22 Blacks Killed in S. African Clashes; Indians Flee for Life

Rioters and police battled in black townships around Durban today in the bloodiest fighting in five months. Hospital officials said at least 22 blacks were killed and more than 150 others injured in a 24-hour period.

South Africa’s racial violence took a bitter new turn overnight when mobs of blacks burned and looted the homes of Indians around Durban, forcing hundreds of Indian families to flee for their lives.

Until Wednesday, the violence had been largely confined to clashes between blacks and security forces of the white-ruled government.

The death toll in the rioting was the highest in South Africa since March, when police shot to death 20 black marchers near Uitenhage in the eastern Cape Province.

Law and Order Minister Louis le Grange flew from Pretoria to the Durban area today to meet with police officers and to inspect black ghettos by air.

May Extend Emergency

The unrest in Durban ended the relative calm in Natal, the only province largely untouched by nearly a year of rioting, and President Pieter W. Botha threatened to extend a 19-day-old state of emergency to the city.

Botha said he would invoke drastic measures to halt the violence if it continued, but he said the state of emergency decreed July 21 is having an effect in some areas.

“We are quite capable of controlling the situation,” Botha said.

Asked if the government plans to extend the emergency in Durban, he said, “Not at this stage. But if necessary we will do it.

“If necessary we can even introduce stronger steps,” he said, without elaborating.

Lawyer’s Death Protested

The violence flowed from student boycotts in Durban’s townships this week to protest the assassination one week ago of Victoria Mxenge, a prominent black civil rights lawyer slain outside her home in Umlazi township.

The riots stem from opposition to apartheid, South Africa’s system of race separation under which 5 million whites govern 24 million voteless blacks.

Praveen Gordhan, a senior member of the anti-apartheid Natal Indian Congress, said 200 to 300 Indian families fled Inanda, a township of Indians and blacks, overnight after their homes and businesses were looted.

South Africa’s 850,000 Asians, almost all of Indian descent and many of them shopkeepers, are covered by many apartheid restrictions that apply to the black majority, such as segregation of schools and neighborhoods.

Blacks Feel Exploited

Blacks have sometimes turned on Indians, however, because of what is perceived to be exploitation of consumers by shopkeepers.

About half the blacks killed in the last 11 months have reportedly died at the hands of other blacks who accuse them of collaborating with the government. The other half were killed by police at riots or demonstrations against apartheid.

In other violence, blacks with spears and sticks turned on black mourners at a service for Mxenge Wednesday night, wounding several people, said Lechesa Tsenoli, spokesman for the United Democratic Front anti-apartheid alliance in Natal.

Busloads of blacks arrived as the service ended at 10 p.m. and waded into the mourners in Umlazi township outside Durban, Tsenoli said.

A witness said riot police posted nearby did nothing to stop the attackers.