Kennedy Cancels S. Africa Speech : Fear of Violence Between Black Factions Prompts Action

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), fearing a fight between rival black political factions, canceled a speech here Sunday that was to have been the climax of his trip to South Africa, which has been aimed at rallying American opinion against this country’s system of apartheid, institutionalized racial separation.

As angry members of the United Democratic Front and the rival Azanian People’s Organization stood nose to nose, their fists in the air and threatening to battle in front of the altar of Regina Mundi Catholic Church, Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel peace laureate, announced that Kennedy had canceled the speech for fear of provoking violence.

Although the 200 protesters from the militant Azanian People’s Organization were outnumbered 10 to 1 by Tutu’s supporters, the black prelate--and Kennedy’s American and South African bodyguards--judged the situation far too volatile to let the senator speak in this sprawling black township near Johannesburg.

‘Regret Very Much’

“I regret very much that I was unable to speak at Soweto,” Kennedy said at the Johannesburg airport before leaving for Lusaka, Zambia. He said he had been warned that his appearance in Soweto would probably provoke violent clashes between the two groups and that there was a serious danger not only to himself but to the 2,500 people attending the rally.

For Kennedy, it was an ignominious end to his eight-day visit, a trip that he hopes will mobilize Americans for a campaign against apartheid and end the Reagan Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” toward the white minority regime here.

For Tutu, the Anglican bishop of Johannesburg, it was a humiliation, for he was unable to fill the church with his supporters and unable to command even a minimum of respect from rivals within the black community.

But for the Azanian People’s Organization, a militant “black consciousness” group that opposed Kennedy’s trip from the outset and demonstrated almost daily against him, it was a success that will make the organization, with its black nationalist and increasingly socialist ideology, a much greater force on the political scene here.

“We are all deeply saddened that the meeting did not take place,” Tutu told Kennedy as he saw the senator off at the airport.

Although Tutu pronounced the trip a success for focusing attention on apartheid and laying the basis in the United States for furthering the campaigns against it, the visit was undoubtedly diminished by the hostile reactions to Kennedy here.

Not only did the government denounce him, but many liberal whites, who oppose apartheid, strongly resented what they saw as Kennedy’s arrogance.

Within the black community, black consciousness groups such as the Azanian People’s Organization accused Kennedy of trying to protect capitalism and American interests in South Africa and of promoting reform rather than the revolution they want.

“We see Kennedy as one of the foremost agents of American imperialism,” said Haroon Patel, national projects officer of the Azanian group and the leader of the Sunday protest. “He wants to put a human, benevolent face on capitalism, which is fundamentally evil and oppressive. A ‘caring capitalism,’ a reformist capitalism, is still capitalism . . . . And, Republicans or Democrats, it is still American imperialism.”

Bitter Anti-Americanism

The bitter anti-Americanism in the past week’s demonstrations was a new and--for the large Kennedy mission--a shocking element in anti-apartheid protests here.

“Don’t these people realize what Kennedy can do for them?” one of the senator’s top aides said last week. “Are they so far gone into radicalism that they prefer setbacks to progress?”

Ishmael Mkhabela, president of the Azanian People’s Organization, said later Sunday that his group had opposed the visit because there was no agreement among blacks on its goals and because there were strong doubts that Kennedy would really be speaking for blacks.

Black consciousness groups such as Mkhabela’s believe that apartheid must be overthrown by South Africa’s black majority; whites may assist, but blacks must lead the struggle and, later, the nation. While small in size, the black consciousness groups have considerable political influence here.

The United Democratic Front, of which Tutu is a patron, is an alliance of 645 anti-apartheid groups across the political spectrum with 2 million members. It is multiracial both in philosophy and in organization. In the text of the speech that he did not deliver, Kennedy expresses his hope “that one form of racism shall not be swept away only to be succeeded by another.”

Tutu, speaking at Regina Mundi, said he had invited Kennedy because of growing interest and concern in the United States about apartheid and in the belief that the senator might galvanize American opinion against it.

“I did not ask him to come over here because he was going to be our savior,” Tutu said. “I felt any exposure of the evil system of apartheid would be only to the benefit of its victims.”