13 Die in Clash of S. African Black Rivals : Violence: Despite the ANC-Inkatha fighting, Mandela gives an upbeat political assessment.

Supporters of the African National Congress battled a rival black group with guns and firebombs Saturday in a township clash described as a “Wild West shootout.” At least 13 people were killed and 61 wounded, police said.

The fighting erupted as hundreds of ANC supporters marched toward a police station. They were fired on by residents of a migrant workers hostel loyal to the Inkatha Freedom Party, the ANC’s bitter rival.

ANC supporters fired back, and the gun battles lasted several hours, police spokesman Capt. Wikus Weber said.

“It was a big, Wild West shootout,” he said. “Both sides were engaged in a number of shootings.”

Two white security guards were among the 13 killed Saturday, Weber said. Of the 61 injured, three were police who suffered burns when their vehicle was firebombed.

The fighting in Tokoza, a township southeast of Johannesburg, underscored the explosive nature of many black areas. ANC and Inkatha, a conservative, Zulu movement, have battled repeatedly in the township. Hostels for migrant Zulu workers in ANC strongholds in heavily populated industrial areas around Johannesburg are traditional flash points.

Meanwhile, ANC leader Nelson Mandela gave one of his most upbeat assessments of South Africa’s political situation in recent weeks.

Mandela, speaking hundreds of miles away at an ANC rally in the eastern town of Estcourt, said multi-party negotiations are close to setting a date for the country’s first elections open to the black majority.

“It’s clear to everyone that democratic changes are coming,” Mandela said. “Our negotiators . . . are making tremendous progress toward bringing a democratic South Africa into this country. We are now on the verge of announcing a date for elections.”

But Mandela raised a new complication, saying the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 14.

The parties involved in black-white negotiations on the country’s future say they want to set a date for elections by the end of May. The most likely target is early 1994, a time acceptable to both the ANC and President Frederik W. de Klerk’s white-led government.