World Notes SOUTH AFRICA

Apartheid is alive and more than a little absurd in the South African town of Boksburg (pop. 106,000). Ever since rightists took over the town's city council last year, they have been strictly enforcing the whites-only laws that had fallen into disuse. They began by barring blacks from all municipal facilities, including the local park and lake. The obsession with racist regulations took on surreal dimensions last week when the council voted 10 to 7 to grant the transfer of a lease for the Golden Lake Chinese restaurant from W.G. Ho to another Chinese woman, S.Y. Yip. The only catch: a provision in the new lease that barred nonwhites -- including Chinese -- from dining at the restaurant.

The silly decision is but the latest in a series of apartheid measures that have led blacks to boycott the town's business district. As a result, commercial sales are down 40% to 70%, but the council has refused to budge, ! despite pleas by the Boksburg Chamber of Commerce to reconsider. The Conservatives did make one small concession to common sense: they will allow Yip's children to eat at the Golden Lake.