S. Africa Detains 3 Black Leaders

Three black leaders of the United Democratic Front, South Africa’s largest anti-apartheid organization, were detained by police Tuesday under the country’s severe security laws, which permit indefinite detention without trial.

Police said that Popo Molefe, the front’s general secretary, and Patrick Lekota, its publicity secretary, are being held as part of an investigation into September’s start of the current round of unrest. The government sees the disturbances as part of a revolutionary conspiracy to overthrow its white minority rule here and places blame largely on the front.

Both Molefe and Lekota were detained for several months last year but were eventually released in December under mounting domestic and foreign pressure. Their new detention appears to be part of a long expected government crackdown on the front, a multiracial coalition of 650 South African groups opposed to the government’s policies of apartheid, institutionalized racial separation.

The third man detained Tuesday was Moses Chikane, an organizer for the front in Pretoria, the nation’s administrative capital.

Charges, Lawyer Unnecessary

All three are being held under laws that permit indefinite detention in solitary confinement for police interrogation. They need not be charged with any crime, nor brought before a judge, nor are they allowed to consult a lawyer or see members of their family.

The police action brought quick criticism from other anti-apartheid activists, who warned that it would heighten tensions even further by stripping the black community of respected leaders committed to peaceful change.

Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace laureate, said the government is detaining and jailing black leaders with whom it should be discussing the future of the country if it wants to prevent a violent revolution. “Until apartheid is ended,” he warned, there will be “endemic unrest” across the nation.

The United Democratic Front, 16 of whose leaders are already facing trial on treason charges next month, condemned the detentions as “another counterproductive measure that only adds fuel to the already volatile situation.”

However, President Pieter W. Botha and Louis le Grange, his hard-line minister for law and order, repeated warnings that the government will not tolerate unrest or challenges to its authority.

Far-Left Links Alleged

Denouncing the United Democratic Front as led by “radical leftist forces” and acting for the outlawed African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, Botha told Parliament in Cape Town that the groups’ plans for further anti-apartheid demonstrations are intended to “create a spiral of increasing violence that will culminate in revolution.”

And Le Grange, also speaking in Cape Town, warned that Tutu and other religious leaders considering a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience against apartheid are treading the narrow line between legality and illegality, and that they risk touching off a confrontation they cannot control. Such a climactic showdown, they said, would badly wound the country.

Meanwhile, unrest continued Tuesday in many areas of South Africa, with the police reporting struggles to prevent dozens of small clashes with angry black youths from flaring into major fighting.

In Duduza, east of Johannesburg and near the town of Nigel, officers said one man was killed when they opened fire to halt the stoning and firebombing of buses, delivery vehicles and officials’ homes. Several people were seriously injured.

In Sebokeng, the scene of trouble since September, police arrested almost an entire secondary school--480 students in all--and charged the youths with holding an illegal meeting Monday night at the school to discuss township rent increases. Most of those arrested paid fines, an admission of guilt.

Melee in Black Township

In Soweto, the sprawling black township outside Johannesburg, students boycotting classes at one high school stoned those still attending and were pelted with rocks in return. The school principal was injured in the melee, and police eventually used tear gas to disperse the students.

Numerous incidents of arson were reported in eastern Cape province, the focus of most of the unrest, where police shot and killed at least 20 people on March 21.

Lekota was arrested on arrival at Port Elizabeth airport, according to United Democratic Front members. They speculated that police moved earlier than expected against him in order to prevent him from organizing black unions in the area to support the front.