Word: soweto
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Unlike the bloody riots in Soweto, which were touched off by compulsory teaching in the Afrikaans language in schools, last week's violence was provoked largely by harsh police tactics, including firing pointblank into crowds. Soweto itself was largely quiet, although trains, taxis and buses taking black workers to and from Johannesburg were occasionally stoned. To avoid further trouble, schools in the township were shut down until July...
...arrested, and property damage was estimated at $40 million. Police sought to blame many of the casualties on black tsotsis (hooligans), who undoubtedly did seize on the disorders to settle some private scores, but most observers considered the police claims highly exaggerated. Said one white eyewitness who was in Soweto last week: "It was obvious that the police weren't there to practice crowd control but to kill...
Black reporters allowed into Soweto last week (whites were still barred) said that people were shocked and sullen, aghast at the death toll and destruction of most of their social facilities and schools. "They may not challenge white authority openly again for some time," said a black businessman, "but they will never forget what has happened. Their anger is now deep and permanent. Unless the whites change their policy, there is bound to be another explosion-and another and another...
Vorster's response to the Soweto massacre was not a very promising omen for peace in the area. The way to prevent more such violence in the future, he declared, was not to make concessions to blacks on the teaching of Afrikaans but to take even tougher law-and-order measures. Before leaving for West Germany, he appointed Petrus Malan Cillie, a white Transvaal judge, to launch a judicial inquiry into the riots. Both white and black newspapers found the action insensitive and called for a multiracial commission. Asked the Johannesburg Star in an editorial: "Is it possible...
Berserk Rule. Despite the official hard line, there were expectations that the Afrikaans requirement would be modified or dropped. "You don't know what stupid subterfuges we have had to use to enable our children to learn something," said one Soweto council member. "We have met the Afrikaans requirement by using it to teach such subjects as gardening, where the important thing is to show students what to do, not tell them. In other subjects, the teachers instruct first in Zulu, then spout Afrikaans while the students copy down what they've heard in Zulu. The rule...