Black Homeland Regime Appears Near Collapse

The bizarre black homeland government of Bophuthatswana, one of the strangest creations of apartheid, appeared close to collapse Thursday night after four days of raucous strikes, running street battles and scattered gunfire in the tiny capital.

Thousands of chanting, cheering protesters celebrated by looting shops and burning and stoning vehicles in the dusty streets of Mmabatho after local radio reported that the autocratic president, Lucas Mangope, had fled by helicopter. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.

But Mangope clearly had lost control, since his once-feared police and military forces were crumbling in the face of demonstrators’ demands that the nominally independent homeland be reincorporated into South Africa and its voters be allowed to take part in the country’s first free, all-race elections next month.

Almost everyone in Mangope’s civil service, from firefighters to teachers, honored a general strike Thursday to protest his repressive policies. Shops were shuttered, offices closed. And senior members of his handpicked administration had deserted the smoke-filled, embattled capital.

“He’s a president without any people,” David Van Wyk, a striking teacher, said in a telephone interview.

By late afternoon, hundreds of local troops and police had joined the uprising, allowing students to climb atop armored military vehicles and defiantly wave flags in support of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress.

Some soldiers shed their uniforms or handed their weapons to demonstrators who ran and danced along Lucas Mangope Highway. One policeman stood atop his vehicle, using its loudspeaker to chant over and over, “We want peace.”

“The police were dancing in the streets with the people,” said Joyce Molaoloa, another striking teacher. “I saw it. They said they will harass the people no more.”

Police also stood by as mobs tore down traffic signs, burned tires, stripped trees and smashed scores of windows to plunder an upscale shopping complex called MegaCity. Crowds streamed from the site carrying clothes, whiskey, televisions, sofas and computers.

Two people, including a policeman, were reported killed and more than 70 injured in clashes this week. At least 37 were wounded Wednesday by police firing buckshot and tear gas in tense running battles through the streets.

South African President Frederik W. de Klerk told reporters that he is watching the crisis but had no immediate plans to send troops to quell the unrest.

Separately, Mandela said that he had “done everything in my power” to get Mangope to join the elections.

International observer missions, who are flooding into South Africa for the elections, issued an appeal for peace. “We deplore the use of force and call on all concerned, and particularly the security forces of Bophuthatswana, to prevent further casualties and loss of life,” said the statement, issued by the U.N., Organization of African Unity, European Union and Commonwealth observer missions.

Mmabatho was quiet by midnight, residents said, with police manning roadblocks around government buildings and hotels.

Mangope has refused to take part in South Africa’s historic elections next month. More important, he announced that he would not let other political parties campaign in his territory nor permit polls to open for the estimated 1.4 million voters in his nominal control.

Mangope, 69, insists his country is free and independent. But South Africa is the only nation to recognize it. He has ruled with near dictatorial powers since the engineers of apartheid created Bop, as it is called, and nine other homelands and territories in the 1970s as a way of separating the races.

Bop became the most successful of the homelands, drawing rich revenues from platinum mines and gambling casinos at Sun City. But the bulk of its budget still comes from Pretoria. Corruption is widely alleged, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on giant stadiums, a convention center and other facilities that are rarely if ever used.

All the homelands are to be abolished after the April 26-28 election and reincorporated into South Africa, according to the interim constitution.

But Mangope has aligned himself with white separatists and Zulu nationalists in the so-called Freedom Alliance who have united forces to oppose the election and win more self-determination.