South Africa

I am a South African visiting the U.S.. Your editorial of Sept. 27, “So Long, Sanctions, Hello, Democracy,” deserves strong comment.

You spoke of the “white minority” and the “huge black majority.” Americans have been given the impression that South Africa’s blacks are a single, unified entity, opposed to the whites. This is a complete fallacy. There are at least 10 major black nations in South Africa, all differing from one anther in language, customs and political loyalties. Thus, strictly speaking, there is no true “black majority.”

Your editorial spoke of South Africa’s troubled economy and its huge unemployment rate. These troubles are the direct result of the ANC’s policies. It has brought more suffering to the blacks of South Africa than any other political movement. It does not have their interests at heart, only its own.

South Africa is on the slippery slide to a communist dictatorship (no, communism is not dead), under which the blacks will be far worse off than ever before. Those Americans who supported sanctions against South Africa supported the delivering up of the people of South Africa, black and white, into Third World misery.

SHAUN WILLCOCK

Pietermaritzburg, So. Africa