Out of Sight

The government's curb on press coverage of clashes between police and black protesters may have stopped the flow of violent images from South Africa's battered townships, but it has not stanched the flow of blood. While the average number of deaths each day dropped from 3.4 to fewer than two in the weeks immediately following Pretoria's imposition of media restraints on Nov. 2, the average daily toll last week rose above five. The statistic was a sharp challenge to the government's contention that without television and camera crews present to incite publicity-hungry blacks to violent heroics, the disturbances would quiet down. As unrest flared in Queenstown and Mamelodi, two black areas that had been relatively calm, the protesters seemed to be indifferent to the absence of reporters.

The press restrictions have, however, created another side effect. With reporters mostly barred from entering the townships to cover the unrest, many have poured their energies into chasing down rumors. Word had it last week that Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed African National Congress who has been serving a life sentence since 1964, might soon be released and deported to Lusaka, Zambia, where the A.N.C. has its headquarters. The reports were fueled largely by the fact that the 67-year-old Mandela, who underwent prostate surgery four weeks ago, had not yet been returned from a hospital in Cape Town to his cell in Pollsmoor Prison. State President P.W. Botha tried to dispel the rumors, saying that "no decision has been taken" on Mandela's future. At week's end, authorities announced that Mandela had been returned to the prison outside Cape Town.

Equally sketchy were reports of what occurred when members of the U.S. Corporate Council on South Africa, an elite group of American business executives, met in London two weeks ago with their South African counterparts. While the participants, who included the chief executive officers of General Motors and Citibank, have kept a tight lid on the proceedings, it is assumed that strategies to hasten racial reform were discussed. Meanwhile another group, representing the 186 U.S. companies that subscribe to a code of fair employment practices known as the Sullivan Principles, sent a telex to the South African government urging Botha to "lower tensions" in the schools of the country's black townships.