Zulus defy emergency but Natal march ends quietly

EMPANGENI, South Africa (Reuter): Thousands of Zulus defied a state of emergency in South Africa's Natal region by carrying traditional weapons during a march yesterday, although the demonstration ended without violence.

But police said the death toll elsewhere in Natal and its adjoining KwaZulu black homeland had risen to 71 since President F.W. de Klerk declared the emergency last Thursday to halt political violence tearing the region apart.

Police said the Zulus had defied emergency regulations by parading with weapons that included shields, fighting sticks, machetes, spears and knives.

They were marching to back demands by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini for a sovereign Zulu state in the region. A similar demonstration in Johannesburg last week ended in a bloodbath with more than 50 people dead.

"We could not disarm them without bloodshed," police Major Margaret Kruger said of yesterday's march, which was watched by heavily-armed police with dogs and troops backed by armored vehicles.

But she said there had been no deal and the police were gathering information for possible charges against the march organizers over the carrying of weapons during a state of emergency.

"These people have contravened the regulations. We will open a docket on the organizers. The attorney-general will decide whether to prosecute," Kruger said.

In Durban, police Maj. Bala Naidoo said four people were killed execution-style in Natal on Monday night, bringing the death toll to 71 since Thursday.

He said they were forced out of a black homestead at Folweni, south of Durban, and told by unknown attackers to lie on the ground. They were then shot, he said, adding it was not immediately known if the motive was political.

Two people were killed by a "people's court" at Maphumulo black rural area near Greytown in the Natal Midlands on Monday, police Maj. Henry Bhudram said.

"They were chained to a chair and set alight," Bhudram said. He had no further details.

De Klerk imposed the state of emergency after about 300 people were killed last month in political violence, mainly between Zulu supporters of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party of chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Inkatha has refused to take part in the country's first all- race elections on April 26-28 which political analysts expect the ANC to win comfortably, ending more than three centuries of white domination.

The Zulu demonstrators had gathered early yesterday on the outskirts of Empangeni, the commercial heart of Zululand.

A top Inkatha regional official had called on the marchers to observe discipline and lay down dangerous weapons.

"We ask you please not to stir up trouble. We have not come here to fight but to prove we are autonomous," said Inkatha northern Natal region organizer Robert Mkhize, speaking from on top of a police armored vehicle.

Soldiers with flak jackets and automatic rifles stood guard on street corners in Empangeni, a spread-out center for business and light industry 200 kilometers north of Durban.

Armored vehicles were positioned at key points in the town of about 25,000 people, set in green hills 20 kilometers west of Richards Bay, South Africa's main coal exporting port.

The local ANC office was cordoned off with razor wire.

The Zulu king told British-based Sky television in a weekend interview: "We need no bloodbath, bloodshed in this country. We need to live in peace with other race groups, but the needs of a Zulu nation and the claim of a Zulu nation needs to be looked at."