World Notes South Africa

"We must make a new beginning . . . We must get to know each other . . . With trust and goodwill we can walk forward in faith." The Easter Sunday address by Executive President P.W. Botha was less notable for its message than for its enormous audience: a throng generously estimated by police at up to 3 million black people camped on the flanks of the hills and the low ground of the Moria Valley. All were followers of the Zion Christian Church, which claims more than 4 million members. Botha's reception gave some credence to the President's claim that his white minority government has the support of a number of South Africa's 23 million blacks. The church is a rigidly conservative sect that forbids its members to smoke, drink or disobey the law. As its Bishop, Barnabas Lekganyane, 31, put it last week, "It is not for the individual to judge the law, it is for the individual to obey the law."

The Bishop and his enormous flock were ready to agree when Botha, in a veiled reference to South Africa's political unrest, declared that "the forces of darkness must be kept out of the country." Later in the week some 35,000 blacks in the Eastern Cape region attended a mass funeral for 29 victims of the recent racial violence.