S. African Integration of Political Parties Due : Blacks Will Be Able to Join Organizations That Now Represent Whites, Others in Parliament

In another reform of South Africa’s apartheid system of strict racial separation, the government announced Saturday that people of different races, including the country’s 25 million blacks, will now be allowed to belong to the same political party.

Although blacks still have no voice in national decision-making, the move will let them join those parties that now represent whites, Indians and Coloreds (persons of mixed race) in the new tricameral Parliament and thus help indirectly to shape government policies.

But so deep and widespread is the black distrust of South Africa’s political system, and so restricted has been the black role in it--nothing higher than town council--that few blacks are likely to join either the liberal white opposition Progressive Federal Party or the major Colored or Indian parties.

Continuing Reforms

In announcing the proposed repeal of the 1968 law banning integrated political parties, the minister of constitutional development and planning, J. Christian Heunis, stressed the government’s commitment to continuing reforms, including the step-by-step inclusion in politics of blacks, who make up 74% of the population.

But the political significance of the planned move lies in the removal of another legal pillar of apartheid and in the change of attitudes that could result from white, black, Indian and Colored politicians working together regularly.

Current law prohibits persons of different races from belonging to the same political party, from campaigning for one another or from addressing each other’s political rallies--measures intended to ensure that the ruling National Party never has to face a multiracial opposition.

Enactment of the law 17 years ago forced the dissolution of the old multiracial Liberal Party and the suspension of nonwhite members from the Progressive Party, as the Progressive Federal Party used to be called. However, no one has ever been prosecuted under the law.

The Progressive Federal Party, which has gathered most of the liberal white critics of the government into its ranks over the years, has already begun accepting nonwhite members and plans to contest seats in the Indian and Colored Houses of Parliament as vacancies arise, and perhaps local elections in some black communities if it gets sufficient support there.

Although national elections are unlikely before 1988, the formation of new regional service councils and other mid-level governmental organizations on a multiracial basis will give a voice to those blacks willing to participate in South Africa’s changing political system.

Little Praise From Blacks

Although whites see the reform as far-reaching, it is likely to draw little praise from Coloreds, Indians and blacks.

The Labor Party, which holds all but a few seats in the Colored House of Representatives, is unlikely to allow itself to be absorbed into the Progressive Federal Party or any other white opposition group, since many of its basic interests lie with the ruling National Party. The same is true of the National People’s Party, which has a slight majority in the Indian House of Delegates.

And while the Progressives had a number of prominent black members when multiracial membership in political parties was outlawed in 1968, even then political allegiance of most blacks went to the banned African National Congress or to the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania--as it does today.