Ruler of S. African Sector Visits Here, Talks With Crouch

The military ruler of a South African “homeland” that is not recognized by the U.S. government visited Orange County this week, trying to gain support for his regime and negotiating to allow construction of a Christian television station in his capital.

Maj. Gen. Bantu Holomisa, who seized power in the Transkei in a bloodless coup more than a year ago, and seven members of his government appeared Wednesday with Paul F. Crouch, head of the Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, on Crouch’s program, “Behind the Scenes.”

The general was in Virginia on Friday, where he was scheduled to appear on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club.”

The State Department in Washington appeared unaware of the 4-day visit and the television appearances. An official said that the visit was not official and that the men were issued business and tourist visas by U.S. officials in Durban as South African citizens traveling on South African passports.

Freed by Colleagues

Holomisa, 33, took over the government a year after being freed from prison by army colleagues in 1987.

During Wednesday’s half-hour, afternoon broadcast, Crouch repeatedly referred to Transkei as an independent nation. Crouch told viewers that one of the reasons Holomisa was on the program was to “clear up some of the misperceptions and misunderstandings that have been created, in my opinion, largely by the secular media here in the U.S.” that Transkei and other homelands were “a sham, simply instruments of the South African government to foster apartheid.”

In fact, it is the State Department that views the homelands this way, as artificial creations of the Pretoria regime and part of a strategy of “grand apartheid.” Under this scheme, large numbers of South African blacks lost their citizenship and were forcibly moved to barren areas from which their ancestors came.

Transkei, located on 18,000 square miles along the Indian Ocean between Durban and East London, has a population of 3.5 million. It was established in 1976, although it has not been recognized by other nations. More than half of its revenues come from the South African government.

Although Crouch characterized the visit as a trade mission, the trip was arranged by Los Angeles businessman Emmett Cash III, who said he hopes to promote an investment package in Transkei, including tourism and light industry.

‘Free Enterprise’

“We believe in free enterprise,” the general told viewers, and invited all interested investors to look into Transkei.

Crouch said that is what he would do “if I were an American businessman,” repeating his opposition to disinvestment by U.S. companies now doing business in South Africa and to economic sanctions, which prohibit most new business and investment.