S. Africa Whites Defy Police Ban to Honor Slain Blacks

More than 300 white South Africans defied police orders barring them from this riot-torn black township near Johannesburg and received a tumultuous welcome from its residents Sunday when they came to lay flowers on the graves of victims of recent civil strife.

Thousands of black residents lined Alexandra’s rutted streets in welcome, cheering the whites and saluting them with raised fists.

The white defiance of the police ban was a bold demonstration of liberal white support for South Africa’s black majority in its drive against apartheid.

“We are sad and angry that what brings us here is the unnecessary and criminal deaths of fellow South Africans,” one of the white organizers, Morris Smithers of the Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee, said in a short ceremony at the Alexandra cemetery where eight unrest victims were buried Saturday. “These fallen comrades will never live in a free South Africa, but their sacrifice has helped ensure that future generations will.”

To shouts of “Power to the people!” and other anti-apartheid slogans, Smithers said the whites had come “as conscious and willing partners in the struggle for fundamental change in South Africa.”

Surprised by Slums

Although some of the whites were committed veterans of other protests, many came from Johannesburg’s wealthy northern suburbs that border on this impoverished township. They appeared surprised by the slum conditions here as well as by the warm welcome they received from Alexandra’s 150,000 residents.

On behalf of Alexandra residents, Father Ronald Cairns, pastor of a local Roman Catholic parish, said: “We do not see color. We see each other as brothers and sisters.”

When a caravan of more than 30 minibuses and cars carrying the whites arrived at the outskirts of the segregated township Sunday afternoon, police prohibited them from proceeding under laws restricting entry to urban black areas. Organizers went from vehicle to vehicle, consulting the passengers, then informed the police that everyone was prepared to be arrested, risking a six-month jail sentence and $250 fine.

Avoiding a further confrontation, the police withdrew, regrouping on a hillside above the township cemetery. They did not interfere with the brief ceremony at the cemetery except to fire two canisters of tear gas to disperse participants after the ceremony ended.

Meanwhile, an opinion survey published Sunday indicates that whites have become more flexible in the last five years about opening some now-segregated neighborhoods and schools to other races.

The number of whites who approve of local options in decisions on racial integration has increased from 36.6% to 53.6%, the survey showed, but most remain opposed to a complete end to segregation.

The poll, conducted for Rapport, an Afrikaans-language newspaper, showed that only 24.4% of those surveyed opposed any relaxation of the Group Areas Act, which separates residential areas by race. That was down from 34.7% in 1981. Most said, however, that they do not wish to live in an integrated neighborhood themselves.

The proportion opposed to any school integration declined from 48% to 35%, and those favoring the opening of all schools to all races rose from 11% to 24%.

In another development Sunday, police reported finding a large cache of arms in a mine shaft near Krugersdorp, 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg. The cache included a large quantity of explosives and a dozen rifles, rocket launchers, hand grenades, land mines and other equipment of Soviet manufacture, police said.