S. Africa Theater Integration Due : Some to Stay All-White; Bar, Cafe Moves Awaited

The government announced plans Monday to begin integrating South Africa’s movie theaters in another break with apartheid, and other moves are under way to end racial segregation in bars and restaurants.

Piet Badenhorst, deputy minister of constitutional planning and development, said in Pretoria that some of the all-white cinemas in the central business districts of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal province, will be opened to all races.

Drive-in theaters throughout the country will also be integrated if their owners apply for permission, he said.

Dawid J. de Villiers, the minister of trade and industries, said in a separate statement that the government will ask Parliament early next year to amend the country’s liquor laws that require racial segregation of most bars, restaurants, hotels and other establishments with liquor licenses, leaving to their owners the question of whether to serve blacks.

And in Cape Town and Durban, municipal authorities announced that more--but not all--of their beaches will be integrated in time for the big holiday season two months away.

All the moves reflect the government’s desire to end as much day-to-day racial discrimination, known as “petty apartheid,” as possible in the hope of convincing blacks and world opinion that South Africa is dismantling its system of racial segregation.

But the measures are also part of the government’s step-by-step approach to reform and its desire to preserve some whites-only facilities, particularly in conservative rural areas of the country, lest its constituency conclude that it is moving too fast.

Thus whites will have a choice of attending integrated cinemas and swimming at integrated beaches or continuing to use those reserved for whites. In Cape Town, for example, six of about 35 movie theaters will now be open to all races.

Further steps may be announced next month when the President’s Council, a constitutional body that advises President Pieter W. Botha and is charting many of the current reforms, recommends changes in the laws that regulate where blacks may work and live and what public facilities they may use.

Segregation Reduced

Although racial segregation has been reduced considerably over the last decade, particularly in major metropolitan centers such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, it remains very much a fact of life for even middle-class blacks wanting to see a movie, have a drink, eat a meal or entertain a friend in nominally white areas.

These moves toward greater integration will particularly benefit the rapidly emerging middle class.

South Africa’s business Establishment on Monday again urged the government to speed up the pace of reform and to undertake negotiations with black leaders to prevent a further escalation of violence here.

In a joint statement, the country’s five major business groups, representing white and black commercial and industrial organizations, declared that only a clear and unequivocal pledge by the government to eliminate apartheid would satisfy South Africa’s domestic and foreign critics.

More Violence Feared

“The general perception is that the relatively peaceful option (of reform) is fast receding and that a substantial further escalation of violence is very likely,” Raymond Parsons, chief executive of the South African Assn. of Chambers of Commerce, said on behalf of the business groups. “It is clear that visible progress will have to be made soon to prevent these pressures (at home and abroad) from escalating beyond our control.”

Two persons were reported killed Monday in the country’s continuing unrest. The police said a man was shot and killed near Witbank, about 100 miles east of Johannesburg, when they fired shotguns to disperse a mob burning a shopping center there; 11 others were injured.

The body of a young black woman, apparently killed as a suspected police informer or other government collaborator, was found on a pyre of burning tires at Motherwell in eastern Cape province.

Widespread rioting, including firebomb attacks, stone-throwing, strikes and school boycotts, was reported from around Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg and the Vaal River region south of here.