Resistance to S.A. reforms expected

Press, 19 April 1985, Page 6

Resistance to S.A. reforms expected

By

ARIK BACHAR,

Reuter (through NZPA)

of

Johannesburg The repeal of laws banning inter-racial sex and marriage could herald a more rigorous attitude to apartheid rather than more reform, political analysts said yesterday. The analysts agreed that the scrapping of the Mixed Marriages Act and section 16 of the Immorality act did not mean that an end to South Africa’s racial segregation was near. Professor Robert Shrire, director of applied political studies at Cape Town University, said that the Government could now be expected to harden its attitudes in a bid to dampen expectations of sweeping reforms.

“We shall probably see a concerted Government action to dampen expectations on reform,” he said. “There is no way South Africa can satisfy international demands.” The Home Affairs Minister, Mr Frederik de Klerk, told Parliament that laws segregating residential areas and facilities for different races would remain.

The marriage and immorality acts embodied the obsession of many white South Africans, mainly desf

cendants of Dutch settlers, who came here three centuries ago intent on preserving racial purity. Professor Schrire said that the governing National Party, which institutionalised apartheid when it came to power in 1948, was still intent on preserving white rule over the black majority. “They regard themselves as the only custodians of white rule,” he said.

Government attempts to tackle the roots of apartheid would be resisted by its supporters and Pretoria would probably now want to “clearly outline what 1 is negotiable.” Another senior analyst said that although the Government still believed in the basics of racial segregation, it would find it difficult to stop the process of reform. “The Government was forced to concede because of pressure,” he said. “Although the two laws did not have vast implications, once you start attacking apartheid in its peripherals, you cannot stop.”

Removal of the laws has long been on the cards as the Government scrapped “petty apartheid”: legislation such as segregation in public parks and lifts. Analysts say that Pretoria realised it had to

produce concrete action after much talk of reform recently to ease pressures, mainly in the United States, for economic sanctions against South Africa. While overseas antagonism could be temporarily reduced, analysts say, the Government should expect pressures to build up again if the recent measures are not followed up. They say that the repeal would do little to change the attitude of the 73 per cent black majority, which has been left without political power despite the inclusion in a junior Parliamentary role of Indian and mixed-race Coloured communities last year. More than 300 people have been killed during the last year as black communities were torn by violence, highlighting their discontent with their plight under apartheid. “The average black is not concerned with laws such as the Immorality Act,” said Professor Schrire.

Blacks were primarily angered by lack of control over their future and rules about where they may live or work, and the scrapping of relatively irrelevant apartheid laws would do nothing to end the cycle of violence sweeping the country. (