S.A. death inquiry ordered

Press, 10 May 1985, Page 6

S.A. death inquiry ordered

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg South Africa’s police chief has ordered an inquiry into the death of a black trade union leader, and violence continued to sweep the country’s black townships yesterday. The Police Commissioner, Major-General P. J. Coetzee, appointed a senior police official to investigate and “urgently report” on the detention and treatment of Andries Raditsela, who died in hospital on Monday after being released from police custody. The investigator is Brigadier J. Viktor, head of the Criminal Investigation De-

partment in Johannesburg’s black township of Soweto. Mr Raditsela, a shop steward for the Chemical Workers’ Union and a member of the executive council of the Federation of South African Trade Unions, was detained briefly on Saturday under South Africa’s sweeping internal security laws. He was taken to hospital a few hours later, and his union said that he died of head injuries. An autopsy was being held today. Alex Boraine, a leading Opposition member of Parliament, said in Parliament yesterday that Mr Raditsela’s death was “like

putting a match to grass in an already tense South Africa. “There is something very serious and sick happening in the townships, and we probably know very little of what disorder and lawlessness is taking place there, sometimes with those in authority being the chief culprits,” he said. In the latest eruption of violence the bodies of eight men were found yesterday in the township of Tsakane, east of Johannesburg. The police said that the deaths had occurred in a running battle between the Xhosa and Zulu tribal

groups and should not be interpreted as part of the politically motivated unrest that has cost more than 150 lives so far this year. But Tsakane residents denied that the fighting was tribal and said it had begun with the funeral of a schoolgirl who died in rioting in a neighbouring township. The police said that they had used buckshot, rubber bullets, and tear-gas in continuing township rioting across South Africa A police spokesman said that police vehicles had been attacked and set afire and that houses had been petrol-bombed and stoned.