10 Deaths Reported in S. African Melee

Ten blacks were reported killed here Thursday when riot police opened fire on thousands of anti-government demonstrators and the crowd stampeded in panic, trampling many who fell.

Although police headquarters in Pretoria acknowledged that its forces had fatally wounded two people, a man and a woman, in attempting to break up the protests, a reporter for a black newspaper counted 10 bodies at the local clinic, some of them victims of the stampede, and witnesses told of seeing six or eight bodies lying in the street, apparently lifeless, after the incident.

Toll May Reach 20

The final death toll is likely to be “as much as 20,” said a community activist who was present, and this would rank the clash among the worst in 15 months of civil unrest in which more than 850 people, most of them black, have died.

The clash brought the unrest for the first time on a large scale to Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital.

Mandela Rumors Continue

Rumors continued to circulate, meanwhile, that the minority white government is planning to release Nelson R. Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed African National Congress, perhaps allowing him to go into exile, in an effort to create a climate for political negotiations that would end the civil strife here.

But President Pieter W. Botha told newsmen in Pretoria on Thursday, “No decision has been taken.” He did not elaborate, but aides said the countrywide speculation is “without foundation--a sheer fantasy.”

Mandela, who had prostate surgery almost three weeks ago without any known complications, remains in a Cape Town hospital, surrounded by his family and attorneys who say they are all puzzled by the continuing rumors.

“I cannot imagine the South African government allowing” him to go abroad, his wife, Winnie, told newsmen after meeting with her husband.

In Mamelodi, tens of thousands of residents--local reporters put the number at 50,000 or more--had surrounded the town offices and police station about mid-morning Thursday to demand the withdrawal of troops and white policemen from the township, whose 150,000 residents have grown increasingly restive in the past four months, largely because of the heavy police and army presence.

Mayor Appeals for Calm

The mayor, Zikhali Ndlazi, speaking from atop a police armored car with a loudspeaker, was appealing for calm and urging the chanting crowd to disperse when, according to several residents who were present, some stones were thrown by youths and the police opened fire, first with tear-gas grenades and then with shotguns, automatic rifles and pistols as the hail of rocks became greater.

Although the clash outside the township offices probably lasted no longer than 15 minutes, police in armored cars then chased groups of youths through the streets until early afternoon, and the firing of shotguns, grenade launchers and occasionally military rifles echoed beyond the township’s borders.

Burning barricades were erected across many of the township’s streets, and youths hurled firebombs at the police, setting at least two armored cars on fire.

Virtually all Mamelodi residents had stayed away from their jobs in Pretoria Thursday morning in a one-day general strike to protest both the heavy police presence in the township and other grievances, including restrictions on funerals and increases in municipal rents and utility charges.