The Plot Thickens

HOURS AFTER BLACK LEADER CHRIS HANI WAS gunned down, the government said the assassination appeared to be the work of a lone fanatic, Janusz Walus, of the far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement. Last week, however, police officials rounded up more suspects and confirmed suspicions of a conspiracy. Two names stunned the country: Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior official of the Conservative Party, the "respectable face" of right-wing whites, and his journalist wife Gabrielle.

As police investigated possible international links, the African National Congress feared that right-wing whites posed a bigger threat to pro-democracy negotiations than previously thought. Another complication: Conservative Party leader Andries Treurnicht died last Thursday at the age of 72, following heart surgery. He may be succeeded by a radical figure, deputy leader Ferdinand Hartzenberg.