PARTIAL TEXT OF REAGAN’S REMARKS

Here are excerpts of President Reagan’s comments Monday when he imposed sanctions against South Africa.

I want to speak this morning about South Africa--about what America can do to help promote peace and justice in that country so troubled and tormented by racial conflict.

The system of apartheid means deliberate systematic, institutionalized, racial discrimination, denying the black majority their God-given rights. America’s view of apartheid is simple and straightforward: We believe it’s wrong. We condemn it, and we are united in hoping for the day when apartheid will be no more.

Our influence over South African society is limited, but we do have some influence and the question is how to use it. Many people of good will in this country have different views. In my view we must work for peaceful evolution and reform. Our aim cannot be to punish South Africa with economic sanctions that would injure the very people we are trying to help.

I believe we must help all those who peacefully oppose apartheid and we must recognize that the opponents of apartheid, using terrorism and violence, will bring not freedom and salvation, but greater suffering and more opportunities for expanded Soviet influence within South Africa and within the entire region.

Process of Change

What we see in South Africa is a beginning of a process of change. The changes in policy so far are inadequate--but ironically they have been enough to raise expectations and stimulate demands for more far-reaching, immediate change.

It is the growing economic power of the black majority that has put them in a position to insist on political change.

South Africa is not a totalitarian society. There is a vigorous opposition press.

Every day we see examples of outspoken protest and access to the international media that would never be possible in many parts of Africa, or in the Soviet Union for that matter.

But it is our active engagement--our willingness to try--that gives us influence.

Yes, we in America--because of what we are and what we stand for--have influence to do good. We also have immense potential to make things worse.

Before taking fateful steps, we must ponder the key question: Are we helping to change the system? Or are we punishing the blacks whom we seek to help?

American policy through several administrations has been to use our influence and our leverage against apartheid, not against innocent people who are the victims of apartheid.

Being true to our heritage does not mean quitting, but reaching out; expanding our help for black education and community development, calling for political dialogue; urging South Africans of all races to seize the opportunity for peaceful accommodation before it’s too late.

Shared Goals

I respect and share the goals that have motivated many in Congress to send a message of U.S. concern about apartheid. But in doing so, we must not damage the economic well-being of millions of people in South and southern Africa.

If we genuinely wish--as I do-- to develop a bipartisan basis of consensus in support of U.S. policies, this is the basis on which to proceed.

Therefore, I am signing today an executive order that will put in place a set of measures designed and aimed against the machinery of apartheid, without indiscriminately punishing the people who are victims of that system--measures that will disassociate the United States from apartheid but associate us positively with peaceful change. . . .

I want to encourage ongoing actions by our government and by private Americans to improve the living standards of South Africa’s black majority. The Sullivan Code, devised by a distinguished black minister from Philadelphia, the Rev. Leon Sullivan, has set the highest standards of labor practices for progressive employers throughout South Africa. I urge all American companies to participate in it and I’m instructing the American ambassador to South Africa to make every effort to get companies which have not adopted them, the Sullivan principles, to do so. . . .

I believe the measures I’m announcing here today will best advance our goals. If the Congress sends me the present bill, as reported by the conference committee, I would have to veto it. That need not happen. I want to work with the Congress to advance bipartisan support for America’s policy toward South Africa. And that’s why I have put forward this executive order today. . . .

The problems of South Africa were not created overnight and will not be solved overnight. But there is no time to waste. To withdraw from this drama or to fan its flames will serve neither our interests nor those of the South African people. If all Americans join together behind a common program, we can have so much more influence for good.

So let us go forward with a clear vision and an open heart, working for justice and brotherhood and peace. . . .