2 GOP Leaders Ask Reagan to Push S. African Reform

Two key Senate Republicans, signaling mounting congressional dismay over the Administration’s policies on South Africa, said Tuesday that they have urged President Reagan to send a special envoy to Pretoria to press for sweeping racial reforms.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), who heads the panel’s Africa subcommittee, released the text of a letter they sent to Reagan on Monday in which they urged the President “to intervene personally” with white leaders to defuse tensions in the racially torn country before a bloodbath takes place.

“One of the few remaining hopes for preventing catastrophic loss of life in South Africa may now rest with your Administration,” the senators declared in their letter.

Violence, Repression

Citing growing violence and repression by the government of President Pieter W. Botha, the lawmakers warned that Congress may overreact with a “precipitous and counterproductive response” unless Reagan jettisons his low-key “constructive engagement” program and aggressively presses for reforms.

The pair suggested that Reagan press white leaders to lift restrictions on the activities of all political parties, including the outlawed African National Congress, release jailed black political leader Nelson Mandela and open negotiations with black leaders other than moderates hand-picked by the government.

Although Lugar and Kassebaum said they have not received a response from the White House, Administration spokesman Michael Guest appeared to reject their plea.

“That idea is not under consideration,” Guest said when asked about the possibility of sending a special envoy to Pretoria.

Right-Wing Pressure

Last Friday, even before receiving the senators’ letter, a White House aide told The Times that the Administration has decided that sending a special envoy would increase pressure on the Botha government from right-wing groups of whites and do nothing to moderate racial policies.

The developments follow last week’s dramatic and unexpected vote by the Democratic-controlled House for legislation that would impose a virtual trade embargo on South Africa and require American firms to divest themselves of all assets in that country.

Lugar has acknowledged that the action has increased pressure on the Republican-run Senate to approve legislation toughening U.S. economic sanctions against South Africa, although it is doubtful that a Senate bill would be as sweeping as the House version.

Clamor in Senate

The Indiana Republican has scheduled hearings on sanctions legislation and U.S. policy on South Africa beginning July 22. Mark Helmke, a spokesman for Lugar, said the Administration could defuse a growing bipartisan clamor in the Senate for tough sanctions if it could demonstrate that it had taken a more aggressive approach toward the Botha government.

“Without the President being able to show positive efforts to end apartheid, the mood in Congress is for total action,” Helmke said.

In their letter, the senators suggested that an envoy consult with U.S. allies in Europe. They also said the envoy should insist on these key points as a framework for any negotiations:

--Permission by the Pretoria government for “the peaceful assembly, organization and activities of all political parties,” including the African National Congress.

--Release of Mandela and other political prisoners.

--Return of political refugees as long as they were committed to peaceful rather than violent change.

--Commencement of negotiations between the government with “representative black leaders, selected by black South Africans.”