Word: thebehali
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...Vuyolweth, ("our happiness" in Xhosa language) were criticized by friends for picking such a joyful name in such sad times. Recent elections for seats on a new Community Council to replace the old Urban Bantu Council drew a scant 6% of Soweto's 137,000 eligible voters. David Thebehali, 40, head of the council, won with a total of 97 votes...
...political pragmatist, Thebehali argues that the South African government is now willing to give Soweto's blacks some control over life in the townships. Says he: "We have taken control of the administration of Soweto, and we are going to decide on all its financing, where and when every penny is spent, and its overall planning." Thebehali's most ambitious project is to raise a $400 million development loan in Europe and the U.S.; the South African government will not assist in helping to raise or guarantee the loan, but it has agreed not to interfere...
...Thebehali's ambitions are ardently supported by Cornelius ("Connie") Mulder, 53, a smooth-talking Transvaal politician who succeeded Botha. Mulder has vowed to make Soweto "the most beautiful city in Africa" by planning two new shopping centers and hotel complexes, theaters, drive-in movies, a tennis club and stadium and at least 8,000 new six-room houses with electricity. The housing is a better offer than Sowetans have experienced up to now, but there are catches: under terms of the 99-year leases, a father could not hand down a house through his family. Also, the government retains...
...Thebehali carefully steers clear of politics. Says he: "My job is to provide a better quality of life and better services to the people. I leave it to others to pursue the political role...
Last week the government promised free textbooks for most black schoolchildren by 1978, and Soweto's parents and "Mayor" Thebehali hope the students will relent and drop the boycott. But SSRC is adamant. "We understand our parents' anguish," says a Soweto high school senior named Michael, who, as a known SSRC sympathizer, is on the run from the police and sleeps in a different house every night. "We know as well as they do that education is the tool of our liberation in the long run but not the second-class schooling we get under the Bantu Education...