S. Africa Will Review Ban on Interracial Sex

Laws prohibiting interracial sex and mixed marriages will be reviewed by a special committee and could be repealed, South Africa’s minister of internal affairs said today.

F. W. de Klerk told the all-white house of Parliament that he will appoint a standing committee of legislators from the full Parliament to review and consider repealing the laws.

The regulations forbidding sex or marriage between people of different races are viewed by white conservatives as a cornerstone of South Africa’s apartheid system of racial segregation.

“It is possible that these laws might be repealed,” De Klerk said.

The announcement followed impassioned debate Wednesday in the new mixed-race “colored” chamber of Parliament and fierce criticism of the laws in the new chamber for Asian representatives.

‘An Air of Aggression’

De Klerk said he “detected an air of aggression, an air even of bitterness” in the debates.

White Afrikaner churchmen and newspapers last year joined a growing call for repeal of a 1949 law forbidding whites to marry coloreds, Asians or blacks and a similar 1957 law prohibiting sex between people of different races.

In 1982, the last year for which figures are available, 1,916 people were prosecuted under the Immorality Act, which forbids interracial sex, and 1,586 people were convicted.

De Klerk said repeal could have “implications for the social and constitutional position in South Africa within the framework of laws as they now stand.”

The Asian and “colored” lower houses of Parliament met late last month for the first time, although South Africa’s black majority is still excluded.