South Africa into the Racial Maelstrom

By John Greenwald

"One of the greatest and most meaningful moments in my life." So said a deeply moved Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., after an emotional 70-minute meeting last week with Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned South African black activist. Winnie Mandela also admitted to being moved by the American's visit to her red brick home in Soweto, the sprawling black township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Calling King "a symbol of what my people continue sacrificing for," she added, "We draw a great deal of inspiration from her strength and courage." For King, who was in South Africa for the installation of Desmond Tutu as Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the highly charged meeting was one of the less controversial moments of a week that drew her into the vortex of the country's complex racial politics. King had originally planned to see both State President P.W. Botha and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the moderate leader of South Africa's six million Zulus. But Winnie Mandela and the Rev. Allan Boesak, a founder of the United Democratic Front, an antiapartheid umbrella group, warned that they would not see her if she saw Botha and Buthelezi. King should not meet with the President, insisted Boesak, because his hands were "literally dripping with the blood of our children."

It was not until ten minutes after the scheduled start of her meeting with Botha that one of King's aides brought the message that she would not keep the appointment. The President said her absence was caused by "those who find themselves in a make-believe world of political fraud." For his part, Buthelezi charged that King had fallen prey to the "internecine political feuding which so lamentably characterizes black South African politics."

King, who spent eight days in South Africa and met with businessmen and antiapartheid political leaders, seemed totally bewildered by the antagonisms she found. Conceding at a news conference that the political situation was "more complex than I initially thought," she said she needed "more substantive and more complete information" before meeting Botha at some future date.

While King was visiting South Africa, political maneuvering continued last week over the hotly debated question of sanctions. In Washington, The House and Senate agreed on a set of economic measures against the country and sent the bill to the White House. President Reagan has already vowed to veto the legislation, which bans new U.S. investments and bank loans to South Africa, halts imports of South African goods ranging from sugar to steel, and ends airline service between the two countries.

To sustain a veto, Reagan will need to pick up more than 20 votes in the Senate, where the sanctions bill passed by an overwhelming 84 to 14. The President hopes to win over some Senators by nominating Edward Perkins, a black career diplomat who is now U.S. envoy to Liberia, to be Ambassador to South Africa. Reagan is also counting on the European Community to implement milder measures. This week the twelve E.C. foreign ministers are scheduled to adopt a package of restrictions that would ban imports of South African coal, steel, iron ore and gold coins.

With reporting by Bruce W. Nelan/Johannesburg