Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990 TAG: 9003061727
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: New York Times
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH LENGTH: Short
Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha, who said Sunday that South Africa would not interfere with the coup, stressed at a news conference Monday in Cape Town that the security forces had been sent at the request of Ciskei's new military ruler, Brig. Oupa Joshua Cqozo.
Cqozo, the intelligence chief of Ciskei's small army, ousted President Lennox L. Sebe while the president was visiting Hong Kong.
The overthrow of the president, whose authoritarian rule made him unpopular with people in Ciskei, was greeted with public rejoicing that turned into widespread pillaging and arson lasting through the night.
On Monday evening, crowds were said to be converging on Ciskei's new capital, Bisho. Stores were looted and businesses and factories set afire.
The South African Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday evening that 40 buses had been destroyed at a depot in Reeston.
Botha said the troops were being sent to protect government buildings financed by South Africa as well as a water pumping station that provides water for the town of East London outside Ciskei. He said they would also defend other installations.
Ciskei, which is less than half the size of New Jersey, has about one million inhabitants, most of them Xhosas.
Sebe called from Hong Kong to ask South Africa to restore him to power, but it did not comply, as it had in an attempted coup against President Lucas M. Mangope in February 1988 in the homeland of Bophuthatswana.
by CNB