S. African Christians Urged to Withhold Racial Information From Official Forms

Church leaders urged South African Christians on Friday to refuse to state their race on any official documents in what would be tens of thousands of daily acts of civil disobedience intended to disrupt the administration of the apartheid system of racial separation and minority white rule.

The South African Council of Churches, which groups most of the country’s major Protestant denominations, said at the conclusion of its annual conference here that the protest, “if done on an increasing scale, would eventually render the (apartheid) system unworkable.

“This action goes to the root of apartheid, and it is open to any and every adult South African,” the council said in a resolution. “It is a way for those classified into privileged classes to express solidarity with those oppressed by their classification.”

South Africans are required to specify their races on forms ranging from birth certificates to driver’s licenses, and the government’s plans for gradual political reforms rest upon recognition of “group rights” based on race.

6 More Blacks Killed

Six more blacks were reported killed in the country’s continuing civil strife, according to the government’s information bureau, bringing to 72 the number of those killed since the government imposed a national state of emergency June 12 to quell the violence.

A black policeman was killed with his guard dog in Soweto, outside Johannesburg, when hand grenades were thrown at them while the policeman was on duty protecting the house of a local black official. A motorist was burned to death in his car in Soweto in an apparent continuation of fighting between militant black youths and migrant workers living in hostels there.

The badly charred bodies of two black men were found in Zwide, outside Port Elizabeth in eastern Cape province, where they had been burned to death, apparently as suspected police informers or other government collaborators. In Kangwane in eastern Transvaal province, another burned body was found with seven tires around it. At White River, also in eastern Transvaal, the burned body of a 20-year-old man was found by a herdsman.

Reduced Violence Seen

The government information bureau, the sole authorized source of news on unrest and the state of emergency in South Africa, said that, according to its analysis of police reports, the level of violence had been sharply reduced over the past two weeks, although the number of deaths each day remains at about the same level as during the previous five months.

Newsmen are unable to verify the bureau’s reports because they are prohibited from entering many black areas, barred from reporting any unrest firsthand or any activities of the police and army, and not permitted to quote “subversive statements” by opposition leaders.

In Durban, police reported arresting four suspected African National Congress guerrillas and finding a cache of arms and explosives, including Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles and large quantities of chemicals used in making bombs.

4 Accused of Treason

Four other alleged members of the African National Congress, meanwhile, were charged in Johannesburg with high treason and accused of planning to shoot down South African military aircraft with ground-to-air missiles.

Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the Zulu leader, warned the government on Friday that the crackdown cannot cure South Africa’s problems and called for a constitutional convention that would include leaders of the outlawed African National Congress.

“The only real alternative is an ever-worsening situation in which we will all suffer together,” Buthelezi said.

U.S. Urges Releases

In Washington, the State Department said Friday that South Africa should release all trade unionists detained without charges under the emergency decree, or industrial relations could become destabilized, the Associated Press reported.

“On several occasions we have indicated to the South African government publicly and privately that the state of emergency is a serious mistake,” spokesman Charles Redman told reporters.

He said the department had already noted that “a substantial number” of trade union leaders had been detained and that some had been released recently, the AP reported.

“We urge the release of all remaining trade union officials,” he said.

“The detention of trade unionists leaves many workers without their leaders in the workplace and threatens to destabilize and embitter industrial relations,” Redman said.