The Michigan Daily-Thursday, November 20,'1900-Page 5
CITY, AGENCIES REMAIN DEADLOCKED
Audit debate continues

Daily Photo by JOHN HAGEN
PERCY QOBOZA, A South African journalist and visiting University communications professor, speaks to students in
one of his classes earlier this week. Qoboza has called recent improvements in South African governmental policies
towards blacks in that country "window dressing."
SAfs ricans claim giov
changes are insufficient

By CLAUDIA CENTOMINI
and JOHN RUSSELL
Recent improvements in South
African governmental policies toward
blacks are not nearly enough to ensure
a peaceful coexistence between blacks
and whites in that nation, two
prominent South Africans said recen-
tly.
Percy Qoboza, the editor of a leading
South African newspaper and a visiting
~University communications professor,
called the improvements mere "win-
dow-dressings." The changes he cited
include the building of technical schools
for blacks, the legalization of black
trade unions, and the opening of luxury
hotels to memnbers of all races.
"THE LAST THING I need is a five-
star hotel," said Qoboza. The hotel
reforms, he added, were not implemen-
ted "out of a change of (the gover-
nment's) conscience, but of economic
reality. Too many black Americans
were visiting South Africa. Therefore,
the old policies were "embarrassing" to
the country, he said.
"If apartheid is dead; they need to
make hurried funeral arrangements,
because the body is smelling badly,"
Qoboza said.
- Qoboza spoke to approximately 120
people Monday night at Rackham
Auditorium. Also addressing the crowd
was Helen Suzman, a member, for
nearly 30 years of the all-white South
African Parliament.

SUZMAN STRESSED that the new
technical schools and the legalization of
black trade unions are self-serving to
the white minority. The South African
economy has grown, she explained,
and, when combined with the strict op-
pression of blacks, has resulted in a
shortage of skilled labor.
"The greatest force for change has
been the economic thrust caused by the
increase in the price of gold," said
Suzman.
Both Suzman and Qoboza predicted
the eruption of violence in the country
unless the South African parliament
further alters the apartheid system.
"A REVOLUTION is a living threat,"
said Qoboza, who is also editor-in-
residence at The Washington Star. "It
will happen unless you do something
about it.".
He explained that many black South
African youths believe that changes in
other countries such as Mozambique
and Zimbabwe would not have resulted
if citizens "had not taken arms."? The
young people, he said, think "it is better
to die with dignity than to live with
humiliation."
Suzman, however, advocated
changes coming from within the gover-
nment. "Unless some fundamentally
important legislation is introduced,
there will be confrontation," she said.
SUZMAN SAID the confrontation is
likely to take the form of urban unrest.
Although blacks comprise 70 percent of

South Africa's population, she said, her
country's military forces are the most
powerful in Africa, and are almost ex-
clusively white. Any attempt to over-
throw the government would be
squelched easily, according to Suzman.
"You can't fight armored cars with
stones," she said.
Suzman is a member of the official
opposition Progressive Federal Party,
which now holds 16 out of 256
parliamentary seats. -The ruling
National Party, enforcer of South
Africa's apartheid policy, holds the
remainder of the seats.
ALTHOUGH SHE did not specify any
legislation needed to improve the lot of
black citizens, Suzman said some of her
party's positions include support of
trade unionism for blacks and free and
compulsary education for all children
under one equal system of education.
Qoboza declined to speak on the issue
of divestment in detail, because he said
it was illegal for South African citizens
anywhere in the world, to speak un-
favorably of foreign investments in
South Africa.
He said, however, that American in-
vestments in corporations which do
business in South Africa are a "drop in
the bucket," compared to European in-
vestments.
The University Regents, who have
come under fire in the past for refusing
to divest University stock will discuss
the issue again either today or
tomorrow at their monthly meeting.
Do not knead yeast bread dough too'
much or it could leave large holes in the
baked loaf.

