Not surprising.

'SHOCK AND DISTRESS" IN THE WEST, was the New York Times headline on South Africa's crackdown on 17 non-violent anti-apartheid organizations. "It is a major disappointment for anyone who has had hope for even small steps forward in South Africa," said Senator Nancy Kassebaum, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on African Affairs. "What the South African government is doing is an open invitation to greater violence and bloodshed," said Representative Howard Wolpe, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa. Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker called in South African Ambassador Piet Koornhof to "register our shock and distress at these inexplicable actions by his government," reported UPI.

Senator Kassebaum and Representative Wolpe had their points. Secretary Crocker got it wrong. The actions by the government of P. W. Botha were distressing-any diminution of freedom is distressing-but they were far fro"inexplicable."

Over the past decade President Botha's National Party has moved cautiously-too cautiously for many, including most South African blacks-to dismantle the harshest, most humiliating elements of apartheid: Jim Crowism, job discrimination, pass laws. They made these changes at considerable political peril from Afrikaner intransigents opposed to all change. Botha skirted quicksand every step of the way, trying not to move so fast as to lose his political constituency at home, while still ameliorating the condition of South Africa's 23 million blacks. It was a political cliff-hanger that earned Botha and his government not the qualified, cautious applause they might have expected from the international community eager "for even small steps forward in South Africa," but opprobrium, vituperation, and sanctions abroad, and riots in the townships and streets at home.

With the white community in South Africa split and the black community up in arms, the Botha government moved to restore order. It declared a state of emergency, arrested agitators (both black and white), banned TV coverage of riots, abridged press rights, and a fortnight ago, faced with two important byelections (which the pro-apartheid Conservatives won), banned political activity by anti-apartheid groups. The ban on peaceful political activity was shocking and distressing, but what could the world reasonably expect? It has demonstrated that nothing will satisfy it short of political suicide by South Africa's leaders.