slovo.

In the light of the facts that I conveyed to the State President today as
well as the discussions between us, I am positive that the talks on the 6th of
August will go ahead in good spirit.

Issued by: African National Congress,
Department of Information and
Publicity,
P.O. Box 61884,
Marshalltown 2107,
Johannesburg.