European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Barring Blacks from White South Africa by Alan Cowell new York times b Eulah Rollnick looked across her desk at the Man with his head cocooned in Bandage and pondered out loud whether there was any Hope left at All in this bloody country of South Africa. The Man and three colleagues said they were striking workers from a factory near Pretoria. They said they had been beaten when the police arrived to end the Brief stoppage. The officers had Given them three minutes to hand Back their coveralls and go. And so the Man said they had come to the office of the civil rights movement Black Sash in Central Johannesburg where Rollnick and other White women work across the color line with Black people confronted with a tangle of Laws that seem often to work against them and protect others. Such services might exist elsewhere in the world where those of Small Means seek help from those with Access to greater knowledge. And in such places As at the Black Sash office a morning spent in the company of its workers might also build a Patchwork quilt of miseries and bewilderment. In Johannesburg As in other South african places the difference seems to lie not Only in the nature of the sadness but also in a Small plastic covered document called the reference Book or pass that frames the lives of All Black South africans providing in Stamps and coded letters an insight into the nature of official control. The reference Book giving Date of birth and ethnic origin and chronicling residential rights is Central to the policy called influx control by which the authorities have sought to curb Black Access to segregated townships on the fringes of White run cities. Blacks Over the age of 16 must carry their pass at All times and offer it for official scrutiny when told to do so by the police. Other racial groups Are not covered by the decree. By official announcement the passes Are to be abolished july 1 and replaced by a new document that will be common to All of South Africa s races. Moreover the policy of influx control is to be replaced by something called orderly urbanization which is supposed to permit Freer Access to the cities without creating the mass squatter colonies that sprout in much of the third world. The announcement has been greeted with scepticism by people such As Rollnick. And in the hiatus Between announcement and promised action the passes continue to curl through Black people s lives like malevolent tentacles. Miriam Mbele wears a rust coloured head Scarf and a Row of fake pearls that offer some frail adornment but her eyes remain downcast As if some confession might be there to be read in them. She came to Johannesburg in 1952, she says in halting English gesturing Over her shoulder to show that she was then Little More than a baby carried in the african manner on her Mother s Back. She has not she said been married or worked or had children. Rather she has been an alcoholic since the age of 20. Now she says she has been rehabilitated and wishes to work. But she says she has Long since lost her reference Book and without a reference Book she has no status or formal definition of herself to offer a potential employer. Moreover she could be picked up by the police and charged for not carrying one. Since she once did have a reference Book Rollnick says somewhere in a computer there will be a number for it and when the number is obtained she will be Able to get a replacement Book. All that requires paperwork. An affidavit attesting her plight must be submitted to the authorities. Then she will have to be fingerprinted As All Blacks Are when they get their passes. The fingerprints says Rollnick Are fed into the computer and the machine links them to the number of her original pass. Then she will be Legal again. Since 1916, by some estimates 18 million Blacks have been arrested under some form or other of legislation designed to bar them from White South Africa. In 1984, others say there was a pass Laws arrest somewhere in South Africa every 3.2 minutes. These Days according to Rollnick there is kind of Paradox the number of pass Law prosecutions in the courts has slowed dramatically yet people who employ Blacks continue to report raids in which the authorities Check for people living say As Black servants in White Homes without the necessary stamp in their reference books. The answer she speculates might lie in the possibility that the employers rather than the employees Are being prosecuted so that the controls continue in a less publicized manner. Then she resumes her work. Here for instance is Lena Monahen a woman who considers herself old enough to qualify for a $70-a-month state pension. But her reference Book says she is still too Young. They did it on purpose Rollnick says of those who Issue the reference books. When reference books for women came in in 1958 and 1959, they deliberately put women s Ages too Low so that they would t be Able to qualify for  so a doctor will have to examine her to calculate her age and offer his estimate to the authorities so that the reference Book can be amended. The reference Book it seems is All knowing and people in the Black Sash office seem to acknowledge this guarding the documents jealously in plastic bags stowed safely but within easy reach Laden with the rubber Stamps that chronicle whole lives. The morning meanders Onward stroking Small sad Nesses. Here is another who wants a pension a Man in Denim overalls whose reference Book says he was born in 1932. But in his affidavit for official perusal he tells a different Story. I was about 12 years old in 1932, when the locusts destroyed the crops in Mafeking he says which Means that i am at least 66 years  there Are others. A Man wishes to