Word: townships
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After more than three centuries of white domination, South Africans of every race cast ballots for the first time to select a postapartheid government. Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress party were expected to win handily. The vote was not without hitches. In Soweto, the huge black township outside Johannesburg, the line of eager voters grew to more than 4,000 people, while in some remote areas, government helicopters had to fly in thousands of extra ballots. But the chaos and violence that threatened to overwhelm the process early in the week had largely subsided by Thursday, as government...
...OVER THE GREEN hills of blood-soaked Natal Province last week, Jabulani Shibe tried to do his part to broker the differences between the African National Congress and its bitter foes in the Inkatha Freedom Party. Shibe, 27, a laborer, joined eight of his neighbors in KwaMashu, a black township near Durban, and visited an Inkatha hostel. Suddenly, a group of Inkatha men drew guns and bundled Shibe and his companions into a minibus. They drove through the darkness to a nearby railroad station, where an armed and angry mob of Inkatha supporters was waiting. One by one the peacemakers...
Near daily battles between opposing political groups resulted in at least three deaths last week as the country prepared for the April 26-28 elections. Even President F.W. de Klerk was not immune: during a speech in a mixed-race township, he was hit on the back of the head by a stone. Unhurt, he was quickly hustled away by security guards...
This talking-it-out technique has been the wellspring of South Africa's liveliest theatrical movement of recent years, the roughhewn, hortatory "township plays" created largely by young black amateurs, including the international hits Sarafina! and Asinamali! But it is quite a departure for Fugard, normally a believer in elite craftsmanship despite the egalitarian sentiments of his work. He has collaborated only once before, developing Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island with professional black actors Winston Ntshona and John Kani, who jointly won a 1975 Tony Award for their performances in the two shows...
Each morning he and half a dozen volunteers set out in a minibus loaded with A.N.C. pamphlets, calendars and stacks of sample ballots. Learning about the vote comes with vaccinations, dental care and family counseling in Khayelitsha, as the minibus visits community centers and clinics around the township. At one clinic, Dyantyi's aides display a sample ballot, explaining the list of the 10 political parties up for election with their colors or symbol and a photograph of their leader. One of the workers, Boiswa Fusile, shows the folk how to mark the ballot and warns that doing it wrong...