Tribal Chiefs Blame S. African Government for Clashes

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Rival tribal chiefs blamed the white-led government Sunday for the black factional fighting around Johannesburg that has claimed more than 500 lives in the past two weeks.

Most of the fighting has involved Zulus loyal to the conservative Inkatha movement against Xhosas and other blacks who support the African National Congress.

A delegation of Zulu and Xhosa chiefs toured troubled townships Sunday and pleaded for an end to the fighting.

The delegation, which included seven Xhosa and six Zulu chiefs, said it did not represent any political party. But the chiefs all belong to the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, a group with close ties to the ANC.

The chiefs said the violence was “not a Zulu-Xhosa conflict, but has its roots in the system of apartheid.”

“The problem is the collaboration between the police and Inkatha,” said Mwelo Nonkonyana, a Xhosa chief.

President Frederik W. de Klerk and police have repeatedly denied allegations of police bias. De Klerk has said individual policemen may have acted improperly, but the force as a whole has followed orders to be impartial.

The tribal chiefs were accompanied Sunday by ANC leader Walter Sisulu, but Sisulu declined to enter any of the hostels after advisers told him tensions were still running high.

Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi on Saturday blamed the ANC for instigating the fighting, which has resulted in some of the worst violence since nationwide unrest during the mid-1980s.

Buthelezi charges the ANC with trying to crush all opposition.

ANC leader Nelson Mandela said the new emergency measures were unnecessary but would not derail negotiations with the government on ending apartheid and black-white power-sharing.

Mandela left Saturday night on a weeklong trip to Norway, Libya and Algeria. In Oslo, he reiterated that the South African government is abetting the violence.