Word: townships
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...relentless toll stems in part from the breakdown of traditional authority in the townships. Of about 20,000 blacks who have been arrested since the state of emergency was imposed last June, many were local leaders who headed activist community organizations and helped maintain order in the black townships. With them now in jail, new and more violent leaders have come forward. In some cases the toughest person on the street rules, exercising a savage authority that does not dispense much justice and drives many townships toward chaos. Some township residents have complained that white police authorities often remain...
...Mbuseli ("Freddy") Nqgene, 39, a mental-hospital attendant, was murdered in Kwazakele township near Port Elizabeth because the comrades thought he was a police informer. Nqgene had been mistakenly arrested on a rape charge and released within hours. His killers assumed that he was let loose so quickly because he was in the pay of the police. As a consequence, they struck him with axes, stabbed him 13 times and set him on fire...
...Patrick Marenene, a community council member in the township outside Oudtshoorn in the Cape province, was watching television at his home when a mob gathered in front and demanded that he come outside. Marenene managed to escape as the comrades threw his furniture into the street and ignited it. As Marenene was picking through the rubble two days later, the youths returned. This time they quickly hacked and burned him to death...
...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...