31 Killed in Attack on Hostel Housing Mandela Backers

At least 31 people were killed when Zulu vigilantes backed by South African security forces attacked a hostel housing supporters of black leader Nelson Mandela overnight, residents said today.

At least nine of the victims in the attack in Sebokeng township, south of Johannesburg, were killed by South African government troops, local residents said.

Witnesses said Zulus supporting the conservative Inkatha Freedom Party were ferried by security forces to the hostel mainly occupied by Xhosa supporters of Mandela’s African National Congress, South Africa’s main black opposition group.

The Inkatha vigilantes hacked and bludgeoned to death 22 people inside the hostel, while soldiers outside opened fire indiscriminately as a clergyman and residents tried to negotiate peace with police, local residents said.

“The police vehicles ran over dead and dying people,” said Father Lord McCamel of the Church of God in neighboring Evaton.

Mandela, who was briefed on the overnight violence early today, immediately left for Sebokeng to try to reduce the tension.

More than 500 people have died in a month of factional fighting between ANC and Inkatha factions in townships around Johannesburg. The ANC has blamed the police for much of the violence.

In a separate bid to bring peace to South Africa’s volatile townships, President Frederik W. de Klerk made his first official tour of Soweto, the country’s largest, since taking office last year.

It was only the fourth visit in 12 years by a South African head of government to a black township.

De Klerk, his wife, Marieke, and two Cabinet ministers spent the morning in the township touring a hospital, school, shopping center, police station and the Nancefield workers’ hostel torn by factional violence less than two weeks ago.

De Klerk and his entourage received warm and impromptu greetings at every stop, in sharp contrast to the reception received by De Klerk’s predecessor, Pieter W. Botha, when he visited Soweto in 1979.