NEW OUTBREAKS OF VIOLENCE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29170, 2 April 1960, Page 13

NEW OUTBREAKS OF VIOLENCE

Africans And Police - In Several Clashes (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, April 1. J Police shot and killed an African and wounded three others early s today as violence erupted in widely scattered points around Johannesburg. ;; > An African police constable was stabbed, another beaten and three white police were slightly injured in stone throwing. Police on the Rand the vast gold-mining area surrounding Johannesburg made two baton charges to disperse crowds yesterday.

They charged a crowd of 300 in the White City area west of Johannesburg after arresting an African speaker. At Natalspruit, several miles south of Johannesburg, about 150 Africans blocked a road with boulders. They fled before the baton-wielding police reached them. They had loosened a section of railway line. The most serious incident today occurred when an African gang, stoning trains surrounded three policemen. The police opened fire and killed an African. In the same area an African constable was beaten up. The position at Cator Manor, in Durban was described as tense. Yesterday, Africans stoned buses and blocked roads there. A Saracen armoured car smashed down road blocks made from drums and they were continually re-erected. Four Africans were injured by flying stones. Roads to the township were closed last night. Schools Burned In Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, three schools were set alight in an African township last night. The exact number of buildings burned in Kayi Mandi township vesterday is not known. An Administration building, then houses of at least two African constables, a church and a clinic are believed to have been set on fire.

The “Johannesburg Star” yesterday quoted lawyers as saying that South Africa was now virtually under martial law—the only difference being that the country was under police rather than military control. Three thousand Army and Navy troops yesterday threw a cordon around the townships of Langa and Nyanga, near Cape ToWn. The townships were in a state of siege. Steel-helmeted troops—standing about 30 yards apart—formed a living fence. At many points in the cordon were Bren guns. Another four Western Province militia regiments were called up .for service yesterday and two aeroplane loads of police flew to Cape Town as reinforcements. Eighteen citizen force units had already been called up. At 8.10 a.m. yesterday the House of Assembly rose in Cape Town after an all-night session of more than 16 hours discussing the Unlawful Organisations Bill. This bill would give the Gov-ernor-General (Mr Swart) power to ban the African National Congress and its breakaway Pan-Africanist Congress. Amendments declining a second reading to the bill, put forward by the Progressive Party and Africans’ representatives, towere defeated by 128 votes to 16.

The Justice Minister (Mr Erasmus) said the Government needed the bill’s power because the two organisations could not be de-

scribed as truly Communistic and therefore he could not invoke the Suppression of Communism Act. Police in Johannesburg arrested 34 members of the African National Congress during the night under the provisions of the Public Safety Act and the emergency regulations. They also arrested several members of the Pan-Africanist Congress, the South African Coloured People’s Congress, and the Coloured People’s Progressive Party. Thousands of Africans massed in Cato Manor and streamed down the hills until the flow became a flood of yelling, shouting, and prancing men, women and children. Two Saracen armoured cars, one commanded by Major Jerry van der Merwe, stopped the advance—less than a mile from Cato Manor police station. The major addressed the demonstrators in Zulu. The crowd of about 5000 were demanding the release of their leaders, who were arrested in the police swoop yesterday. The crowd became quiet and orderly after being addressed by the major, who said through a loudspeaker that the Chief Magistrate and Native Commissioner would meet there in about half an hour.

When the Chief Magistrate (Mr Lawrence) said to the crowd: “I appeal to you to be peaceful ...” the rest , of his speech was drowned my a roar from the crowd, who shouted: “Give us our leaders.” When the Major asked for two spokesmen , from the crowd to have discussions with the Chief Magistrate and the Native Commissioner the crowd roared its disapproval and most of them walked away, indicating they no longer wished to listen to any speedh. Police fired seven shots last night to disperse a crowd of Africans who stoned trams in the African township of Westevn. near Johannesburg. One African was wounded and taken into custody. «