THIS IS APARTHEID

The outside world has heard a great deal about South Africa's policy of apartheid, but few people realize the fantastic extremes to which this segregation is carried, the expense and dislocations it causes, and the ludicrous situations it sometimes creates. As the South African government is in the process of further tightening the system, TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief Lee Griggs offers a catalogue of apartheid.

TWO years ago, a question was asked in all seriousness in South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town: Does apartheid on the beaches extend to the high-tide or low-tide mark? Aghast, M.P.s finally concluded that in either case Africans could wade across from black beaches into white water, spoiling it for white swimmers. The problem was finally solved by taking a precedent from international conventions; apartheid on the beaches was extended out to the three-mile limit.

Such debates take up much of the South African Parliament's time. Once a government minister declared that it was scandalous that so many whites shook hands with Africans, said that Africans would prefer to be greeted in the traditional native way--an upraised hand with no pressing of the flesh. Out went government directives ordering traditional greetings to replace handshakes. The orders were quickly countermanded, however, when an opposition M.P. gleefully announced, after boning up on traditionalist lore, that if the greeting were employed, a white woman meeting a black man would have to kneel down and kiss both his feet.

Equal Escalators. Apartheid affects every aspect of South African life.

Whites and nonwhites not only have separate park benches, public toilets, post office windows, but in many buildings, separate elevators. Africans often outsmart white starters by getting on or off white elevators on the second floor, where the starters cannot catch them. Escalators, however, are integrated; the only rule, and a humane one at that, requires passengers to wear shoes--in the past, too many barefoot blacks have lost their toes.

African men shopping for hats must first put on a skull cap provided by the store before trying any on; African women are not allowed to try on hats at all. Blacks' and whites' blood is kept separately in blood banks, although most doctors would not hesitate to use whatever blood is available in an emergency. Recently, however, a white ambulance driver in Johannesburg refused to pick up an African woman in labor on the sidewalk.

On the road, black Africans travel on separate buses and use separate bus stops. Only white bus stops have benches. Blacks also use separate railroad coaches. Nonwhites cannot eat in dining cars, but special nonwhite stewards serve meals to blacks in their coaches. Nonwhites on airplanes are usually confined to seats at the front or rear; if the plane is so crowded that the only free seats are next to whites, stewardesses first must ask permission from the white passengers to seat the blacks next to them; if permission is not granted, the blacks are usually shifted to other planes. They are served on plates and cups of a different color from white passengers', and their dishes are washed separately. When the nonwhite leaves the aircraft, his headrest is immediately tagged and its cover laundered separately from others on the plane.

Without a Prayer. While whites can move about South Africa freely, Africans cannot move into an urban area for more than 72 hours without special permission. To qualify as a permanent resident of an urban area, an African must have either been born there or worked continuously for one employer for ten years. If he marries a woman from outside the area, she may not stay with him for more than 72 hours. Blacks in Johannesburg can own their own houses, but can only lease the land they stand on for 30 years. Whites in arrears with their rent are only evicted; Africans are criminally charged and can be imprisoned.

Under the Immorality Act, sexual relations between the races are forbidden. Many whites, fearful of being run in under the law, will not even drive a servant home in the evening without having wife or children along in the car. But sometimes it is difficult to tell what race is white. After a Chinese named Song had himself declared white because he "was generally accepted as white," the government changed the law to read that a person is now white "so long as he generally is accepted as white and is not obviously not white." The new interpretation takes white status away from the visiting Japanese, who gained it only last year when they concluded a trade agreement with the South African government. And poor Mr. Song, who neglected to get his wife declared white with him under the old law, violates the Immorality Act whenever he goes to bed with her.

Little Christian charity is extended toward blacks by South Africa's Dutch Reformed churches. Most refuse to admit blacks to their services. A current joke has a white policeman entering a church on a Sunday morning, where he finds a lone black on his knees. "What are you doing, Kaffir?" asks the cop. "Scrubbing the floor," answers the African. "O.K.," says the cop. "But God help you if I catch you praying."

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