Senate Overrides Reagan’s Veto of Sanctins 78 to 21 : Big Setback for S. Africa, President

The Senate, rejecting President Reagan’s veto and ignoring threats of retaliation from Pretoria, voted stiff economic sanctions against South Africa into law today and catapulted the nation into the forefront of a global drive to end apartheid.

The vote in the Republican-controlled Senate was 78 to 21, 11 more than needed to override the veto, and represented a major and rare foreign policy defeat for the President.

In enacting the sanctions, senators ignored a last-ditch offer by Reagan to impose what he called strong new measures of his own against South Africa if his veto was sustained and the bill was killed.

And a controversial call by South African Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha to lobby four senators on Wednesday apparently backfired.

On Monday, the House voted against the President 313 to 83 and with today’s Senate action, the sanctions become U.S. law. Congress had to vote by two-thirds majorities to kill Reagan’s veto.

The U.S. sanctions, among the toughest worldwide, ban all new investment in South Africa and add uranium, coal, textiles and agricultural products to the existing list of embargoed trade commodities.

In 90 days, the new law would also cancel landing rights for South African Airways.

Botha’s role in telling four senators that his country would stop buying U.S. grain if the Senate nullified the Reagan veto was a principal topic as the final debate opened on the sanctions issue.

And some conservatives sharply criticized the role of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in fighting for the sanctions bill and for opposing Reagan on the override issue.

“He is substituting his judgment for that of the President of the United States in the matter of foreign policy,” said Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.). “The chairman appears to be set in his own mind that he knows what he is doing better than the President. That is a heavy burden to take on.”

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) denounced Botha, saying: “This foreign minister phones here and starts talking about a bushel of wheat; it’s outrageous nonsense.”

He added: “This is not an intrusion into South African affairs. This is an affirmation of the American dream: ‘We declare these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ ”

“Another judgment hour has come,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). “The Senate must decide whether we will back those who struggle for freedom and for simple human dignity, or whether we will back fascists who rule by the whip and the club.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he was breaking with Reagan for the first time since he entered the Senate. He said he had voted for Reagan foreign policy initiatives time after time but “on this one I think he is ill advised and I think he is wrong.”

Said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.): “If they were shooting elephants the way they shoot blacks, the world would be in a rage.”

“It’s a question of moral decency, a question of right over wrong,” Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said. “Constructive engagement has meant business as usual.”

The bill Reagan vetoed bans all new investment and all new bank loans, ends landing rights in the United States for South African aircraft and bans the import of South African iron, steel, coal, textiles, uranium, arms, food and agricultural products.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee said he was beginning an inquiry into Botha’s call to four senators--Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Edward Zorinsky (D-Neb.) and Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) in a room off the chamber’s floor Wednesday.

Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.) said through a spokesman that he wanted to determine whether the call violated the Logan Act, which forbids direct negotiations between members of Congress and foreign officials.

Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, acknowledging that “there may be some feeling that he shouldn’t have done that,” conceded today that Botha’s call may have created a backlash.