South African consul defends race policies

Press, 22 February 1978, Page 18

South African consul defends race policies

“The Press” continues to find itself at odds with the South African Consul General in New Zealand (Mr P. R. Lindhorst) concerning the future of non-white South Africans who refuse to accept political rights in the homelands being set up by the South African Government. In reply to a statement by Mr Lindhorst printed on January 24, "The Press” suggested that the centra) issue of South African politics was the future of nonwhite South Africans who seek to be accepted, as equals, in white-dominated South Africa. "The Press” said that Mr Lindhorst continued to avoid this issue. An abbreviated reply from Mr Lindhorst follows: “If you meant that I could not come up with a single blue print which sets it all out in unequivocal terms as to what the eventual political dispensation for urban blacks may or may not be, you are correct. But then I say how can that be? Our complex situation, which is a microcosm of the entire world, still at issue with itself, also defies instant answers and solutions — and we know what West-minster-type constitutions have done for black Africa

and vice-versa,” writes Mr Lindhorst. “South Africa, contemporaneously and simultaneously, packs in together most of the problems that from time to time in history the world has had to cope with: race, language, religion, class — name any emotive issue in history and South Africa has it, as part of the contemporary scene. “Furthermore, the over-all one-man-one-vote idea demanded by those far removed from the complexities of our situation is unlikely to be accepted. Democratic regimes with universal adult suffrage and widespread tolerance of political opposition are rare — approximately one in six of the member States of the United Nations qualify. “The devolution of political power by way of granting independence to homelands is the broad direction of Government policy to prevent group tyranny in our society,” writes Mr Lindhorst. “These homelands could be further consolidated and assisted financially and technically, to be made more meaningful. At the same time, everything which falls under the misleading name of “petty” apartheid (which is what the West primarily

understands and finds repulsive in the whole apartheid doctrine) is to be phased out as fast as possible. “Certain scenarios have been sketched to accommodate the urban blacks. For the present, full selfgovernment is envisaged with the possibility of those urban blacks who have adopted a Western lifestyle one day being assimilated into the political mainstream. “By way of conclusion 1 would respectfully ask you to name the power i« Africa, or elsewhere for that matter, possessing just a few of our ethnic and cultural problems whose structure of government you would have us adopt to make us acceptable to you. “Or better still, I invite ‘The Press’ and its readers to help us in our dilemma by providing us with ideas for a political formula which would accommodate the urban blacks and amicably solve all our problems, always remembering though that, in the African experience, safeguards against the reversal of inherited constitutions have had no meaning. Minorities in opposition were in some cases, liquidated; in most others, not even tolerated.” writes Mr Lindhorst.