S. African Black Legislator Slain by Mob as He Flees

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Blacks set fire to the home of a black legislator from the Zulu homeland today and then shot him dead as he fled the blaze. Four other people also were killed in anti-apartheid rioting around the country.

A black mob gunned down Francis Dlamini, 37, as he fled his burning home in the Kwa-Mashu black township outside Durban at 1:30 a.m. today, police said. Dlamini’s son was shot in the shoulder as he escaped.

Dlamini held a seat in the Kwa-Zulu homeland assembly and was a central committee member of Inkatha, the powerful Zulu cultural organization. Both are led by Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who has been locked in bitter squabbles with the United Democratic Front anti-apartheid coalition.

‘Killing . . . Come to Stay’

The front regards Buthelezi as a sellout and says he has set gangs upon his opponents. Buthelezi said of Dlamini’s assassination, “Killing for political purposes has clearly come to stay in black politics.”

Fighting between Inkatha and the front was a major factor in bloody rioting in Durban in early August that left at least 70 dead. It never became clear how many people were killed by infighting among blacks and how many by police.

In other racial violence, police discovered the body of a woman in the wreck of a burned car at the Crossroads camp near Cape Town, and a mixed-race youth was shot to death in Hanover Park when a private citizen fired on a crowd of stone-throwing youths.

In the Zwide township near Port Elizabeth, police killed one stone-throwing black man and wounded two others, and another was fatally stabbed by a mob.

On Eve of Elections

The violence came on the eve of five special parliamentary elections that President Pieter W. Botha described as a test of white voter support for gradual race reforms.

While Botha’s right-wing National Party appears likely to keep all five seats, ultraconservative parties are seeking a strong showing to oppose what they call the first steps toward surrendering power to blacks.