South Africa Laying Down the Law

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Although the outcome of the House vote was never in question, the final tally, 313 to 83, was lopsidedly in favor of the override. Until moments before the Senate showdown, Administration strategists insisted they had nearly 30 commitments, but released some when it became clear they would fall short of the 34 needed to sustain Reagan's veto. The crowning moment of the final debate, enacted before a packed gallery, came during an exchange between Helms and Lugar. Helms denounced the sanctions as measures that could eventually lead to a "lasting tyranny" of Communist forces in South Africa. Countered the normally reserved Lugar, his arms raised and his eyes flashing: "We are against tyranny, and tyranny is in South Africa . . . We're saying, Wake up." Although the Administration had gained seven G.O.P. votes since passage of the sanctions, 31 of the Senate's 53 Republicans voted against Reagan, along with all 47 Democrats.

As the legislative drama unfolded in Washington, there were new developments in South Africa. Addressing a provincial congress of his National Party in East London, State President Botha failed to set a date for new elections, which had been expected to take place in November and are now not anticipated until next April, thus postponing a plebiscite on his leadership. Botha also distanced himself from any possibility that his government would consider permitting racially desegregated neighborhoods, a proposal now said to be under review by the President's council studying reform of South Africa's Group Areas Act. "We cannot agree that the principle of separate residential areas be destroyed," he said.

Meanwhile, an appeals court in Bloemfontein, South Africa's judicial capital, overturned a lower-court ruling that Botha had exceeded his authority ! in ordering the detention without charge of some 9,600 South Africans; those detentions had been authorized by the state of emergency that went into effect last June. By ruling that the detentions were legal, the appeals court opened the way for further arrests.

As expected, the White House nominated Edward J. Perkins, 58, to become the first black U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. A career foreign service officer who has been posted for the past 15 months as envoy to Liberia, Perkins is expected to face little opposition in his Senate confirmation hearings. In Pretoria a foreign ministry spokesman said the appointment, which was made for largely symbolic reasons, was "of no concern" to the government.

The sanctions that became law last week do not require U.S. companies now doing business in South Africa to abandon or sell their investments. Even so, reviews of such holdings are under way in a growing number of states, cities and universities. Harvard University announced last week that it will sell $158.7 million in stocks and bonds in companies with operations in South Africa, about 30% of its holdings in such firms. University policy, explained Treasurer Roderick MacDougall, required withdrawing investments in companies that do not meet the widely accepted Sullivan fair-employment standards or that "persist in selling significant quantities of an important good or service" used in enforcing apartheid. Among them: Exxon, Texaco and Ford. Rather like Congress, which debated sanctions for two years before acting, the university last week decided that the time to act had finally come.