S. Africa Denies Entry to AID Official

A U.S. aid official, assigned to compile a report for Congress on health conditions and hunger in South Africa’s black tribal homelands, has been denied an entry visa, the government’s Bureau for Information said Monday in a new and bitter denunciation of American policy.

Describing the planned report and other aspects of the anti-apartheid sanctions legislation passed by Congress last month as “blatant interference in the Republic of South Africa’s domestic affairs,” the bureau said that an entry visa requested by the State Department for Christine Babcock, an official of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been rejected.

Pretoria’s action, particularly the tough wording of its statement, appeared to confirm the fears of some senior U.S. officials that South Africa may soon move to restrict or even to end the rapidly expanding American efforts to assist blacks, first with scholarships and other educational programs but increasingly with funds that finance the activities of a wide range of anti-apartheid groups.