remarry and have his wife s name entered on the permit that lists those who live legally at his Home in Soweto. But her reference Book cannot be found so the procedures cannot be begun so the marriage Waits. Then the four men dismissed from the factory in Pretoria arrive. They had protested one says because they were earning the equivalent of 75 cents an hour and thought their pay should be higher. They Are All contract workers from so called homelands whose lawful residence in White South Africa depends on their keeping their jobs. They have no Union to protect them they say and Are at a loss. Some of their companions they say Are still in the Hospital. Rollnick offers lawyers and press coverage and the possibility of a lawsuit against the police. Outside the office where she and two other White women work with translators All Black women the waiting room is full and so is the corridor beyond it packed with those still waiting to Tell their stories. Problems for children of mixed marriage couples the policy of influx control Aims to keep Black South africans away from White South Africa. Page 14 the stars and stripes a photo Marcus Eliason associated press a la the perplexities of South Africa policy of apartheid seem to come together Ina cramped Johannesburg House where Rona Roux is fighting to get her children into the school Down the Road. Roux 26, does t know All the details of her own racial ancestry but she looks mulatto. Under apartheid she is classified As a person of mixed race a Cape coloured in official parlance. She is married to a White afrikaner. Had their genetic brew been slightly different the Roux sons Alexander 8, and Francois 7, could have been classified White. But they came out Light chocolate which Means they too Are Cape coloured and cannot attend Whites Only Malvern primary school. Their Mother thinks the educational system for non Whites is useless so the children stay Home. They clamber Over the furniture Chase their Puppy and Are barely Able to count to 10 or read a simple sentence. But this is no Ordinary Story of Star crossed love bumping up against apartheid s ramparts. The Roux Are not race liberals fighting the system but a couple completely at Home with it. They re not concerned so much with equal rights for All colors As with getting their children reclassified As White. Roux said she is a proud South african who Speaks to her children in afrikaans supports president . Botha and even would take apartheid further. The mixed marriage people like us should also have a separate area she said during an interview at her Home in the rundown Belgravia Section of Johannesburg. Then their children Don t have to suffer like my  Roux born Rona a Tiara which she pronounces in the tribal xhosa accent met her husband Morris in 1975. They made  South african combination a frail mulatto and the strapping White afrikaner 22 years her senior born in apartheid s bastion the Orange free state. The race Law of the time prevented them from marrying. But in 1980, they were wed in a Johannesburg roman Catholic Church slipping through a Legal loophole discovered by David Dalling a White opposition member of parliament who has championed their Case. They already had the two children whom mrs. Roux had sent to a mixed race school several Miles away. But education for non Whites is useless she said so in december her husband tried to enrol them at Malvern primary. Roux said that when Malvern s principal saw the race classification in their papers he said Man i m willing to take your children anytime but the papers the Transvaal provincial education Board turned Down the application. Pik Clase the minister of White education refused to intercede. In a letter to Dalling he wrote i cannot find fault with the decision taken by the provincial  except for some private schools South african primary and secondary education is strictly segregated. A recent poll found 55 percent of Urban Whites accepted desegregated education but 67 percent of the afrikaners among them opposed it. The government has served notice that its apartheid reforms Don t stretch to mixed schools. Morris Roux a factory worker has been been quoted in newspapers As saying he is a dedicated afrikaner who wants his children raised in that tradition. Mrs. Roux said she agrees wholeheartedly. In the interview mrs. Roux said she does t think apartheid s barriers could be broken Down immediately noting Rome was t built in a  she said there Are Good Points to the system. There Are Whites and Blacks that want to be alone so give them their own areas she said. She remembered going at age 10 with her Mother to a magistrate seeking reclassification from Black to coloured. With no Trace of rancor she smilingly recalled the magistrate remarking that even though the applicants obviously had straightened their frizzy hair he would allow them to move a step up the racial ladder. The government must t change the Laws she said. It must change the people. And the Only Way it can do it is in christianity. In the Bible there is no such a thing As a Black can t marry a White or a Black can t love a  the Law Banning mixed marriages has been abolished by Botha s White led government. Mrs. Roux has Faith in his ability to carry out More reforms and plans to write him personally. Believing in the system she corresponds tirelessly with White Cabinet ministers about her plight. Legislator Dalling is less optimistic. This affair shows that apartheid is not an outmoded concept like . Botha says he said in an interview. It tells us that it still applies policy takes first precedence and personal tragedy does t  sunday March 16, 1986 South Africa now permits mixed marriages but life is not easy for these couples. The stars and stripes a photo Page 15