Rioting in Soweto

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 8

Rioting in Soweto

NZPA Johannesburg About 700 angry blacks went on a rampage yesterday in the black township of Soweto after the funeral of a schoolboy who had died in prison two days after his arrest during antiGovernment demonstrations in Johannesburg. The mob attacked a municipal bus depot and set fire to and stoned at least 27 vehicles after the funeral of Dumisani Mbatha, aged 16. Thousands of people in-

eluding students from many schools in the huge township of more than 1 million blacks, 10 miles south of Johannesburg had attended the funeral. General D. J. Kriel, Deputy Commissioner ’of Police in Charge of Riot Control, said that between 600 and 700 black mourners grouped together after the funeral and marched to the city’s engineering department, in the Zondi district. Some forced their way past black municipal guards at the gates of the security

fence surrounding the building, seized 10 light vans and several trucks, and drove through the fenje. Others commandeered a large water-tanker and drove it into a wall. Ten cars on the property were also damaged. When the police reached the scene however, the crowd disappeared, A bus company spokesman said that all bus services to Soweto —the central battleground for more than three months of rioting—had been suspended indefinitely.