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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 18, 1985
PAGE 11
the people he met, another aide commented: "This is not a re
search project, some staff study or a doctoral dissertation.
This is a high-profile senatorial visit, and the senator is Ted
Kennedy and the place is South Africa. We� not here to probe
or calm the fears of a few hundred thousand Boers (Dutch
descended Afrikaners)but to work for the liberation of almost 30
million blacks. Probably the�re two"°sides--or three or four
::::
to this matter, but we are weighting it, seven or eight blacks to
a white, to take into account the population."
This offhandedness, a matter of style more than of substance, was
taken as arrogance here and compounded the South African view-
black almost as much as white--that Kennedy thought he could
solve the country's problems. And the result here was virtual
political hysteria, implying that many thought Kennedy powerful
enough to impose some solution, or at least to try••••
The fact that the trip did not change Senator Kennedy's mind one whit was
made evident when he returned to Washington. He said on January 16 that
he'11 pursue congressional passage of some sort of economic sanctions
against South Africa. An ASSOCIATED PRESS dispatch reported that he will
seek bipartisan support for the plan, to be drafted in the next two weeks by
anti-apartheid activists including Walter Fauntroy, the District of Colum
bia's delegate to Congress and Randall Robinson, executive director of the
TransAfrica lobbying group.
(Robinson has been directing the demonstra
tions at the South African embassy in Washington.)
Republican leaders
might go along with the "crusade" too. They see it as an opportunity to re
build their party's support among the country's black community which over
whelmingly voted Democratic last November. Politics, politics.
In sum, Mr. Kennedy has chosen the path of confrontation� cooperation
and the results will be nasty--for the United States as well as South Afri
ca. A recent Congressional study, for example, says the U.S. should look
for ways to reduce its heavy dependence on South Africa and the Soviet Union
for important metals that American industry needs. The future health of
the American economy could be at stake.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau