Wieder Hit for Trip to South Africa

Supervisor Harriett Wieder’s two-week visit to South Africa, financed by the government there, has provoked little public comment among elected officials but much behind-the-scenes criticism.

“I’m outraged,” said Vivian Hall, a Democratic Party and women’s rights activist. “I’m angry that she accepted the trip, and it’s a shame that public officials have not spoken out.”

County Democratic Chairman Bruce Sumner said he was upset by Wieder’s trip but added that nobody within the party has voiced criticism to him.

Sumner pointed out that U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) recently visited South Africa. Sumner noted, however, that Kennedy’s trip was not paid for by the South African government and that Kennedy went there as a U.S. senator involved in foreign policy decisions. Sumner also noted that the South African government was hostile to some of Kennedy’s speeches and activities during his stay.

‘Firsthand’ Experience

Wieder, a Republican, said in an interview last week, “I accepted the trip because I was interested in learning about the country firsthand. I’m never going to be voting on anything involving the South African government, so how could there be any conflict?”

In a recent statement released after she returned from her trip, Wieder said there is no question that apartheid “is morally wrong” and that “South Africa is a racist country.”

But later in the statement she defended the government there, saying “South Africa is slowly heading down the road of change . . . . One should not sit in judgment until he visits South Africa and can see the country for himself.”

Wieder also has told reporters that U.S. companies should not pull out of South Africa, an issue of much debate in Congress.

Sources close to the supervisor say colleagues and advisers had urged her not to make the trip, although Wieder denied having received such advice. The sources said Wieder was warned that the trip might look like a political junket even if county tax dollars were not involved and even if she went on her own time.

Judgment Castigated

“Even if the trip is an innocent one, it’s an amazingly bad case of political judgment to accept a junket,” one of Wieder’s colleagues said.

According to South African Consul General Leslie Labuschagne, who is based in Beverly Hills, he personally picked Wieder for the trip after learning of her “protocol” committee, a volunteer citizens advisory group Wieder created before the U.S. Summer Olympics to promote contact between local public and business officials and their foreign counterparts. He said he had also become aware of the World Trade Center Assn. of Orange County, on whose board of directors Wieder’s husband, Irv, once served.

Labuschagne said he thought about inviting Wieder last year, when she was chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, and that he is charged by his government with finding about 50 people from the 11 western states to make such journeys each year.

“Am I to apologize for discovering the importance of Orange County?” Labuschagne asked. “We’ve had this visitor program for years, but suddenly an official like Harriett Wieder gets invited, and some people get excited. That didn’t happen when (Los Angeles County) Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Pete Schabarum went a few months earlier . . . . Orange County is becoming very important in world trade. So maybe I should take credit for discovering Orange County.”

Labuschagne said there is no guarantee that a guest will come back praising South Africa. He admitted that few do.

“The purpose is to let people see for themselves under conditions that might be better than they could arrange on their own. Of course, we hope that they will begin to understand the complexities of South Africa and not be so quick to condemn. We promote mutual understanding.”

Labuschagne conceded that a major goal is to blunt some of the “unfair” criticism leveled at his country by people who have never been there. Even as a local politician with no foreign policy role, Labuschagne added, Wieder has access to other people in Orange County civic and business affairs with whom she can share her experiences.

Similar Agency in U.S.

The U.S. Information Agency has a similar guest visitor program that is even more ambitious and costly than South Africa’s. Agency officials acknowledge that much of their work involves selling a positive image of the United States to foreigners.

In discussing her trip, Wieder spoke of the misery she saw in the segregated black towns in South Africa, the high unemployment, the overcrowding, the lack of resources.

“I talked to opponents as well as supporters of the government,” she said.

She quoted a white woman telling her: “The blacks won’t harm us because they realize that they need us. We’re not like Hitler or the Nazis. We’ve taken care of these people (the blacks) for years.”

Wieder said she viewed her invitation from the South African government as “kind of a compliment.”