Time to Ease Up on South Africa?

Britain has jumped the gun in easing sanctions against South Africa. But the action is hardly surprising, given Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s aversion to the sanctions effort.

Far more consequential is the determination of the United States and the other members of the European Community to maintain sanctions until South Africa’s performance matches the promises of President Frederik W. de Klerk.

Britain and Portugal had proposed a compromise, gearing the relaxation of sanctions to the termination of the state of emergency in South Africa. For good reason, the other European Community members refused. The state of emergency is an enormous obstacle to making progress on negotiating a democratic future for South Africa, but there are many other hurdles, too.

As the U.S. State Department has emphasized, the sanctions have been effective. They have helped create the economic pressure that pushed South Africa to its new commitments.

Not all the obstacles to negotiations have been created by the white-dominated government. For one thing, the African National Congress has created problems with ambiguities in what it has said and what its recently released leader, Nelson Mandela, has said about getting talks started. Mandela’s forthcoming trip to ANC headquarters in Zambia may eliminate some of that confusion. For another, murderous warfare in the province of Natal between two rival black political movements has also clouded the prospects for peaceful transition. Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the Zulu chief, appears unable or unwilling to use his influence to moderate the conflicts.

In this tense but promising situation, the Western democracies can be most helpful by resisting the urge to ease sanctions prematurely and by maintaining their firm commitment to a democratic, non-racial future for South Africa.