Shock waves from the worst racial violence in South Africa's history (TIME, June 28) reverberated through that tense country last week. While heavily armed police stood guard around the smoldering ruins of Sowetoa satellite township for nearly 1 million blacks on the outskirts of Johannesburgsporadic rioting broke out in neighboring ghettos and in black suburbs near Pretoria. In both cities, whites rushed to buy arms and ammunition for protection against the so-called swart gevaar (black peril) although at no time were any white communities threatened.
Unlike the bloody riots in Soweto, which were touched off by compulsory teaching in the...