South Africa Expels N.Y. Times Reporter

South African authorities have ordered the New York Times’ Johannesburg bureau chief to leave the country by Sunday, and they have refused a visa to his designated successor, the newspaper reported in today’s editions.

The paper quoted government and other sources as saying that the action, which effectively close the Times’ bureau in South Africa, was intended as a reprisal for what the authorities viewed as a hostile attitude by the newspaper toward the government.

The Times correspondent, Alan Cowell, 39, has been bureau chief in South Africa since October, 1983. He was to have been succeeded this month, in a routine personnel change, by Serge Schmemann, a former Moscow bureau chief for the newspaper.

The Times said it was offered no formal explanation.

“We are deeply disappointed by the decision of the South African authorities,” said Max Frankel, executive editor of the newspaper.

In late December, Cowell was told by the Ministry of Home Affairs that his longstanding application for a renewal of his work permit, which expired on June 19, had been refused, the paper said. The ministry told Cowell to leave South Africa by Sunday.