Bombing blitz injures 47 in South Africa

A bombing blitz across South Africa injured 47 people, and Pretoria said radicals had launched an all-out campaign to disrupt municipal elections bitterly opposed by anti-apartheid activists. The biggest of five explosions Wednesday and Thursday was at a Johannesburg bus terminal used mainly by whites. Eighteen people were hurt, police said.

Other targets included the Why Not discotheque patronized by blacks in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow. The district is known as a ``grey area'' because different races live there in defiance of apartheid laws.

About 30 people have died and hundreds have been injured in more than 100 urban guerrilla attacks in South Africa this year. Smart shopping centers, fast-food restaurants, and Johannesburg's main rugby stadium have been hit.

Authorities blame the African National Congress (ANC), the Lusaka-based guerrilla movement fighting to end minority white rule. Pretoria dismisses statements by ANC officials that their policy is to avoid ``soft'' civilian targets.

Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok said he believed the ANC and its partners in the South African Communist Party were doing everything possible to disrupt municipal elections slated for Oct. 26.

In the vote, whites, blacks, Indians, and mixed-race Coloureds will elect segregated councils which are condemned by many black leaders as instruments of apartheid.