S. Africa Opens War of Words on Rebel Group

The government, apparently concerned by the increasing support that the African National Congress is winning among liberal whites here, opened a propaganda campaign Monday against the insurgent group.

The government said the outlawed group is controlled by Communists and is intent on using violence to seize power.

Louis Nel, the deputy minister of information, told a press conference that, despite mounting pressure for negotiations with the African National Congress, the government will not talk with the group about political reform until it renounces violence.

‘Revolution Will Not Succeed’

Such talks will become possible only when the group realizes that “revolution will not succeed in South Africa,” ends its guerrilla attacks, which are now on the increase, and agrees to the give-and-take of constitutional negotiations, Nel said.

Noting that at least 13 private groups of South Africans have met with top African National Congress officials in the last nine months, Nel said that such discussions are undermining white support for the government’s program of step-by-step reform. That program includes power-sharing with the black majority and negotiation of a new constitution.

“The government is concerned that the understandable desire of some South Africans for negotiations and for peace is being exploited by the ANC to divide and confuse democratic and moderate elements within South Africa,” Nel said.

‘Committed to Overthrow’

To counter the growing influence of the African National Congress here and abroad, the government published a 42-page pamphlet that describes it as Communist-led and “committed to the violent overthrow of the present system of government for the purpose of seizing total power for itself.”

The pamphlet quotes liberally but selectively from banned publications of the group to support its point.

It also includes an old photograph of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the congress, whose picture normally may not be published under South African law.

The pamphlet maintains that 21 of the 28 members of the organization’s national executive committee belong to or support the South African Communist Party. However, the guerrilla group says that fewer than half the committee members are Communists.

‘Let ANC Speak for Self’

“It is the right time to inform South Africans on this issue,” Nel said, explaining the government decision to “let the ANC speak for itself” after years of trying to suppress its views.

More than 70,000 copies of the pamphlet will be distributed to “opinion makers” by Nel’s Information Bureau. The pamphlet also will be sent abroad to counter mounting pressure for talks between the government and the guerrillas.

At African National Congress headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, spokesman Tom Sebina described the government campaign as “an attempt to intimidate those who have come here to talk with us and those who are planning to do so and thus to cut off the dialogue we have recently opened with fellow South Africans committed to change.”

‘Will Not Be Frightened’

Sebina said the effort will fail “simply because so many people have already come, and they know where we stand and will not be frightened.”

Nel’s remarks Monday also made clear Pretoria’s central objection to a proposal by a special Commonwealth commission for “a suspension of violence”--in effect, a cease-fire or truce--as the basis for talks between the government and the guerrillas. The government wants a commitment from the African National Congress to end the black unrest in the country.

South Africa replied formally to the commission late last week but tried, in the words of Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, to “give further scope for discussion” of the Commonwealth proposal. The proposal had been widely seen as finished after the South African raids two weeks ago on neighboring Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

New Curbs Debated

Also on Monday, the government came under strong attack in Parliament as Law and Order Minister Louis le Grange argued for speedy approval of new security legislation that would allow him to declare “unrest areas” and then impose what amounts to martial law for up to three months.

Another bill would let senior police officers detain a person without charge for up to six months if the person is believed to be or likely to become involved in the civil strife here.

Tiaan van der Merwe, a member of Parliament from the liberal white opposition Progressive Federal Party, said the legislation “symbolizes disaster for the country in the decision of the government to address the most fundamental conflict with oppression and violence rather than negotiation. . . . The bill has the potential to aggravate the situation to the point of no return.”