Word: township
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...government's attempts to look tough were partially undermined by growing labor unrest. The Johannesburg area has been hit by a strike of 20,000 South African Transport Services workers. Nearly 60 railway cars, mostly on commuter trains from the huge black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, were fire bombed last week, and many others were stoned. Several passengers were injured, and one young black was shot and wounded in the leg, reportedly as he tried to hurl a flaming torch into a railway car. The strike, which started a month ago in a minor dispute between the Transport Services...
...ringing the table. They spoke with obvious emotion and leaned forward to hear the responses. The focus of their attention, listening more than he talked, was Edward Perkins, the first black U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. For three hours he traded thoughts with civic leaders from Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg...
...career Foreign Service officer who had previously been Ambassador to Liberia, set out immediately to meet the country's black community. He still attends largely white diplomatic dinner parties, but more often he heads to grimy offices in Soweto or a spartan church in Mamelodi, the dusty black township outside Pretoria, or a listing shanty in Crossroads, a squatter camp near Cape Town. Perkins attended Christmas services at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Soweto and has taken long walks through the mean slums of Alexandra Township, next door to Johannesburg. In most activities he has ducked the press...
...intimidating have the comrades become that in many parts of South Africa they can terrify township residents simply by holding up boxes of matches. When they are not carrying out spontaneous attacks, they may hold kangaroo "people's courts" that are designed to intimidate the public. In a typical court session, young toughs drag the accused forward, inform him or * her of the charges and then pronounce and execute the sentence. The outcome is never in doubt...
...fathers. "I wouldn't have any trouble choosing sides," says one white officer. In Crossroads, witnesses have reported seeing men atop armored police vehicles firing at comrades in support of the fathers. The Rev. Allan Boesak, a U.D.F. founder, has charged that the government is behind much of the township killing. Says he: "It is not a question only of black-on-black violence. It is a question of the South African government deliberately creating groups and supporting them, even creating situations of violence...