SOUTH AFRICA THE BOOT COMES DOWN Emergency rule declared amid unrest and outrage

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South African folklore contains proud tales of ''going into the laager.'' During the 19th century, Afrikaner settlers under attack would form their wagons into a circle, set up a line of defense and then bravely fight off the fierce black tribesmen. Last week the South African government went into a new kind of laager. At 12:01 a.m. Thursday, thousands of gun-toting police and troops rumbled out of their stations and barracks in the armored personnel carriers that are today's covered wagons. By the time dawn broke, authorities had rousted out of bed and taken into custody hundreds of antiapartheid activists, and assumed positions on city streets and in black townships. In the folklore of the country's Afrikaners, the settlers almost always win. But it was far from clear last week whether this modern laager would quell South Africa's latest siege of violence or lead to even greater disorder. The extreme show of force was part of a new, nationwide state of emergency declared by the beleaguered government of State President P.W. Botha. The decree gives South African security forces unprecedented powers to make arrests without charge, hold detainees without hearings for unlimited periods, search any home or office without warrant, ban meetings and impose press censorship. Police and troops were given authority to use whatever force they deem necessary to break up illegal gatherings, and cannot be taken to court in any criminal or civil prosecution for actions they take in ''good faith.'' The emergency powers are the most drastic yet in the government's effort to crush a black rebellion that in the past 21 months has taken more than 1,700 lives, almost all of them black. Colin Eglin, leader of the white opposition Progressive Federal Party, called the decree ''the most severe clampdown on civil liberty and the most far-reaching denial of freedom of speech and assembly and the press in the history of South Africa.'' The government brought down this boot on the very day that a group of Commonwealth statesmen were holding a press conference in London to release a / report that denounces the South African government for blocking negotiations with the country's black leaders, especially the jailed Nelson Mandela. The so-called Eminent Persons Group that drew up the report warned that unless the Commonwealth nations take strong new measures to force the South African government to change its policies, there ''could be the worst bloodbath since the Second World War.'' The immediate justification for the new state of emergency was the preparation for a series of strikes, demonstrations and vigils by antiapartheid groups to commemorate the tenth anniversary of a June 1976 uprising in Soweto, the sprawling township outside Johannesburg that houses some 2 million blacks. That riot touched off a year of protests in which more than 600 people died, and has become a milestone in the struggle for black rights. Two weeks ago, Law and Order Minister Louis LeGrange issued a blanket ban on all meetings commemorating the Soweto uprising. The activists, comprising hundreds of black groups, swore that they would go through with their plans. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel prizewinner and primate of the South African Anglican Church, asked his churches to hold services on the anniversary and urged his followers to attend. Last week's action marked the second time in less than a year that the Botha government has resorted to emergency measures. But the first time, which lasted seven months and ended March 7, the decree was confined to areas of black unrest around Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, and did not give the police such sweeping new power. Even so, 8,000 people were arrested during that period. In a speech before Parliament announcing the new state of emergency, State President Botha justified its nationwide scope by charging that the ''radical and revolutionary elements'' planning the Soweto commemoration ''pose a real danger for all population groups in our country.'' Said he: ''The ordinary laws of the land are inadequate to ensure the security of the public and to maintain public order.''