Bomb at Bus Stop Injures 8 in S. Africa : Pass Law Expires Today as Apartheid Reforms Take Effect

A bomb exploded at a bus stop in downtown Johannesburg today, and the government said eight people--including a newborn and a toddler--were wounded. Officials blamed the outlawed African National Congress.

The blast injured seven whites and one black. All six injured adults were women, and the two injured children were aged 2 weeks and 3 1/2 years, Bureau of Information spokesman Leon Mellet said.

Witnesses said one woman was sitting at the bus stop, with her infant beside her in a baby carriage, when the bomb exploded. She jumped up with blood pouring down her face after the blast, a witness said.

Bomb in Garbage Can

“She rushed inside the shop and left her baby at the bus stop,” witness Mabel Smith said. “A man from the shop rushed out and took the baby from its pram.”

Police said the bomb was planted in a garbage can attached to a pole next to the bus stop. A nearby bicycle shop took the brunt of the blast.

It was the second bombing in two days. Two bombs exploded Monday on a pedestrian crossing spanning a freeway north of Durban, wrecking water pipes but causing no injuries.

Also today, a series of apartheid reforms took effect in South Africa, including legislation abolishing the pass laws that restricted the movement of blacks into white areas.

Most-Hated Ruling

The pass laws, officially known as influx control laws, took their names from registration documents each black had to carry at all times. They were among the most hated aspects of apartheid, the system by which 5 million whites dominate 24 million voteless blacks.

The measures also restore citizenship rights to blacks from four nominally independent tribal homelands if they live outside the territories.

Multiracial administrations for each of the four provinces, consisting of nominees appointed by President Pieter W. Botha, also took office, replacing elected white provincial councils.

No major black anti-apartheid group was represented in the new bodies.

Miners Plan Protests

In another development, leaders of the black National Union of Mineworkers voted today to stage protests aimed at forcing the release of 10 senior union officials detained under the nationwide state of emergency.

The miners’ decision followed the detention of the president of the nation’s largest labor federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. The jailed labor congress president may not be named under curbs on the media in effect under the state of emergency.