South Africa Campaign of The Iron Fist

Among South Africa's Afrikaner politicians, it is axiomatic that kragdadigheid, a show of strength, wins elections. With that strategy in mind, the National Party government of State President P.W. Botha has been preparing for the May 6 whites-only parliamentary elections by pouring on just about as much kragdadigheid as the country can bear. His government last week was threatening to strike at neighboring countries that might be harboring anti- Pretoria guerrillas and was attempting to enforce harsh new regulations against opposition demonstrations at home.

With a defiant mood of apartheid now, apartheid forever, Botha said in a BBC interview that he would never countenance a black majority government, a black head of state or a scrapping of segregation in residential areas. "I am not prepared to sacrifice my rights so that the other man can dominate me with his greater numbers," Botha declared. "The other man," of course, is the 26 million blacks who live in South Africa and its "independent homelands" and who outnumber the whites by more than 5 to 1. Botha said he was prepared to grant "the other man" equal rights, but he quickly added, "I never read in the Bible that to be a good Christian means I must commit suicide to please the other man."

As the elections approached, Botha directed bellicose statements at nearby Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, charging that those countries were harboring guerrillas of the African National Congress, the South African liberation movement. The State President and his Foreign Minister, Roelof ("Pik") Botha, have been warning the A.N.C. that it would face such military strikes if it tried to disrupt the South African elections.

At home the government made another move to silence the voice of protest. General Johan Coetzee, the national police commissioner, announced a new emergency regulation banning South Africans from doing or saying anything to bring about the release of people who have been detained without trial. Of the approximately 30,000 arrested since the declaration of the state of emergency last June, some 8,000 are believed to remain in detention, including about 2,000 minors. Under the latest order it is illegal to participate in "any campaign, project or action aimed at accomplishing the release" of detainees. Among the forbidden acts, said Coetzee, are the signing of petitions, the sending of telegrams and even the wearing of political stickers or shirts bearing anti-detention slogans. Also prohibited are attendance at protest gatherings or any action demonstrating solidarity with those detained.

The new measures were so sweeping that they jabbed a public nerve and produced a thunderous reaction both at home and overseas. Opposition leaders redoubled their attacks against the government. The Detainees Parents' Support Committee vowed that it would challenge the latest crackdown in the courts, while the Free the Children Alliance declared that the police statement "criminalizes legitimate protest."