How Bush Can Best Help South Africa

Nelson Mandela took his unyielding message to the White House and, as expected, urged President Bush to keep up the pressure against apartheid by continuing economic sanctions against South Africa. The truth is that Bush has little discretion here.

The President can lift sanctions only if the white minority government meets several conditions, and makes significant progress toward dismantling apartheid. Congress must approve any relaxation--hardly likely in the wake of the charismatic Mandela’s triumphant tour.

The debate needs to move beyond sanctions to whether the President can accelerate the attainment of a new, nonracial South Africa in ways besides the lifting of sanctions. Is it time to reward South African President Frederik W. de Klerk for the steps he has taken? He has freed Mandela, wrongly imprisoned for 27 years; unbanned the African National Congress; lifted the state of emergency in three of four provinces; encouraged the repeal of segregation in public places and called for negotiations with the ANC. No little achievement.

Bush wishes to support De Klerk in his effort to win over, or at least neutralize, white, conservative hard-liners. Mandela warns that any such demonstration of favor might be seen by the right wing as a signal that De Klerk is a mere puppet of a foreign government. He argues, as well, that he never should have been imprisoned and the ANC never should have been banned. Why reward De Klerk, he asks, for righting injustices?

Nevertheless, the best course for Bush toward both sides is a combination of limited praise and deft diplomacy. He is correct to insist that both sides renounce all violence. As for De Klerk, the invitation to the White House was appropriate; as for Mandela, Bush would be wise not to harp on the ANC’s refusal to reject the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Yasser Arafat, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Libya’s Moammar Kadafi. Such arrangements must be understood as deals with the devil within the context of survival: These controversial leaders supported the ANC over the years, while other leaders--including President Reagan--relaxed pressures on the white government.

Still, despite Mandela’s repeated assurances that the ANC supports the right of Israel to exist within secure borders, these old friendships may prove troubling. Israel is within its rights to raise that question, but the criticism should not deflect attention from the most material fact: the continuing status of black South Africans, who are penalized on the basis of race from cradle to grave.

President Bush must use sticks and, as the pillars of apartheid tumble, carrots to encourage a stable, prosperous and equitable South Africa. The other issues are secondary.