Roving Gang Kills 21 in 2 Black Townships : South Africa: Drive-by shootings add to the recent bloodshed just hours after the signing of a peace agreement.

A gang with guns and sharp weapons murdered 21 people in two of the black townships near Johannesburg, police said Sunday.

Police Capt. Eugene Opperman said the men shot at pedestrians as they drove through Tembisa and Thokoza in a minibus Saturday night. He said police saw the attacks as an attempt to rekindle violence in the townships, where more than 500 people have died in feuding between supporters of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress and those of Zulu leader Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi.

“They (attackers) tried to get everybody worked up so that the groups would start attacking each other again,” Opperman said.

The killings occurred within hours of a peace accord between Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC, signed Saturday in the northern region Natal province, scene of the worst of the fighting. Mandela returned Sunday from a trip to Norway, Libya and Zambia. Police said that in addition to the 21 killings, four other people were injured in the townships.

In addition, two bodies were discovered near a workers’ hostel in Vosloorus township, where police also found two assault rifles and detained an unspecified number of suspects for questioning.

Each faction has accused the other of fomenting the violence, and Buthelezi has said that talks with Mandela would be the only way to end the fighting. Mandela has refused, and blames Buthelezi’s political ambitions for the conflict.

President Frederik W. de Klerk imposed emergency rule on the 27 townships around Johannesburg on Aug. 24, after two weeks of factional violence.