Black Protest Leaders Jailed in South Africa

Police locked up three black leaders today in a crackdown on the main alliance opposing the white government. Vandalism and violence spread through South Africa’s black ghettos.

A police spokesman said the three blacks detained without charge, all from the multiracial United Democratic Front, were Patrick Lekota, publicity secretary; Popo Molefe, the general secretary, and Moses Chikane, a Front official in Johannesburg’s Transvaal Province.

He said they are under investigation in connection with cases of unrest near Johannesburg eight months ago.

Police reported dozens of incidents of stone-throwing and arson by crowds near Johannesburg in the north, Bloemfontein in the center of the country and Port Elizabeth in the south. Riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and shotguns to scatter hundreds of black youths but reported no injuries.