Tutu cools angry blacks

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 6

Tutu cools angry blacks

NZPA-AP Johannesburg The Bishop of Johannesburg the Right Reverend Desmond Tutu defused an angry black mob of thousands yesterday after three days of fierce riots near the stylish white suburbs north of Johannesburg. While he pleaded with the crowd in the black township of Alexandra the Government admitted in Parliament in Cape Town that the official death count in the Alexandra

protests was almost twice what the police — even at that hour — were saying. The police insisted that 10 people had died in the township unrest that began at the week-end with clashes between police and black mourners departing from funerals for two black activists. In Parliament Adriaan Vlok, the Deputy Minister of Law and Order, said that 19 people had died since Saturday, and that 16 had been killed by security forces.

The security forces have understated unrest casualties before. The Rev. Allan Boesak, a Coloured anti-apartheid leader, said, “As many as 300 have been injured and scores have died.” Mike Beea, chairman of the Alexandra Civic Association, said, “We fear that at least 30 people may have died.” Bishop Tutu arrived at Alexandra after the Army moved in to prevent a mob of blacks, estimated at 30,000, from marching

on a police station. The police, according to witnesses, offered to meet representatives of the group, so Bishop Tutu and other black clerics stepped forward. The winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize then successfully urged the mob to return peacefully to a soccer stadium. After meeting police for an hour, Bishop Tutu emerged grim-faced and huddled with other clerics. He told black South African reporters that the

police had said they did not view him as a representative of the residents. The police had said that the Rev. Sam Buti, viewed by many Alexandra residents as a collaborator with whites, was the township’s elected leader. Mr Buti holds the title of Mayor in the white-run Alexandra council that most residents ignore, but he was nowhere in the township yesterday. Rioters had threatened to kill council members.