25 Reportedly Killed on S. Africa Election Night

Black activists today said at least 25 people of black and mixed race were killed in election night clashes with police who marched through townships firing shotguns and tear gas to break up protests.

Media reports and a church monitoring group said at least 100 people were injured in more than 20 townships, and one police officer said others indiscriminately beat and whipped blacks, including bystanders.

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said 25 people were killed, mostly in the mixed-race townships around Cape Town.

‘A War Zone’

The independent South African Press Assn. described the area as “a war zone . . . as residents danced around dozens of burning barricades blocking streets in the area and police fired repeatedly at groups of youths.”

One local newspaper, Grassroots, said it had confirmed that 15 bodies were in a local mortuary.

The governing National Party narrowly retained its majority in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, which excluded the black majority.

Acting President Frederik W. de Klerk today said the results of national elections show that most white voters support his plan to grant some political rights to blacks, despite his party’s worst showing in 41 years in losing nearly a quarter of its seats.

30 Seats Lost

With votes counted in all of 166 election districts, it appeared the Nationalists will retain at least 93 of their previous 123 seats in Parliament.

Police headquarters in Pretoria said that an unspecified number of people were killed and that there were 200 incidents of unrest, including rock throwing, arson and unapproved gatherings.

Police said they used tear gas, rubber bullets and shotguns to disperse peaceful placard-carrying marchers as well as stone-throwing mobs.

On Wednesday, journalists saw five white policemen flanked by a yellow armored vehicle walking through the mixed-race township of Manenberg outside Cape Town. They said the officers slowly raised their shotguns and tear gas rifles and fired straight ahead and down side streets as they marched along.

A crowd of mixed-race youths, men and women had set fire to burning barricades of tree branches, newspapers and mattresses at each end of the street.

They were dancing and talking in the street but scattered behind fences and into houses when the armored vehicle rolled over the first barricade.

Police Riot Squads Blamed

A mixed-race police lieutenant in the Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town said police riot squads were “the cause of the riots” in that area Tuesday.

Lt. Gregory Rockman, 30, said a white riot squad major threatened to detain him under emergency regulations when he tried to stop officers from hitting bystanders as well as students holding a placard demonstration.

“They just stormed and hit them whenever they felt like doing that. They hit them like mad,” Rockman said.

He said four officers joined to beat with whips a woman waiting for a bus.