Feuding Blacks Greet Kennedy in South Africa

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, starting an eight-day visit to South Africa to mobilize opposition to its policy of apartheid, or racial separation, landed in the midst of a black political feud when he arrived here Saturday.

The Massachusetts Democrat was met at Johannesburg’s Jan Smuts Airport not only by Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of his hosts here, but also by about 100 protesters from a militant black group, the Azanian People’s Organization.

“Kennedy, go home!” the placard-waving demonstrators shouted as the senator left the airport. They scuffled with those supporting the visit and with police, who briefly detained nine of the anti-Kennedy protesters for violating a ban on demonstrations at the airport.

‘Community Divided’

“My community is divided,” Tutu warned Kennedy in brief remarks welcoming here, “and they will show their opposition to your visit.”

That opposition, which reflects increasingly bitter political divisions among South Africa’s 24 million blacks, now threatens to undercut Kennedy’s visit, embarrassing the senator and clouding the attempt to recruit support for the campaign against apartheid.

The Azanian People’s Organization, a six-year-old “black consciousness” group, believes that apartheid and South Africa’s white-minority regime must be brought down through the efforts of the country’s black people themselves, and that whites, here or abroad, must play only a supporting role lest they take over the whole struggle.

Other groups here, which together call themselves “progressive democrats,” urge a multiracial effort against apartheid and accord whites prominent roles in their organizations.

This division in both philosophy and tactics runs deep and splits South African blacks in virtually everything: Whatever one side proposes, the other will criticize and even actively oppose.

The Azanian People’s Organization a month ago and again last week objected to Kennedy’s visit, saying the senator was merely campaigning for the American presidency. It plans protests at virtually every stop of the trip, garnering considerable publicity for itself and its “black consciousness” approach.

“Ted Kennedy must be informed that the black people of Azania (South Africa) are not his ticket to the presidency and that our enemies include the American imperialism that props up the racist regime here,” the organization said in a statement.

“Edward Kennedy does not have a mandate for his visit from either the black people of Azania or, for that matter, the black people of America.”

Kennedy’s hosts, though, hailed him Saturday, seeing him as a catalyst to accelerate the campaign in the United States against apartheid, thus putting more pressure on the South African government to reach a political accommodation with the nation’s black majority.

The Rev. Allan Boesak, president of the World Council of Reformed Churches and, along with Tutu, Kennedy’s host, expressed his hope that Kennedy will “see South Africa through the eyes of the oppressed and that he will interpret what he has seen to America and (explain) how crucial it is not only to put pressure on the Administration there but on the government in this country. I know out of this visit a lot of good will come.”

‘Benefit the Struggle’

And Patrick Lekota, publicity secretary of the 2-million-member United Democratic Front, an umbrella organization of 645 “progressive democrat” groups, said the coalition believes that Kennedy’s visit “should benefit the struggle for freedom in South Africa if, on his return, he uses the insights he gains to mobilize U.S. public opinion against policies of apartheid.”

Kennedy gave little sign of awareness of the bitter feud into which he had stepped, but he made clear his intention to step up the campaign in the United States against apartheid.”

“While I am here in the spirit of open inquiry and cooperation, I must say to you quite frankly that I also come with an abiding commitment to basic human values,” he said on his arrival. “High among those values are a belief in the fundamental equality of all people, a belief in the right of all individuals, regardless of the color of their skin, to social and political justice and a deep opposition to the entire concept of apartheid.

“Here in South Africa, and when I return to the United States, I intend to do all I can to advance the process of peaceful change.”

Tutu hailed Kennedy as “a man of conscience and of peace, a man of God.”

“He is the foremost spokesman for social conscience and human rights,” the Nobel peace laureate said. “He is the foremost world spokesman on human dignity.”

Kennedy’s visit has also touched off considerable controversy among South African whites, many of whom are sharply critical of what they see as American bullying, even though they are opposed to apartheid.

Kennedy will spend today in Johannesburg’s sprawling black sister city Soweto, meeting churchmen, educators and other community leaders and touring the huge ghetto.

He spent Saturday night at Tutu’s home in Soweto without getting government permission, as is legally necessary for a white visiting a black township. He will move to a downtown hotel tonight.

During the week, he will meet both black and white business leaders, other church officials and representatives of progressive organizations and visit black communities here and in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein.

He is expected to meet government leaders, including perhaps President Pieter W. Botha and two or three Cabinet ministers, as well as the wife of imprisoned black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela and a number of liberal white opponents of apartheid. He plans to make a total of three speeches here and in Cape Town.

Before leaving next weekend for Lusaka for talks with Zambian President Kenneth D. Kaunda, Kennedy will briefly visit Namibia (South-West Africa), which is still administered by South Africa despite repeated U.N. calls for its independence.