Anti-Apartheid Group Won’t Meet U.S. Envoy

The largest multiracial anti-apartheid group said today that it turned down an invitation to meet with the State Department’s top Africa expert and claimed that U.S. policies undermine efforts to reform South Africa’s race laws.

The multiracial United Democratic Front said it spurned an invitation to see Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. The UDF declared that the Reagan Administration has sought to undermine “the struggle for liberation” and has provided “misleading and political support for the apartheid regime.”

“As Chester Crocker is the author of the policy of constructive engagement, there is very little reason why we should meet with him,” said Trevor Manuel, the organization’s secretary in western Cape province.

Diplomatic Pressure

Constructive engagement involves the use of diplomatic pressure to try persuading the South African government to dismantle apartheid and give blacks political rights. Under apartheid, the system of enforced racial segregation, about 5 million whites rule 24 million voteless blacks.

Reagan also announced a package of limited economic sanctions against South Africa last September.

U.S. Consulate-General spokesman Jordan Tanner said in Cape Town that he knew nothing about an attempt to set up a meeting for Crocker with the UDF, which some South African officials maintain is a front for the outlawed African National Congress. But other U.S. sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said diplomats had tried to arrange a meeting and failed.

UDF officials have been prime targets of the detentions and restrictions ordered under a 5-month-old state of emergency. Manuel is restricted to his Cape Town home at nights and weekends and may not be quoted in South Africa.

Met With Official

Crocker met today with Constitutional and Development Planning Minister Chris Heunis, the official in South Africa’s white-led government in charge of devising some form of black rights.

After meeting officials in Cape Town, Crocker said he had a “clearer sense of attitudes here.”

Speaking at Cape Town airport, Crocker ducked questions on whether he believed that the government will make concessions to the black majority, saying that in his job he has to be hopeful, “otherwise you wouldn’t get anywhere.”