Tutu Back From Trip; Call for Sanctions Called Near-Treasonous

Bishop Desmond Tutu returned Thursday from a trip abroad during which he called for economic sanctions against South Africa, statements that a government minister said bordered on high treason.

Just after Tutu’s plane landed, the same minister told an industrial group that the government has been stockpiling strategic goods for 10 years in case of sanctions.

“The government is not unaware of what our enemies are planning,” Manpower Minister Pietie du Plessis said. “We shall not be found wanting.”

Last week, Du Plessis issued what he called a “friendly warning” to Tutu, the black cleric who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his work against apartheid. He said Tutu’s calls for sanctions “are not just economic sabotage but border on high treason.”

The leader of South Africa’s largest far-right political party said Thursday that Tutu “should be dealt with immediately.” A pro-government newspaper called the bishop “a religious pop star.”

After leaving the plane that brought him home from the trip to Japan, China and Jamaica, Tutu responded by saying to reporters: “They are always on that particular ploy of theirs. But what have I said abroad which I haven’t said here?”

He confirmed that he has asked the government to expedite visa applications for guests invited to his Sept. 7 installation as archbishop of Cape Town, which will make him the Anglican primate of southern Africa.

“If they don’t let them come, they know the adverse publicity they’re going to get,” Tutu said.

The bishop’s reaction to criticism of his invitations to American anti-apartheid politicians, entertainers and pop stars was “That’s stupid.

“These are my friends,” he said, adding that no one could tell him whom to invite. Those invited include singer Stevie Wonder, actor Bill Cosby, tennis star Arthur Ashe and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Du Plessis said the government has stockpiled “strategic goods of literally thousands of items in order to safeguard our economy against sanctions.” He did not give examples of stockpiled items.

The minister spoke at a celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Phosphate Development Corp. in Phalaborwa, a mining town in northern Transvaal.

Calling for international sanctions against South Africa is illegal under the state of emergency. Tutu has not done so inside the country since the emergency declaration June 12, merely referring to his previous statements on the matter.

In speeches abroad, however, he repeatedly recommended international economic pressure on the white government as the best way to force a change in its racial policies.