Curfew Ends in Soweto as Violence Falls : South Africa: Official praises residents’ cooperation with police. But restrictions continue in other black townships.

Police said Friday that they are lifting a 10-day-old nighttime curfew in the black township of Soweto because a sharp drop in political violence and crime make the restrictions no longer necessary.

Police imposed the 9 p.m.-to-4 a.m. curfew Sept. 25 in Soweto and other nearby townships to halt black factional fighting around Johannesburg that has claimed 800 lives in the last two months.

Only scattered incidents have been reported recently, and South African Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok said serious crime in Soweto has dropped by about two-thirds as compared to the 10 days before the curfew.

Vlok praised residents in Soweto for “outstanding cooperation” with the police. Soweto, just outside Johannesburg, is South Africa’s largest township, with 2.5 million inhabitants.

The curfew will remain in effect in several other townships, police said.

The African National Congress, the leading black opposition movement, has opposed the curfew, saying it was implemented to weaken the normal organizational activities of the ANC.

However, many Soweto residents said the curfew, while inconvenient, has made the township safer.

In other developments Friday, Nelson Mandela and other ANC officials met with leaders of five black homelands at Mandela’s home in Soweto. However, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the Zulu homeland and head of the conservative Inkatha movement, declined to attend.

Most of the township fighting has been between the ANC and Inkatha. Buthelezi says he wants one-on-one talks with Mandela to discuss the violence. The ANC has refused the request, saying Buthelezi has used the fighting to seek a meeting with Mandela that would enhance his stature.

After the meeting, Mandela said all participants agreed that an unidentified “third force” is instigating the black factional fighting.

“It’s not tribal violence at all,” Mandela said. “It is orchestrated by certain faceless forces in this country.”

Mandela and other black leaders have accused right-wing extremists, including members of the police and military, of fueling the fighting.

Also, ANC and government delegations met in Pretoria to work out details of the ANC’s decision to suspend its guerrilla campaign. The two sides have held periodic talks since the ANC suspended its largely ineffective armed struggle Aug. 6.

The ANC, seeking a share of political power and at odds with white business leaders over the country’s economic future, has toned down its socialist policies but still wants to see some industries nationalized.

The ANC released an economic policy document Friday saying that if it comes to power, priority would be placed on redistributing wealth through affirmative action programs favoring blacks.

The ANC says it envisions a mixed economy “but does not believe that market forces alone will result in anything but the perpetuation of existing disparities of income.”

Whites account for only 5 million of the country’s estimated 40 million people but dominate the economy. Blacks have an annual per-capita income of more than $1,000, one of the highest in Africa, but only a small fraction of white incomes in the country.

President Frederik W. de Klerk’s government and white business leaders argue that socialist-oriented policies will produce economic stagnation in South Africa similar to that in Eastern Europe. They say capitalism is the quickest way to raise black living standards.

But the ANC says the government must intervene to reduce the gap between white wealth and black poverty.

When Mandela was released in February after 27 years in prison for plotting against the government, he said the ANC wanted to nationalize gold mines, banks and other leading industries.

But the 18-page document released Friday refrained from specific calls to nationalize major industries.

It did say, however, that there might be cases for the “compulsory establishment of new public enterprises.”

The ANC also said it is “staunchly opposed to current government plans to privatize the public utility corporations.”