Soweto riots: allegations of more killings

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 8

Soweto riots: allegations of more killings

NZPA-Reuter Cape Town Black reporters say that 16 blacks have been shot dead by the police in the black township of Soweto in the last two days, but a senior South African police officer describes the report as nonsense.

As the strike by black labour entered its third day, reporters on the blacks newspaper, the "World , said three students were killed by the police when they tried to intercept workers returning to their homes in Soweto.

A "World” reporter said that, in all, 13 blacks had been killed in other incidents in Soweto since the strike began on Monday, and that 50 people had been wounded.

General David Kriel, the assistant police commissioner in charge of riot control, however, commented: 1 don’t believe it. All 1 know is that two poeple have been wounded in Soweto in the last two days.”

In other areas, the new police tactics of mass arrest have led to sentences of flogging for hundreds of black youths who pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly. In the New Brighton area of Port Elizabeth. 271 were arrested yesterday when about 500 youths held a

match of protest towards the police station. The youths appeared in specially-convened courts later in the day, when they admitted charges of attending an unlawful gathering.

Male students were all sentenced to eight strokes of the cane and females over 18 to fines equivalent to SNZS2 or 50 davs in prison. About 200 students were arrested in Durban, and there were mass arrests in the Johannesburg townships of Soweto and Alexandra.

Employers of black labour in Johannesburg have reported up to 65 per cent absenteeism.