Botha Panel Suggests End to ‘Pass Law’ : Step Would Revoke Rule That Controls Movement of Blacks

The white government today took its second step in two days toward revoking aspects of apartheid by suggesting an end to “pass laws” that bar blacks from white areas and control their movement throughout the country.

Piet Koornhof, chairman of the presidential panel that made the suggestion, said Parliament probably will not debate the issue until it reconvenes after Jan. 1, 1986.

“Of course this is a major step to remove apartheid. But more important, it is building toward a new South Africa,” he told reporters in Cape Town.

The proposed change in apartheid, the government’s policy of racial discrimination, cannot take effect without approval from Parliament, where the ruling National Party controls 125 of the 178 seats.

Apartheid Death Slow

Koornhof, who five years ago said “apartheid is dead,” said today: “The death of apartheid is a protracted business.”

Helen Suzman, a member of Parliament in the white opposition Progressive Federal Party, said if pass laws were abolished, it would be “probably the most important step forward in 30 years.”

The suggestion to abolish the 40-year-old pass laws was made by the President’s Council Committee for Constitutional Affairs. Its wishes almost certainly will be backed by President Pieter W. Botha, who appoints council members.

On Wednesday, Botha announced a change in his party’s long-held policy denying South African citizenship to blacks in so-called tribal homelands. The policy had been aimed at isolating South Africa’s 24 million blacks in homelands and preserving 87% of the country for the 5 million whites.

Renewed Citizenship

The decision means 3 million blacks living outside those homelands could regain their South African citizenship. Another 5 million blacks living inside the homelands are likely to become citizens again soon.

The report from the President’s Council said South Africa should develop a plan for orderly urbanization to replace the pass laws, which affect the 11 million blacks living in “white” South Africa.

South Africa has dealt with urban overcrowding by regulating the number of urban blacks while allowing whites to settle at will.

No dates were recommended for the pass laws to end, and police today said they would still arrest any black who lacked documents necessary to be in a white area.

‘Important First Steps’

Suzman called the two moves “very important first steps,” but noted the government has not acted on such fundamental points of contention as giving blacks representation in Parliament.

“But nevertheless, the abolition of pass laws and influx control, to my mind, is something that should be welcomed by every South African hoping for a peaceful solution to our country’s problems,” she told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

In Soweto, the black township near Johannesburg, a white teacher and 10 black high school students were wounded today when police fired shotguns at a crowd of stone-throwing blacks, police said.