South Africa: Apartheid's New Upheaval

In white-dominated South Africa a stern Dutch Calvinist concept of law-and-order still holds sway. But suddenly many of the country's segregated black townships are becoming ungovernable. After a brief period of relative calm in June, violence is again on the rise in the black residential areas, with outbursts being reported every day. Last week 13 blacks were killed in the Johannesburg area alone, both by police and by other blacks. In one 24-hour period, 23 violent incidents were reported. Throughout the racially divided country there were fire bombings and grenade attacks in black townships almost every night.

Thousands of miles away from this explosive unrest, another upheaval was under way last week, this one in Washington. It centered on a single word: divestiture. That technical term, meaning the forced sale of stock or other assets, ordinarily arouses emotions only among antitrust lawyers. But as applied to U.S. relations with South Africa, it has set off one of the most passionate and confused debates since the Viet Nam War. The issues: Should American companies be pressured to sell or close their operations in the land of apartheid? And should U.S. universities, pension funds, local governments and other groups dump their stock in companies that refuse to do so?

The debate, which flared last fall with angry campus protests against American investment in South Africa, is now heading toward a kind of interim compromise solution in the U.S. Congress. Its essence: try some less drastic economic sanctions against South Africa first and see if they shock the white-dominated government into moving faster to end repression of the country's 22 million member black majority. To that end, the Senate last week voted 80 to 12 in favor of a bill that would ban new bank loans to South Africa, cut off nuclear trade, prohibit the sale of computers to government agencies and deny federal aid to the exports of nearly all U.S. companies with facilities there unless they obey what are known as the Sullivan principles. These are a set of six guidelines drafted by the Rev. Leon Sullivan, a director of General Motors and the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, that require companies to have integrated facilities, offer training programs for blacks and provide equal pay and treatment for both black and white employees.

The Senate bill is far less sweeping than one passed by the House in a 295-to-127 vote last month. That version would ban all new investment in South Africa. A compromise approach will probably be worked out by a conference committee.

Officially, the Reagan Administration clings to its policy of "constructive engagement," essentially the application of friendly pressure on South Africa to end apartheid. But one State Department official asserts bluntly that relations with South Africa right now "are lousy." Washington last month called home Ambassador Herman Nickel "for consultations" as a sign of displeasure with the government in Pretoria. Some White House aides have hinted that they will work in House-Senate conference for a sanctions measure mild enough to win President Reagan's reluctant consent.