Word: driefontein
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Nestled in a fertile valley 200 miles east of Johannesburg, the village of Driefontein is a picture of rural contentment. Flower beds front its comfortable houses, cattle browse in lush pastures, and fruit trees abound. But Driefontein is different: it is a so-called "black spot," an area of black settlement surrounded mainly by white farmers. For several years, in keeping with South Africa's policy of apartheid, the government has tried to persuade the 7,000 black farmers of Driefontein to move to black "homelands" in the desolate Kangwane and Kwazulu regions. The blacks have bitterly resisted...
...Driefontein's resistance to the draconian program had an unlikely leader in Saul Mkhize, 48, a quiet, slender accountant. He owned the land that his grandfather had settled in 1912, when 300 black families pooled their resources to purchase a 6,000-acre tract. But in 1981 the government announced that it needed all the land in Driefontein to build a dam. To show that they were serious, officials arrived to paint numbers on the heart-shaped gravestones in the Driefontein cemetery in preparation for moving the remains. Mkhize and his neighbors protested vigorously, insisting that they owned...
...conflict came to a head when Mkhize called a public meeting in the yard of Driefontein's school buildings to discuss the issue. Holding a bullhorn, Mkhize delayed his introductory speech to the 300 people present, waiting for more to arrive. Suddenly, a police van roared into the schoolyard and screeched to a halt. Flanked by a black officer, Police Constable J.A. Nienaber, a white, declared that the gathering was illegal. When no one moved, he threw a tear-gas canister into the crowd and then struck Mkhize in the face. The angry crowd surged toward the police, jostling...
...Driefontein is a microcosm of the problems caused by the country's attempt to segregate blacks and whites. Drafted in 1959, South Africa's program of "separate development" calls for gradually ejecting the blacks from their communities and transferring their citizenship to various remote homelands. The aim is to ensure that South Africa's 5 million whites artificially become the majority in the country. The plan will also put an end to arguments for giving the country's 21 million blacks representation in Parliament, a right that they have always been denied under South Africa...
...mine owners' reaction was swift and severe. Only hours after the smoke had cleared, thousands of black workers received dismissal notices and were preparing to be bused back to their tribal homelands. At West Driefontein mine, 1,233 blacks out of a work force of 12,000 were fired and sent home; 2,000 were transported from the Kloof gold mine. Those remaining were warned that their contracts would be revoked if they refused to join their work shift. Said one mine manager: "We'll have no trouble replacing the men who left. It will just take some...
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