Past is future in S. Africa

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 21

Past is future in S. Africa

From a special correspondent in Johannesburg

There seems little chance of South Africa’s President, P. W. Botha, gaining mass acceptance of his much trumpeted reform proposals, just announced. And not so much for what was said, but for what was left unsaid.

The crucial point made by Botha — and hammered home in a series of interviews by Foreign Minister Roelof (“Pik”) Botha — was that the “pass laws” which regulate the lives of blacks virtually from cradle to grave, will be abolished.

Instead of the dompas, a document which lists every detail of every black individual over the age of 16, including thumb print, photograph, tax receipts, “tribal” classification and area in which the individual is entitled to live and work, a “single document” will be introduced for all South Africans.

At first sight a reasonable proposition. But Botha failed to define what he meant by “South African.” In previous statements, he has made it clear that he and his Government are still firmly wedded to the “bantustan” concept Under this programme, each black person is assigned a tribal “nationality” and a “homeland” to go with it. These “homelands,” generally impoverished and overcrowded rural areas with few amenities and totally dependent on Pretoria for their existence, are deemed by Pretoria to be fully fledged nation States. Their “citizens” may reside and work in the rest of South Africa as foreign labour, subject to “repatriation” and any other regulations the Government may deem correct for non-South Africans.

Since the majority of South Africa’s “black”the definition does not include darker skinned

people of mixed origin (coloureds) or those of Indian or Malay descent — people have already been assigned homelands, Botha’s latest statement appears not to affect them.

The announcement last week, therefore, is not quite so radical as it first appeared. But at least it does seem to offer some form of dispensation for those members of the black community who have been long established in urban areas and who have been accorded residence rights.

But again, Botha left unsaid something which passed most of the white — and international — community by: whether the new single document will still be cause for “waar’s jou pass” (where is your pass) harassment As matters stand, the pass must be produced on demand to any policeman. This means the document has to be carried 24 hours a day.

Nothing in the statement was, after all, startlingly new and nothing breached the framework of apartheid, for all Foreign Minister Pik Botha’s protestations to the contrary. Even the announcement of a national advisory council which will include blacks and “advise the Government on all aspects of policy” has a sense of deja vu about it such a body was scrapped when the National Party first came to power in 1948.

As jokers in the townships are already pointing out: “South Africa is the only country on earth where progress means going back to 1947.” To which a rejoinder might be: “And the only country where super progress is defined by going back to 1936 — and giving selected urban black men the vote."