South Africa Threatens Zimbabwe : Tells Harare Regime to Act to Prevent Guerrilla Incursions

The government said today it will send troops into Zimbabwe if the Harare government does not act to stop attacks by guerrillas Pretoria blames for land-mine blasts.

“Steps must urgently be taken to ensure that no further incidents . . . take place; otherwise, the South African security forces will have no other choice but to follow the tracks themselves,” Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said in a statement.

South Africa said African National Congress guerrillas may have crossed the Zimbabwean border this week to plant land mines just south of the frontier.

Meanwhile, blacks in segregated townships surrounding Pretoria, the capital, called today for a Christmas boycott of white shops to protest the killing of at least 13 blacks in bloody clashes with security forces last week.

Residents Fled in Panic

At a news conference, churchmen and members of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front described how residents of Mamelodi township fled in panic when security forces broke up a peaceful protest march Nov. 21.

They said people were shot in the back, elderly women were killed and a baby boy was suffocated to death when tear gas was fired into his house.

Details of the incident have been scant because police expelled reporters from the township that day. Officials eventually admitted that 13 people died after police were “confronted by a particularly violent mob.”

The United Democratic Front called a consumer boycott of white shops for a month beginning Dec. 1 and urged people to attend a mass burial of the victims of the shootings next Tuesday.

‘Systematic ... Genocide’

“There are certain developments in South Africa which have the characteristics of civil war,” said Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, a patron of the Front and general secretary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“Many people are increasingly beginning to fear that there is a systematic campaign of genocide,” he said. “The country is becoming a huge prison where thousands of the opponents of apartheid have been incarcerated.”

Saying that several victims were shot in the back, church leaders have decided to hold their own inquiry into the Mamelodi shooting.

Witnesses to the clashes told the news conference that thousands of residents had gathered peacefully to protest a number of issues, including high rents and the presence of troops in the townships.

Panic in Crowd

Tear gas was fired from a police helicopter, causing panic in the crowd. Security forces then chased the demonstrators, shooting them and beating them, the witnesses said.

Hendrik Tefu said his mother was killed in the stampede, and Michael Seloane described how police and soldiers surrounded the crowd.

“Tear gas was shot into the crowds and people started running in all directions, with soldiers beating them up,” Seloane said. He said the security forces apparently ran out of tear gas and began using live ammunition and buckshot.