Botha Trades Barbs With U.S. Lawmakers

President Pieter W. Botha exchanged angry words with members of a U.S. congressional delegation today, telling them that American sanctions against South Africa are unwarranted. A congressman said Botha was rude and “even coarse.”

Botha also affirmed his government’s refusal to let the six congressmen see black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, who has been jailed for the last 23 years.

Botha said after the two-hour meeting that he was unhappy with the “miserable” U.S. policy of applying sanctions against “one of the fastest-developing countries in the world.” The congressional group is in South Africa to assess the impact of the limited sanctions imposed by President Reagan last year.

Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer (D-Pa.) told a reporter that Botha had been “rude and in some senses even coarse” during the talks at Wilderness, a resort village near Botha’s vacation home at the southern town of George.

Exchanged Barbs

Kostmayer said he and the president exchanged barbs during the meeting, with Botha calling him “a white liberal” and Kostmayer replying that Botha is “a white reactionary.”

Delegation leader Rep. William H. Gray III (D-Pa.) indicated before the meeting that he would ask Botha to overturn an earlier decision denying the group permission to visit Mandela.

However, Gray said afterward, Botha merely underscored the decision of prison officials who denied the request Tuesday.

Gray is the author of anti-apartheid legislation that was set aside when Reagan imposed his sanctions. The bill was shelved with the understanding it could be reconsidered once the success of the existing sanctions had been determined.

Little Hope of Reforms

The congressmen said they saw little hope of major reforms of racial laws in South Africa. “From what I have heard so far, I feel quite pessimistic and it seems unlikely that fundamental and basic changes which are necessary will take place,” Kostmayer said.

Gray said his delegation gave Botha the message that the U.S. public will not support apartheid.

The Americans, who met in Pretoria on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, traveled after the meeting to Cape Town to meet Constitutional Development Minister J. Christian Heunis and black and white businessmen.

On Thursday, they will tour a notorious squatter complex outside Cape Town and meet opposition leader Allan Boesak, a clergyman who heads the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.