S. Africans See Image Loss in Botha Speech : Foreign Minister Faces Blame After President’s Message Failed to Bear Out ‘Leaks’ on Reforms

President Pieter W. Botha’s speech last week, committing his government to negotiations with black leaders on South Africa’s future but containing no announcement of specific reforms, is now seen here as an extraordinary public relations failure, and the search is on for someone to blame.

Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, whose activities in advance of the speech raised high expectations for it, is the likeliest scapegoat.

Foreign Minister Botha’s talks with U.S., British and West German diplomats 10 days ago set off a wave of speculation that President Botha would announce important reforms--steps such as dismantling apartheid, abolishing rural tribal homelands and recognizing all blacks as South African citizens, freeing imprisoned black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela and lifting the month-old state of emergency.

In addition, Foreign Minister Botha made a flying tour last week of neighboring Lesotho and Mozambique and of the nominally independent homelands of Ciskei and Transkei, again with a message that major reforms were coming.

Aides Leaked Details

And it was his associates who, for the most part, leaked supposed details of reforms to the domestic and international press, raising even higher expectations of changes that might end a year of persistent civil unrest.

Moreover, Foreign Minister Botha, the only senior Cabinet minister not flanking the president when he spoke Thursday in Durban at the Natal provincial congress of the ruling National Party, was insisting to diplomats and journalists in Pretoria, even as the speech was delivered, that the government had already decided upon such specific measures as abolition of the tribal homelands and on common South African citizenship for blacks and whites.

After President Botha couched his reform commitment in the vaguest terms, not going much beyond what he had previously said to Parliament in January, April and June, black and white South Africans asked who had misled them and why.

“There is no doubt that some people were given more than enough reason to expect that the president was going to say more, much more, than he actually did,” said Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the liberal white opposition Progressive Federal Party. He added that South Africa now faces a credibility crisis at home and overseas.

Homeland Leader Angry

President Lennox Sebe of the nominally independent Xhosa tribal homeland of Ciskei, who was briefed by Foreign Minister Botha, spoke angrily of “betrayal.”

“What was said to me was not even mentioned in Mr. P.W. Botha’s speech,” Sebe declared. “When the moment of truth arrived, not even one of the most moderate expectations were met.”

The government’s critics accused it of duplicity by promising reforms it never intends to implement in an effort to reduce the continuing unrest. As a tactic, it backfired, they asserted, adding that the result will be increased polarization between whites and blacks.

Moreover, they said the real question is not one of public relations but of politics: What will it take to get the president and the National Party to commit themselves to ending South Africa’s system of racial discrimination?

President Botha himself complained angrily in his speech that his critics had tried to trap him into concessions by speculating about what he would say.

President Saw Buildup

“The target is set so high that . . . it is almost impossible to fulfill the propagated expectations,” he said in Durban. “It is also an attempt to force the other party into negotiations to make the expected decision.

“If this is not done, public opinion is already conditioned to such an extent that the result is widespread dissatisfaction. This is what has been happening here over recent weeks. I find it unacceptable to be confronted in this manner with an accomplished fact. That is not my way of doing things.”

The blame for all this quickly fell upon Foreign Minister Botha, who is not related to the president.

Rumors were rife Friday at the Natal party congress in Durban and in Pretoria, the capital, that the president, known to have a fierce temper, felt that Roelof Botha’s maneuverings had made him look like a fool in front of the world. According to these rumors, the president deleted word of specific reforms contained in early drafts of his speech because he felt they had been preempted by the publicity. It was also rumored that he had demanded, received and accepted the foreign minister’s resignation.

Speech Called ‘Historic’

Foreign Minister Botha then went on state television, a dependency of his ministry, to deny that he was responsible for the buildup in expectations. He asserted that he had said nothing to the Americans, British or West Germans that did not appear in the president’s speech and that he was prepared to prove it by comparing his notes of those meetings with theirs.

“I hope we don’t hear this nonsense again,” he declared.

Foreign Minister Botha also argued that the president’s statement was historic--the first time since Dutch colonists landed at the Cape of Good Hope that whites have expressed willingness to let blacks participate in national decision-making. “How this must be done is also a case for negotiation,” the foreign minister said.

He said there were other major concessions in President Botha’s speech that should not be overlooked. He listed these as acceptance of the country’s 12 million urban blacks as permanent city dwellers, the possibility of common South African citizenship for all and retention within South Africa of six tribal homelands not yet “independent.”

But critics maintained that President Botha’s proposals fell far short of public expectations, and while the two Bothas blamed press speculation, newspapers here blamed the government for the discrepancy.

‘Lost His Nerve’

“The leaks from (the) administration were first reported in this newspaper,” the Johannesburg newspaper Business Day said in a front-page editorial calling for the president’s resignation. “We did not pluck them out of thin air. Diplomats and foreign correspondents were similarly briefed.

“Clearly what Pik Botha had to say to U.S. officials in Vienna . . . on what reforms were to be announced in Durban were out of place. If PW (the president) had material reform in mind at that stage, he had (by Thursday night) for some reason lost his nerve. . . .”

As the speech went through three or four major revisions, according to National Party sources, its character changed considerably, partly in response to growing speculation about what the president would announce.