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-- Masabata Loate, a leader of the 1976 antiapartheid student uprising, was slain with axes and knives near her Soweto home after serving a five-year prison term for treason. Loate, 29, had angered the comrades by speaking out strongly against necklaces.
So intimidating have the comrades become that in many parts of South Africa they can terrify township residents simply by holding up boxes of matches. When they are not carrying out spontaneous attacks, they may hold kangaroo "people's courts" that are designed to intimidate the public. In a typical court session, young toughs drag the accused forward, inform him or * her of the charges and then pronounce and execute the sentence. The outcome is never in doubt.
The people's courts are a brutal offshoot of street committees that were once promoted by the United Democratic Front and the African National Congress, South Africa's outlawed antiapartheid group. Initially formed to discuss grievances and political protests, the committees have since turned to more direct and violent action.
After first expressing support for the comrades, the A.N.C. now disavows their tactics. Winnie Mandela, the wife of jailed Black Leader Nelson Mandela, caused a furor last April by declaring, "With our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country." A.N.C. leaders later told her to stop making such statements, and at the group's 75th anniversary celebration in Lusaka two weeks ago, A.N.C. President Oliver Tambo declared, "Of course we are not in favor of necklacing. We don't like necklacing, but we understand its origins. It originated from the extremes to which people were provoked by the unspeakable brutalities of the apartheid system."
The violent radicals are not responding to calls for moderation. Notes Allister Sparks, a liberal South African journalist: "An element is emerging in the black townships of South Africa that is beyond anyone's control, an element so brutalized that it now seeks only to kill and burn in blind revenge."
A black and just as violent backlash, however, has grown against the comrades. In the Crossroads squatter camp near Cape Town, community leaders known as "fathers" have donned white headbands and armbands and organized patrol groups called vigilantes. "The people of Old Crossroads will hunt them down and beat the comrades," said Sam Ndima, a leader of the fathers. Frequent clashes have claimed dozens of lives on both sides and destroyed thousands of shanties. In Soweto, the city council has called for the formation of vigilante bands to stamp out "political renegades" and protect local citizens.
Many vigilantes are middle-class people who are willing to strike back at the comrades to protect their property and the positions they have achieved. A recent study by Jeremy Seekings of Witwatersrand University found that they include shopkeepers, taxi owners, teachers, police officers and town councilors. Seekings says such people are driven by their "material interest in stability, a related inclination toward conservatism and fear for their lives and property."