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Nonetheless, the reform measures will have considerable impact on the country's 24 million blacks, who make up 73% of the population. The pass laws were stitched together in piecemeal fashion over the past 70 years in an effort to control the flow of blacks into the country's predominantly white cities. Repealing them, observed the Sowetan, the major newspaper in the large black township outside of Johannesburg, will "affect the person who matters most--the man in the street." Under the old system, the government refused to recognize blacks as citizens of South Africa, pretending instead that they were "sojourners" from the ten artificially created, all-black territories known as homelands. Those living or working within South Africa needed special permission to do so and were required to show their permit documents on demand or risk being fined and imprisoned. Now they may travel freely in South Africa as permanent, legal citizens.
The government also renewed its promise to end a controversial program that has forcibly relocated some 3.5 million blacks to the homelands in the past 25 years. For the moment, the 8 million blacks who live in the four homelands that have accepted independent status from Pretoria--Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana and Ciskei--will still be considered foreign nationals. They are expected to receive dual citizenship by the end of the year. Other blacks living in rural areas are basically free to seek jobs in cities whenever they choose, although they remain barred from residing in areas reserved for whites. That worries some white South Africans, who fear that more black migration to urban areas could result in higher unemployment, crime and, inevitably, greater racial unrest.
In an apparent effort to allay white fears, the government proposed a new public-safety amendment to widen the extensive powers of the police in controlling political unrest. The new measure will give Law-and-Order Minister Louis Le Grange the authority, currently reserved for the President, to declare a state of emergency in troubled areas. At the same time, Pretoria has promised to ease construction regulations and make more land available for black housing.
It seems unlikely, however, that the proposed reforms will do much to quell the seething discontent in the country's black townships. Indeed, even as Botha delivered his brotherhood message last week, there were yet more tragic indications that the wounds inflicted by apartheid will be difficult to heal. During one 24-hour period, 60 homes were fire-bombed and 30 private cars and police vehicles were damaged as police tried to control a clash between militant youths and vigilante squads in the township of Alexandra, near Johannesburg. --By Janice C. Simpson. Reported by Bruce W. Nelan/Johannesburg