World Notes SOUTH AFRICA

Though whites are excitedly gearing up for national elections on May 6, the occasion has prompted only yawns from the black majority of South Africans. Since they are not allowed to vote, the Sowetan, the country's largest black daily, published in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto, decided to hold an election of its own. Several times a week it carries a printed ballot asking readers to list their top ten candidates to lead the country.

With just over a month to go, the front runners, not surprisingly, are Nelson Mandela, the black nationalist leader who has been imprisoned since 1962, and Oliver Tambo, the exiled head of the outlawed African National Congress. Nobel-prizewinning Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu runs a close third. Even some whites received approving nods, from the opposition politicians Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Helen Suzman to Communist Party Chief Joe Slovo, the sole white member of the ANC executive committee. But most surprising of all, State President P.W. Botha turned up in 14th place.