S. Africa Clashes Claim 21 Lives; Toll Reaches 183 : Violence: Rival black factions continue to rampage through townships. Hopes for an early truce through peace talks fade.

Roving bands of rival black factions, carrying makeshift shields, guns and spears, rampaged through the black townships near Johannesburg Friday, clashing in scattered fights that left an additional 21 people dead, bringing the death toll since Monday to 183.

Police in armored vehicles rolled past streets barricaded with boulders and burning cars. They fired volleys of tear gas to disperse the armed mobs who were chanting war cries. Some shots were reportedly fired as the rioters fled through shantytown streets.

Police said at least 31 people had been killed and 217 injured in two days of savage hand-to-hand fighting in Soweto, South Africa’s largest black township.

Friday’s violence followed the apparent failure of a peace initiative late Thursday in which President Frederick W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela agreed to try to establish “peace forums” of rivals in the strife.

There were no peace talks Friday, and hopes for an early truce appeared grim.

The fighting pits Zulu supporters of the conservative Inkatha movement against mostly Xhosa members of the African National Congress, led by Mandela.

In an impassioned statement, the ANC accused the government’s security forces of plotting to use the Zulu-based Inkatha party to stir up tribal rivalry.

“They want to provoke a mass backlash among blacks and whites in support of tough repressive measures by the government in order to undermine the process towards peace,” the statement said.

The group also appealed to blacks to work for peace.

In Soweto on Friday, groups of up to 100 armed men waved sticks, knives, bayonets and shields fashioned of trash-can lids as they marched through the township. Most of the combatants were Zulu migrant workers from the Inkatha stronghold of Natal or Xhosa residents of Soweto.

On Friday afternoon, hundreds of Inkatha supporters moved out of their compounds and stood on the railway track with guns and sticks, waiting for the trains to bring black commuters home from Johannesburg, the South African Press Assn. reported.

The violence centered in areas around hostels used by Zulu migrant workers from Natal province.

Residents estimated that tens of thousands of Soweto’s 2 million residents stayed at home, afraid of venturing out into the streets. Many schools stayed empty for a second day.

Police and residents reported looting, random gasoline-bombing of homes and indiscriminate gang attacks on individuals. Six people, including four children, were badly burned when someone threw a firebomb into their shack in Kagiso township, north of Soweto.

Inkatha President Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi on Friday said that ANC backers “frequently insult, denigrate and attack Inkatha members on the trains, in the buses and other places.” He said that had sparked the conflict. On Thursday, he blamed the trouble on Mandela’s refusal to meet with him.

Many Zulus involved in the fighting said they would not accept Mandela and the ANC as a future government.