South African officials sees role for blacks' progress

South African Foreign Affairs Minister Pik Botha said in a British television program sunday that his government could not "morally defend racial discrimination based on the color of a man's skin alone."

But while admitting his government faced a dilemma over any proposed reforms to the country's system of apartheid, he denied that there were parallels between the recent fall of white minority rule in Rhodesia and the future of South Africa.

"We are white Africans and we are going to play a constructive and positive role in assisting black Africans to make progress where they simply won't now make progress at all," he said.