GETTING SOUTH AFRICA DOWN IN BLACK, WHITE

It was remarkable.

South African Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha was in Capetown. Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate and black Anglican opponent of the white South African government, was at his church in Johannesburg.

And on ABC’s “Nightline” Monday night, via the magic of TV technology, they were speaking to each other. These two men of different minds and universes, who apparently had not previously communicated in person, were now arguing about South African racial policy on American TV.

As equals.

Their historic electronic meeting, skillfully shaped and presided over by Ted Koppel from the Johannesburg studios of the South African Broadcasting Corp., was the first of five programs that “Nightline” is beaming from South Africa this week.

As Koppel noted, there is political debate in South Africa. The opposing sides talk about each other, but rarely to each other. And never this way.

“Nightline” several times split the screen, creating a striking picture by electronically placing Botha and Tutu side by side. That gave Tutu the parity on TV that he and his fellow blacks are denied in their South African homeland, where they are not allowed to vote, own property or choose where to live.

TV in recent years has become almost a diplomat without portfolio. In a way, though, what “Nightline” achieved Monday was more dramatic than Walter Cronkite narrowing the political gap between Israel and Egypt. It was more dramatic than NBC’s “Today” show recently telecasting from the Soviet Union or Dan Rather traveling to Cuba last week and giving Fidel Castro a forum on CBS to communicate directly with the American people.

In contrast to those TV events, “Nightline” brought together the powerful and the powerless, the franchised and the disenfranchised, the haves and have-nots on a single TV stage.

South Africa will see the “Nightline” programs, too, apparently, for ABC says the state-operated TV broadcasting company bought rights to air them on a one-day delay.

The purpose of the programs, Koppel said last week before flying to Johannesburg, was to sharpen the focus on a nation about which little is known in the United States beyond its official policy of apartheid or racial separation.

Koppel also had intended taping a Monday interview with Winnie Mandela, wife of imprisoned black political dissident Nelson Mandela, but she backed out suddenly.

Expanded to an hour, Monday’s program began with tape pieces by Jeff Greenfield and Kenneth Walker on the enormous contrasts in a nation with strong economic and strategic ties to the United States.

There was no bigger contrast than Walker himself, a black ABC correspondent reporting from a nation whose own blacks have few rights (despite outnumbering whites 4 to 1) and would not be allowed to hold a job like Walker’s.

After a polite beginning, the debate between Botha and Tutu shortly heated up, with Tutu frequently interrupting and challenging Botha (“Don’t use that kind of trick”) and Botha shooting back. Tutu called for other nations to put economic and other forms of pressure on South Africa’s government to accelerate change. Botha warned other nations to bug out.

Botha occasionally seemed irritated by Koppel. “To come in and try to make us out as the only devils in Africa is naive and is simply not realistic,” he said.

Tutu, though, was especially eloquent. “I’m a bishop in the church of God,” he said. “I’m a bishop of one of the most important dioceses in South Africa. I’m 53 years of age. You would, I suppose, say that I’m reasonably responsible, In my own country, I cannot vote. According to this government, I am not a South African. . . . Blacks have been turned into aliens in the land of their birth.”

Koppel was in swell form, meanwhile, asking short, crisp and incisive questions, reacting, probing, thinking on his feet and breaking in on both Tutu and Botha (“Let me interrupt you one more time, Mr. Foreign Minister”) when they got off track. Koppel was respectful, but not deferential.

Because South Africa is viewed by so many as a villainous oppressor, Botha came to “Nightline” bearing heavy baggage. Facts are facts. However, the hour was basically an evenhanded treatment of a subject about which few people are neutral. Koppel noted that he and others from ABC were surprised to find a “robust” press in South Africa. And he noted that apartheid is being stripped away, however slowly.

More than anything, though, TV conveys images and impressions. And in that area, Tutu, who appeared relaxed and at ease with himself and the camera, was clearly the master of Botha, who was rigid and unsmiling, perhaps cognizant that he may have been facing a largely hostile TV audience.

If nothing else, “Nightline” this week may be narrowing the communications gap between both sides in the bitter struggle for control of South Africa and increasing the chance of more dialogue in the future.

Koppel wondered if Tutu, despite his impatience with slow change, was optimistic about the future of blacks in South Africa.

“Oh, yes,” Tutu replied. “As a Christian, I’m a prisoner of hope.”