S. African Black Township Sealed Off to Quell Rioting

At least 1,000 soldiers and police sealed off and occupied a black township Sunday in eastern Cape province to quell rioting. Three more blacks were reported killed overnight in new unrest.

The operation began in Kwanobuhle township after police shot and killed a 27-year-old black man after the torching by arsonists of three houses belonging to policemen, a police spokesman said.

The body of a 48-year-old black man who was “killed with sharp instruments” was found in the same township.

Police said rioting broke out in black townships near Johannesburg as well as in the eastern Cape. In Tsakane, east of Johannesburg, a black security guard fired on blacks trying to set fire to his house, killing one man and wounding another, the spokesman said.

Rivalry between anti-apartheid organizations also flared into violence, leaving at least three blacks dead in the eastern Cape since early Friday, including two children aged 3 and 5, activists said.

Kwanobuhle has been the scene of persistent rioting in recent months.

Soldiers lined the streets a few yards apart, and police riot vehicles handed out pamphlets calling on residents to help restore law and order. Twenty-six arrests were reported.

Roadblocks barred outsiders. Reporters taken on a tour of Kwanobuhle said that from 1,000 to 1,200 soldiers and police took part in the operation.

Adrian Vlok, deputy minister of defense and of law and order, told reporters that the soldiers and police “were welcomed by the people, the decent blacks who want to live decent lives.”

Bitter fighting broke out in eastern Cape townships between followers of two major anti-government groups--the United Democratic Front and the Azanian People’s Organization, a black consciousness group.

Black reporters said three people killed Friday were victims of the in-fighting. Two black children, aged 3 and 5, perished in a fire started by blacks who threw a gasoline bomb into the home of an Azanian official, and another member of the group was stabbed to death, news reports said.

The Democratic Front, considered the largest group in South Africa opposing apartheid, welcomes support from all races in the campaign for black rights. The Azanian group contends that whites cannot play a leading role in the movement. The two groups have been at odds for years, but violence had been rare.

“There are running battles in the streets” between members of the two groups, said one reporter who asked not to be identified.

Bishop Desmond Tutu, Anglican bishop of Johannesburg and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, tried to hold peace talks last week, but the rival groups chose not to attend.