ANC Won’t Ease on Sanctions : South Africa: The African National Congress formally rejects internal recommendations that it moderate its stand against the Pretoria government.

The African National Congress on Saturday formally rejected internal recommendations that it soften its stand on sanctions, and it asked world leaders to consult the black liberation movement before lifting sanctions on Pretoria.

The ANC’s surprisingly hard-line resolution, adopted in a unanimous voice vote by the 1,611-delegate ANC national conference, was a major setback for moderate ANC leaders who had wanted the organization to change its policy before the international sanctions campaign begins to crumble.

And, less than an hour after the ANC’s decision, the 12 leaders of the European Community, meeting in Rome, took the first significant step to dismantle international sanctions, scrapping a ban on new investments in South Africa as a show of support for President Frederik W. de Klerk’s reforms.

ANC President Oliver R. Tambo had opened the 3-day conference Friday with an appeal to the delegates to reconsider their sanctions policy in light of the warm reception De Klerk’s reforms were receiving overseas.

A proposal written by the ANC’s international affairs experts and circulated at the conference went further, recommending that the ANC begin to ease the cultural and educational boycott and draw up a sanctions modification program linked to future government reforms. If the ANC remains rigid on sanctions, the document warned, it will suffer a major public relations defeat when sanctions begin to disappear.

But the ANC conference, in its defiant resolution Saturday, said the organization needs to “counteract the growing perception that De Klerk and his government should be rewarded for recent reforms.”

It said sanctions should be maintained because “the basic institutions of apartheid are still firmly in place, the government continues to use violence . . . to suppress legitimate political and civic actions, and many obstacles to genuine negotiations . . . remain on the books.”

The resolution also appealed to the United States, the European Community and other international bodies to postpone decisions on sanctions until they have consulted with anti-apartheid groups inside the country.

Tambo introduced the resolution, which brought delegates to their feet in applause. ANC spokesman Pallo Jordan said later that the ANC had, as Tambo suggested Friday, re-examined its sanctions policy, “and this was our decision.”

Jordan said the ANC will maintain its position on sanctions “until the basic institutions of apartheid” have been abolished. The current ANC policy is to keep sanctions alive until a new constitution is written.

The ANC resolution was immediately undermined, though, by the European Community’s decision to allow new investment in South Africa and its promise to remove other trade sanctions when De Klerk begins to remove laws segregating neighborhoods by race and limiting black ownership of land. De Klerk has promised to introduce legislation abolishing those laws when Parliament convenes in February.

ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela had appealed to the EC, in personal letters to European leaders last week, to postpone any decision on sanctions for two or three months.

Jordan said the action “shows the EC is not convinced by our arguments. We will just have to argue again to convince them.”

But many foreign governments, pleased with De Klerk’s moves to dismantle apartheid and launch constitutional negotiations with the ANC, are preparing to ease sanctions to encourage the reform program and help shore up support for the government among white South Africans.

Most of those sanctions, which include a cultural and sports boycott as well as diplomatic and economic isolation, were imposed at the urging of the ANC. They were aimed at forcing the white minority-led government to get rid of apartheid and give the black majority a vote in national affairs.

The ANC still believes international pressure is needed to keep the reform process alive and force the government to move more quickly.

The EC’s decision was welcomed by the South African government and white business leaders, who said they expect the United States and other countries to follow suit early next year.

“Sanctions are crumbling,” said Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha. It is clear, he added, that the world is coming to accept that “the process of change in South Africa is irreversible.”

But the Azanian People’s Organization, a left-wing anti-apartheid group, criticized the EC decision. AZAPO President Itumeleng Mosala said it indicates that “white people support other white people.” He added that “this will be a lesson to black liberation movements that, in the struggle, they are on their own.”