GRAPEVINE

By DAVID ELLIS

, Right-wing assassins in South Africa have found a brutal, high-tech way to punish their enemies: send them a booby-trapped tape player. On Feb. 15, such a Walkman-type device took the life of Bheki Mlangeni, a human-rights lawyer. The real target of the deadly package was Dirk Coetzee, a former policeman who now supports the African National Congress and lives in exile in Zambia. Coetzee testified last summer that former colleagues on the South African police force were behind the hit-squad deaths of several A.N.C. activists. The parcel bomb was sent to Coetzee in Lusaka. But when he refused to pay the duty on the package, it was sent to Mlangeni's Johannesburg law firm, falsely listed as the return address. Intrigued by a tape marked EVIDENCE OF HIT SQUADS, the lawyer took the tape player home and put on the headset that had been thoughtfully included. A few seconds later its right earphone exploded, apparently triggered by a sound signal.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart