As a confrontation headed for a climax, President P.W. Botha gave no sign Tuesday whether he would use his enormous executive powers to run the government without his own party`s leaders or agree to their demands that he step down.
For Botha to back down and resign under a cloud would be radically out of character: Throughout a 50-year political career he invariably has met force with greater force. For him to use the full powers at his command to override the party and its parliamentary majority could precipitate the worst constitutional crisis in the country`s history.
Party officials still hope for a compromise, but even that now would humiliate Botha.
Botha returned to his Cape Town residence, Westbrooke, on Monday night, as leaders of the governing National Party were meeting to agree that he should step aside in favor of the new party leader, F.W. de Klerk. De Klerk was elected Feb. 2 when Botha, 73, resigned the party post while recuperating in a vacation home from a Jan. 18 stroke.
Many of the same party leaders were guests Tuesday night at a 46th wedding anniversary party hosted at Westbrooke by the Bothas. The president`s press spokesman said he would have no comment on the succession issue or on the party`s strong statement, which formally rejected an announcement by Botha Sunday that the jobs of party leader and president would be split, with Botha remaining in office until national parliamentary elections next March.
A battle over the issue could come as early as Wednesday when Botha chairs his first Cabinet meeting in two months.
The Cabinet by tradition is run on the principle of consensus. Botha previously has kept strict discipline, but now every Cabinet member but he is committed to the National Party position. The party expects the Cabinet to negotiate with Botha on when and how he will leave office.
The key question is the timing of the next election, with party strategists convinced that it should be held immediately, a position Botha rejected Sunday. Party members now make it clear that they would not back Botha for another term.
The Afrikaans-language press, once solidly behind Botha, has seized on the elections issue as a sign that the president has lost touch with reality and wants simply to retain power.
