End of 2 Key Apartheid Laws Seen Near : South Africa: Government reported set to announce plans for repeal when Parliament convenes on Feb. 1.

A leading newspaper reported today that the government will announce plans to repeal major apartheid laws when Parliament opens Feb. 1.

Business Day said President Frederik W. de Klerk is expected to call for the scrapping of the Group Areas Act, which segregates neighborhoods by race, and the Land Acts, which reserve 87% of the country’s land for the white minority.

The newspaper, which opposes apartheid and has good contacts with top officials, said that the government may propose alternative measures but that they would be non-discriminatory.

There was no immediate government comment on the report.

De Klerk has promised changes in 1991 to the Group Areas Act on neighborhood discrimination and other discriminatory laws. But he has not specified a date or said whether the laws would be amended, replaced with new legislation or scrapped.

Anti-apartheid groups have demanded the full repeal of the Group Areas Act, the Land Acts and the Population Registration Act, which classifies citizens by race.

The president has said the Population Registration Act will be done away with only when a new constitution is negotiated with black opposition groups. He hopes to begin such talks early next year with the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid parties.

Any proposed changes would require the approval of Parliament. But De Klerk’s governing National Party controls the dominant white chamber of Parliament. Parliamentary chambers for Asians and people of mixed race would almost certainly approve such changes.

There is no chamber for blacks, who account for about 30 million of the country’s 40 million people.

When opening Parliament last February, De Klerk legalized more than 60 opposition groups, agreed to free political prisoners, including ANC leader Nelson Mandela, and pledged to dismantle the apartheid system of racial segregation.

The main institutions still legally segregated are neighborhoods, public schools and the political system. Dozens of white public schools received permission to integrate in January after parents voted overwhelmingly to accept students of all races.

De Klerk on Tuesday offered amnesty to anyone who had left the country illegally.