S. Africa Police Kill 7 Blacks in Funeral Unrest

Police shot and killed seven blacks in clashes in a black township east of Johannesburg today hours before more than 10,000 mourners turned out for the funeral for four blacks killed in previous rioting, police and witnesses said.

The violence broke out in Kwa-Thema, about 30 miles east of Johannesburg, police headquarters in the capital of Pretoria said.

A police statement said five blacks were shot dead with birdshot and pistol fire when a crowd attacked and firebombed a black policeman’s home, and two others were fatally wounded in a similar incident elsewhere in the township.

But reporters quoted unidentified residents as saying police fired tear gas into a movie theater that was being used for an all-night vigil for the four blacks buried today, then shot dead seven blacks as they fled the gas attack.

Eighth Black Killed

The residents said an eighth victim, also black, was also shot and killed while walking along a street during the night.

The incident was the worst in South Africa since March 21, when police fired on a crowd of mourners heading for a funeral at Uitenhage, killing 20 people.

The floor of the Gugulethu Cinema was splattered with blood, and walls and steel doors were riddled with bullet marks, according to reporters who visited the building after the clash. Shoes, hats and blankets were covered with blood, and several tear gas canisters and rubber bullets were strewn around the cinema.

Witnesses said dozens of people at the vigil hid under chairs when tear gas was fired into the hall. They said they stampeded outside when the fumes became unbearable and then came under police fire.

Crowd Packs Stadium

Several hours after the vigil, a huge crowd packed into Kwa-Thema stadium for the funeral service for four Kwa-Thema youths who died in hand-grenade and bomb explosions two weeks ago. Witnesses said two more people were shot and wounded in clashes outside the stadium after an attack on the nearby home of the mayor, Rev. James Mzamane.

Members of government-backed councils and policemen have been frequent targets of attacks by black rioters, who see such officials as collaborators with the white-minority government.

The Rev. E. H. Maphanga today called for an official investigation into police actions in Kwa-Thema and in neighboring Duduza, where five people died Friday after police wearing hoods raided the area and detained dozens of youths in a barbed-wire stockade.

The Star newspaper also called for an investigation, saying blacks could not be expected to tell police about charges against police officers “in view of the prevailing fear, suspicion and anger.”

About 400 people, all but two of them blacks, have died in unrest in South Africa in the past 10 months.

A reporter in Kwa-Thema said the township was “under siege,” with numerous armored police vehicles patrolling the streets, roadblocks halting all vehicle traffic into Kwa-Thema and buses being escorted by police vehicles.