First Black U.S. Ambassador Arrives, Says He’s ‘Glad to Be in South Africa’

Edward J. Perkins arrived Tuesday to begin work as the first black U.S. ambassador to South Africa, a day after the Pretoria government rebuked the United States by rejecting the visa request of another American official.

Perkins made no comment to reporters at Jan Smuts Airport beyond saying he that is “glad to be in South Africa.”

On Monday, Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said that South Africa has rejected a visa request from the State Department for Christine Babcock of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Babcock was to complete a report on starvation in black homelands, required under the U.S. sanctions law adopted against South Africa last month.

Botha said it is “outrageous” that the United States could adopt a law that he said would impoverish black South Africans, “and then feign concern about their state of health and nutrition.”

Congressional adoption of the sanctions, over President Reagan’s veto, has soured the already strained relations between the two countries.

Perkins, 58, is a career diplomat from Louisiana who served previously as ambassador to Liberia. He has a doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Perkins said he will no longer use the term “constructive engagement” to describe U.S. policy toward South Africa. That term, implying quiet diplomacy rather than public criticism of South Africa to encourage change, was closely associated with Perkins’ predecessor, Herman W. Nickel, who served as envoy here for four years.

Many apartheid critics said constructive engagement merely took the pressure off South Africa, allowing it to delay race reforms. Supporters of the policy argue that public confrontation is counterproductive, and that South Africa adopted more changes than ever before during the years of constructive engagement.