Botha Meets Tutu for First Time in 6 Years

President P. W. Botha met today for the first time in six years with black Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu as more arrests and police searches were reported under the day-old nationwide state of emergency.

“He put his points and I put my points,” said Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, as he emerged from Botha’s official residence in Cape Town.

Tutu, one of Botha’s staunchest critics, described the 90-minute meeting as cordial. Shortly after the state of emergency was announced Thursday, Tutu condemned it as “iron-fisted” and urged the international community to intervene.

Tutu told reporters today, “We agreed we were Christians, anti-communists and anti-Marxists.” He said they disagreed about the emergency decree and ways to create a new political structure to end South Africa’s racial conflict.

No Reports of Rioting

There were no reports of large-scale rioting in response to the government actions. However, the Bureau of Information said 73 students were arrested in Soweto, the main black township outside Johannesburg, for violating a new ban on some gatherings at school grounds. The township was closed to nonresidents.

State-run radio said 1,000 people were detained Thursday, but a pro-government newspaper, the Citizen, today put the number at 2,000. A few more detentions were reported today, and police searched some anti-apartheid groups’ offices.

Under the state of emergency, police may detain anyone without a warrant or trial and conduct searches without warrants. The emergency decree also imposed unprecedented restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing strike calls and other “subversive statements.”