Hue and Cry

Colored voters get a small voice

Apartheid, South Africa's system of racial separation, is designed to keep blacks and whites far apart in education, employment, public accommodations and even sex, which is outlawed across racial lines. Before the sex barriers were drawn, however, South Africa had developed a mixed-race group or, as South Africans call them, "coloreds." They now number 2.8 million of the country's 31 million people. For the first time, South Africa's dominant minority of 4.7 million whites has taken a step toward giving coloreds a real voice, though small, in the political process.

In nationwide elections last week, colored citizens chose from among 207 candidates to fill the 80 elective seats in a new, all-colored chamber of the South African legislature. The government called the election "satisfactory," but the modest turnout--only 30% of registered voters--led opponents to declare it a failure and many coloreds to wonder whether their votes would speed the eventual dismantling of apartheid or ensure its survival.

Under a constitution approved overwhelmingly by white voters last November, the new legislature consists of three chambers: one for whites, one for coloreds and one for South Africa's 850,000 citizens of Indian origin. Whites will retain almost total control of legislation, but coloreds and Indians will be allowed to pass bills that would affect them as racial groups. Proponents of the new system point to it as evidence that the government of Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha is serious about its promises of political reform. But because the country's 23 million blacks are completely excluded from the new Parliament, some critics regard it as a divide-and-conquer strategy to set blacks against coloreds and Indians. The United Nations Security Council, with the U.S. and Britain abstaining, last week condemned the new South African constitution as "null and void."

Within South Africa, antiapartheid groups--principally the United Democratic Front (U.D.F.), a multiracial coalition of some 600 South African union, church, cultural, sports and community organizations--called for a boycott of the polls. On election day, 624,000 colored students at more than 70 schools and universities stayed home in protest. Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of South Africa's 5.5 million Zulus, the country's largest black ethnic bloc, hinted ominously of possible black reprisals against those who voted. Said he: "We feel betrayed because so many of our colored and Indian brothers and sisters are rushing forward with their tongues hanging out to endorse the white rejection of us." Indeed, in the one-month election campaign that preceded the vote, colored political meetings were disrupted, and the homes of several colored candidates were firebombed. South African security forces responded by detaining 152 people the day before the balloting.

When the results were tallied, some 270,000 coloreds had voted, or roughly the same as the most conservative pro-election prediction. The U.D.F., however, noted that many coloreds were so contemptuous of the election that they declined even to register. Despite that skepticism, colored candidates insisted that the vote would ultimately benefit the black majority. "We are going into Parliament to dismantle apartheid," declared the Rev. Allan Hendrickse, whose Labor Party won 76 of the 80 seats. "I want to become part of the process of change." Whether it leads to change or not, the process is certain to continue: elections for the 40-seat Indian chamber are scheduled for this week. The two new bodies will officially take their place alongside--or, rather, below--the white legislature on Sept. 4.