Rightist Whites Protest in Pretoria; Women’s March Curbed

Right-wing whites staged protests here Saturday against South African government concessions to black activists, while only a few blocks away, hundreds of police thwarted a women’s anti-apartheid march by encircling a cathedral with barbed wire and turning away participants at roadblocks.

The rare sight of the government’s right- and left-wing opponents demonstrating on the streets of the capital--one group legally and the other illegally--reflected growing polarization in the country over the cautious reforms advocated by new President Frederik W. de Klerk.

Police vans, with sirens wailing, sped through the streets, and officers used dogs and batons to break up small groups of anti-apartheid activists. The planned march had been banned by a judge Friday night, but organizers vowed to defy the order, and copies of newspapers on the streets Saturday carried the banner headline: “We Will March.”

They did not march, though, and about 150 activists and journalists were arrested when police ordered several gatherings, including one of about 400 people outside the administrative seat of government, to disperse. At least three people were injured and all those arrested were later released.

“It’s very sad, although probably inevitable, that so many women should be stopped from being able to make use of their democratic right to protest,” said Hedwig Barry, a 20-year-old University of Pretoria student and one of the march’s marshals.

Meanwhile, back-to-back protests by right-wing whites, staged at the statue of Afrikaner hero Paul Kruger in Church Square, had been approved in advance by the government. Above the sea of white faces was a banner reading: “Hang Mandela, Free Barend,” referring to the jailed black nationalist Nelson R. Mandela and Barend Strydom, sentenced to death recently for murdering several blacks in a shooting spree in Pretoria.

A few whites in the khaki uniforms of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), or Afrikaner Resistance Movement, whose emblem resembles a Nazi swastika, were arrested after scuffles with several dozen taunting blacks. The blacks were chased away by police, and some were arrested.

Both the 1,000-strong AWB rally, and a smaller protest by the Boerevryheidsbeweging, or Boer Freedom Movement, were organized to criticize the government for its new, relaxed approach to anti-apartheid protest. Right-wing whites were incensed last week when the government allowed black protesters to climb atop the Kruger statue.

“Our monuments must be left clean, untouched, untainted,” said Alkmaar Swart, a professor and leader of the Boer Freedom Movement, formed six months ago by disaffected AWB members. “We must say to the (black) majority that these are ours--keep your hands off.”

AWB leader Eugene TerreBlanche told his supporters that De Klerk, who has promised to slowly dismantle apartheid, is “the pink president.” He also criticized a government decision to forbid the use of whips, suggesting that De Klerk would soon prohibit the use of police firearms.

“An unarmed white man is a powerless white man,” TerreBlanche declared.

The police action against the women’s march, in which organizers had expected 30,000 participants, was a sign of the increasing difficulty that police are having with De Klerk’s Sept. 13 declaration that his government would allow peaceful anti-government protest.

Anti-apartheid activists have staged several dozen protest marches across the country since then, involving tens of thousands of demonstrators, to test De Klerk’s promise. Each time, the organizers have refused to apply for permission, and the demonstrations, for the most part, have been peaceful. Police are empowered under the three-year-old state of emergency to declare any public gathering illegal and use force to break it up and arrest journalists covering it.

The women, organized under the banner Women Against Repression, had advised the government of their plans, but refused to formally apply for permission, saying they have a democratic right to protest. Police officials, in seeking the court order prohibiting the march, argued that they could not guarantee the marchers’ safety with right-wing demonstrations planned only two blocks away.

Fewer than 2,000 women protesters arrived in Pretoria on Saturday. Many had been stopped at roadblocks set up in black townships near Pretoria and Johannesburg, 25 miles away, and along highways leading to Pretoria.