South Africa Vows Wider Black Role : Botha Would Give Majority a Voice in National Decisions

President Pieter W. Botha said Friday that the South African government will soon undertake further political reforms to give the country’s black majority a significant voice for the first time in national decision-making.

Botha told the opening session of the South African Parliament in Cape Town that constitutional provisions will be made so that urban blacks “can themselves decide their own affairs up to the highest level” and participate in broader national decisions as well.

He also announced that black tribal homelands in rural areas will be granted greater autonomy and, at the same time, brought into decisions made on national issues.

Botha gave no details of the planned reforms, but they apparently would end the exclusion of South Africa’s 24 million blacks, 73% of the population, from national politics. Some black community leaders spoke cautiously Friday of a possible breakthrough.

Talks With Blacks

Botha took another significant step in declaring that while basic decisions to proceed with the reforms have already been made, the government will negotiate with black opposition groups, again for the first time, on the actual measures to be implemented.

He made it clear, however, that while the envisaged reforms represent a major shift away from white-minority rule, they will not bring about majority rule as measured by the standard of one man, one vote.

Nevertheless, Botha’s statement brought sharp and immediate reaction from right-wing white parties, and there may also be misgivings within Botha’s own National Party.

Botha is “on a fatal course that will mean the end of apartheid,” a spokesman for the Conservative Party said in Cape Town, referring to South Africa’s system of strict racial separation. A member of the Herstigte National Party described the president’s policy speech as “the death warrant for the white race and our civilization.”

Called Break From Past

But Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the liberal white opposition Progressive Federal Party, praised the proposals as a break from past National Party policies and possibly the beginning of a new political era if they are sincerely and fully implemented.

Botha also announced that blacks will be allowed to buy land where they live and farm, that restrictions on blacks living and working in urban areas will be eased and that satisfactory compromises will be sought on the resettlement of black communities.

And he ordered government departments dealing with black communities to consult them fully on all measures affecting them, and to draw up programs to improve black-white relations in “the daily human contact” between blacks and the bureaucracy.

Blacks reacted warily to Botha’s pledges, saying they want to see the specific government proposals and timetables for their implementation, though some community leaders saw potentially substantial gains in them.

Dr. Nthato Motlana, chairman of the influential Committee of 10 in the black city of Soweto, near Johannesburg, said that while the full implications of the proposals are not yet clear, he is surprised at their scope and optimistic that they could become a basis for far-reaching political, economic and social reforms.

Moses Maubane, managing director of the black-owned African Bank, saw Botha’s pledges as going substantially beyond any past government proposals to meet blacks’ political priorities. But he said that most people will remain very skeptical until the promises are implemented.

Praise for the reform proposals came from most leaders of the tribal homelands. But other black political activists complained that the government’s promises are no better than half-measures that fall short of majority rule and an end to apartheid.

‘Designed to Divide’

The United Democratic Front, a group of 645 anti-apartheid organizations with 2 million members, described Botha’s proposals as “mere rhetoric . . . designed to divide, not help, the black community.” And the Azanian People’s Organization restated its refusal to negotiate with the government on anything until imprisoned and exiled black leaders are able to participate.

Bishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, was critical of Botha’s proposals, Reuters news agency reported from The Hague, where Tutu was ending a two-day visit to the Netherlands.

“We will not be satisfied with the crumbs of concessions the white man throws at us. The country is ours,” Tutu told a news conference.

As for Botha’s proposed forum for talks on reforms with black opposition groups, Tutu said, “It is nonsense. . . . It is a totally toothless dog. I wouldn’t waste my time on it. We only want to talk when there is an open-ended agenda.”

Calls for Cooperation

Anticipating such hostility, Botha said of the reforms, “None of these steps can be taken successfully without the cooperation of those whose circumstances are intended to be improved by them. I therefore expect responsible black leaders to take the hand that is being extended to them and to work together on the development of their communities and on the creation of effective structures for decision-making and cooperation.”

Botha also emphasized that the starting point for any reforms would be “a system in which there is no domination of one population group over another” so that there is “self-determination for each group over its own affairs and joint responsibility for and cooperation on common interests.”

In South African terms, this was a reaffirmation of “grand apartheid” under which each racial group--white, black, Indian and Colored, or persons of mixed race--is kept politically, socially and even economically segregated, permitted to look after its “own affairs,” such as local government, education and health care, but under effective white domination on all major national questions.

This approach was used last year to establish the new tricameral legislature, adding houses of Parliament for Indian and Colored deputies to that for whites. The controversial move was eventually rejected by most Indians and Coloreds who boycotted elections because blacks were still excluded. This is the first working session of the new Parliament, and the government is eager to show that the new “constitutional dispensation” works.

Justifying this approach, Botha told Parliament’s opening session Friday that “because of the diversity of South African society, it is neither desirable nor practicable to accommodate all communities in the same way.”

“Different structures,” he continued, “by no means imply that the right of black people to take part in democratic processes is not recognized. Nor will the structures set up for them be inferior or less effective.”

New Forum on Reforms

Botha indicated that the actual reforms would be worked out by a special Cabinet committee on black affairs and by a new forum to which opposition groups would be invited.

“Communication and mutual trust between the population groups must be improved if peaceful constitutional development is to be successfully pursued,” he said. “The existing mechanism for negotiation (must) be improved and the process of negotiation be substantially extended.”

The president acknowledged the widespread unrest in South Africa’s black townships last year, warning that police would act against those promoting violence but promising government measures to solve the problems responsible for black anger.

“No responsible South African can lose sight of the fact that, in the final instance, the security of our country depends on the willingness of all our people, despite their considerable diversity, to accept that we have common interests and goals,” he said.