S. African P.M. dashes liberal hopes of reform

Press, 10 August 1981, Page 8

S. African P.M. dashes liberal hopes of reform

NZPA-Reuter Cape Town

The tough line by the South African Prime Minister (Mr Pieter Botha) in a five-day parliamentary censure debate this week has dashed Opposition and other liberal hopes of any dramatic moves on race reform this year. A member of the Opposition Progressive Federal party, Horace van Rensburg, said after listening to the Prime Minister: “Apartheid made a come-back through the voice of the Prime. Minister and its honour has been destroyed.” Mr Botha, whose Government easily defeated the Opposition challenge because of its huge majority, firmly denied charges that he was a compromise leader serving the interest of National Party unity and in effect a prisoner of the Right.

He reminded the leader of the official Opposition, Frederick van Zyl Slabbed, that he wielded a two-thirds majority won in the election in April.

Mr Botha said he was no “middle-of-the-roader or jellyfish." “I have my own pattern of thinking even if it costs me my political future," Mr Botha said. “No babbler or gossiper will divert me from my course." In sometimes sharp exchanges with Dr Slabbed and other Opposition spokesmen, Mr Botha rejected the idea of a national convention of all races — white, black, Coloured (mixed race), and

Asian — to tackle South Africa's problems and achieve a form of powersharing which would prevent an eventual explosion. During the debate, in which the Opposition accused Mr Botha of hesitant and uncertain leadership and failing to fulfil reform promises, Mr Botha ruled out the inclusion of urban blacks in any new constitutional arrangements with whites, Coloureds, and Asians.

He also rejected “in the present circumstances” the election of Coloured or Asian members to the existing allwhite Parliament, even on separate voters’ rolls. He also said he did not think it was possible for a Coloured or Indian to become State President.

In reply to Dr Slabbert towards the end of a sometimes stormy debate, the Prime Minister said that the Government stood for continued white domination even under the planned new Constitutional structure. Mr Botha’s remarks drew Opposition complaints that they appeared to limit the field of action of a 60member President's Council set up last year to advise the Government on constitutional reform. The council has no black representatives and Mr Botha has rejected frequent appeals that they be included. The blacks have their own governments in their own homelands, he argued.

Dr Slabbert warned that by the end of the century there would be 27 million

urban blacks outside the homelands. In lfl to 15 years, he said, South Africa could find itself in a state of semipermanent seige similar to the situation in Lebanon, Northern Ireland, or Cyprus. The Opposition leader appealed for talks with other race groups from a position of strength while there was still time.

“We should be involving other groups on how to live together. But if you believe, as the Prime Minister does, that white domination is not negotiable we have lost the battle before it has begun,” he said. Mr Botha said that in a move to speed up a constitutional reform process he has asked the President’s Council to make recommendations by November or December.

But Mr Denis Worrall, a chairman of the council’s constitutional committee, told a news conference yesterday the council could not meet this target and next February or March was more likely.

Mr Botha has already made clear that council recommendations will have to be considered by the National Party congress and will be taken to a referendum if necessary if he considers any of them to be too radical. Meanwhile, the House of Assembly in Parliament will now turn its attention to the delayed 1981-82 Budget due to be presented next Wednesday by the Finance Minister (Mr Owen Norwood).