South Africa A Lurch to the Right

Nearly every aspect of life in South Africa is a stark study in black and white. That was clearer than ever last week after a strong swing to the right in a whites-only national election. A jubilant State President P.W. Botha, whose party increased its seats in Parliament, went on national television after declaring victory and said, "The outside world must accept that the white electorate is here to stay and has a special duty in South Africa." To Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the country's best-known blacks, the election carried a very different lesson. Said the 1984 Nobel Peace laureate: "We have entered the darkest age in the history of our country."

The ruling National Party, which has been in power since 1948, won 52% of the popular vote and 123 of the 166 elected seats in the all-white House of Assembly. But the surprise winner was the far-right Conservative Party, a group of former Nationalists who broke away from the party five years ago because they thought the government was making too many concessions to the country's 30 million nonwhites. It received 26% of the vote and increased its parliamentary strength from 17 to 22 seats.

While the right was getting stronger, parties advocating changes in apartheid, the country's system of racial separation, were the big losers. The Progressive Federal Party won just 14% of the vote, and its seats in Parliament dropped from 25 to 19. The P.F.P. was the official opposition party in the outgoing Parliament, but that role will now be assumed by the Conservatives. The New Republic Party, another liberal group, lost four of its five seats. Acknowledged Progressive Leader Colin Eglin: "I cannot deny that the results pose a major setback for the P.F.P. and the concept of a reform alliance developing into an alternative government. There is no doubt that the election in its totality represents a lurch to the right."

The three-month election campaign was marked by ferment and friction among the country's 5 million whites. Afrikaners, the descendants of the country's first European settlers, had previously been a largely cohesive group that generally opposed change. But in recent times a growing number of them have been discussing the need for fresh approaches to racial policies. Leaders of the powerful Dutch Reformed Church and professors from several universities have called for new thinking about old problems.