PERSPECTIVES ON SOUTH AFRICA : Uniformed Threat in the Political Wings : Scandal in the security forces reminds that those once in power are still there.

South African President Frederik W. de Klerk is battling to restore his government’s tattered credibility following revelations that, while he was negotiating with newly legalized black organizations, his own security minions were undermining the process. The more South Africa changes, the more it stays the same.

The immediate scandal involves proven charges that the De Klerk government gave financial handouts to one player in coming negotiations, the Inkatha Freedom Party of Zulu chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, which is virtually at war with the mainstream African National Congress.

The less-proven but more chilling scandal concerns persistent allegations that the security forces have been fueling violence by unleashing death squads. The circumstantial evidence is enough to persuade a reasonable person that something is amiss. Yet the government denies it.

Some parallel with U.S. experience is unavoidable. A president’s zealous underlings set about sabotaging one player in domestic politics, and, when caught, he seeks to limit damage without taking the rap himself. De Klerk’s problem is that, like a Richard Nixon, if he were to cut to the bone he would surely ax himself. It remains to be seen whether De Klerk’s belated admissions and limited remedial actions restore trust. It will not be easy.

De Klerk has demoted the two cabinet members most immediately involved, Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok and Defense Minister Magnus Malan. But since they stay in the cabinet--though in derisory posts--they are merely moved down a peg.

This shows the lingering influence of the security Establishment. De Klerk has to tread warily if he wishes to pick off its leaders. Under his predecessor, P.W. Botha, the security machine was all-powerful. De Klerk inherited Botha’s ministerial team, and strangely kept it virtually intact till now.

There are people in uniform in the wings of politics, people who will be enraged at the humiliation of Malan and Vlok; people waiting for De Klerk to trip, and dreaming of a return to unrestrained power.

Apart from cabinet changes, De Klerk promises an overhaul and monitoring of security procedures, to deal with what he euphemistically calls not a scandal but a “stumbling block in the way of building trust.”

His cautious actions have drawn criticism from political opponents for not cutting deep enough. A public campaign to force him to hand power to an impartial interim government that would prepare for democratic elections is under way. The proven partiality of his government strengthens this call.

To put the kindest construction on it, he has been unable to tame the security forces. Put at its worst, he has not wanted to, and has cunningly sought to “manage” change so that whites will remain on top, in coalition with “moderate” black allies like Inkatha and fundamentalist churches.

Admissions that South Africa secretly funded sympathetic parties in elections in Namibia in 1989--very nearly pulling off victory for the opposition to the Swapo rebels--strengthen the suspicion of bad faith. De Klerk’s explanation that all governments help political parties abroad falls flat when it is recalled that South Africa, as administering power for the international community, was supposed to be impartial in Namibia. The question is: Will it be impartial in elections in South Africa?

The apartheid era is too recent in memory, white fears for the future too great and black divisions too obvious, for a casual stroll to democracy. De Klerk has to constantly assess what changes whites will accept. Political forces are centrifugal, with many blacks outraged by handouts to Inkatha and many whites seeing it as justifiable investment in a moderate future.

There are constant reminders of the bad old days, with ugly, half-forgotten insects crawling out of the woodpile. There are outbursts of violence, human indignity to blacks, sensational court cases, alleged death squads. Unlike in most of Eastern Europe, in South Africa those who were in power in the blighted previous era are still there.