S. Africa Whites Found Colder to Apartheid

A London newspaper poll published Sunday found that more whites in South Africa are unhappy with apartheid than a year ago, and a majority now favor the release of imprisoned black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela.

The Sunday Times said the survey also found that 41% of the rural blacks polled had not heard of the seven-week-old, nationwide state of emergency in South Africa.

The newspaper said the nationwide survey was conducted for it last month by the Market and Opinion Research International and the South African company Markinor.

The survey, conducted from July 18 to 27 among what the newspaper said was a representative sample of 500 whites and 615 blacks, was the first to include the opinions of blacks in rural areas, the Sunday Times said.

The poll did not give its margin of error.

The poll found that 45% of the whites surveyed were “unhappy” with apartheid. That was up from 33% in a poll the paper commissioned a year ago.

“Some of those who say they are unhappy may feel that the system should be even harsher in dealing with blacks,” the newspaper said.

It said 88% of blacks were “fairly or very unhappy” with apartheid. It gave no other figures on this question.

The poll also found that 56% of the whites surveyed favor freeing Mandela “either unconditionally or if he renounces violence.”

In the August, 1985 poll, the newspaper said only 39% of whites favored the release of Mandela, leader of the outlawed African National Congress.

Mandela was jailed in 1962 on charges of incitement and illegally leaving the country. His five-year sentence was extended to life in 1964 when he was convicted of sabotage and conspiracy.

The poll found that 32% of South African blacks were opposed to economic sanctions against their country, 29% favored them and 39% either had no opinion or had never heard of sanctions.

In urban areas, support for sanctions remained strong, with 47% of blacks favoring them and 29% opposed. But in the countryside, 34% of blacks were against sanctions and only 22% favored them. More than one-third of rural blacks had never heard of sanctions.

Among whites, 92% opposed the imposition of sanctions, the poll said.

On the nationwide state of emergency, 81% of whites endorsed it as “a good thing” and 15% said they disliked it. Fifty-nine percent of the blacks polled opposed it, including 90% of urban blacks.