Bishop Says Foes Engage in ‘Tutu Bashing’

Bishop Desmond Tutu today said government officials were engaging in “Tutu bashing” to gain popularity among white voters and make him a scapegoat for South Africa’s problems.

The black Anglican bishop, who returned Thursday from a three-nation overseas tour, stood by the frequent calls he made during the trip for punitive international sanctions against South Africa to protest apartheid.

He said he was not deterred by suggestions he should be prosecuted for treason.

Tutu responded to comments by Manpower Minister Pietie Du Plessis, who said the bishop’s advocacy of sanctions bordered on high treason. (Story, Page 11.)

Guarantee of Publicity

“He, like others before him, engages in the national pastime of many white South Africans--Tutu bashing--knowing it will give them instant popularity, certainly assured publicity,” Tutu told a news conference.

“It is sad to discover that we still think we can solve the serious problem of this country by looking for scapegoats either outside the country or internally, and I fill the bill,” he said.

Du Plessis claimed Tutu was unconcerned about the possibility that international punitive measures designed to force an end to the apartheid racial segregation policy would increase hardships for South African blacks.

Tutu responded by saying of the minister: “His new-found altruism and that of his colleagues is quite galling, when you realize that he is a member of a government whose policies have inflicted, quite deliberately, unnecessary and unacceptable suffering on our people.

Tired of Evil Policies

“I want to tell him that the vast majority of South Africans are sick and tired of the evil, immoral and unjust policies that he and his colleagues have carried out and continue to do so.”

Apartheid by law and custom establishes a racially segregated society in which the 24-million black majority in South Africa has no vote in national affairs.

Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is to be installed Sept. 7 as archbishop of Cape Town, the top Anglican post in southern Africa, and he sharply criticized local newspaper accounts of his decision to invite well-known foreign entertainers, politicians and civil rights leaders to the ceremony.