S. African Police Fire on ANC Deputy’s Motorcade

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Police gunfire caused a car in an ANC convoy to crash early Sunday as it was returning from Nelson Mandela’s 75th birthday party. One ANC member died and two were seriously injured.

Police and ANC officials gave conflicting accounts of the incident, which involved a motorcade carrying Walter Sisulu, deputy president of the African National Congress, from Johannesburg to the Soweto black township.

ANC officials accused police of firing on the car without warning, and Tokyo Sexwale, leader of the ANC’s largest region, questioned whether it was an attempt to assassinate Sisulu, who was in a different car with his wife.

The police report said that officers fired at the ANC car only after it tried to run them off the road and shots were fired at the police vehicle. A spokesman said police confiscated three guns.

The incident is not expected to have any serious impact on black-white political talks. But such incidents add to the friction between the ANC and the white government as they are trying to prepare for April’s multiracial election that would end apartheid.

Two conservative black and white groups plan to boycott the talks when they resume today. But leaders of the more than 20 other parties in the talks say they will press ahead with negotiations on an interim constitution to guide the country after the election.

The Conservative Party, a pro-apartheid white group, announced its boycott Saturday, and the Inkatha Freedom Party, a conservative Zulu movement, Sunday affirmed its leader’s decision to stay away.

Elsewhere Sunday, the ANC Women’s League suspended Mandela’s estranged wife, Winnie, for a year, dealing another blow to the woman once called the “Mother of the Nation” by black activists.

Winnie Mandela, 58, had no immediate comment.

The Women’s League said Winnie Mandela and four other women suspended with her had “put the ANC and the Women’s League to disrepute” and damaged the organization financially and politically. The group did not cite any specific incidents, but she has been dogged by controversy in recent years.