Captured S. Africa Rebel Slays Two Policemen, Escapes

A captured African National Congress guerrilla shot two white South African policemen to death before escaping, police reported Saturday.

A police spokesman said the man had been captured Friday after a gun battle with security forces near South Africa’s northern border with Zimbabwe, in which three guerrillas were killed.

As he was being driven to the town of Messina in the northern part of Transvaal province, the prisoner freed himself, seized a gun and killed the officers before escaping, he said.

The policemen were identified as Warrant Officer T.J. Gerber, 44, and Sgt. J.M. Nel, 43.

Planting Mines

The spokesman said security force patrols are still hunting for the unidentified guerrilla fugitive--one of a group of five rebels who the army said crossed the Limpopo River from Zimbabwe in the last week to plant mines in South Africa.

In Friday’s clash, security forces recovered anti-personnel mines and plastic explosives.

The government has blamed the outlawed African National Congress, which is fighting to end white domination in South Africa, for numerous land mine blasts that have killed and injured scores of people. Many mines have been planted on remote border farms.

Meanwhile, in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, the guerrilla group said it is planning large-scale celebrations Jan. 8--both inside South Africa and abroad--to mark the 75th anniversary of its founding.

‘New Initiatives’

ANC President Oliver Tambo wrote in a pamphlet that the anniversary will be an opportunity for all South Africans “to adopt new initiatives aimed at making further advances toward the birth of a democratic South Africa.”

He did not specify what commemorative activities were planned.

Also Saturday, a moderate black leader, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi appealed Saturday to President Pieter W. Botha to make a concerted effort to open talks with South Africa’s black majority in the year ahead.

“Never in the history of South Africa has the whole country waited so anxiously for a word of hope,” said Buthelezi, head of the Zulu tribal homeland, in a New Year’s message.

Durban-Area Incident

Near the Indian Ocean port city of Durban, authorities closed an integrated swimming pool at a beach resort after four whites were stabbed and a black man suffered a broken leg following several days of racial tensions, the town clerk and police said.

Officials in Amanzimtoti, a resort town just south of Durban, decided to drain and close the pool after fighting Friday.

Police had broken up fighting there between blacks and Asians on a beach set aside for people of Asian descent--those originally from the Indian subcontinent. Blacks reportedly attacked beachgoers and stole possessions and food, police said.

Police also had to restore order at another Durban beach set aside for Coloreds, people of mixed race.

A number of South African beaches and public pools have been desegregated in recent years, and in some cases where racial separation still applies, the rules have been quietly flouted, usually without incident.

Natal’s beaches, packed for the holidays with visitors from inland regions, have been the scene of clashes for two consecutive holiday seasons. However, authorities stressed that a small minority of people have been involved and most integrated beaches have been peaceful.