Death Toll 65 in Continuing S. Africa Strife

Frenzied factional fighting raged in black townships for a second day Monday, and the death toll in the year’s worst outbreak of political violence rose to 65.

Despite the fighting, leaders of South Africa’s largest rival black organizations reaffirmed their intention to sign a crucial peace pact Saturday with the white-led government.

But African National Congress President Nelson Mandela and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi said in separate statements that the carnage appeared aimed at wrecking the best hope yet of reconciling their warring followers.

In one incident Monday, gunmen opened fire in a black commuter train outside Johannesburg, killing four people and wounding three. The dead and wounded were thrown from the moving train, police said.

Police declared four Johannesburg townships “unrest areas,” which gives authorities expanded powers to halt violence.

Fighting also was reported in Natal province in eastern South Africa.

The outbreak of violence began Sunday when gunmen ambushed a political procession of Inkatha members in Tokhoza township. As word of the attack spread, blacks took to the streets to battle political foes with guns, grenades, knives and spears.

At least 57 people were killed around Johannesburg in the two days of fighting, police said. Eight more blacks died in Natal, and almost 100 were wounded in the two regions, they said.

Mandela said he does not know who was responsible for the ambush, but he hinted that elements within the government security forces might be involved.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher asked the government to “investigate fully the acts of violence of the past few days. And we call on the leaders of the ANC and Inkatha to work together and work with the government to ensure that the violence can finally be brought to a halt.”