S. Africa Ousters Called Self-Defeating

Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Friday called South Africa’s orders expelling correspondents of the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times “more of a kind of self-imposed isolation” that in the long run can only damage the white-minority regime.

Talking to reporters on the flight from Douala, Cameroon, to Nairobi, Shultz said the United States has already protested through diplomatic channels the expulsion orders against Michael Parks of The Times and Alan Cowell of the New York Times.

The South African government refused to renew Parks’ work permit but agreed to extend his departure deadline until Jan. 31 to allow Times editors to confer with government officials. Cowell, whose work permit also was not renewed, has left the country, and the government has refused to issue a visa to his designated replacement, effectively closing his paper’s South Africa bureau.

Sees Damage Compounded

“We think it is important that our news organizations have an opportunity to report what is going on,” Shultz said. “It’s more of a kind of self-imposed isolation.”

He said South Africa, already isolated diplomatically and economically, compounds the damage caused by economic sanctions when it “takes away from its country people who are reporting to the world what is going on.

“I suppose they don’t like things that are being reported that they consider unfavorable,” he said. “But not everything is unfavorable. . . . If they want to see some favorable things reported, (they should) do some favorable things, and they’ll get reported, and it will be believed if you have good strong news organizations there that are doing the reporting.”