Kennedy Vows to Push Bill to’Disengage’ U.S. From S. Africa Regime

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Friday demanded an end to the Reagan Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” with South Africa, saying he would sponsor legislation to “disengage” the United States from the minority white regime here and make clear American abhorrence of its apartheid policies of racial segregation.

Kennedy, near the conclusion of his eight-day visit to South Africa, implied his support for economic and other sanctions against South Africa and said that he would announce a series of specific measures after his return to Washington next week.

“My nation will not long continue a policy of so-called ‘constructive engagement’ with a social order so entirely destructive of human rights,” the Massachusetts Democrat told a multiracial rally of several thousand in a Cape Town suburb Friday evening.

“Only a very few extremists in my country still defend the government of South Africa. Patience is running out across the (American) political spectrum. Not only Democrats, but Republicans and President Reagan even are speaking out against apartheid.”

Assault on Policy Kennedy’s declaration signals a full assault on the Reagan policy of trying to ease South Africa through political, economic and social reforms by quiet encouragement, and the senator’s aides predicted that apartheid will quickly become one of the top four or five foreign policy issues in the United States.

Kennedy, interviewed on NBC’s “Today” program, stopped short of outlining the proposals he will make in the Senate on his return, but he left no doubt that they would be tough and, if adopted, mean an end to constructive engagement as the basis for U.S. relations with South Africa.

“I disagree with the present American policy toward South Africa precisely because it offends abiding American values,” Kennedy later told the rally, which was organized by the United Democratic Front, a coalition of 645 anti-apartheid groups with 2 million members.

In Washington on Friday, a group of black South African labor leaders--two of them recently released from prison by the South African government--split in their views of Kennedy’s visit to their country, Times writer Don Shannon reported.

Differ on Divestment “If you’re involved in stopping people coming to South Africa, you should not permit some and not others,” said Philip Dhlamini, general secretary of the South African Black Municipality and Allied Workers Union. But Phiroshaw Camay, general secretary of Unions of South Africa said he believes the Kennedy visit is a “positive force.”

Differences among members of the group also emerged over the issue of withdrawing all U.S. investment from South Africa or seeking only “selective disinvestment.” Although the jobs of up to 100,000 black workers directly depend on U.S. investment, Camay argued, these workers probably would accept unemployment as “part of the price to pay for freedom.” But others in the group supported a less than all-out approach.

The South Africans, in Washington for a three-day AFL-CIO conference, were taken Friday afternoon to a site near the South African Embassy to witness the arrest of nearly 50 demonstrators, the largest number detained in one day since anti-apartheid protests began two months ago. Included in the arrested group were tennis star Arthur Ashe, California State Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, African Methodist Episcopal Bishop H. H. Brookins of Los Angeles and Danny Blakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade, also of Los Angeles.

Protest at Prison Earlier Friday in South Africa, Kennedy staged a dramatic protest against the South African government’s refusal to let him visit the jailed black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela. He went to the suburban Cape Town prison where Mandela is being held on a life sentence for treason and called for the release of all political prisoners.

“Behind these walls are men who are deeply committed to the cause of freedom in this land,” Kennedy said, standing in front of Pollsmoor Prison. “I firmly believe that the real cause of peace in South Africa will be served with the freedom of political prisoners.”

Kennedy had met earlier this week with Mandela’s wife, Winnie, in the small town of Brantford, where she is confined and barred from political activities, a ban she broke in simply receiving Kennedy, his family and the large entourage of journalists.

The government Friday renewed its criticism of Kennedy, with two Cabinet ministers complaining that he had come to South Africa only to attack the government, not to see all sides of what they described as very complicated issues.

‘Disgust and Doubt’ South Africans have viewed Kennedy’s trip with “amusement, disgust and doubt,” said Gerrit Viljoen, minister for community development and cooperation, who is in charge of black affairs.

Viljoen, along with Chris Heunis, minister for constitutional development, told Kennedy of the government’s commitment to “ongoing political reform,” which eventually would give blacks a share of power.

But Viljoen added, “The only acceptable political reform is one based on differentiation structures and procedures based on population groups,” thus maintaining apartheid’s philosophy of “separate development.” Nor would reform be allowed to “endanger the power balance,” Viljoen added, alluding to white domination of the government.

Today, Kennedy travels to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia (South-West Africa), which the South African government continues to administer in defiance of repeated U.N. calls for its independence. On Sunday, he will speak in Johannesburg’s black suburb of Soweto and then leave for Zambia.