3 Protesters Shot During S. Africa Riots

Blacks rioted in segregated townships across South Africa today, and police said three protesters were wounded by gunshots.

At Seisoville, near the small white city of Kroonstad, a white bus company worker opened fire on a group of blacks who were stoning a bus, said Lt. Henry Beck at national police headquarters in Pretoria. Two blacks later were admitted to the township hospital with gunshot wounds and were under police guard, he said.

Seisoville was the site of fierce rioting Monday, when more than 20 shops were destroyed. One black was killed by a rubber bullet.

A crowd of about 600 blacks stoned a black policeman outside his home in Somerset East, in the eastern Cape Province, Beck said. The policeman opened fire, hitting a black woman, who was hospitalized in serious condition, Beck said.

Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets

Beck said police in Ikageng, southwest of Johannesburg, used tear gas and rubber bullets on three occasions to drive off crowds of blacks who were stoning them.

Beck also reported rioting in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, where several cars and trucks were set alight and the black mayor’s home was damaged.

There also was a disturbance in Soweto, just outside of Johannesburg. Witnesses said young blacks stoned cars and buses after a rally in memory of a schoolgirl who died a year ago when she was run over by a police vehicle during a student boycott.