JOHANNESBURG�Furious debate on the outcome of the historic racism summit in South Africa is raging in the country, following a call for whites to acknowledge their apartheid past and make a commitment to reparations.

While Black input into the summit was largely constructive with an appeal to whites to show some goodwill, whites simply retreated on the defensive, say Black analysts.

That view was countered by Dene Smuts, a member of Parliament from the mainly white party the Democratic Party, who said, the summit was an exercise in "the bashing of whites."

One summit participant shook his head at the end of the meeting Aug. 30-Sept. 2 and shrugged: "Whites just don�t get it."

They clearly don�t. The conference had just ended when the race issues that plague the society were highlighted by a litany of incidents construed as racist by Blacks, but not by whites.

One blatant incident was an early September encounter with white radio-talk-show host John Robbie who, while interviewing the Minister of Health Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told her she was "talking rubbish!" and that she should "go away."

Blacks are outraged, arguing he would not treat a white person with such disrespect. Whites argued, in calls to the show, that Mr. Robbie was simply doing his job as an objective journalist.

An incident of a more subtle form of racism was commentary that followed the U.S. Open tennis final clash between Venus Williams, who has a huge Black following in South Africa, and Lindsay Davenport.

At the end of the match�broadcast on independent white-controlled M-Net television�white South African sports presenter Tinky Pringle spent the rest of her show talking in glowing terms about Davenport. There was not a single mention of Ms. Williams� historic victory and achievement, say Black critics.

The worst incident happened recently, when a computer at Pretoria�s police headquarters was found to contain a short video on Nelson Mandela where his head turns into that of a gorilla. The police headquarters, notorious during the apartheid days, still employs mainly white police personnel, especially in senior ranks.

In the light of these indicators, Blacks say the race summit did not ask for much.

The feisty Black intellectual Dr. Pallo Jordan made an impassioned plea to whites to simply admit that they had "reaped the fruits of apartheid."

That, Dr. Jordan said, was not an excercise in "white bashing" but simply a statement of fact.

"The fact of the matter is that any system of racism provides those who are part of the privileged group with unearned rewards," Dr. Jordan said.

"If you were white in South Africa you were always first in the job queue (line). Sometimes you were the only one in the job queue. It is ridiculous to suggest that white and Black South Africans are at the same starting line," he noted.

That, Dr. Jordan and a host of other participants concluded, is the nub of the problem. Whites, they all argued, rose to the top after receiving "unearned rewards" during apartheid rule and that is where they still are today. It is pay-back time, the majority at the summit argued.

As a result, the summit concluded with a proposal that affluent whites dig into their over-full pockets and give back to those who have borne the worst that apartheid had to offer. At first, the proposal said, the effort would be one based on white voluntary financial contributions.

The Black Minister of Justice, Penuell Maduna, said if the voluntary process achieved little progress, some form of taxation would have to be considered as a last resort.

"I am starting with the expectation that people of goodwill and who have resources would come forward voluntarily, that a lot of South Africans would want to help those who were disadvantaged by apartheid," he said.

The principle is similar to one used in Germany, said an advisor to President Thabo Mbeki, Mojanku Gumbi. In Germany, businesses that prospered under Nazism have been prevailed upon to cough-up for their past collusion.

In South Africa, Ms. Gumbi explained, it will be big business that will be targeted but getting white individuals to contribute has not been ruled out.

A rare call was made at the conclusion of the conference by white left-wing writer Antjie Krog to declare Dec. 16 a "Day of National Racial Reconciliation" to get Blacks and whites to come together in a spirit of oneness and acknowledgement of past evils.

Among other major summit resolutions were calls for the Human Rights Commission to draw up an action plan to combat racism; presenting anti-racism programs in schools; promoting African languages in all sectors; and the formation of an anti-racism movement.

However, Dr. Jordan lamented, the biggest hurdle is to get whites to accept responsibility for apartheid.

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, he remarked: "There is a tendency by many of our fellow citizens to induce national amnesia, so much so that visitors to South Africa sometimes ask how apartheid was sustained at all, since no one they meet ever supported it!"

Photo: South Africa President Thabo Mbeki