South Africa

By Bruce W. Nelan/Johannesburg

Midnight had arrived and most of the dinner guests were gone, but on the & terrace of a beige stucco mansion in Johannesburg, a dozen black men and women lingered over coffee and liqueurs, their chairs tightly ringing the table. They spoke with obvious emotion and leaned forward to hear the responses. The focus of their attention, listening more than he talked, was Edward Perkins, the first black U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. For three hours he traded thoughts with civic leaders from Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg.

President Reagan appointed Perkins last September, and at the time blacks in both the U.S. and South Africa criticized the action as a symbolic step that was no more than an Administration attempt to sidetrack demands for tougher measures against Pretoria. Five months later Perkins, 58, is still trying to ignore the fanfare of his appointment and to burrow into the fabric of South African society -- especially black society. In the process, the U.S. embassy is cultivating black contacts as never before.

When he arrived in South Africa, Perkins, a career Foreign Service officer who had previously been Ambassador to Liberia, set out immediately to meet the country's black community. He still attends largely white diplomatic dinner parties, but more often he heads to grimy offices in Soweto or a spartan church in Mamelodi, the dusty black township outside Pretoria, or a listing shanty in Crossroads, a squatter camp near Cape Town. Perkins attended Christmas services at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Soweto and has taken long walks through the mean slums of Alexandra Township, next door to Johannesburg. In most activities he has ducked the press and tried to avoid publicity.

Perkins, football-player big and distinguished looking, has an immobile face that strikes many as stern. He says little but asks pointed questions. His interlocutors say that what impresses them most is his intensity. In his new post, Perkins has had unreported talks with dozens of black leaders, including Albertina Sisulu, co-president of the United Democratic Front, the largest antigovernment group, and Nthato Motlana, chairman of the Soweto Civic Association.

At first the meetings were tense. Even moderate black newspapers like the Sowetan had denounced Perkins for accepting a "racist" appointment based on the color of his skin. A U.D.F. spokesman had said that Perkins should have turned down the job, adding that he would be "most unwelcome" in South Africa. But after two discreet talks with Perkins, the U.D.F.'s Sisulu said, "Now that he is here and willing to help, it is all right. I believe in give-and-take."

In the land of apartheid, Perkins and his wife Lucy, who is Chinese-born, have had few problems with whites. The country has become accustomed to visiting blacks. American blacks have already served as diplomats and foreign correspondents in South Africa for many years, and the current U.S. consul general in Cape Town, John Burroughs, is black.

While many experts on South Africa have given up hope for a peaceful solution to the country's problems, Perkins has not. He tells his staff that his chosen role is to encourage all sectors of society to talk to one another. A resolution of South Africa's troubles will take a long time, he says. Americans are too impatient for quick fixes and should learn to plan and work for the long haul.