Military

DATE=10/18/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268115

TITLE=SAF BOMB (L ONLY)

BYLINE=DELIA ROBERTSON

DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A bomb explosion has injured four women, none critically, in South Africa's legislative capital, Cape Town. V-O-A's Delia Robertson reports the explosion occurred near the offices of the opposition Democratic Alliance, but it is not known if the party offices were the target.

TEXT: The bomb is the latest in a four-year bombing spree in Cape Town in which 110 blasts have rocked the city. In the past two years, bombs have claimed three lives and injured more than 120 others. As in most previous cases, no one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

The bomb exploded near the offices of the Democratic Alliance, the opposition political party which resulted from the recent merger of the Democratic Party and the New National Party. It is not known if the party was the target of the bomb. But the party's deputy provincial leader, Hennie Bester, says security will be stepped up at all party offices in the run-up to local government elections scheduled for December Fifth.

There does not appear to be any pattern to the blasts which have occurred in different kinds of locations, from police stations to gay bars. At least two outlets of United States franchise companies have been bombed.

The South African government has laid the blame for the bombs on PAGAD, or People against Gangsterism and Drugs, a vigilante organization which is dominated by a small element in the Muslim community. Not all Muslim community based organizations and religious leaders support PAGAD.

PAGAD representatives vehemently deny the organization is responsible for the bombs as well as for attacks on police and justice officials connected to criminal investigations of PAGAD members.

South Africa's Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete has labeled PAGAD a gang of terrorists. PAGAD representatives say they will institute legal defamation action against him but have not yet done so.

More than 100 members of PAGAD have been arrested on charges of violence and PAGAD national coordinator Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim was charged earlier this month with several blasts in Cape Town in 1997 and 1998. (Signed)

NEB/DAR/KL/JWH