S. Africa Blast Hits Offices of Apartheid Foes

A powerful bomb early Wednesday wrecked a six-story office building in downtown Johannesburg that serves as headquarters of several leading anti-apartheid groups, including a religious council enmeshed in a church-state confrontation with the South African government.

Twenty-three people were injured or treated for shock after the blast ripped through Khotso House, collapsing the main lobby into the basement and tearing off part of the building’s facade.

Khotso House was headquarters for the South African Council of Churches, one of the few major anti-apartheid groups that has not been banned by the government.

For years the building, in a racially mixed neighborhood, has been a symbol of defiance of the minority white-led government, and has repeatedly been subjected to raids by security police.

The Rev. Frank Chikane, general secretary of the SACC, said the bombing may have been inspired by the strong position the churches have taken against apartheid after virtually every other opposition group was banned or severely restricted.