Word: township
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...next morning Soweto remained tense as security forces patrolled the streets in armored personnel carriers and other vehicles. For once, journalists were able to observe many of the events first-hand, since press restrictions had been relaxed two weeks ago as the result of court challenges. Inside the township, the comrades still manned most of their barricades. In White City, the section of Soweto where some of the worst bloodshed had occurred, activists refused to let residents go to work. Before the week was over, at least 20 people had been killed by police in the bloodiest confrontation since...
...underlying issue behind last week's violence was a rent strike, supported by a substantial portion of Soweto's black population, against the township's black councilors. The system of renting houses within the townships has been a source of resentment for years. Until recently, blacks were unable to purchase property in the townships because they were legally regarded as citizens of some distant "homeland." Last year, however, the government changed its policy and permitted them to buy township homes. Some 10,000 families have since done so, but most residents cannot afford the $800 or more that it costs...
Except for those relatively few dwellings that have been sold to private owners, all buildings in Soweto and the country's other black townships are the property of the government and are operated by the Ministry of Constitutional Development and Planning. In 1983 the running of the townships was turned over to black councils, though the administrators in overall charge continued to be white civil servants. Members of those councils were elected by township inhabitants at that time, but the voting was boycotted by 90% of the black electorate...
...reason the boycott has been so widespread is that many people have been persuaded or coerced by the young activists to join the strike or suffer the consequences. To many of the township's residents, the choice is between paying the rent and risking retaliation by the militants or withholding the rent and facing eviction...
Aware of the problem, the Soweto council has set up an office in Johannesburg, where township residents can supposedly pay the money without intimidation. But even those who would prefer to do this have heard rumors that such offices are full of spies for the comrades back home, and so in many cases they do nothing. For others, the issue is not just the rent but the sense of being forced to pay tribute to support the apartheid system...