S. African Curbs Lifted in Eastern Cape

Curfews on black townships and bans on political meetings and mass funerals in eastern Cape province have been lifted, South African police said Thursday.

Local newspapers published a notice announcing that a series of orders issued by Police Chief Ernest Schnetler under the two-month-old state of emergency had been lifted. Schnetler said the notice was issued to clear confusion over the orders.

The orders were withdrawn last week after the Supreme Court ruled that police commissioners did not have the right to issue orders under the emergency regulations.

But President Pieter W. Botha overturned the court decision a few days later, reinstating a series of orders made by local police chiefs throughout the country.

The repealed orders restricted funerals of political unrest victims in the eastern Cape, clamped a curfew on black townships and banned meetings by 52 anti-apartheid groups.

Schnetler said he will issue new orders today placing restrictions on political meetings.

Schools May Be Closed

The government said it may close black schools in the eastern Cape if boycotting pupils do not return by today. A spokesman for the Department of Education and Training said local authorities sent notices to parents saying the schools could be closed if pupils did not come back.

Black students in the Port Elizabeth area have stayed away for the last two weeks to protest a government decision to introduce identity cards in a bid to keep troublemakers off school premises.

South Africa maintained its time-consuming border inspections Thursday on exports from Zambia and Zimbabwe, black states in the forefront of the campaign for international sanctions against Pretoria.

The government said the measures were introduced to try to build a statistical picture of trade with the two countries, both heavily dependent on South Africa’s transport network.

No Lines of Trucks

Freight agents at Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe’s only road crossing into South Africa, said the situation was normal and there were no lines of trucks.

But a Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said trucks were being diverted from Beit Bridge to nearby Messina for inspection where they could be delayed for up to 24 hours.

“In order to prevent other traffic from piling up on the bridge, the big trucks are being diverted to Messina where they are being monitored and if necessary off-loaded,” he said.

The government’s Bureau for Information said two black men were killed in the latest political violence.