2 Radical S. African Black Leaders Held : Raid on Azanian People’s Organization Laid to Biko Ceremony

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Two top officials of the Azanian People’s Organization, a radical black consciousness group, were detained by South African security police Friday in a raid on the group’s headquarters here.

Nkosi Molala, the organization’s president, and George Wauchope, its general secretary, were detained after a 90-minute search of the group’s downtown offices.

Muntu Myeza, a spokesman for the group, described the raid as an attempt to preempt a planned, weeklong observance of the 10th anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, the founder of the black consciousness movement.

“They are trying to prevent us from carrying out our Biko program commemorating Steve’s death and preaching the message of black consciousness,” Myeza said. “If there were any question about the appeal and power of black consciousness today, the police have confirmed that just the ideas themselves are a serious threat to the system.”

Says Other Offices Raided

The organization’s offices in the eastern Cape industrial center of Port Elizabeth and the diamond mining center of Kimberly were also raided Friday, according to Myeza. He said two regional officials were detained in Port Elizabeth.

Five other supporters were arrested Thursday morning in a raid on a home in Mamelodi, a black ghetto township outside Pretoria. Police headquarters in Pretoria said it had no immediate comment on the reported raids and detentions.

The Azanian People’s Organization, which appears to have a small but influential membership in South Africa, had announced plans earlier this week for a nationwide program of commemorative rallies, political seminars and arts workshops to mark Biko’s death--and to reassert its presence in the anti-apartheid movement.

Biko, one of the most charismatic black leaders to emerge in South Africa in the past three decades, died Sept. 12, 1977, of head injuries received while in police custody.

Naked and Manacled

He had apparently been beaten and tortured while detained without charge under South Africa’s sweeping security laws. He was driven 700 miles from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria, naked and manacled, lying on the floor of a police vehicle. A government magistrate later found that no one was responsible for his death.

Biko’s emphasis on blacks’ political self-reliance, summed up in the slogan, “Black man, you are on your own,” encouraged the resurgence of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s. Many of the students Biko recruited are among the most influential black leaders in South Africa today.

The Azanian People’s Organization, taking its title from an old name for Africa, opposes the “non-racial” strategy of the African National Congress and the United Democratic Front, the largest anti-apartheid groups. It argues that the country belongs to blacks, from whom it says the land was taken by whites, that the future “Azania” must have a black government and that, consequently, blacks must achieve their own liberation without any reliance on white liberals.

Film on Biko’s Life

Earlier this week, the organization demanded the right to censor a new film, “Cry Freedom,” that depicts Biko’s life, and threatened to mount an international campaign against it unless Richard Attenborough, the director, agrees to any changes the group demands.

Outside Johannesburg, meanwhile, a black student leader, killed by the police in mysterious circumstances, was buried at Daveyton, a black ghetto township east of the city. Hundreds of riot police and troops were present.

Caiphus Nyoka, 23, president of the student council at a Daveyton high school, died in what police have described only as “follow-up operations” Aug. 24 after the arrest of two suspected African National Congress guerrillas.