Botha Lifts Emergency in 8 of 38 Areas : Funeral for 12 Turns Into Anti-Apartheid Protest by Thousands

As tens of thousands mourned the deaths of 12 blacks at a mass funeral today, President Pieter W. Botha lifted the 19-week-old state of emergency in eight of 38 cities and towns and said the revolutionary climate in black areas was “fast losing momentum.”

Most of the eight districts are small, rural communities in Transvaal province and the eastern Cape province, where almost no unrest has been reported in recent months.

Botha’s action came as up to 50,000 mourners packed a soccer stadium for the funeral for the 12 blacks, including a 2-month-old baby, killed in a day of fierce clashes between protesters and police in Mamelodi, a township north of Pretoria.

Apartheid Protest

The funeral turned into a huge anti-apartheid demonstration and Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson Mandela, jailed leader of the African National Congress, defied a banning order against her by addressing thousands of mourners.

Eulogies became calls to end the state of emergency and free jailed black leaders.

Botha imposed the emergency in 36 areas on July 21. In October, he lifted the decree in six small towns. A day later, he extended the emergency area to eight more districts covering the entire Cape Town area, putting just over 9 million people--nearly a third of the population--under emergency rule.

Rioting appears to have declined in most emergency zones, but violence has flared elsewhere, particularly in Mamelodi and in Queenstown in Cape province.

Soldiers Absent

Reporters at Mamelodi estimated that from 30,000 to 50,000 people attended the two-hour funeral and then joined a procession to the cemetery for the burial.

Police and soldiers manned roadblocks at entrances to the township, but stayed away from today’s proceedings. There were no reports of violence.

Speaker after speaker described the police shootings of protesters outside Mamelodi town hall on Nov. 21 as an unprovoked massacre, rejecting a police statement that riot patrols had to battle “particularly violent mobs.”

A defiant Winnie Mandela, whose banning order prohibits her from attending gatherings, told thousands of mourners, “I’ve come here to weep with you. I’ve come to wipe up the blood of our children with you.

Diplomats Attend

“We are here today as testimony to the failure of the government to rule our country (and) to the fact that the solution to this country’s problems lies in these black hands,” she said, raising a clenched fist in a black power salute amid cries of “Amandla!” --the Zulu word for power.

Diplomats from 11 countries and senior officials of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches attended the service, as did local and foreign camera crews and journalists.

U.S. Embassy political counselor Tim Carney told reporters at the scene that he came to show support for the right to protest peacefully and to express sympathy with the people of Mamelodi.

The coffins were draped in flags of the outlawed African National Congress guerrilla movement, which is fighting from exile for black majority rule in South Africa.