
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DE KLERK VISIT PLAN CALLED `SLAP IN FACE'

South African President F.W. de Klerk will pay a historic visit to the White House in June, officials said Tuesday.

Black leaders called the de Klerk invitation "a slap on the face" to Nelson Mandela, who will call on President Bush a week later.

U.S. officials said de Klerk will visit the White House on June 18, the first official visit by a South African president in more than 30 years. But White House and State Department spokesmen declined to confirm the dates.

Bush invited the two men as soon as de Klerk freed Mandela, leader of the African National Congress, last February after 27 years in prison. The invitations were designed to boost a process, begun in talks earlier this month between De Klerk and Mandela, to grant political rights to South Africa's disenfranchised black majority.

U.S. officials said the decision to have de Klerk's visit before Mandela's was dictated by the two men's schedules and not a preference for either leader.

But the ANC, which represents many of South Africa's 28 million blacks, said the administration's decision to invite de Klerk for a visit, especially prior to Mandela's, was an insult.

"It is a slap on the face," said Mendi Msimang, the ANC representative to Britain who participated in a news conference announcing details of the Mandela visit. "It is not too late for the administration to take corrective measures." The ANC said it had not been formally apprised by the administration of the de Klerk visit.

ANC officials said that despite Mandela's release from jail and the legalization of their organization, blacks are still jailed and denied basic political rights by de Klerk's white government.

They noted that de Klerk, who took office last year, still opposes giving an equal vote to all blacks and wants to maintain veto powers by the country's 5 million whites.

A coalition of anti-apartheid groups threatened to organize protests around the United States unless the de Klerk visit is canceled.

by CNB