By ELAINE RIDEOUT
City officials and directors of two
local Community Development Block
Grant agencies remain deadlocked in a
dispute over audits of the agencies'
funds, even though the federal gover-
nment has cleared both sides in the
stand-off.
Former Mayor Albert Wheeler, his
wife Emma, and daughter Nancy
Francis have consistently refused to
release financial records of the Model
Cities Health Center and Model Cities
Legal Services. And the city - conten-
ding the health center has failed to
report a $275,000 surplus - isn't
budging from its audit request.
CITY ATTORNEY Bruce Laidlaw
said the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (which
allocates CDBG funds to the city)
opinion is "worthless" because it is
ultimately up to the mayor and city
council to formulate CDBG funding
policies. The city froze funding for the
Model Cities agencies September 5
when the agencies refused to cooperate
with a city-ordered audit of their finan-
cial records.
The 10-year-old programs, which
serve mostly poor, elderly, and
minority residents, are run by the
Wheelers who have a long history of
past community service.
EACH SIDE says it is waiting for the
other to act.
"The ball is in their court," Coun-
cilman Edward Hood (R-4th 'Ward) ob-
served. "The audit is justified because
earlier (city) councils expressed an in-
tent that all CDBG funding be audited."
Emma Wheeler, director of the
Health Center, denied that the 1976 city
council resolution is applicable to the
present dispute. She said it is up to the
city to make the next move since the
agencies recently submitted to city of-
ficials a proposal "outlining major con
cessions."
' THE COMPROMISE would allow for
an audit requirement to be included in
future contracts if the city will rescind
its demand for past records, Wheeler
said.
City officials called for the audit after
federal tax records showed that the
Health Center had failed to report to the
city half of its income earned over a
four-year period. The city claimed a
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breach of contract by the center.
According to City Administrator
Terry Sprenkel, the center's operating
expenses were less than the funding
allocated by the city - leaving the
agency with a surplus of at least
$275,000.
"THOSE FUNDS should have been
used to reduce the city payments to that
agency or to expand the services ren-
deredby other eligible (CDBG) agen-
cies," Sprenkel said. .
When the funds were frozen Albert
Wheeler said the reported $275,000 sur-
plus figure was a "damn lie."
According to my calculations, that
figure is off by at least $100,000," he
said.
Emma Wheeler said the Health Cen-
ter will close its doors December 19
unless the agency can get funding from
other sources. "We've attempted to set
up another contract with the city," she
said, "but apparently they think we
should spend the (surplus) money."
ALBERT WHEELER, also a Univer-
sity professor of microbiology, conten-
ded that should the agency close down,
any left over money will go into other
social service programs "for poor,
black people."
But Laidlaw said the health center's
contract with the city didnot intend for
federal dollars to be used in this way.
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"Under the contract the city could in-
,sist they (the health center) pay the
money back ... The health center could
be a dead issue unless the city decides
to sue," he explained. ,
Emma Wheeler said city officials
have known for years that the health
center has operated with a surplus.
Francis, director of the Legal Ser-
vice, said her agency "has just about
come to the end of its personal resour-
ces." She said the clinic is currently
staffed by three attorneys, working
without pay since Sept. 5, in an-
ticipation of another city contract.
Councilman Hood said he thought the
Wheelers should submit to the audit, if
only to preserve their integrity.
"There's a great possibility for abuse
here," Hood said. "We have to consider
what might have happened had this
money been in the hands of someone
else."

"u

U U U I I


State House votes to
'ban abortion funding

LANSING (UPI) - An emotional
House voted once again yesterday to
ban state funding of welfare abortions;
setting up what might be the
legislature's final confrontation with
Gov. William Milliken on the issue.
House members, after hours of
anguished debate, voted 68-34 in' favor
of the Senate-passed bill. The vote was
.six short of the number that would be
needed to override a veto by the gover-
nor.
ON A procedural issue, the House
refused to give the measure immediate
effect. Therefore, the funding ban
would not be imposed until next April.
The measure - headed for Milliken's
desk - bans state funding of welfare
abortions except to save the life of the
 niother.

Michigan's welfare abortion program
costs about $4 million annually.
MILLIKEN IS a staunch supporter of
abortion rights for the poor and has
vetoed all previous legislative efforts to
cut off funding. Aides confirmed he will
veto the latest bill as well.
This year, however, lawmakers are
ready for the first time to seek an
override vote on the issue.
. Right to Life of Michigan, the state
chapter of "Moral Majority," and the
Michigan Catholic Conference have
promised to push for an override, which
would require a two-thirds vote in both
the House and Senate.
Vetoes by Michigan governors have
been overridden only once in the last.29
years.

MSA ALLOCATIONS
The Michigan Student Assembly has money available
for recognized student organizations who are in need of
funding for worthwhile and beneficial student projects.
December allocations will be made on Dec. 9 and applications
are due by Nov. 25. They can be picked up at MISA offices.
For more information call MSA offices (763-3241).
Also, the Student Organizations Activities Programming
offices (SOAP) is holding workshops on budget prepara-
tion and fundraising on Nov. 20 from 5:30-7:00 and on Nov.
24 from 3:30-5:00 in Conference Room 6 in the Union. Any
group planning to ask MSA for funding should attend one of
these sessions prior to turning in an application for MSA
funds.

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