Reagan’s S. Africa Stand Called a Blend of Criticism and Praise

A senior State Department official, hoping to prevent President Reagan’s own recent comments about South Africa from diluting what he called the Administration’s carefully crafted line, said Thursday that the President had demanded important changes in Pretoria’s racial policies months ago.

Reagan did not endorse the status quo when he referred to the government of President Pieter W. Botha as a “reformist” regime, insisted the official, who is closely associated with the Administration’s Africa policy, but who declined to be identified by name.

Nor did the President endorse the status quo when he said that South Africa already has eliminated segregation in hotels and restaurants, the official said.

He said that Reagan’s remarks, made in a radio interview this week, were part of an overall U.S. strategy that tempers harsh criticism of South Africa’s racial policies with praise for improvements--even ones that the United States believes fall far short of what is needed.

“We don’t think it’s right for us to hesitate to state that which we see as positive any more than we should (refrain from pointing out) that which is negative,” the official told reporters at the State Department.

“The President has said that the Botha government has a commitment to reform, is a reformist government,” he said. “I share that view. In the context of the politics of that country, that’s what that government is (reformist). “

Changes Not Adequate

He continued: “That is not to say that we endorse the changes that have occurred as adequate--they are not. It is not to say that we sense that black South Africans sense them as adequate--they do not; they reject them. It doesn’t say they have gone far enough--they haven’t. But to pretend that there is not a process of change which has begun in South Africa is to totally misread the situation.”

When asked why Reagan seems to speak most often of what is good about Pretoria’s policy, leaving criticism to subordinates, the official said that “six months before any other Western government I’m familiar with woke up,” the President remarked last December “about the way South Africa ought to be going--statements that speak loud and clear about what he sees as wrong with that society.”

He concluded: “So to imply that somehow the President is sending signals of endorsement of the status quo or of limited changes as all that is needed is just inaccurate.”

The official defended the Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa, even though he conceded that Washington has very little to show for its effort to influence the white minority Pretoria regime by diplomatic persuasion instead of economic sanctions.