Liberal S. Africa Daily Ousts Crusading Editor

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  The crusading editor of South Africa’s most liberal daily newspaper was fired Friday after repeated clashes with the government of President Pieter W. Botha and his own management.

Anthony H. Heard, editor of the Cape Times for 16 years, was replaced by the newspaper’s parent corporation, Times Media Ltd., on grounds that “the time had come for a successor to be appointed.”

In tough, uncompromising editorials, Heard had questioned the sincerity of Botha’s proposed step-by-step reforms aimed at sharing political power with the country’s black majority. He had also encouraged his news staff to challenge government versions of the reasons for the continuing civil unrest here and of police actions in dealing with it.

Heard himself published an unprecedented full-page interview a year and a half ago with Oliver Tambo, president of the outlawed African National Congress, and he was promptly charged with violating the country’s security laws. After months of negotiation with prosecutors, the company paid a small admission-of-guilt fine.

Rumors quickly swept the South African media world that Heard had been offered the equivalent of $500,000 to quit quietly and say that his departure had nothing to do with politics but that he had angrily rejected the money as an insult to his integrity.

Heard refused to comment on his dismissal. But David Dalling, a member of Parliament from the opposition Progressive Federal Party, called it “nothing short of disgraceful.”

“If this company is to retain its respect in the newspaper world as a company that puts into practice those values which its newspapers preach, then it must learn to deal in a more civilized fashion with its loyal staff,” Dalling said. “Can any editor feel secure in his job under these conditions?”

Under Heard, the Cape Town newspaper became South Africa’s best daily, but one that increasingly irritated the government and embarrassed profit-oriented Times Media, which two years ago closed the equally liberal Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg on financial grounds.

Heard, 49, who had worked at the Cape Times virtually his entire career, has been widely honored for his commitment to an independent press here.