White Govt’s headache: what is to be done about blacks?

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 6

White Govt’s headache: what is to be done about blacks?

By

VICTOR MALLET, of

Reuter (through NZPA) Cape Town South Africa’s white rulers appear to be uncertain about the future. The National Party Government of Pieter Botha has publicly admitted that “grand apartheid”, the policy of denying blacks South African citizenship and dumping them in nominally independent tribal homelands, has been a failure. But it does not appear to know how to implement its new idea of accommodating millions of blacks in South African politics at the same time as preserving white control. A new National Party booklet, entitled “And What About the Black People?”, admits past errors and concedes that critics might see a policy vacuum. “The impression might easily be created that the Government and the National Party are without

a policy, that until such time as we and the black people have come to a decision about a future dispensation for all the people in the country the Government itself does not know where it is leading South Africa. “This is far removed from the truth. The Government has spelled out clearly defined points of departure which will be used as guidelines in the negotiating process.” The main problem facing the Government is that its guide-lines, including continued racial segregation and a rejection of one-man. one-vote in a unified South Africa, are unacceptable to its main black opponents. Mr Botha and his Cabinet Ministers rarely use the word “apartheid", preferring "group rights” or “selfdetermination", but they say that they are still committed to segregation and the tribal homelands, or “national States.” They admit that only

about 40 per cent of the country’s 23 million blacks can ultimately be accommodated in the homelands, leaving a black majority dwarfing the white South African population of about 4.5 million. “Therefore it should be clear that some form of political rights will have to be granted to the black people living outside the national States," says the party booklet, which is being distributed to white constituencies. “However, it is also clear that these rights will have to be structured in such a way that they will not destroy the established rights of the whites, coloureds, and Indians." The booklet, a summary of National Party thinking by a member of Parliament, Stoffel van der Merwe. grapples with the idea of satisfying the political aspirations of blacks without allowing them into the white central Govern-

ment. Black leaders have been invited to discuss the issue with Mr Botha. But groups such as the United Democratic Front have rejected the offer, saying that they want an end’ to white rule and racial segregation. Among the proposals the Government is raising for discussion are increased powers for discredited black local authorities, which have virtually collapsed. Black councillors and their relatives have been hacked to death or burned alive by rioters who accuse them of collaborating with the white Government. Many have resigned. Other possibilities the Government suggests include a national assembly for blacks outside the homelands and the granting of powers to homelands over areas outside their borders. The homelands are not recognised internationally. Government leaders now appear willing to sigr.ifi-

cantly reform the apartheid policies, which have been enforced since the National Party came to power in 1948 — provided that whites retain control of the country. This year Mr Botha and his Cabinet, which includes two non-whites, have granted freehold property rights to many blacks, abolished laws barring interracial sex and marriage, and announced plans to soften influx control laws, which restrict the movements of blacks. They have also suspended forced removals. "The ideal towards which we are striving is the creation of a South Africa in which every nation and population group — including the whites — will have a place in the sun." says Mr Van der Merwe’s booklet. “This may appear to be very idealistic and impossible to achieve in the verydifficult circumstances in which we find ourselves."