Strife Closer to S. African Whites : Flowers and Tears Mark Aftermath of a Bombing

White South Africa laid Linus Mare to rest Thursday.

His wife, Magriet, wept softly as she lifted a yellow daffodil from the top of his coffin. His two little girls, ages 4 and 6, held their mother’s hands and tossed pink carnations into the grave.

Mare was eulogized as “one of those quiet, unassuming people” who took meticulous care of his garden and swimming pool, loved his family and was an exemplary office worker.

A purchasing agent, he and his boss had joined 20,000 other whites at a rugby match last Saturday afternoon in nearby Johannesburg. Minutes after leaving the stadium, they were blown apart by what the police said was the most powerful car bomb in South African history.

They were the third and fourth whites killed this year in anti-apartheid bombings, part of the most sustained campaign of guerrilla attacks yet on civilian targets here.

“We pray that there be an end to violence in our land,” the pastor, C. J. P. Niemandt, said from the pulpit of the Mares’ modern, red-brick Dutch Reformed Church, nestled among an upper-middle-income white neighborhood here. “And we pray that the perpetrators of this gruesome deed fall under the love of the Lord.”

The military wing of the outlawed African National Congress vowed only weeks ago to increase urban violence and make apartheid “very painful and bitter for whites.” The ANC, the largest guerrilla group fighting South Africa’s white-led government, has not claimed or denied responsibility for specific attacks.

Although about 25 bomb and mine explosions in South Africa this year have killed at least 14 civilians, 10 of them black, the blast last weekend struck particularly close to home for the country’s white minority, for whom rugby is considered the national sport.

More than 200 pounds of explosives were packed into a white BMW, which was parked on a side street near the Ellis Park stadium. The street had been restricted to cars with official rugby parking stickers.

The head of the security police appeared on the country’s major news broadcast this week to reassure whites that the authorities had matters under control. But he warned that further bombings might take place.

The Johannesburg City Council set up a hot line so citizens could report suspicious packages anywhere in the city.

Advised to ‘Hit the Deck’

An article in a local paper Wednesday was headlined: “What to Do at a Bomb Blast.” The answer, according to a physician who was there Saturday, is to “hit the deck” to avoid objects falling from the sky and stay put a full minute in case there is a second bomb in the area.

So far this year, bombs and mines have exploded at a variety of places frequented by black and white civilians, from restaurants to movie theaters and amusement arcades to city sidewalks.

Roodepoort, about 15 miles northwest of Johannesburg, was the site last month of the deadliest bomb here in a year. Four employees of a discount department store--three black men and a white woman--were killed when a limpet mine, the kind favored by ANC guerrillas, exploded at a shopping center.

On Thursday, in the same town, about 300 friends, relatives and business associates of 34-year-old Linus Mare gathered for his funeral. Many had attended the burial of Clive Clucas, Mare’s boss in a large mining firm, the day before.

Sad Rather Than Angry

Mare’s funeral was subdued and heavy with sadness rather than anger, in sharp contrast to some of the funerals that have been held in nearby townships for blacks killed in the crossfire of the nation’s tensions.

“None of us hold anger,” said Tommy Hopkins, a friend and co-worker of Mare. “It’s more a situation that we feel something evil has come out. But there’s no grudge. It’s just a sad loss.”

“We accept that what has happened . . . happened,” said Mare’s brother, Fanie Mare, the town clerk of a black township in the Johannesburg area.

Neither Mare nor Clucas was an avid rugby fan, but they felt obliged to attend the game because a superior had given them his tickets, according to Hopkins.

“We would all like to turn back the clock,” Niemandt, the pastor, said in referring to “the tragedy.” “But we must put our faith in the Lord’s power.”

ANC’s Primary Targets

The ANC, which has been waging a guerrilla war for 27 years, has said that while it aims primarily at military and government targets, some civilian casualties cannot be avoided. However, some analysts believe the recent spate of civilian bombings may signal a change in policy.

“We must make apartheid expensive in terms of financial resources and in terms of lives,” Chris Hani, the ANC chief of staff, said recently.

But moderates in the organization are said to argue that indiscriminate killings hurt their cause internationally.

Many blacks and a few whites say that such attacks are necessary because many avenues for peaceful change have been closed by the government. Thousands of people who have supported nonviolent means of gaining black political rights have been detained in the last two years.