Soweto boils up again

Press, 7 August 1976, Page 1

Soweto boils up again

PA-Reuter Johannesburg Police throughout South Africa have been placed on stand-by alert, amid fears that black unrest is reaching new levels. Yesterday was the third day running of unrest and violence in Soweto. Johannesburg’s so-called “shadow city” of a million blacks. Unofficial reports put the death toll from police shooting at seven, with 26 wounded. The police have announced only two dead and 18 injured. Thousands of blacks, mainly students. have made repeated attempts to break through the police cordon ringing Soweto and march to Johannesburg, 12km away. They want to protest at the police headquarters there against the continued detention without trial of black student leaders arrested after the riots in June.

On Thursday, police fired into a crowd of 5000 black

students, giving clenched fist salutes and marshalling for the intended march on Johannesburg. Witnesses said one youth was shot. Tt was the second day running that police had fired into crowds of demonstrating blacks in Soweto. And in Cape Town yesterday, students at the University of the Western Cape threw petrol bombs through university office windows, as a protest in solidarity with the high school students in Soweto, according to the police. The university’s student union leader (Mr P. Louw), who is also the vicepresident of the South African Students Organisation, had been arrested the day before by the Security Police. The university — the only one for people of mixed blood in South Africa — was closed on Monday after students decided to boycott classes for a week.