Nights of Rage and Gunfire

Nonwhite townships erupt in a new upheaval with more than 40 dead

"The soil of our country is destined to be the scene of the fiercest fight and the sharpest battles to rid our continent of the last vestiges of white minority rule."

That defiant declaration by Nelson Mandela, the black political leader who has been imprisoned for the past 17 years, has become an underground credo in South Africa ever since it was smuggled out of the Robben Island prison. Last week Mandela's grim prophecy seemed to be coming true even sooner and more viciously than expected. In both black and "colored" (mixed-race) townships--first in Soweto and then in Elsies River near Cape Town--crowds of rioting youths clashed with police on three successive nights. Barrages of stone throwing were answered with baton charges, volleys of tear gas and gunfire. At least 40 people were shot dead by police, and hundreds more were injured. The spasm of riots and violence was the worst since the country's urban black rebellion of 1976. That upheaval, which remains seared in the consciousness of white and black alike, cost 618 lives; the South African government at the time laconically described it as a mere series of "disturbances."

The new outbreak came after increasing protest and turmoil in recent months. The government's promised reforms, ranging from a gradual phasing out of the hated passbook system to a plan for enabling blacks to buy their own homes, have either not materialized or largely failed. Organizers of the African National Congress, the outlawed black political movement, operate with increasing ease. Meanwhile, the colored population of 3 million, which once supported the country's 4.3 million whites in perpetuating the status quo, has become politicized and appears increasingly disposed to make common cause with the 20 million blacks. For the past two months, in every major urban area, colored protesters organized an almost total school boycott of the sort the blacks have repeatedly staged in the past.

Acts of sabotage have also been on the rise, starting with raids on isolated police stations last year and culminating in this month's nighttime bombings of three refineries hi the country's strategic SASOL petroleum complex, causing $7.5 million in damage. The sense of bitterness has palpably intensified. Says a young black in Soweto: "No one is now pretending that our complaint is only against the teaching of Afrikaans in our schools, as it was in 1976. Our complaint is against the whole system."

Four years ago, the worst rioting was concentrated in Soweto, the huge black township outside Johannesburg, and in other black communities near the major cities. This time, Soweto seemed merely to be the fuse. The police were fearful that a new explosion might erupt on June 16, the anniversary of the 1976 riots--which has become a day for black mourning and political demonstrations--and the government banned all ceremonies. Inevitably, that action provoked blacks into acts of defiance. Buses were overturned, shops burned and cars stoned in the black townships. Seven thousand black workers went on strike in Port Elizabeth, shutting down ten companies, including a Volkswagen factory and a Ford plant. At Volkswagen, black leaders combined political protests with demands for an 80% increase in the minimum hourly wage, to $2.50.

A times the police seemed determined to intensify the violence in order to flush out the black political ringleaders, whom Prime Minister P.W. Botha branded "Communist agitators." The authorities even took the unusual step of banning all foreign journalists from the black townships, which were described as "operational zones." In areas where they were allowed to go, reporters sometimes found themselves the targets of bullying policemen.

When the burning fuse reached Cape Town, the sprawling colored suburb of Elsies River exploded. At sunset last Tuesday evening, reported TIME'S Peter Hawthorne, a crowd of demonstrators came together in front of the Monaco Cinema to commemorate the 1976 uprising. Suddenly they were confronted by a large squad of white and colored riot police armed with rifles, shotguns and batons. The air was filled with the crash of breaking glass, the smell of burning tires and tear gas, and finally the sound of shots.

Two days later the police were still clashing with gangs of youths who roamed the colored areas, hurling rocks at passing cars, breaking into stores, setting fire to schools and office buildings. To stop them, the police shot to kill.

"It was like living on the edge of a volcano," said Mrs. Fenjal Mohamed, a local housewife. "At night we stayed home and tried to ignore the sounds of shooting outside in the darkness. When daylight came, we went outside and wept when we saw the damage."

There were stray shots everywhere.

A man collapsed in the street, his shoulder crippled by a bullet, and was nearly trampled by a gang of passing youths. His wife tried for three hours to get him to a hospital. A five-year-old boy ran into his parents' home crying that he had a terrible pain in his stomach. His mother discovered a gaping bullet wound there. A 17-month-old girl was killed by a shot in the head as she slept outside her family's shanty. As much as an hour passed before her parents discovered what had happened.

Estimates of the dead ranged between 40 and 60, but nobody knew for sure. Said a local editor: "We are appealing to the public to help us identify the dead. That's the only way we're going to find out the truth."

Police blamed the trouble on "Skollies," or roughnecks. But few could doubt that underlying the rage in Cape Town was the cruel dilemma of the "in-betweeners," the plight of the coloreds, who are also imprisoned by apartheid. In their segregated ghetto, where whitewashed bungalows sit beside cardboard shacks, political avenues are closed to them; few have any sense of direction. Says Poet Adam Small, who lives near Elsies River: "People here are in limbo; they just don't care any more. Their children are bitter and ready for violence. Like the sand of the Cape flats, apartheid lies beneath it all."

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