Black tipped for S.A. post

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 10

Black tipped for S.A. post

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States President Mr Ronald Reagan, has chosen a black businessman to be the next ambassador to South Africa, an American television network reported yesterday. White House officials refused to comment on the N.B.C. News report.

N.B.C. said Robert Brown, a businessman was Mr Reagan’s choice for the post, but he had not been formally nominated because a routine background check had not been completed and because Pretoria had not been given the customary opportunity to provide its opinion of Mr Brown. Mr Reagan had selected Mr Brown partly to head off congressional demands that he impose economic sanctions to pressure South Africa to end apart-

held, N.B.C. said. But it said Mr Reagan also believed that a black United States ambassador could foster talks between whites and blacks in South Africa.

Mr Brown, aged 51, was an aide to a former President, Richard Nixon, and now has a public relations and management consultancy business in North Carolina.

• A call by South Africa’s largest black-led labour grouping for a day of protest yesterday against the national state of emergency appeared to have had a patchy response.

Analysts said up to 100,000 workers took part in sit-ins and strikes, far below the millions who stayed off work to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Soweto riots on June 16.