DURING his recent visit to Britain, South African President FW De Klerk convinced John Majorthathe had gone far enough in abolishing apartheid to justify the end of sanctions.
Major, of course, did not need much convincing. Like Thatcher before him, he was never very enthusiastic about sanctions. For the black majority in South Africa, however, the picture does not look quite so rosy.
At the opening of parliament in February, De Klerk announced the repeal of what he called the four cornerstones of apartheid": the two Land Acts, which restricted black ownership to 17% of the land; the Group Areas Act, which prescribed where people of a 'designated race group' would be able to live and work; and the Population Registration Act (PRA), which classified people as white, coloured, or black.
The PRA is being replaced by the Residential Environment Bill. which was described by the South African Council of Churches as 'A new form of apartheid in a non-racial guise'. There is no mention of the now disavowed term 'race' in the text of the Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to provide for the conservation and protection of the urban environment and for the maintenance of 'appropriate norms and standards in any residential area and May 18, 1991 No. 2 disturbing neighbourhood relations!' This will be enforced by government-appointed 'mediation boards' and is therefore obviously designed to continue the privileges which whites have enjoyed under the Group Areas Act (GAA).
Instead of the GAA we will now have something called the Less Formal Townships Establishment Bill. Again, officials will have 'unchallenged discretion' as to where townships will be established.
The repeal of the Land Acts supposedly gives blacks freedom to farm where they want- providing that they can find capital to buy out the white farmers. Its proposed replacement, the 'Rural Development Bill' aives officials 'vast powers' to decide where blacks can farm, and imposes severe conchane In the face of this. the ANC leadership is continuing to act indecisively. Having postponed its ultimatum to the government from April 30 to May 9, it has now backed down again.
Meanwhile, the slaughter in the townships continues. The government seem to be in no hurry to attempt to put a stop to it and the ÁNC leadership seem unable to do much about it. De Klerk is quite happy to play off Buthelezi's Inkatha thugs against the ANG.
The road to the end of apartheid is a long, rocky and bloody one. PERU is under a state of emer-