S. African Balck Youths Attack Whites’ Homes : Reagan Curbs Could Block Sanctions Bill

WASHINGTON —  Key backers of legislation that would impose economic sanctions on South Africa conceded for the first time Thursday that President Reagan might be able to block enactment of the bill if he imposes penalties on his own.

Administrative action by Reagan against the Pretoria regime could help sustain an anticipated veto of the bill, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) acknowledged. Cranston is Senate floor manager of the measure, which passed the House overwhelmingly and awaits final Senate action next week.

Reagan has rejected the idea of sanctions as counterproductive to his Administration’s efforts to help bring about an end to apartheid, South Africa’s policy of racial separation. But in an attempt to blunt criticism of his rejection of the sanctions bill, he reportedly may couple his veto with an executive order that would take milder punitive steps against South Africa.

For example, while the sanctions bill would ban new U.S. bank loans to the South African government and U.S. computer sales to those government agencies that enforce apartheid, Reagan might order less stringent limits on both.

“If they (the White House) had some substantial administrative actions in place and ready to go, they might be able to sustain a veto,” Dole told reporters.

He did not define what he would consider to be substantial, but in a speech Thursday night in New York, he asserted that passage of the sanctions bill would reinforce--not diminish--U.S. influence in South Africa. And that influence, he said, is “a force for good, a force against apartheid.”

At a Los Angeles news conference, Cranston predicted that the full Senate would vote by a wide margin to break a conservative filibuster that has stymied the bill and to send the measure to Reagan.

“If he just vetoes it, we’ll have the votes to override it,” Cranston predicted. But, he conceded, “if he does more than that, if he adds something, we may not be able to override it.”

Reagan met with the National Security Council on Thursday to review developments in South Africa, where hundreds of blacks have been killed recently in a crackdown on dissent by the white-minority government.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the session was “more or less” designed to review policy options on South Africa, but he said the President will not make up his mind on how to treat the sanctions bill “until he analyzes the legislation totally and fully.”

Besides the curbs on bank loans and computer sales, the legislation also would outlaw the sharing of nuclear technology with South Africa and bar the importation of gold Krugerrand coins, a major foreign exchange earner for Pretoria.

Even without the measure, U.S. sales of Krugerrands have dropped off dramatically, and South African bank credit has dried up in the wake of the growing civil unrest.

Not all lawmakers prominent in the push for sanctions said they share Dole’s and Cranston’s assessment of the situation.

An aide to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Lugar expects the measure to be sent to Reagan next week by a margin similar to the 80-12 vote recorded in the Senate when an initial sanctions bill was passed in July.

“Even if there is a veto, he does not see that much falloff” from the 68-vote margin, said the spokesman, Mark Helmke.

Helmke added that Lugar thinks Reagan should sign the bill because it calls for only modest sanctions but transmits an important message about American attitudes to Pretoria that would encourage moderate blacks.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Louis Nel told reporters that U.S. sanctions would impede the process of racial reform and harm the economies of other African countries.

Nel noted that President Pieter W. Botha has promised that his government will negotiate with the black majority. “We cannot do what we want to do and contend with the impact of sanctions or disinvestment at the same time,” he said.

Nel also distributed a report describing the “catastrophic” consequences of sanctions on neighboring black countries, which rely heavily on South Africa’s economy. He repeated a warning by the white-minority regime that if sanctions undermine the South African economy, the government would have to send home many of the estimated 1.5 million black workers from neighboring countries.