Will Survive Sanctions, S. Africa Says

President Pieter W. Botha said today that South Africa’s struggle is ideological, not racial, and promised that the country will not only survive international sanctions but grow stronger because of them.

He also proposed negotiations with the leaders of the United States, Britain, France and West Germany and of neighboring southern African countries on regional security and economic problems.

“The international campaign against South Africa, especially from the ranks of certain leftist Western leaders and countries, is one of the most extreme forms of political fraud of the 20th Century,” Botha said. “We are probably no better, but certainly no worse than the rest of the world.”

In a seaside conference hall, Botha addressed a crowd of 3,000, mostly delegates of his governing National Party, which was meeting for the first time in four years.

“We do not desire sanctions, but if we have to suffer sanctions for the sake of maintaining freedom, justice and order, we will survive them. Not only will we survive them, we will emerge stronger on the other side,” he said.

Most of Botha’s speech reiterated government policy and endorsed the party’s program of cautious political reform. He put forward one new proposal--that black urban communities close to the major cities could receive full autonomy as city-states.