‘Democratic, Pluralistic’ S. African Society Is Sought : U.S. to Keep Up Anti-Apartheid Pressure, Envoy Says

U.S. Ambassador Edward J. Perkins said Wednesday that the United States will continue pressing South Africa to end apartheid and to create in its place a society that is “democratic, pluralistic and economically viable.”

Perkins, in his first major policy speech in nine months as ambassador here, said the United States has limited ability to foster change in South Africa but will use what influence and power it has to “promote institutions that will ensure a better, more equitable future for all South Africans.”

The ambassador’s comments followed strong warnings in the past week by President Pieter W. Botha to Western governments not to interfere in South Africa’s internal affairs. Botha was particularly critical of Western support for opposition groups and of what he called the “off-limits” activities of some diplomats here.

Perkins, in an apparent response to Botha, defended the large U.S. assistance program that, in an effort to foster community development and self-help projects, has sometimes underwritten the activities of the government’s opponents.

“In my judgment, we must steadfastly stick to our values and unhesitatingly voice our concerns,” Perkins said. “We are encouraged to see that people are still attracted by what we stand for. We do have the ability to initiate positive programs that aid individuals and communities. We have had the chance to work directly with communities on self-help and other development projects. Those programs have been as valuable to us as to them.”

The U.S. assistance program, expanded last year by legislation that imposed economic sanctions on South Africa, now amounts to more than $25 million a year, the largest in South Africa, and has become increasingly controversial.

Under the aid program, the United States finances education projects and scholarships for blacks, famine relief in rural areas, community development groups and legal assistance and training for labor union organizers.

Perkins, speaking to 400 top business executives, government officials and community leaders, also defended the limited economic sanctions imposed on South Africa by Congress last October over President Reagan’s veto as an expression of “the genuine anguish of the American people about the plight of black South Africans.”

“In that one sense, the (1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid) Act was a great success,” he said.

But Perkins said the effectiveness of the measures in promoting change was “much harder to assess.”

Review in October

The legislation, which will be reviewed by Congress in October, prohibited new U.S. investment in South Africa, cut air links between the two countries, barred the import of a variety of South African products and imposed further restrictions on sales of American goods here.

An indirect result has been the withdrawal of dozens of American companies, including such giants as Citicorp, IBM, General Motors, Exxon, Coca-Cola and Eastman Kodak, from the South African market in the past year, and Perkins said that more will probably leave.

“In the long run, I doubt that the sale of assets or the withdrawal of Western businesses will add to a solution here,” he said.

Mindful of the backlash that international sanctions and increasing divestiture have created within the white community, particularly in the Botha government, Perkins warned that “we must be careful to spend our time removing obstacles (to change), not creating others.”

The American hope for a future South Africa, Perkins said, is for one with a “participatory government” that would reflect a population 90% black and, at the same time, provide sufficient reassurance to whites “so that bloodshed and chaos are avoided” in the transition.

An important step toward increased political dialogue and peaceful change, he said, would be greater flexibility on the part of all sides.

“Spokesmen (tend) to formulate issues in a way that locks them into place,” he said. “Conditions are laid down for cooperation and communication that are difficult for the other parties to meet. There is a great necessity for all parties to recognize each other as accredited players.”

Perkins, who is black, said one of the most striking features of South African society to him has been the success of apartheid in dividing whites from blacks to the point of “the almost complete breakdown in communications between blacks and whites,” where neither community really speaks to the other.

“The most poignant thing I have witnessed since my arrival here,” he said, “is the lack of knowledge and understanding among South Africans. . . . All over this lovely country, blacks have asked me what it is that whites are thinking, and whites have questioned me, almost wistfully at times, about life and thought in the townships.”